EMOTE from cities liv'd a Swain,

Unvex'd with all the cares of gain,

His head was filver'd o'er with age,
And long experience made him fage;

Introduction to the FABLES.

In fummer's heat and winter's cold
He fed his flock and pen'd the fold,

His hours in chearful labour flew,
Nor envy nor ambition knew;

His wisdom and his honeft fame
Through all the country rais'd his name.
A deep Philofopher (whofe rules
Of moral life were drawn from schools)
The Shepherd's homely cottage fought,
And thus explor'd his reach of thought.
Whence is thy learning? Hath thy toil
O'er books confum'd the midnight oil?
Haft thou old Greece and Rome furvey'd,
And the vast sense of Plato weigh'd?

Hath Socrates thy foul refin'd,
And haft thou fathom'd Tully's mind?
Or, like the wife Ulysses thrown

By various fates on realms unknown,

Haft

Introduction to the FABLES.

Haft thou through many cities ftray'd,

Their customs, laws and manners weigh'd?
The Shepherd modeftly reply'd.

I ne'er the paths of learning try'd,
Nor have I roam'd in foreign parts

To read mankind, their laws and arts;
For man is practis'd in disguise,

He cheats the most discerning eyes:

grow,

Who by that fearch shall wifer

When we ourselves can never know?

The little knowledge, I have gain'd,

Was all from fimple nature drain'd;
Hence my life's maxims took their rise,
Hence grew my fettled hate to vice.

The daily labours of the bee

Awake

my foul to industry.

Who can obferve the careful ant,

And not provide for future want ?

Introduction to the FABLES.

My dog (the truftiest of his kind)
With gratitude inflames my mind :
I mark his true, his faithful way,
And in my fervice copy Tray.
In conftancy, and nuptial love
I learn my duty from the dove.
The hen, who from the chilly air
With pious wing protects her care,
And ev'ry fowl that flies at large
Inftructs me in a parent's charge.
From nature too I take my rule
To fhun contempt and ridicule.
I never with important air
In converfation overbear;

Can grave and formal pafs for wife,
When men the folemn owl defpife?

My tongue within my lips I rein,

For who talks much muft talk in vain:

We

Introduction to the FABLES,

We from the wordy torrent fly :

Who liftens to the chatt'ring pye?

Nor would I with felonious flight

By stealth invade my neighbour's right;
Rapacious animals we hate:

Kites, hawks and wolves deferve their fate,

Do not we just abhorrence find

Against the toad and ferpent kind?

But envy, calumny and spite

Bear stronger venom in their bite.
Thus ev'ry object of creation

Can furnish hints to contemplation,
And from the most minute and mean

A virtuous mind can morals glean.
Thy fame is juft, the Sage replies,
Thy virtue proves thee truly wife;
Pride often guides the author's

pen,

Books as affected are as men,
B 3

But