ADVERTISEMENT.

THESE

HESE FABLES were finish'd by Mr. GAY, and intended for the prefs, a fhort time before his death; when they were left, with his other papers, to the care of his noble friend and patron the Duke of QUEENSBERRY. His Grace has accordingly permitted them to the prefs, and they are here printed from the originals in the author's own hand writing. We hope they will please equally with his former FABLES, though moftly on fubjects of a graver and more political turn. They will certainly fhew him to have been (what he esteemed the best character) a man of a truly honeft heart, and a fincere lover of his country.

FAB LÉ S.

PART THE SECON D.

I

Know you Lawyers can, with ease,

Twist words and meanings as you please;

That language, by your skill made pliant,
Will bend to favour ev'ry client;
That 'tis the fee directs the sense,
To make out either fide's pretence.
When you peruse the clearest case,
You fee it with a double face:
For fcepticifm's your profeffion;

You hold there's doubt in all expreffion.
Hence is the bar with fees fupply'd,

Hence eloquence takes either fide.

Your hand would have but paltry gleaning,

Could ev'ry man exprefs his meaning.
Who dares prefume to pen a deed,
Unless you previously are feed?

'Tis drawn; and, to augment the cost,
In dull prolixity ingroft.

And now we're well fecur'd by law,
Till the next brother find a flaw.

Read o'er a Will. Was't ever known,

But

you could make the will your own? For when you read, 'tis with intent

To find out meanings never meant.
Since things are thus, fe defendendo,
I bar fallacious innuendo.

Sagacious PORTA's fkill could trace
Some beaft or bird in ev'ry face.
The head, the eye, the nofe's fhape,
Prov'd this an owl, and that an ape.
When, in the sketches thus defign'd,
Refemblance brings fome friend to mind,
You fhew the piece, and give the hint,
And find each feature in the print;
So monftrous-like the portrait's found,
All know it, and the laugh goes round.

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