Nor would I, with felonious flight,

By ftealth invade my neighbour's right.

Rapacious animals we hate:

Kites, hawks, and wolves, deserve their fate.

Do not we just abhorrence find

Against the toad and ferpent kind;

But envy, calumny and spite,
Bear ftronger 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 fage replies;
Thy virtue proves thee truly wife.
Pride often guides the author's pen,
Books as affected are as men :
But he who ftudies nature's laws,

From certain truth his maxims draws;
And thofe, without our fchools, fuffice

To make men moral, good, and wife.

то

TO HIS HIGHNESS

W I L LIA M

DUKE OF CUMBERLAND.

FABLE

I.

The LION, the TYGER, and the TRAVELLER.

ACCEPT, young PRINCE, the moral lay,

And in these tales mankind furvey;

With early virtues plant your breast,
The fpecious arts of vice deteft.

Princes, like beauties, from their youth
Are ftrangers to the voice of truth ;
Learn to contemn all praise betimes;
For flattery's the nurfe of crimes:
Friendship by fweet reproof is shown,
(A virtue never near a throne;
In courts fuch freedom muft offend,
There none prefumes to be a friend.
To thofe of your exalted ftation
Each courtier is a dedication.

Muft I too flatter like the rest,

And turn my morals to a jeft ?

The Mufe difdains to fteal from those,
Who thrive in courts by fulfome profe.
But fhall I hide your real praife,
Or tell you what a nation fays?
They in your infant bofom trace
The virtues of your royal race;
In the fair dawning of your mind
'Difcern you gen'rous, mild, and kind:
They fee you grieve to hear diftrefs,
And pant already to redrefs.

Go on, the height of good attain,
Nor let a nation hope in vain.
From hence we justly may prefage
The virtues of a riper age.
True courage fhall your bofom fire,
And future actions own your fire,
Cowards are cruel, but the brave
Love mercy, and delight to fave.

A Tyger roaming for his prey, Sprung on a Trav'ler in the way;

The

The proftrate game a Lion fpies,

And on the greedy tyrant ñies;

With mingled roar refounds the wood,

Their teeth, their claws distil with blood;
"Till vanquish'd by the Lion's ftrength,

The spotted foe extends his length,
The Man befought the fhaggy lord,
And on his knees for life implor'd.
His life the gen'rous hero gave ;
Together walking to his cave,
The Lion thus befpoke his guest.

What hardy beast shall dare contest
My matchlefs ftrength! You faw the fight,
And must atteft my pow'r and right.
Forc'd to forego their native home,
My starving flaves at distance roam.
Within these woods I reign alone,
The boundless foreft is my own.
Bears, wolves, and all the favage brood,
Have dy'd the regal den with blood.
Thefe carcaffes on either hand,

Those bones that whiten all the land,
My former deeds and triumphs tell,
Beneath thefe jaws what numbers fell.

True, fays the Man, the ftrength I faw
Might well the brutal nation awe:
But fhall a monarch, brave like you,
Place glory in fo falfe a view?
Robbers invade their neighbour's right.
Be lov'd let juftice bound your might.
Mean are ambitious heroes boafts

Of wafted lands and flaughter'd hofts.
Pirates their pow'r by murders gain,
Wife kings by love and mercy reign.
To me your clemency hath fhown
The virtue worthy of a throne.
Heav'n gives you pow'r above the reft,
Like Heav'n to fuccour the diftreft.
The cafe is plain, the Monarch faid;
Falfe glory hath my youth misled;
For beafts of prey, a fervile train,
Have been the flatt'rers of my reign.
You reafon well. Yet tell me, friend,
Did ever you in courts attend?
For all my fawning rogues agree,
That human heroes rule like me.

FABLE