The furly Mastiff thus returns,

Within my bofom glory burns.

Like heroes of eternal name,

Whom poets fing, I fight for fame:
The butcher's spirit-stirring mind
To daily war my youth inclin'd,
He train❜d me to heroic deed,
Taught me to conquer or to bleed.

Curst dog, the Bull reply'd, no more
I wonder at thy thirst of gore,
For thou (beneath a butcher train'd,
Whofe hands with cruelty are stain'd,
His daily murders in thy view,)

Muft, like thy tutor, blood purfue.
Take then thy fate. With goring wound

At once he lifts him from the ground,

Aloft the sprawling hero flies,

Mangled he falls, he howls and dies.

FABLE

Kent inv

P.Fourdrinier soul.

FABLE X.

The ELEPHANT and the BOOKSELLER.

HE man, who with undaunted toils

Sails unknown feas to unknown foils,
With various wonders feasts his fight:
What stranger wonders does he write!

We

We read, and in description view
Creatures which Adam never knew;
For, when we rifque no contradiction,
It prompts the tongue to deal in fiction,
Those things that startle me or you,
I grant are strange; yet may be true.
Who doubts that elephants are found
For science and for fenfe renown'd?
Borri records their strength of parts,
Extent of thought, and skill in arts;
How they perform the law's decrees,
And save the state the hang-man's fees,
And how by travel understand

The language of another land.

Let thofe, who question this report,

To Pliny's ancient page refort.

How learn'd was that fagacious breed!

Who now (like them) the greek can read!

As

As one of thefe, in days of yore,

Rummag'd a shop of learning o'er,
Not like our modern dealers, minding
Only the margin's breadth and binding;
A book his curious eye detains,
Where, with exacteft care and pains,

Were ev'ry beast and bird portray'd,
That e'er the search of man furvey'd.

Their natures and their powers were writ

With all the pride of human wit;

The page

he with attention spread,

And thus remark'd on what he read.

Man with strong reason is endow'd;
A Beast scarce instinct is allow'd:
But let this author's worth be try'd,
'Tis plain that neither was his guide.
Can he difcern the diff'rent natures,

And weigh the pow'r of other creatures,

Who

Who by the partial work hath shown
He knows fo little of his own?
How falfely is the spaniel drawn!

Did Man from him first learn to fawn?
A dog proficient in the trade!

He, the chief flatt'rer nature made!
Go, man, the ways of courts difcern,
You'll find a spaniel still might learn.
How can the foxe's theft and plunder
Provoke his cenfure, or his wonder?
From courtiers tricks, and lawyers arts
The fox might well improve his parts.
The lyon, wolf, and tyger's brood
He curses, for their thirst of blood;
But is not man to man a prey?

Beasts kill for hunger, men for pay.

The Bookfeller, who heard him speak,

And faw him turn a page of Greek,

Thought,