FAB LE S.

IN TWO PARTS.

--

"Shall not my Fables cenfure vice,
"Because a knave is over-nice ?
"If I lafh vice in general fiction,
"Is 't I apply, or felf-conviction?
"Brutes are my theme. Am I to blame,
"If men in morals are the fame?
"I no man call or ape or afs;

""Tis his own confcience holds the glafs.
"Thus void of all offence I write :

"Who claims the Fable, knows his right."

PROL. TO SHEP. WEEK.

INTRODUCTION TO THE FABLES

PART THE FIRST.

THE SHEPHERD AND THE PHILOSOPHER.

REMOTE 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;

In fummer's heat, and winter's cold,

He fed his flock, and penn'd the fold;
His hours in cheerful labour flew,
Nor envy nor ambition knew;
His wifdom 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 Ulyffes, thrown,
By various fates, on realms unknown,
Haft thou through many cities stray'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 :
Who by that search shall wifer
grow,
When we ourselves can never know?
The little knowledge I have gain'd,.

Was all from fimple Nature drain'd;

Hence

Hence my life's maxims took their rife
Hence grew my fettled hate to vice.

The daily labours of the bee

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Awake my foul to industry :
Who can obferve the careful ant,
And not provide for future want?.
My dog (the truftieft of his kind):
With gratitude inflames my mind.:
I mark his true, his faithful way,
And in my service 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 fowl that flies at large,
every
Inftructs me in a parent's charge..
From Nature, too, I take my
To fhun contempt and ridicule.
I never, with important air,
In converfation overbear..

rule,

Can
grave and formal pass for wife,
When men the folemn owl despise?
My tongue within my lips I rein;

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For who talks much muft talk in vain.

We from the wordy torrent fly :

Who liftens to the chattering pye?

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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

Do not we just abhorrence find':
Against the toad and ferpent-kind
But Envy, Calumny, and Spite,
Bear ftronger venom in their bite.
Thus every object of creation Th
Can furnish hints to contemplation;
And, from the most niinute 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 :
But he who ftudies Nature's laws,
From certain truth his maxims draws
And thofe, without our schools, fuffice
To make men moral, good, and wise.

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TO HIS HIGHNESS

WILLIAM DUKE OF CUMBERLAND.

FABLE I.

THE LION, THE TIGER, 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 fhown
(A virtue never near a throne):
In courts fuch freedom must offend;
There none prefumes to be a friend.
To thofe of your exalted station,
Each courtier is a dedication.
Muft I, too, flatter like the reft,
And turn my morals to a jest?

The Mufe difdains to steal from those

Who thrive in courts by fulfome profe.
But fhall I hide your real praife,
Or tell you what a nation says ?
They in your infant bofom trace
The virtues of your royal race;

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