How had his fenfe and learning griev'd them,
But that his charity reliev'd them!

"At highest Worth dull Malice reaches,
"As flugs pollute the fairest peaches :
"Envy defames, as harpies vile
"Devour the food they first defile."

Now afk the fruit of all his favour "He was not hitherto a faver"

What then could make their rage run mad?
"Why what he hop'd, not what he had.
"What tyrant e'er invented ropes,
"Or racks, or rods, to punish hopes ?
"Th' inheritance of Hope and Fame
"Is feldom Earthly Wifdom's aim;
"Or, if it were, is not fo fmall,
"But there is room enough for all.”

If he but chance to breathe a fong
(He feldom fang, and never long);
The noify, rude, malignant croud,
Where it was high, pronounc'd it loud:

Plain Truth was Pride; and what was fillier,,
Eafy and Friendly was Familiar..

Or, if he tun'd his lofty lays,

With folemn air to Virtue's praife,

Alike abufive and erroneous,

They call'd it hoarfe and unharmonious ::

Yet fo it was to fouls like theirs,

Tunelefs as Abel to the Bears!

A Rook* with harth malignant caw

Began, was follow'd by a Daw +

(Though fome, who would be thought to know, Are pofitive it was a Crow);

Jack Daw was feconded by Tit,

Tom Tit could write, and fo he writ;
A tribe of tuneless praters follow,
The Jay, the Magpie, and the Swallow;
And twenty more their throats let loose,
Down to the witless waddling Goose.

Some pick'd at him, fome flew, fome flutter'd,
Some hifs'd, fome fcream'd, and others mutter'd :
The Crow, on carrion wont to feast,
The Carrion Crow condemn'd his taste :
The Rook in earnest too, not joking,
Swore all his finging was but croaking.

Some thought they meant to fhew their wit,
Might think fo still "but that they writ"
Could it be spight or envy ; — "No-
"Who did no ill, could have no foe."
So Wife Simplicity esteem'd,

Quite otherwife True Wisdom deem'd;
This question rightly understood,
"What more provokes than doing good?
"A foul ennobled and refin'd

"Reproaches every bafer mind:
"As ftrains exalted and melodious
"Make every meaner mufick odious."
At length the Nightingale + was heard,
For voice and wifdom long rever'd,

Dr. Sheridan.

+ Dean Swift.

Efteem'd

Efteem'd of all the wife and good,
The Guardian Genius of the wood
He long in difcontent retir'd,
Yet not obfcur'd, but more admir'd,
His brethren's fervile fouls difdaining,
He liv'd indignant and complaining:
They now afresh provoke his choler
(It seems the Lark had been his scholar,
A favourite scholar always near him,

And oft' had wak'd whole nights to hear him) s

Enrag'd he canvaffes the matter,

Expofes all their fenfelefs chatter,
Shews him and them in fuch a light,
As more enflames, yet quells their spight.
They hear his voice, and frighted fly,
For rage had rais'd it very high:

Sham'd by the wifdom of his Notes,

They hide their heads, and hush their throats.

ANSWER TO DR. DELANY'S FABLE

OF THE

PHEASANT AND THE LARK.

N ancient times, the wife were able

IN

In proper terms to write a fable:
Their tales would always justly fuit
The characters of every brute.
The afs was dull, the lion brave,
The stag was swift, the fox a knave;

The

The daw a thief, the ape a droll,

The hound would scent, the wolf would prole;
A pigeon would, if fhown by Afop,

Fly from the hawk, or pick his pease up.
Far otherwife a great Divine

Has learnt his Fables to refine:

He jumbles men and birds together,
As if they all were of a feather :
You fee him first the peacock bring,
Against all rules, to be a king;
That in his tail he wore his eyes,
By which he grew both rich and wife.
Now, pray, obferve the Doctor's choice,,
A peacock chofe for flight and voice:
Did ever mortal fee a peacock
Attempt a flight above a haycock?
And for his finging, Doctor, you know,,
Himfelf complain'd of it to Juno.
He fqualls in fuch a hellish noife,
It frightens all the village boys.
This peacock kept a standing force,.
In regiments of foot and horfe;
Had statesmen too of every kind,
Who waited on his eyes behind

(And this was thought the highest post;:
For, rule the rump, you rule the roast).
The doctor names but one at prefent,
And he of all birds was a pheasant..
This pheasant was a man of wit,
Could read all books were ever writ;

And,

And, when among companions privy,
Could quote you Cicero and Livy.
Birds, as he fays, and I allow,
Were fcholars then, as we are now;
Could read all volumes up to folios,
And feed on fricaffees and olios.
This Pheasant, by the Peacock's will,
Was Viceroy of a neighbouring hill:;
And, as he wander'd in his Park,
He chanc'd to spy a Clergy Lark;
Was taken with his perfon outward, D
So prettily he pick'd a cow-t-d:
Then in a net the Pheasant caught him,
And in his palace fed and taught him.
The moral of the Tale is pleasant,
Himself the lark, my Lord the pheasant
A lark he is, and fuch a lark
As never came from Noah's/ark:
And though he had no other notion,
But building, planning, and devotion;
Though 'tis a maxim you must know,
Who does no ill, can have no foe;
Yet how fhall I exprefs in words
The strange stupidity of birds?
This Lark was hated in the wood,
Because he did his brethren good.
At laft the Nightingale comes in,
To hold the Doctor by the chin:
We all can find out what he means,
The worft of difaffected Deans:

Whofe