Stint not to truth the flow of wit;
Be prompt to lie, whene'er 'tis fit.
Bend all your force to fpatter merit;
Scandal is conversation's fpirit.
Boldly to ev'ry thing pretend,
And men your talents fhall commend.
I knew the great. Obferve me right;
So fhall you grow, like man, polite.
He spoke, and bow'd. With mutt'ring jaws
The wond'ring circle grinn'd applause.
Now, warm with malice, envy, fpite,
Their most obliging friends they bite;
And fond to copy human ways,
Practise new mischiefs all their days.
Now comes the moral part of the fable, fo that you must read it with deliberation and care.
Thus the dull lad, too tall for fchool,
With travel finishes the fool;
Studious of ev'ry coxcomb's airs,
He drinks, games, dreffes, whores, and fwears;
O'erlooks with fcorn all virtuous arts;
For vice is fitted to his parts.
THE GOAT WITHOUT A BEARD.
"TIS certain that the modifh paffions
Defcend among the crowd, like fashions.
Excufe me then, if pride, conceit,
(The manners of the fair and great)
I give to monkeys, affes, hogs,
Fleas, owls, goats, butterflies, and dogs;-
I say that these are proud: what then?
I never faid they equal men.
A goat (as vain as goat can be)
Affected fingularity.
Make a stop, as if a comma after “Affected."
Whene'er a thymy bank he found,
He roll'd upon the fragrant ground;
And then with fond attention stood,
Fix'd o'er his image in the flood.
Now affume an affected air of utterance.
• I hate my frowzy beard,' he cries;
My youth is loft in this disguife.
• Did not the females know my vigour,
• Well might they loath this rev'rend figure.'
Refolv'd to smooth his fhaggy face,
He fought the barber of the place.
A flippant monkey, fpruce and smart,
Hard by profefs'd the dapper art;
"Hard by" pronounce as if they were joined together as a compound word.
His pole with pewter bafons hung;
Black rotten teeth in order ftrung;
Rang'd cups that in the window ftood,
Lin'd with red rags, to look like blood,
Did well his three-fold trade explain,
Who fhav'd, drew teeth, and breath'd a vein.
Give this, and the following description, neatly forcible.
The Goat he welcomes with an air,
Pause a little after" Goat."
And feats him in his wooden chair
Mouth, nofe, and cheek, the lather hides;
Light, Imooth, and swift, the razor glides,
"I hope your cuftom, Sir," fays Pug;
"Sure never face was half fo fmug."
The Goat, impatient for applaufe,
Swift to the neighbouring hill withdraws.
The fhaggy people grinn'd and star'd:
"Heigh-day! what's here, without a beard?
"Say, brother, whence the dire disgrace?
"What envious hand hath robb'd your face?"
When thus the fop, with smiles of fcorn:
"Are beards by civil nations worn?
"Ev'n Mufcovites have mow'd their chirrs.
"Shall we, like formal Capuchins,
"Stubborn in pride, retain the mode,
"And bear about the hairy load?
"Whene'er we thro' the village ftray,
"Are we not mock'd along the way,
“Infulted with loud fhouts of scorn,
"By boys our beards disgrac'd and tornṛ
"Were you no more with goats to dwell,
"Brother, I grant you reason well,"
Replies a bearded chief. "Befide,
"If boys can mortify thy pride,
"How wilt thou ftand the ridicule
"Of our whole flock? Affected fool!
"Coxcombs diftinguifh'd from the reft,
"To all but coxcombs are a jeft."
ALL upftarts, infolent in place,
Remind us of their vulgar race.
These two lines, being a kind of preliminary reflection at the beginning of the fable, you may read with more force and deliberation than are neceffary in reading the fable itself. What follows, with the fame cafe we before recommended.
As, in the sunshine of the morn,
A Butterfly, but newly born,
Sat proudly perking on a rose,
With pert conceit his bofom glows;
His wings, all glorious to behold,
Bedropt with azure, jet, and gold,
Wide he difplays; the fpangled dew
Reflects his eyes, and various hue.
His now forgotten friend, a Snail,
Beneath his houfe, with flimy trail,
Crawls o'er the grafs, whom when he fpies,
In wrath he to the gard❜ner cries:
In reading the defcription of the Snail, you ought to mark those words that make the strongest impreffion of the infect described-flimy trail, and crawls, come here under this head.
"What means yon peafant's daily toil,
"From choking weeds to rid the foil?
"Why wake you to the morning's care?
"Why with new arts correct the year?
"Why glows the peach with crimson hue?
"And why the plum's inviting blue?
Were they to feaft his tafte defign'd,
"That vermin of voracious kind?
"Crush then the flow, the pilf'ring race;
"So purge thy garden from difgrace."
Paufe a little after "So."
"What arrogance!" the Snail replied;
"How infolent is upstart pride!
"Hadft thou not thus, with infult vain,
"Provok'd my patience to complain,
“I had conceal'd thy meaner birth,
"Nor trac'd thee to the fcum of earth.
"For fcarce nine funs have wak'd the hours,
"To fwell the fruit and paint the flow'rs,
"Since I thy humbler life furvey'd,
"In bafe and fordid guife array'd;
"A hideous infect, vile, unclean,
"You dragg'd a flow and noisome train;
"And from your fpider-bowels drew
"Foul film, and fpun the dirty clue.
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