8

When Bavius greets you with a bow,
Sir, please to read a line or two:'
If you approve, and say they're clever,'
'You make me happy, Sir, for ever:'
What can be done? the case is plain,
No methods of escape remain:
You're fairly noos'd, and must consent
To hear, what nothing can prevent,
A coxcomb's anger; and your fate
Will be to suffer, soon or late.

An Ape, that was the sole delight
Of an old woman, day and night,
Indulg'd at table and at bed,

Attended like a child and fed:

Who knew each trick, and twenty more
Than ever Monkey play'd before,
At last grew frantic, and would try,
In spite of nature's laws, to fly.

Oft from the window would he view
The passing swallows as they flew,
Observe them flutt'ring round the walls,
Or gliding o'er the smooth canals:
He too must fly, and cope with these;
For this, and nothing else, would please :
Oft thinking from the window's height,
Three stories down to take his flight:
He still was something loth to venture,
As tending strongly to the centre:
And knowing that the least mistake
Might cost a limb, perhaps his neck :

The case, you'll own, was something nice;
He thought it best to ask advice;
And to the Parrot straight applying,
Allow'd to be a judge of flying,

He thus began: You'll think me rude,
Forgive me, if I do intrude,

For you alone my doubts can clear
• In something that concerns me near :
'Do you imagine, if I try,

• That I shall e'er attain to fly?
'The project's whimsical, no doubt,
'But, ere you censure, hear me out:
That liberty's our greatest blessing,

'You'll grant me without farther pressing;

'To live confin'd, 'tis plain and clear,

'Is something very hard to bear:

This you must know, who, for an age, 'Have been kept pris ner in a cage, 'Denied the privilege to soar,

With boundless freedom as before. 'I have, 'tis true, much greater scope, Than you, my friend, can ever hope; 'I traverse all the house, and play

My tricks and gambols ev'ry day: 'Oft with my mistress, in a chair, 'I ride abroad to take the air : 099, r Make visits with her, walk at large,

'A maid, or footman's constant charges à int 'Yet this is nothing, for I find a teos 10,347 'Myself still hamper'd and confin'd,

'A grov❜ling thing: I fain would rise
'Above the earth, and mount the skies:
'The meanest birds, and insects too,
This feat with greatest ease can do.
To that gay creature turn about,
That's beating on the pane without;
'Ten days ago, perhaps but five,
'A worm, it scarcely seem'd alive:

By threads suspended, tough and small,

'Midst dusty cobwebs on a wall;

'Now, dress'd in all the different dyes, 'That vary in the ev'ning skies,

6

'He soars at large, and on the wing

Enjoys with freedom all the Spring;

• Skims the fresh lakes, and rising sees
• Beneath him far the loftiest trees;

'And, when he rests, he makes his bow'r
The cup
of some delicious flow'r.

Shall creatures so obscurely bred,

'On mere corruption nurs'd and fed, 'A glorious privilege obtain,

• Which I can never hope to gain?

• Shall I, like man's imperial race

In manners, customs, shape, and face,

• Expert in all ingenious tricks,

'To tumble, dance, and leap o'er sticks;

Who know to soothe and coax my betters,

And match a beau, at least in letters;

'Shall I despair, and never try'

' (What meanest insects can) to fly?

Say, mayn't I, without dread or care,

.

6

At once commit me to the air,

And not fall down, and break my bones
Upon these hard and flinty stones?

Say, if to stir my limbs before

• Will make me glide along or soar?

'All things, they say, are learn'd by trying;

No doubt it is the same with flying.

'I wait your judgment with respect, And shall proceed as you direct.'

Poor Poll, with gen'rous pity mov'd, The Ape's fond rashness thus reprov'd; For, tho' instructed by mankind, Her tongue to candour still inclin'd: 'My friend, the privilege to rise 'Above the earth, and mount the skies, Is glorious sure, and 'tis my fate To feel the want on't with regret ; 'A pris'ner to a cage confin'd,

Tho' wing'd and of the flying kind.
• With you the case is not the same,
You're quite terrestrial by your frame,
And should be perfectly content
With your peculiar element:
You have no wings, I pray, reflect,

To lift you and your course direct;

Those arms of yours will never do,

'Not twenty in the place of two;

'They ne'er can lift you from the ground, For broad and long, they're thick and round;

'And, therefore, if you chuse the way

To leap the window, as you say,

"Tis certain that you'll be the jest Of ev'ry insect, bird, and beast; 'When you lie batter'd by your fall 'Just at the bottom of the wall. 'Be prudent, then, improve the pow'rs 'Which nature gives in place of ours; 'You'll find them readily conduce 'At once to pleasure and to use: 'But airy whims and crotchets lead 'To certain loss, and ne'er succeed.'

As folks, tho' inly vex'd and teaz'd, Will oft seem'd satisfied and pleas'd; The Ape approv'd of ev'ry word At this time utter'd by the bird: But, nothing in opinion chang'd, Thought only how to be reveng'd.

It happen'd, when the day was fair, That Poll was set to take the air, Just where the Monkey oft sat poring About experiments in soaring. Dissembling his contempt and rage, He stepp'd up softly to the cage, And, with a sly malicious grin,

Accosted thus the bird within:

'You say I am not form'd for flight; 'In this you certainly are right:

''Tis very plain upon reflection, 'But to yourself there's no objection,