62 The Plague among the Beasts.............. 63 The Boy, the Cat and the Young Birds............... 71 The Philosopher and the Glow-worm ..................................... 73 The Pepper-box and the Salt Cellar.......................................... 74 The Blackbird and the Bull-finch 75 The Old Man, his Children and Bundle of Sticks. 77 The Boy and the Ring-Dove.................................................................. 78 The Hare and the Tortoise. .......................................................... 79 The Hares weary of Life ......................................................... 80 The Goldfinch and the Cricket................................................................. 82 The Lark and her Young ones............................................................... 84 The Looking-Glass and the Orange-Tree............ 85 The Shepherd's Boy and the Wolf..................................................... 89 The Cat and her Master................................ 90. The Robin, the Sparrow and the Poet 91 The Dog on the Backward Scent 95 The Hindu and the Microscope 96 The Lion and other Beasts in council............................................ 98 The Caterpillar and the. Butterfly........................................ FABLE I. THE EAGLE AND THE ROBIN RED BREAST. From one by Archibald Scott, written before the Year 1600. THE Prince of all the feather'd kind, One day at his command, did flock Meantime, while feasting on a Fawn, And drinking blood from Lambkins drawn. A tuneful Robin, blithe and young, Hard-by upon a birch-tree sung. He sang the Eagle's royal race, His piercing eye, his awful grace, His flight sublime, his strength renew'd, His mind with clemency endued. The Monarch Bird delighted heard The chaunting little sylvan Bard, Call'd up a Buzzard, who was then His favourite and Chamberlain. 'Go quickly to my treasury, 'And to yon sweet-ton'd Robin pay 'A sum that fairly may appear A handsome living, thro' the year; 'And no more of your stuff can bear; He spake, while Robin's swelling breast, And drooping wings his grief express'd, The tears ran trickling down his cheek, His heart grew big, he could not speak, Not for the lucre of reward, But that his notes met no regard ; By Shakspeare, (Coriolanus, Act I. Scene 1.) THERE was a time, when all the Body's Members Rebell'd against the Belly: thus accus'd it :That only like a gulf it did remain I' the midst o' the Body, idle and unactive, Still cupboarding the viand, never bearing Like labour with the rest; where the other instru ments Did see, and hear, devise, instruct, walk, feel, And mutually participant, did minister Unto the appetite and affection common Of the whole body. With a kind of smile, Which ne'er came from the lungs, but eyen thus, (For look you, I may make the Belly smile, As well as speak,) it tauntingly replied To the discontented Members, the mutinous parts That envied his receipt, thus answer'd : 'True it is, my incorporate friends,' quoth he, 'That I receive the general food at first, "Which you do live upon and fit it is; 'Because I am the store-house, and the shop "Of the whole body: but: if you do remember, "I send it thro' the rivers of your blood, Even to the court, the heart,-to the seat o' the brain; And, thro' the cranks and offices of man, 'The strongest nerves, and small inferior veins, 'From me receive that natural competency Whereby they live: and, tho' all at once cannot 'See what I do deliver out to each; 'Yet I can make my audit up, that all 'From me do back receive the flower of all, And leave me but the bran.' The senators of Rome are this good Belly, And you the mutinous Members: for examine Their counsels, and their cares; digest things rightly, Touching the weal o' the common; you shall find, No public benefit, which you receive, But it proceeds, or comes, from them to you, And no way from yourselves.-What do you think? |