says he, ’for business fit,
  Hath both sagacity and wit. 
  With all his turns, and shifts, and tricks,
  He’s docile, and at nothing sticks. 
  Then, with his neighbours one so free,
  At all times will connive at me.’ 
  The hawk had due distinction shown,
  For parts and talents like his own. 
     Thousands of hireling cocks attends him,
  As blustering bullies, to defend him.
100
     At once the ravens were discarded,
  And magpies with their posts rewarded. 
     ’Those fowls of omen I detest,
  That pry into another’s nest,
  State-lies must lose all good intent;
  For they foresee and croak the event. 
  My friends ne’er think, but talk by rote,
  Speak what they’re taught, and so to vote.’ 
     ‘When rogues like these,’ a sparrow cries,
  ’To honours and employments rise,
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  I court no favour, ask no place;
  For such preferment is disgrace. 
  Within my thatched retreat I find
  (What these ne’er feel) true peace of mind.’

* * * * *

FABLE III.

THE BABOON AND THE POULTRY.

TO A LEVEE-HUNTER.

We frequently misplace esteem,
By judging men by what they seem,
To birth, wealth, power, we should allow
Precedence, and our lowest bow. 
In that is due distinction shown,
Esteem is virtue’s right alone. 
With partial eye we’re apt to see
The man of noble pedigree. 
We’re prepossess’d my lord inherits
In some degree his grandsire’s merits;
10
For those we find upon record: 
But find him nothing but my lord. 
When we with superficial view,
Gaze on the rich, we’re dazzled too. 
We know that wealth well understood,
Hath frequent power of doing good: 
Then fancy that the thing is done,
As if the power and will were one. 
Thus oft the cheated crowd adore
The thriving knaves that keep them poor.
20
The cringing train of power survey: 
What creatures are so low as they! 
With what obsequiousness they bend! 
To what vile actions condescend! 
Their rise is on their meanness built,
And flattery is their smallest guilt. 
What homage, rev’rence, adoration,
In every age, in every nation,
Have sycophants to power addressed! 
No matter who the power possessed.
30
Let ministers be what they will,
You find their levees always fill. 
Even those who have perplexed a state,
Whose actions claim contempt and hate,
Had wretches to applaud their schemes,
Though more absurd than madmen’s dreams. 
When barbarous Moloch was invoked,
The blood of infants only smoked! 
But here (unless all history lies)
Whole realms have been a sacrifice.
40
Look through all Courts—­’Tis power we find,
The general idol of mankind,
There worshipped under every shape;
Alike the lion, fox, and ape
Are followed by time-serving slaves,