In brains and manners less than owls!
90
  Blockheads,’ says he, ’learn more respect;
  Know ye on whom ye thus reflect? 
  In this same grave (who does me right,
  Must own the work is strong and tight)
  The squire that yon fair hall possessed,
  Tonight shall lay his bones at rest. 
  Whence could the gross mistake proceed? 
  The squire was somewhat fat indeed. 
  What then?  The meanest bird of prey
  Such want of sense could ne’er betray;
100
  For sure some difference must be found
  (Suppose the smelling organ sound)
  In carcases (say what we can)
  Or where’s the dignity of man?’
     With due respect to human race,
  The ravens undertook the case. 
  In such similitude of scent,
  Man ne’er eould think reflections meant. 
  As epicures extol a treat,
  And seem their savoury words to eat,
110
  They praised dead horse, luxurious food,
  The venison of the prescient brood. 
     The sexton’s indignation moved,
  The mean comparison reproved;
  The undiscerning palate blamed,
  Which two-legged carrion thus defamed. 
     Reproachful speech from either side
  The want of argument supplied: 
  They rail, revile:  as often ends
  The contest of disputing friends.
120
  ‘Hold,’ says the fowl; ’since human pride
  With confutation ne’er complied,
  Let’s state the case, and then refer
  The knotty point:  for taste may err.’ 
  As thus he spoke, from out the mould
  An earth-worm, huge of size, unrolled
  His monstrous length.  They straight agree
  To choose him as their referee. 
  So to the experience of his jaws,
  Each states the merits of his cause.
130
  He paused, and with a solemn tone,
  Thus made his sage opinion known: 
     ’On carcases of every kind
  This maw hath elegantly dined;
  Provoked by luxury or need,
  On beast, on fowl, on man, I feed;
  Such small distinctions in the savour,
  By turns I choose the fancied flavour,
  Yet I must own (that human beast)
  A glutton is the rankest feast.
140
  Man, cease this boast; for human pride
  Hath various tracts to range beside. 
  The prince who kept the world in awe,
  The judge whose dictate fixed the law,
  The rich, the poor, the great, the small,
  Are levelled.  Death confounds them all. 
  Then think not that we reptiles share
  Such cates, such elegance of fair: 
  The only true and real good
  Of man was never vermin’s food.
150
  ’Tis seated in the immortal mind;
  Virtue distinguishes mankind,
  And that (as yet ne’er harboured here)
  Mounts with his soul we know not where. 
  So, good man sexton, since the case
  Appears with such a dubious face,
  To neither I the cause determine,
  For different tastes please different vermin.’

  END OF GAY’S FABLES.