A Monkey and a Leopard were
    The rivals at a country fair. 
  Each advertised his own attractions. 
    Said one, “Good sirs, the highest place
    My merit knows; for, of his grace,
    The King hath seen me face to face;
  And, judging by his looks and actions,
  I gave the best of satisfactions. 
  When I am dead, ’tis plain enough,
  My skin will make his royal muff. 
  So richly is it streak’d and spotted,
  So delicately waved and dotted,
  Its various beauty cannot fail to please.” 
  And, thus invited, everybody sees;
  But soon they see, and soon depart. 
  The Monkey’s show-bill to the mart
  His merits thus sets forth the while,
  All in his own peculiar style: 
  “Come, gentlemen, I pray you, come;
  In magic arts I am at home. 
  The whole variety in which
  My neighbour boasts himself so rich
  Is to his simple skin confined,
  While mine is living in the mind. 
  For I can speak, you understand;
  Can dance, and practise sleight-of-hand;
  Can jump through hoops, and balance sticks;
  In short, can do a thousand tricks;
  One penny is my charge to you,
  And, if you think the price won’t do,
  When you have seen, then I’ll restore,
  Each man his money at the door.”

    The Ape was not to reason blind;
    For who in wealth of dress can find
    Such charms as dwell in wealth of mind? 
    One meets our ever-new desires,
    The other in a moment tires. 
    Alas! how many lords there are,
      Of mighty sway and lofty mien,
    Who, like this Leopard at the fair,
      Show all their talents on the skin!

  The Rat and the Elephant

  A Rat, of quite the smallest size,
  Fix’d on an Elephant his eyes,
  And jeer’d the beast of high descent
  Because his feet so slowly went. 
  Upon his back, three stories high,
  There sat, beneath a canopy,
  A certain sultan of renown,
    His Dog, and Cat, and wife sublime,
    His parrot, servant, and his wine,
  All pilgrims to a distant town. 
  The Rat profess’d to be amazed
  That all the people stood and gazed
  With wonder, as he pass’d the road,
  Both at the creature and his load. 
      “As if,” said he, “to occupy
      A little more of land or sky
  Made one, in view of common sense,
  Of greater worth and consequence! 
  What see ye, men, in this parade,
  That food for wonder need be made? 
  The bulk which makes a child afraid? 
  In truth, I take myself to be,
  In all aspects, as good as he.” 
  And further might have gone his vaunt;
      But, darting down, the Cat
      Convinced him that a Rat
  Is smaller than an elephant.

  The Acorn and the Pumpkin