Good Nature blest,
Love of his Species rules his tender Breast;
Nor there confin'd: The Brute Creation share
His kind Beneficence and gen'rous Care.
No base malicious Thoughts his Peace annoy:
Are others happy? he partakes their Joy.
Chearful and innocent the Day he spends,
And Silver Sleep his quiet Nights attends.

But thou, a Stranger to this Peace of Mind,
Search where thou may'st conspicuous Merit find:
There strive to blacken with thy utmost Art,
And rail the more, the greater the Desert.

Is there a Man, an Honour to the Age,
Unsully'd by the keenest Party-rage;
By Vice untainted; who, from early Youth,
Firmly adher'd to Honour, Justice, Truth;
Whom no unruly Passions e're cou'd blind,
Nor ruffle his Serenity of Mind;
His Country's Good, the Patriot's noblest View,
Unbrib'd, unaw'd, does stedfastly pursue;
Polite in Manners, and rever'd his Sense,
And long in Senates fam'd for Eloquence;
But if to these Endowments of the Mind,
A graceful Figure happily is join'd,
Then flows thy Gall, then raves thy half-form'd Clay,
Then frets thy putrid Carcass to Decay.

So when the croaking Toad the Ox beheld,
His envious Heart with Indignation swell'd.
Vainly the Reptil thought he could extend
His bloated Form, and Nature's Error mend.
He drew his Breath; he swell'd--he burst; he dy'd
A Victim to his Arrogance and Pride.

_FINIS._

* * * * *
* * * *

The Augustan Reprint Society

WILLIAM ANDREWS CLARK MEMORIAL LIBRARY

University of California, Los Angeles

PUBLICATIONS IN PRINT

[Where available, Project Gutenberg e-text numbers are shown in
brackets.]

1948-1949

16. Nevil Payne, _Fatal Jealousy_ (1673). [16916]

17. Nicholas Rowe, _Some Account of the Life of Mr. William Shakespeare_
(1709). [16275]

18. "Of Genius," in _The Occasional Paper_, Vol. III, No. 10 (1719); and
Aaron Hill's Preface to _The Creation_ (1720). [15870]

1949-1950

22. Samuel Johnson, _The Vanity of Human Wishes_ (1749) and two
_Rambler_ papers (1750). [13350]

23. John Dryden, _His Majesties Declaration Defended_ (1681). [15074]

1950-1951

26. Charles Macklin, _The Man of the World_ (1792). [14463]

1951-1952

31. Thomas Gray, _An Elegy Wrote in a Country Churchyard_ (1751); and
_The Eton College Manuscript_. [15409]

1952-1953

41. Bernard Mandeville, _A L