Page:Poems of Anne Countess of Winchilsea 1903.djvu/336

 198 THE POEMS OP ANNE �Which fill'd the Chests, and was it self so full? Here interrupting, sadly he Reply'd, In Me's no Change, but Fate must all Things guide ; To Providence I attribute my Loss. �Vain-glorious Man do's thus the Praise engross, When Prosperous Days around him spread their �Beams : �But, if revolved to opposite Extr earns, Still his own Sence he fondly will prefer, And Providence, not He, in his Affairs must Err! 60 �THE EAGLE, THE SOW, AND THE CAT �The Queen of Birds, t'encrease the Regal Stock, Had hatch'd her young Ones in a stately Oak, Whose Middle-part was by a Cat possest, And near the Root with Litter warmly drest, A teeming Sow had made her peaceful Nest. (Thus Palaces are cramm'd from Roof to Ground, And Animals, as various, in them found.) When to the Sow, who no Misfortune fear'd, Puss with her fawning Compliments appear'd, Rejoicing much at her Deliv'ry past, 10 �And that she 'scap'd so well, who bred so fast. Then every little Piglin she commends, And likens them to all their swinish Friends; Bestows good Wishes, but with Sighs implies, That some dark Fears do in her Bosom rise. Such Tempting Flesh, she cries, will Eagles spare? Methinks, good Neighbour, you should live in Care: Since I, who bring not forth such dainty Bits, Tremble for my unpalatable Chits; And had I but foreseen, the Eagle's Bed 20 �Was in this fatal Tree to have been spread; ��� �