Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 11.djvu/46

 that upon the approach of the emperor Maximilian to the opulent city of Nuremberg, it took wing, and flew out of the gates to meet him, and (as my author has it) appeared as though alive. Give me leave to attribute this excellent invention to the vehement desire he had to entertain his master with something extraordinary, and to say with the poet,

I am trying a like experiment, whether I cannot make this composition of old rags, galls, and vitriol, fly to Dublin; and if (as the moving lion, which was composed by an Italian chymist, and opened his breast, and showed the imperial arms painted on its heart) this could disclose itself, and discover to you the high esteem and affection I have for you, I should attain my end; and not only sacrifice a hecatomb, but cry out, with extatick Archimedes,.

I should not have presumed to imagine, that you would deign to cast an eye on any thing proceeding from so mean a hand as mine, had I not been encouraged by that character of candour and sweetness of temper, for which you are so justly celebrated and esteemed by all good men, as the deliciæ humani generis; and I make no question, but, like your predecessor, an emperor again, you reckon every day as lost, in which you have not an opportunity of doing some act of beneficence. I was moreover emboldened by the adage, which does not stick to affirm, that one of the most despicable of animals may look upon the greatest of queens; as it has been proved to a demonstration by a late most