Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 18.djvu/467



EHOLD, those monarch oaks, that rise, With lofty branches to the skies, Have large proportioned roots that grow With equal longitude below: Two bards, that now in fashion reign, Most aptly this device explain: If this to clouds and stars will venture, That creeps as far to reach the centre; Or, more to show the thing I mean, Have you not o'er a sawpit seen, A skill'd mechanick, that has stood High on a length of prostrate wood, Who hired a subterraneous friend, To take his iron by the end; But which excell'd was never found, The man above, or under ground. The moral is so plain to hit, That, had I been the god of wit, Then, in a sawpit and wet weather, Should Young and Philips drudge together. Rh