Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 4.djvu/114

104 were ſo full of life and humour, it is not much to be wondered at, if his muſe ſhould be ſometimes too warm to wait the ſlow pace of judgment, or to endure the drudgery of forming, a regular Fable to them.

That Sir John was capable of a great force of thinking, appears abundantly clear from that ſcene between Æſop and a country gentleman, who comes to complain of the bad conduct of thoſe in power. The dialogue is at once ſenſible and animated. Æſop ſhews him what he reckoned the oppreſſions of the adminiſtration, flowed from the prejudices of ignorance, contemplated through the medium of popular diſcontent. In the interview between the Beau and the Philoſopher, there is the following pretty fable. The Beau obſerves to Æſop, ‘It is is very well; it is very well, old ſpark; I ſay it is very well; becauſe I han’t a pair of plod ſhoes, and a dirty ſhirt, you think a woman won’t venture upon me for huſband.—Why now to ſhew you, old father, how little you philoſophers know the ladies.——I’ll tell you an adventure of a friend of mine.’ :A Band, a Bob-wig and a Feather Attack’d a lady’s heart together, The band in a moſt learned plea, Made up of deep philoſophy, Told her, if ſhe would pleaſe to wed A reverend beard, and take inſtead
 * Of vigorous youth,
 * Old ſolemn truth,

With books, and morals into bed,
 * How happy ſhe would be.


 * The Bob, he talk’d of management,

What wond’rous bleſſings Heav’n ſent On