'The prudent nymph, whose cheeks disclose The lily and the blushing rose, From public view her charms will screen, And rarely in the crowd be seen. This simple truth shall keep her wise: "The fairest fruits attract the flies." One night a glow-worm, proud and vain, Contemplating her glitt'ring train, Cried, "Sure there never was in Nature So elegant, so fine a creature; All other insects that I see-- The frugal ant, industrious bee, Or silk-worm--with contempt I view; With all that low, mechanic crew Who servilely their lives employ In business, enemy to joy. Mean, vulgar herd! ye are my scorn, For grandeur only I was born; Or, sure, am sprung from race divine, And placed on earth to live and shine. Those lights, that sparkle so on high, Are but the glow-worms of the sky; And kings on earth their gems admire Because they imitate my fire." She spoke. Attentive on a spray, A nightingale forebore his lay; He saw the shining morsel near, And flew, directed by the glare; Awhile he gazed, with sober look, And thus the trembling prey bespoke: "Deluded fool, with pride elate, Know 'tis thy beauty brings thy fate; Less dazzling, long thou mightst have lain, Unheeded on the velvet plain. Pride, soon or late, degraded mourns, And beauty wrecks whom she adorns."' It is interesting to observe how a true poet, Cowper, treats the same subject, the object or moral of the fable, however, being different: _The Nightingale and Glow-worm._