I add another common case. When dogs pass through a place Beyond their customary bounds, And meet with others, curs or hounds, Imagine what a holiday! The native dogs, whose interests centre In one great organ, term'd the venter, The strangers rush at, bite, and bay; With cynic pertness tease and worry, And chase them off their territory. So, too, do men. Wealth, grandeur, glory, To men of office or profession, Of every sort, in every nation, As tempting are, and sweet, As is to dogs the refuse meat. With us, it is a general fact, One sees the latest-come attack'd, And plunder'd to the skin. Coquettes and authors we may view, As samples of the sin; For woe to belle or writer new! The fewer eaters round the cake, The fewer players for the stake, The surer each one's self to take. A hundred facts my truth might test; But shortest works are always best. In this I but pursue the chart Laid down by masters of the art; And, on the best of themes, I hold, The truth should never all be told. Hence, here my sermon ought to close. O thou, to whom my fable owes Whate'er it has of solid worth,-- Who, great by modesty as well as birth, Hast ever counted praise a pain,-- Whose leave I could so ill obtain That here your name, receiving homage, Should save from every sort of damage My slender works--which name, well known To nations, and to ancient Time, All France delights to own; Herself more rich in names sublime Than any other earthly clime;-- Permit me here the world to teach That you have given my simple rhyme The text from which it dares to preach. [23] This fable in the original editions has no other title save--"An Address," &c. Later editors titled it "Les Lapins." [24] _Rochefoucauld_.--See Fable XI., Book I., also dedicated to the duke, and the note thereto. XVI.--THE MERCHANT, THE NOBLE, THE SHEPHERD, AND THE KING'S SON.[25]