What fools were these amidst their power! How thoughtless of their adverse hour! What friends were made? A hireling herd, For temporary votes preferr'd. Was it, these sycophants to get, Your bounty swelled a nation's debt? _60 You're bit. For these, like Swiss attend; No longer pay, no longer friend. The lion is, beyond dispute, Allowed the most majestic brute; His valour and his generous mind Prove him superior of his kind. Yet to jackals (as 'tis averred) Some lions have their power transferred; As if the parts of pimps and spies To govern forests could suffice. _70 Once, studious of his private good, A proud jackal oppressed the wood; To cram his own insatiate jaws, 73 Invaded property and laws; The forest groans with discontent, Fresh wrongs the general hate foment, The spreading murmurs reached his ear; His secret hours were vexed with fear. Night after night he weighs the case, And feels the terrors of disgrace. _80 'By friends,' says he, 'I'll guard my seat, By those malicious tongues defeat: I'll strengthen power by new allies, And all my clamorous foes despise.' To make the generous beasts his friends, He cringes, fawns, and condescends; But those repulsed his abject court, And scorned oppression to support. Friends must be had. He can't subsist. Bribes shall new proselytes inlist. _90 But these nought weighed in honest paws; For bribes confess a wicked cause: Yet think not every paw withstands What had prevailed in human hands. A tempting turnip's silver skin Drew a base hog through thick and thin: Bought with a stag's delicious haunch, The mercenary wolf was stanch: The convert fox grew warm and hearty, A pullet gained him to the party; _100 The golden pippin in his fist, A chattering monkey joined the list. But soon exposed to public hate, The favourite's fall redressed the state. The leopard, vindicating right, Had brought his secret frauds to light, As rats, before the mansion falls, Desert late hospitable walls, In shoals the servile creatures run, To bow before the rising sun. _110 The hog with warmth expressed his zeal, And was for hanging those that steal; But hoped, though low, the public hoard Might half a turnip still afford. Since saving measures were profess'd, A lamb's head was the wolf's request. The fox submitted if to touch A gosling would be deemed too much. The monkey thought his grin and chatter, Might ask a nut or some such matter. _120 'Ye hirelings, hence,' the leopard cries; 'Your venal conscience I despise. He who the public good intends, By bribes needs never purchase friends. Who acts this just, this open part, Is propp'd by every honest heart. Corruption now too late hath showed, That bribes are always ill-bestowed, By you your bubbled master's taught, Time-serving tools, not friends, are bought.' _130