_The Ape was not to reason blind; For who in wealth of dress can find Such charms as dwell in wealth of mind? One meets our ever-new desires, The other in a moment tires. Alas! how many lords there are, Of mighty sway and lofty mien, Who, like this Leopard at the fair, Show all their talents on the skin!_ The Rat and the Elephant A Rat, of quite the smallest size, Fix'd on an Elephant his eyes, And jeer'd the beast of high descent Because his feet so slowly went. Upon his back, three stories high, There sat, beneath a canopy, A certain sultan of renown, His Dog, and Cat, and wife sublime, His parrot, servant, and his wine, All pilgrims to a distant town. The Rat profess'd to be amazed That all the people stood and gazed With wonder, as he pass'd the road, Both at the creature and his load. "As if," said he, "to occupy A little more of land or sky Made one, in view of common sense, Of greater worth and consequence! What see ye, men, in this parade, That food for wonder need be made? The bulk which makes a child afraid? In truth, I take myself to be, In all aspects, as good as he." And further might have gone his vaunt; But, darting down, the Cat Convinced him that a Rat Is smaller than an elephant. The Acorn and the Pumpkin God's works are good. This truth to prove Around the world I need not move; I do it by the nearest Pumpkin. "This fruit so large, on vine so small," Surveying once, exclaim'd a bumpkin-- "What could He mean who made us all? He's left this Pumpkin out of place. If I had order'd in the case, Upon that oak it should have hung---- A noble fruit as ever swung To grace a tree so firm and strong. Indeed, it was a great mistake, As this discovery teaches, That I myself did not partake His counsels whom my curate preaches. All things had then in order come; This Acorn, for example, Not bigger than my thumb, Had not disgraced a tree so ample. The more I think, the more I wonder To see outraged proportion's laws, And that without the slightest cause; God surely made an awkward blunder." With such reflections proudly fraught, Our sage grew tired of mighty thought, And threw himself on Nature's lap, Beneath an oak, to take his nap. Plump on his nose, by lucky hap, An Acorn fell: he waked, and in The scarf he wore beneath his chin, He found the cause of such a bruise As made him different language use. "Oh! Oh!" he cried; "I bleed! I bleed! And this is what has done the deed! But, truly, what had been my fate, Had this had half a Pumpkin's weight! I see that God had reasons good, And all His works were understood." Thus home he went in humbler mood. The Cat and the Fox