JACOB! I do not like to see thy nose Turn'd up in scornful curve at yonder Pig. It would be well, my friend, if we, like him, Were perfect in our kind!.. And why despise The sow-born grunter?.. He is obstinate, Thou answerest; ugly, and the filthiest beast That banquets upon offal. . . . Now I pray you Hear the Pig's Counsel.
We must not, Jacob, be deceived by words; We must not take them as unheeding hands Receive base money at the current worth. But with a just suspicion try their sound, And in the even balance weigh them well. See now to what this obstinacy comes · A poor, mistreated, democratic beast, He knows that his unmerciful drivers seek
Their profit, and not his. He hath not learnt
That Pigs were made for Man,.. born to be brawn'd And baconized: that he must please to give Just what his gracious masters please to take; Perhaps his tusks, the weapons Nature gave For self-defence, the general privilege;
Perhaps,.. hark Jacob! dost thou hear that horn? Woe to the young posterity of Pork!
The Pig is ugly. Jacob, look at him! Those eyes have taught the Lover flattery. His face,.. nay Jacob, Jacob! were it fair To judge a Lady in her dishabille?
Fancy it drest, and with saltpetre rouged. Behold his tail, my friend; with curls like that The wanton hop marries her stately spouse: So crisp in beauty Amoretta's hair
Rings round her lover's soul the chains of love. And what is beauty, but the aptitude Of parts harmonious? Give thy fancy scope, And thou wilt find that no imagined change Can beautify this beast. Place at his end The starry glories of the Peacock's pride, Give him the Swan's white breast; for his horn-hoofs Shape such a foot and ankle as the waves Crowded in eager rivalry to kiss
When Venus from the enamour'd sea arose ;.. Jacob, thou canst but make a monster of him! All alteration man could think, would mar His Pig-perfection.
The last charge, . . he lives
A dirty life. Here I could shelter him With noble and right-reverend precedents, And show by sanction of authority That 't is a very honourable thing To thrive by dirty ways. But let me rest On better ground the unanswerable defence
The Pig is a philosopher, who knows No prejudice. Dirt?.. Jacob, what is dirt? If matter,.. why the delicate dish that tempts An o'ergorged Epicure to the last morsel That stuffs him to the throat-gates, is no more. If matter be not, but as Sages say,
Spirit is all, and all things visible Are one, the infinitely modified,
Think, Jacob, what that Pig is, and the mire Wherein he stands knee-deep!
Pleads with me, and has won thee to a smile That speaks conviction. O'er yon blossom'd field Of beans it came, and thoughts of bacon rise. Westbury, 1799.
RECOMMENDED TO THE ADVOCATES FOR THE SLAVE-TRADE.
RARE music! I would rather hear cat-courtship Under my bed-room window in the night,
Than this scraped catgut's screak. Rare dancing too! Alas, poor Bruin! How he foots the pole And waddles round it with unwieldly steps, Swaying from side to side! . . The dancing-master Hath had as profitless a pupil in him
As when he would have tortured my poor toes To minuet grace, and made them move like clockwork In musical obedience. Bruin! Bruin !
Thou art but a clumsy biped!.. And the mob
With noisy merriment mock his heavy pace, And laugh to see him led by the nose!.. themselves Led by the nose, embruted, and in the eye Of Reason from their Nature's purposes
Now could I sonnetize thy piteous plight, And prove how much my sympathetic heart Even for the miseries of a beast can feel, In fourteen lines of sensibility.
But we are told all things were made for Man; And I'll be sworn there's not a fellow here Who would not swear 't were hanging blasphemy To doubt that truth. Therefore as thou wert born, Bruin! for Man, and Man makes nothing of thee
In any other way, most logically
It follows, thou wert born to make him sport; That that great snout of thine was form'd on purpose To hold a ring; and that thy fat was given thee For an approved pomatum !
Were heresy. And politicians say,
(Wise men who in the scale of reason give No foolish feelings weight,) that thou art here Far happier than thy brother Bears who roam O'er trackless snow for food; that being born Inferior to thy leader, unto him
Rightly belongs dominion; that the compact Was made between ye, when thy clumsy feet First fell into the snare, and he gave up His right to kill, conditioning thy life Should thenceforth be his property ;.. besides, 'Tis wholesome for thy morals to be brought From savage climes into a civilized state, Into the decencies of Christendom..... Bear! Bear! it passes in the Parliament For excellent logic this! What if we say How barbarously Man abuses power? Talk of thy baiting, it will be replied, Thy welfare is thy owner's interest, But were thou baited it would injure thee,
« 前へ次へ » |