not prevent me, to rise yet higher towards those blue plains that lie above me. Call me not oppressor, who protected thee with thy ravens from yesterday's storm, and borè all the violence of its wind and hail myself; and who only overshadow thee, either to defend thee, or protect the main interest of the oak, from that ruin, which thy pride and dissension would certainly bring upon it, were they fed by the sunshine and the dew. What I do, thou thyself dost compel me to; and it is with great sorrow, that I behold thee separated from the other branches, and envious of the glory of the whole, which thou oughtest rather to augment, by making thyself more a part of it. I take not from thee what is thine; but thou unjustly claimest, as of particular right, what belongs to the whole. Thou art my shame and reproach amongst trees, the check of my growth, and the destroyer of my beauty. Well didst thou say that we should be the queen of the forest, had we been united; but to give us that majesty which we want, whether is it more reasonable, that thou shouldest ascend in one trunk, and become a part of our common head, or that I should lower my glories, and shrink into thee, who art by confession only an inferior branch, and as it is evident to all the forest, of a sidelong and distorted growth? I know thee an alien from the stem out of which thou springest, and which thou wouldest draw aside. I know thy spleen, and expect the usual effects of the selfish spirit that actuates thy crooked nature. However, stick thou to thy malice, and I will abide by my resolution. Know, that I hold thee too inconsiderable to destroy my life, although thou mayest impair my power; but if thou shouldest be able to destroy me, remember, in so doing, that thou destroyest thyself. Thou shalt be little if I continue; if I perish thou shalt be nothing. To the genius of our tree I refer my cause, and recommend my preservation. Live thou, although to repine and curse me for thy own follies.'

ALLUSION IH.

NOT far from the verge of a spacious forest stood a sheepfold, the possession of a careful and wealthy shepherd. So strong and so high were its fences, that the wolf and the tiger in vain attempted to overleap them. Even the lion roaring for his prey was forced to seek it elsewhere; here there was no entrance for the proud destroyer. Many a quiet night had the tender flock reposed itself within its wooden fortification, and fearless heard the neighbouring forest echo with the cry of ravenous beasts. But at length a ram or two of more boldness than became sheep, began to persuade their fellows, that they spent their nights like slaves and cowards, and in a way unbecoming sheep of spirit.

*Come (says one of these heroes a little more eloquent than the rest), come, my fellow-rams, and my dearest ewes, let us sally from this miserable pen, in which we are rather imprisoned by the tyranny of man, than protected from the fury of wild beasts. Let us sally, I say, into the open plains, and enjoy that delightful liberty, in which the free denizens of the forest spend their happy days. O liberty! liberty! thou inviting condition, how desirable art thou to the wretch in confinement, who pants and pines for thy charms! how delightful to the generous soul, that disdains restraint, and thinks even its body a confinement!

'Is it not most unworthy, is it not most shameful, my fellows, to take laws from animals of another kind, and live by rules altogether foreign to our nature? To what end our slender limbs, and the swiftness of our feet, if we are to be cooped up within such narrow limits, or driven about at the pleasure of a slow-paced and sluggish animal? To what end these formidable horns, that arm our brows, which, helped by the rapidity of our career, make our onsets irresistible, if we are to owe our safety to artificial arms in the hands of man? All animals are provided by nature for their own support, and armed for their own de

*This speech is founded on the reasonings, and accommodated to the manner, of lord Shaftesbury.

fence. Since nature hath been as bountiful to us as others, let us enjoy her gifts, and live according to nature. O nature! nature! nature! thou sovereign of the world! thou mighty empress of the creation! thou mild mother and cherishing nurse of all! when shall I break forth from slavish rules, and fly to thee? When shall I pursue thy dictates unrestrained by laws, by servile and tyrannic laws? It is better thou shouldest lead me, than that man should drive me. Is not thy wisdom inexhaustible? are not thy directions infallible? why should others be added? to what end should those of man be superinduced? I feel, I feel thee kindling in my breast! behold it enlarges to take thee in, thou generous, thou welcome guest, thou only lawful sovereign! Let me now, long enslaved to strange arts and unnatural inventions, with pristine sense of thee, adore thy power, and invoke thy assistance, not only to free myself, but also to restore the liberty of these my kindred and my fellows. And, O you dear sharers of my good and evil fortune, join one and all to assert with me the natural liberty of our kind. No more be driven in herds, but join in arms. No more be pent within this narrow fold, but issue forth into the spacious plains, and range without restraint the flowery fields; as free, as dauntless as that rampant lion, that shakes the echoing forest with his roar, and terrifies mankind, our coward masters.'

So saying he ceased, and such of the flock, as were moved with his harangue, found means to elope with him from the fold. As soon as they had their legs at liberty, they played a thousand gambols in the neighbouring grounds, frisking and insulting the poor cowardly slaves, as they called them, that kept within the sheepfold. They were wondrous witty at the expense of the tame wretches that had not spirit to venture as they did. They rambled round the fields; they straggled through the forest. The lion devoured one; the bear worried another; and some of those that survived suffered so much, that they heartily repented of their ill-advised rashness, in quitting the care of the shepherd, and the protection of the sheepfold. In this miserable plight, one somewhat more sensible of their afflictions and dangers than the rest, thus bespoke his fellows:

Although it is not many days since we quitted a place of safety, under the specious pretence of liberty and enlargement, to expose ourselves to dangers and hardships, which we might have been sufficiently aware of, had we not been blinded by appearances, and spirited away from reason and safety, by the plausible harangue of one, who was so cunning as to impose upon himself as well as us; yet we have had time enough to make woful trial of our folly, and feel the melancholy effects of it, in a great variety of misfortunes. We have been told fine things of nature, and taught to follow her as our only guide and security. But either we have mistaken her, or she is unable to perform those promises, which our ringleaders have falsely made us in her name. Are not the natures of all other things entered into a conspiracy, to punish our presumption? We dare not repose ourselves in the grass for fear of being stung by serpents, or bit by other poisonous worms. Every thorn wounds our tender legs, and every brier seizes us by the wool, and tears off our fleeces. We have neither swiftness sufficient to fly from, nor strength to resist the beasts of prey, that seem to have a peculiar taste for our blood. There are a thousand things to frighten us, and our own natural timidity adds ten thousand more, that are not real. Should we live to see the summer at an end, which is almost impossible, how shall we encounter the difficulties of the winter? Although there were neither bears, nor tigers, nor lions to invade us, yet the frosts, the snows, and the dreadful storms of wind and rain are not to be resisted by any defence which creatures so feeble and improvident can make against them. Had we not widely mistaken nature, we might easily have seen that she never designed us for an independent state. It never was her intention to form any thing absolutely capable of subsisting apart from other things. To make one whole of all her works, she hath left every thing deficient in some particular, which is to be supplied by another, in order to combine the whole. Between us and man there seems to be a natural, original, and necessary league arising from the exigencies of both, which we mutually supply. As for our part, it is but too plain that we cannot subsist without his help; he prepares our food by the sweat of his own brow; he cures our distem

pers; and he erects such fences round us, as are necessary to protect us from the fury of our foes. Surely to treat us in this manner, is by no means tyrannic. So far we are from being slaves to man, that he rather seems to render us such attendance as could be expected from nothing but a servant. And what have we gained by our elopement from him, but the privilege of being more exposed to dangers, and more distracted by fears, than while we permitted him to watch for us? O liberty, how much do we mistake thee! If this is to be free, give me back again the happy security of my former confinement. While I kept within our fold, in that place at least, I could do what I pleased; but now, nowhere. I have only multiplied my masters, and enlarged my slavery; and all this, for the fantastic hope of being assisted and protected by nature in the most unnatural attempt that folly or frenzy could inspire. I am resolved, if I can escape the dangers that lie between me and the fold, to return, and put myself again under the protection of man. It is better to help out the natural weakness of my kind, by the wisdom and power of a superior nature, than perish in the lion's paws, as the speediest relief I can hope from the distress of my present condition. As for you, my friends, I do not expect you should follow either my advice or example, so strongly doth your vanity seem still to possess you. Fare ye well, and learn from farther calamities, what you have been too stupid to gather from the former.'

ALLUSION IV.

In the garden of a wealthy farmer stood a bee-hive, inhabited by a nation of frugal and laborious bees, than which no other was governed by an abler king, or wiser laws. And as the garden with the adjacent country abounded with all such flowers as that climate in the several seasons was wont to produce, so they made store of honey, lived peaceably and plentifully within themselves, and planted so many colonies as reached almost from one end to the other of the quickset that defended them from the northerly