PRESIDENT "Sir--I admire your skill,
But I hear you're disposed your own mutton to kill;
If true this report, don't think me too bold,
In advising you not to chuse Sheep from my fold."
The LEARNED-DOG next--"I boast not of my learning,
Though perhaps it has made me, than you more discerning;
I conceive you have none of you knowledge in Greek,
Sufficient of ancient Dogs' merits to speak--
I shall mention a few--The first of them this is,
Poor ARCUS, the Dog of the wandering Ulysses;
He lived, the return of his master to greet,
Then bounding for joy, fell dead at his feet.--
I doubt if you've heard Alcibiades name,
A Grecian fine gentleman, who, to his shame,
To give the Athenians a subject to rail,
Deprived a most beautiful Dog of his tail."[C]
When the Council heard this, the great members growl'd,
And every little Dog pitiously howl'd.
The clamour subsided--The wise Dog again,
Resumed his harangue, in a tedious strain;--
Spoke of Theseus's hounds, of the true Spartan breed;--
And the hounds of Actaeon, so famed for their speed--
Of three-headed Cerberus, Guardian of Hell,
Whom Orpheus subdued with his musical spell.
How Hecuba changed, seeing dead Polydore,
And became--Vide Ovid--(here he heard the Dogs snore)
"Your patience my friends, I no longer will tire,
But brief make excuses, at the earnest desire
Of those friends from abroad, who all much lamented
That chance or engagements their attendance prevented.
The AFRICAN-DOG, said, that he did not dare
Quit the warm coast of Guinea in clothing so spare;
The LAPLAND and DANE-DOG the gay POMERANIAN,
The slender ITALIAN, sagacious SIBERIAN,
All pleaded the times; some could not get passports,
Some feared BONAPARTE, some were stopt by their own courts,
Some were mangy, distemper'd, and others insane,
With a few ladies LAP-DOGS afraid of the rain."
He spake--On the sudden a howling went round
From each TERRIER and MASTIFF and POINTER and HOUND,
For, full in the midst of the council, a CUR
(Whose presence no member had noticed before)

[Illustration]

Uprose to address them; blood-red was his eye,
His carcase was fleshless, and shrill was his cry,
His knees were all bent, as with weakness he shook,
And death and starvation scowled in his look.--
"You may talk of Parnassus and Poets," he cried,
"Of their scorn, and neglect, may complain in your pride,
But that is all vanity, folly, conceit,
The disgust of the pamper'd, the pride of the great;
Look at me; I