wing
fable:

THE ASSEMBLY OF THE BIRDS. A FABLE.

In ancient days, there was a great contention amongst the birds, which,
from his own perfections, and peculiar advantages, had the strongest
title to happiness; and at last they agreed to refer the decision of the
debate to the eagle.

A day was appointed for their meeting; the eagle took his seat, and the
birds all attended to give in their several pleas.

First spoke the parrot. Her voice so dearly resembling human speech, and
which enabled her to converse with such a superior race, she doubted not
(she said) would have its just weight with the eagle, and engage him to
grant a decree in her favour; and to this plea she also added, that she
dwelt in a fine cage adorned with gold, and was fed every day by the
hands a fair lady.

'And pray, Mrs. Poll,' said the eagle, 'how comes it, since you fare so
sumptuously, that you are so lean and meagre, and seem scarcely able
to exert that voice you thus make your boast of?' 'Alas!' replied
the parrot, 'poor Poll's lady has kept her bed almost this week; the
servants have all forgot to feed me; and I am almost starved.' 'Pray
observe,' said the eagle, 'the folly of such pride! Had you been able to
have conversed only with your own kind, you would have fared in common
with them; but it is to this vaunted imitation of the human voice, that
you owe your confinement, and consequently (though living in a golden
cage) your dependence upon the will and memory of others, even for
common necessary food.'

Thus reproved, the parrot, with shame, hastily retired from the
assembly.

Next stood forth the daw, and, having tricked himself in all the gay
feathers he could muster together, on the credit of these borrowed
ornaments, pleaded his beauty, as a title to the preference in dispute.
Immediately the birds agreed to divest the silly counterfeit of all his
borrowed plumes; and, more abashed than the parrot, he secretly slunk
away.

The peacock, proud of native beauty, now flew into the midst of the
assembly. He displayed before the sun his gorgeous tail. 'Observe (said
he) how the vivid blue of the sapphire glitters in my neck; and when
thus I spread my tail, a gemmy brightness strikes the eye from a plumage
varied with a thousand glowing colours.' At this moment, a nightingale
began to chant forth his melodious lay; at which the peacock, dropping
his expanded tail, cried out, 'Ah what avails my silent unmeaning
beauty, whe