The Easterns in a Prince, 'tis said,
Prefer what's call'd a jolter-head: *
Th' Egyptians wer'n't at all partic❜lar,

So that their Kings had not red hair
This fault not ev'n the greatest stickler
For the blood-royal well could bear.
A thousand more such illustrations
Might be adduc'd from various nations.
But, 'mong the many tales they tell us,

Touching th' acquir'd or natural right Which some men have to rule their fellows, There's one which I shall here recite:

FABLE.

There was a land

to name the place

Is neither now my wish nor duty – Where reign'd a certain Royal race, By right of their superior beauty.

What was the cut legitimate

Of these great persons' chins and noses,
By right of which they rul'd the state,
No history I have seen discloses.

"In a Prince a jolter-head is invaluable."

VOL. II.

25

Oriental Field Sports.

Some Act of Parliament, pass'd snugly,
Had voted them a beauteous race,
And all their faithful subjects ugly.

As rank, indeed, stood high or low,
Some change it made in visual organs;
Your Peers were decent- Knights, so so
But all your common people, gorgons!

Of course, if any knave but hinted

That the King's nose was turn'd awry, Or that the Queen (God bless her!) squintedThe judges doom'd that knave to die.

But rarely things like this occurr'd,

The people to their King were duteous,

And took it, on his Royal word,

That they were frights, and He was beauteous.

The cause whereof, among all classes,

Was simply this

these island elves

Had never yet seen looking-glasses,
And, therefore, did not know themselves.

Sometimes, indeed, their neigbours' faces

Might strike them as more full of reason, More fresh than those in certain places

But, Lord, the very thought was treason!

Besides, howe'er we love our neighbour,

And take his face's part, 't is known
We ne'er so much in earnest labour,
As when the face attack'd's our own.

So, on they went

the crowd believing —

(As crowds well govern'd always do) Their rulers, too, themselves deceivingSo old the joke, they thought 't was true.

But jokes, we know, if they too far go,
Must have an end — and so, one day,

Upon that coast there was a cargo
Of looking-glasses cast away.

'Twas said, some Radicals, somewhere, Had laid their wicked heads together, And forc'd that ship to founder there, While some believe it was the weather.

However this might be, the freight
Was landed without fees or duties;

And from that hour historians date
The downfall of the Race of Beauties.

The looking-glasses got about,

And grew so common through the land, That scarce a tinker could walk out, Without a mirror in his hand.

Comparing faces, morning, noon,

And night, their constant occupation-
By dint of looking-glasses, soon,
They grew a most reflecting nation.

In vain the Court, aware of errors
In all the old, establish'd mazards,
Prohibited the use of mirrors,

And tried to break them at all hazards:

Have been waste paper on the shelves; That fatal freight had broke the spell;

-

People had look'd and knew themselves.

If chance a Duke, of birth sublime,
Presum'd upon his ancient face,

(Some calf-head, ugly from all time,)
They popp'd a mirror to his Grace:

Just hinting, by that gentle sign,
How little Nature holds it true,
That what is call'd an ancient line,
Must be the line of Beauty too.

From Dukes' they pass'd to regal phizzes,

Compar'd them proudly with their own, And cried, "How could such monstrous quizzes "In Beauty's name usurp the throne!".

They then wrote essays, pamphlets, books,
Upon Cosmetical Economy,

Which made the King try various looks,
But none improved his physiognomy.

And satires at the Court were levell❜d, And small lampoons, so full of slynesses, That soon, in short, they quite be-devil'd Their Majesties and Royal Highnesses.

At length-but here I drop the veil,
To spare some loyal folks' sensations;
Besides, what follow'd is the tale

Of all such late enlightened nations;

Of all to whom old Time discloses

A truth they should have sooner known That Kings have neither rights nor noses A whit diviner than their own.

FABLE III.

THE TORCH OF LIBERTY.

I SAW it all in Fancy's glass-
Herself, the fair, the wild magician,
Who bid this splendid day-dream pass,
And nam'd each gliding apparition.