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Mirrors in pockets of delicate fops,

Mirrors from sashes of woman worn!

What can our Narcissus do in this sad plight? To get himself from such-like torments torn? Why he slinks out of sight,

In the loneliest spot ;

In the darkness of night

Bound never with mirrors to cast in his lot!
But it happed a canal was gliding by,

In the unknown spot where he sought to fly,
From a pure-sourced spring; in its clear smooth face
Himself again he seems to trace !

How the sight does displease

As his own face he sees !

He thinks a chimera has taken place!

He would fain rush away this canal to avoid,

He cannot-but why?

What has now met his eye,

His reflection he feels he has too much enjoyed.
Reader, you see what I want to imply !

To all does this error directly apply.

"Tis a fault which we each entertain.

The man who's so fond of himself is our soul;
All these mirrors, the faults of our neighbours,
Mirrors which justly show sins up as foul;
A legitimate part of their labours.

The canal represents what we all of us know,
The book of the maxims of Rochefoucauld,

Which maxims we hope were not written in vain.

Fable 12.-Le Dragon à plusieurs têtes, et le

Dragon à plusieurs queues.

UN envoyé du grand Seigneur

Préférait, dit l'histoire, un jour chez l'empereur
Les forces de son maître à celles de l'empire.
Un Allemand se mit à dire :
Notre prince a des dépendants

Qui de leur chef, sont si puissants,

Que chacun d'eux pourrait soudoyer une armée.
Le chiaous, homme de sens,

Lui dit je sais par renommée

Ce que chaque électeur peut de monde fournir :
Et cela me fait souvenir

D'une aventure étrange, et qui pourtant est vraie.
J'étais en un lieu sûr, lorsque je vis passer
Les cent têtes d'une hydre au travers d'une haie.
Mon sang commence à se glacer;

Et je crois qu'à moins on s'effraie.

Je n'en eus toutefois que la peur sans le mal :

Fable 12.-The Dragon with many Heads, and the Dragon with many Tails.

AN envoy of the Grand Turk, we are told,
His master's army to the emperor's made bold,
Even in the latter's presence, to prefer.

On this a German did aver,

"Our prince's servants all as chieftains rise.

So powerful are they

That each, in his independent way,

An army of his own could subsidise!"
The Turk, a man of sense, replied,

"I know, at least by reputation,
What each elector can provide

In way of subsidy to help the nation,

And this reminds me, these dependants' pride

Of a strange but true narration.

"I was in some safe place, when I saw wedge
A dragon's hundred heads right through the hedge
Quite near me, and my blood began to freeze;

Jamais le corps de l'animal

Ne put venir vers moi, ni trouver d'ouverture.
Je rêvais à cette aventure,

Quand un autre dragon, qui n'avait qu'un seul chet,
Et bien plus d'une queue, à passer se présente.
Me voilà saisi derechef

D'étonnement et d'épouvante.

Ce chef passe, et le corps et chaque queue aussi :
Rien ne les empêcha, l'un fit chemin à l'autre.
Je soutiens qu'il en est ainsi
De votre empereur et du nôtre.

Fable 13.-Les Voleurs et l'ane.

POUR un âne enlevé deux voleurs se battaient : L'un voulait le garder, l'autre le voulait vendre. Tandis que coups de poings trottaient, Et que nos champions songeaient à se défendre, Arrive un troisième larron

Qui saisit maître aliboron.

L'âne, c'est quelquefois une pauvre province : Les voleurs, sont tel et tel prince, Comme le Transilvain, le Turc, et le Hongrois. Au lieu de deux j'en ai rencontré trois :

At such a sight one can't be at one's ease;
However, no harm came of it but fright,
For never could the creature's body quite
Drag through towards me, as the opening
Too narrow was: well, o'er this pondering
I saw another dragon, with one head

But many tails, try and pass through instead!
Another cause was here

Of wonderment and fear!

The head passed through, and with the head each tail!
Nothing could stop them; one helped on the rest!
It strikes me that to apply it, might avail,
To your emperor and to mine this test!”

Fable 13.-The Thieves and the Ass.

O'ER a stolen ass two thieves fell out;
One wished to keep it, the other to sell;
So while their blows were bandied about,
And each was defending himself so well,
A third thief happened that way to pass,
Who quietly walked away with the ass!

The ass is sometimes a poor province,
The thieves are such and such a prince,
As Hungarian, Transylvanian, Turk;
Instead of two I have met with three:

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