Just so it is with Truth, when seen,
Too dazzling far,-'tis from behind
A light, thin allegoric screen,

She thus can safest teach mankind.

FABLE.

In Thibet once there reign'd, we're told,
A little Lama, one year old-

Rais'd to the throne, that realm to bless,
Just when his little Holiness

Had cut-as near as can be reckon'd

Some say his first tooth, some his second.
Chronologers and Nurses vary,

Which proves historians should be wary.
We only know th' important truth,
His Majesty had cut a tooth. *

* See Turner's Embassy to Thibet for an account of his interview with the Lama." Teshoo Lama (he says) was at this time eighteen months old. Though he was unable to speak a word, he made the most expressive signs, and conducted himself with astonishing dignity and decorum."

And much his subjects were enchanted,

As well all Lamas' subjects may be,

And would have giv'n their heads, if wanted,
To make tee-totums for the baby.
Thron'd as he was by Right Divine —
(What Lawyers call Jure Divino,
Meaning a right to yours, and mine,
And every body's goods and rhino,)
Of course, his faithful subjects' purses
Were ready with their aids and succours;
Nothing was seen but pension'd Nurses,

And the land groan'd with bibs and tuckers.

Oh! had there been a Hume or Bennet,

Then sitting in the Thibet Senate,

Ye Gods, what room for long debates
Upon the Nursery Estimates!

What cutting down of swaddling-clothes
And pin-a-fores, in nightly battles!
What calls for papers to expose

The waste of sugar-plums and rattles!

But no-if Thibet had M. P.'s,

They were far better bred than these;

Nor gave the slightest opposition,
During the Monarch's whole dentition.

But short this calm;-for, just when he
Had reach'd th' alarming age of three,
When Royal natures, and, no doubt,
Those of all noble beasts break out-
The Lama, who till then was quiet,
Show'd symptoms of a taste for riot;
And, ripe for mischief, early, late,
Without regard for Church or State,
Made free with whosoe'er came nigh;
Tweak'd the Lord Chancellor by the nose,

Turn'd all the Judges' wigs awry,

And trod on the old Generals' toes;

Pelted the Bishops with hot buns,

Rode cock-horse on the City maces,

And shot from little devilish guns,

Hard peas into his subjects' faces.

In short, such wicked pranks he play'd,

And grew so mischievous, God bless him! That his Chief Nurse-with ev'n the aid

Of an Archbishop-was afraid,

When in these moods, to comb or dress him.

Nay, ev'n the persons most inclin'd

Through thick and thin, for Kings to stickle, Thought him (if they'd but speak their mind, Which they did not) an odious pickle.

At length some patriot lords

a breed

Of animals they've got in Thibet, Extremely rare, and fit, indeed,

For folks like Pidcock, to exhibit

Some patriot lords, who saw the length

To which things went, combin'd their strength,
And penn'd a manly, plain and free

Remonstrance to the Nursery ;

Protesting warmly that they yielded

To none, that ever went before 'em, In loyalty to him who wielded

Th' hereditary pap-spoon o'er 'em; That, as for treason, 'twas a thing

That made them almost sick to think of

That they and theirs stood by the King,
Throughout his measles and his chin-cough,
When others, thinking him consumptive,
Had ratted to the Heir Presumptive! -

1

But, still-though much admiring Kings
(And chiefly those in leading-strings),
They saw, with shame and grief of soul,
There was no longer now the wise
And constitutional control

Of birch before their ruler's eyes;

But that, of late, such pranks, and tricks, And freaks occurr'd the whole day long, As all, but men with bishopricks,

Allow'd, in ev'n a King, were wrong.
Wherefore it was they humbly pray'd
That Honourable Nursery,

That such reforms be henceforth made,
As all good men desir'd to see; —
In other words (lest they might seem
Too tedious), as the gentlest scheme
For putting all such pranks to rest,
And in its bud the mischief nipping-
They ventur'd humbly to suggest

His Majesty should have a whipping!

When this was read, no Congreve rocket, Discharg'd into the Gallic trenches,