![]() | Beasts at law, or zoologian jurisprudence | ![]() |
6
A strain unworthy of thine ear;
Thou, from whose patriotic toil
This Eden-realm receives its smile;
Whose generous paw supplies with food
Each den of misery in the wood;
Who helps the weak, restrains the strong—
O listen to my humble song!
And while, from legal duties freed,
Reclining on the enamel'd mead,
Where flowery sweets obsequious sping—
Accept the offering which I bring;
Receive my tributary strain,
And shake with joy thy shaggy mane,
Then roar thy gracious plaudits round,
Till distant echoes learn the sound.
Her beastly theme the blushing muse
Prays that its moral may excuse;
For though her numbers may be rude,
She means them for the public good.
To lash the fiend of folly hence,
Expose the abject slave of sense,
Strip Virtue's garb from Vice's form,
Screen innocence from slander's storm,
Make mean revenge and malice know
They slay themselves to wound their foe,
Shall be the object of her story,
Which dresses truth in allegory.
![]() | Beasts at law, or zoologian jurisprudence | ![]() |