SECTION LIV.
OF FOOLS WHO BELIEVE IN PREDESTINATION.
Make fools believe in their foreseeing
Of things, before they are in being:
As if the planet's first aspect,
The tender infant did infect,
In soul and body, and instill
All future good and future ill.
This fool, who shows bells, cap, and ladle,
Vows that, ere yet a babe in cradle,
His destiny, by fate, was told,
How he should wear both clout and frock;
The meazles suffer, chicken pock,
The hooping cough; and catch a cold.
'Twas equally a point momentous,
And a forewarning, most portentous,
For playing truant, jest in church;
Or, when in school, neglecting book,
Or, running scores with pastry cook,
That breech should feel the twitch of birch
.
In youth, 'twas no less necessary
For him to fall in love with Mary,
And pay to parish pounds for fun:
That he full oft should be a failer,
In settl'ing bills; and that his tailor
Should hire the bailiff for his dun.
That he, in age, should need no lasses;
But, for his eyes, on nose wear glasses;
With pain rheumatic crawl about:
With toothless gums his victuals mumble;
And, with ill nature, often grumble,
When he endures a fit of gout.
In short, my fool, in mere rotation,
Your boasted wise predestination
,
Is nothing more than all men know:
That some have griefs, and some have joys;
W'are born, and live till death destroys:
Omnipotence will have it so.
L'ENVOY OF THE POET.
Before man's birth, 'tis thought, his fate is cast,
Be he a beggar, or a chief renown'd:
Yet, when all's said, 'tis only found at last,
That rogues, when hung, are certainly not drown'd.
THE POET'S CHORUS TO FOOLS.
Come, trim the boat, row on each Rara Avis,
Crowds flock to man my Stultifera Navis.
