E'er equall'd the tremendous shock it "What, whip a Lama! suffer birch "To touch his sacred "Deistical!-assailing thus infamous ! "The fundamentals of the Church! "No-no-such patriot plans as these, (So help them Heaven-and their Sees!) "They held to be rank blasphemies." Th' alarm thus given, by these and other Spread through the land, till, such a pother, The Whippers and Non-whippers seen. Which gave some fears of revolution, The Parliament of Thibet met The little Lama, call'd before it, Did, then and there, his whipping get, And (as the Nursery Gazette Assures us) like a hero bore it. And though, 'mong Thibet Tories, some (Please to observe, the letter D In this last word's pronounc'd like B), So much is Thibet's land a debtor, Have all behav'd themselves much better. FABLE VII. THE EXTINGUISHERS. PROEM. THOUGH soldiers are the true supports, Woe to the Monarch, who depends Too much on his red-coated friends ; For even soldiers sometimes think— Nay, Colonels have been known to reason,— And reasoners, whether clad in pink, Or red, or blue, are on the brink (Nine cases out of ten) of treason. Not many soldiers, I believe, are As fond of liberty as Mina; Else- woe to Kings, when Freedom's fever Once turns into a Scarletina! For then-but hold-'tis best to veil My meaning in the following tale : FABLE. A Lord of Persia, rich and great, Was shock'd to find he had, for neighbours, Whose fires, beneath his very nose, In heretic combustion rose. But Lords of Persia can, no doubt, Do what they will-so, one fine morning, He turn'd the rascal Ghebers out, First giving a few kicks for warning. Then, thanking heaven most piously, He knock'd their Temple to the ground, Blessing himself for joy to see Such Pagan ruins strew'd around. But much it vex'd my Lord to find, That, while all else obey'd his will, The Fire these Ghebers left behind, Do what he would, kept burning still. Fiercely he storm'd, as if his frown Could scare the bright insurgent down; But, no-such fires are headstrong things, And care not much for Lords or Kings. Scarce could his Lordship well contrive The flashes in one place to smother, Before - hey presto!—all alive, They sprung up freshly in another. At length when, spite of prayers and damns, Machines no Lord should be without, All kinds of fires, from staring, stark - Volcanos to the tiniest spark; Till all things slept as dull and dark, Accordingly, some large supplies Of these Extinguishers were furnish'd |