A FABLE.
WHAN Hope persuades, and Fame inspires us,
And pride with warm ambition fires us,
Let reason instant seize the bridle,
And wrest us frae the passions guidal’;
Else, like the hero of our fable,
We'll aft be plung'd intae a habble.
Twas on a bonny simmer day,
Whan a the insect tribes war gay,
Some journeying o'er the leaves o roses,
Some brushing thrang their wings an noses,
Some wallowing sweet in bramble blossom,
In luxury's saft downy bosom;
While ithers of a lower order
War perch'd on plantain leaf's [1] smooth border,
Wha frae their twa inch steeps look'd doun,
An view'd the kintra far aroun.
Ae pridefu elf, amang the rest,
Wha's pin point heart bumpt 'gainst his breast,
Tae work some michty deed of fame
That woud immortalise his name ;
Thro future hours woud han him doun,
The wonder o an afternoon ;
(For ae short day wi them appears
As lang's our lengthen'd hunner years.)
By chance, at han, a bow'd horse hair
Stood up six inches high in air ;
He plann'd tae climb this lofty arch,
Wi philosophic deep research,
Tae prove (which aft perplex'd their heads)
What people peopl'd ither blades,
Or, from keen observation, show
Whether they peopl'd were or no.
Our tiny hero onward hies,
Quite big with daring enterprise,
Ascends the hair's curvatur'd side,
Now pale with fear, now red with pride,
Now hangin pend'lous by the claw,
Now glad at having 'scap'd a fa ;
What horrid dangers he came thro,
Woud trifling seem for man tae know;
Suffice, at length he reach'd the top,
The summit of his pride and hope,
And on his elevated station
Had plac'd himsel for observation,
When, puff !—the win did end the matter,
And dasht him in a horse hoof gutter.
Sae let the lesson gi'en us here,
Keep each within his proper sphere,
And when our fancies tak their flight,
Think on the wee ambitious mite.
This fable first appeared in 1805 in Maver's Selector, Vol. I., page 264. The third of the seven pieces under the signature “Modestus.” See the first Note to No. 5.—Ed.
[1] Greater plantain,—Plantago major. A common plant in pastures and sides of roads, with broad short leaves, vulgarly called the wayburn, leaf spread on the ground, oval, long foot stalks. Flower stalk from centre six to twelve inches high, under half bare, upper half cylindrical, with flowers of a greenish white colour. The seeds are small and brown, and collected for food to birds. The leaves were reckoned formerly among the most efficacious for healing wounds.—Ed.
[Semple 39]