MERCURY and the ELEPHANT. A Prefatory FABLE. AS Merc'ry travell'd thro' a Wood, (Whose Errands are more Fleet than Good) An Elephant before him lay, That much encumber'd had the Way: The Messenger, who's still in haste, Wou'd fain have bow'd, and so have past; When up arose th' unweildy Brute, And wou'd repeat a late Dispute, In which (he said) he'd gain'd the Prize From a wild Boar of monstrous Size: But Fame (quoth he) with all her Tongues, Who Lawyers, Ladies, Soldiers wrongs, Has, to my Disadvantage, told An Action throughly Bright and Bold; Has said, that I foul Play had us'd, And with my Weight th' Opposer bruis'd; Had laid my Trunk about his Brawn, Before his Tushes cou'd be drawn; Had stunn'd him with a hideous Roar, And twenty-thousand Scandals more: But I defy the Talk of Men, Or Voice of Brutes in ev'ry Den; Th' impartial Skies are all my Care, And how it stands Recorded there. Amongst you Gods, pray, What is thought? Quoth Mercury — Then have you Fought! Solicitous thus shou'd I be For what's said of my Verse and Me; Or shou'd my Friends Excuses frame, And beg the Criticks not to blame (Since from a Female Hand it came) Defects in Judgment, or in Wit; They'd but reply — Then has she Writ! Our Vanity we more betray, In asking what the World will say, Than if, in trivial Things like these, We wait on the Event with ease; Nor make long Prefaces, to show What Men are not concern'd to know: For still untouch'd how we succeed, 'Tis for themselves, not us, they Read; Whilst that proceeding to requite, We own (who in the Muse delight) 'Tis for our Selves, not them, we Write. Betray'd by Solitude to try Amusements, which the Prosp'rous fly; And only to the Press repair, To six our scatter'd Papers there; Tho' whilst our Labours are preserv'd, The Printers may, indeed, be starv'd.