FABLE [49] XLIX. The Man and the Flea. John Gay Alexander Huber Editor Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
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Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive
Taylor Institution Library St Giles' Oxford OX1 3NA UK info@eighteenthcenturypoetry.org https://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/
Oxford This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. T13818 Gay, John, 1685-1732. FABLES. By Mr. GAY. London Printed for J. Tonson and J. Watts, MDCCXXVII. 1727 pp. 167-169. [14],173,[1]p.: ill.; 4°.

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FABLE [ 49 ] XLIX. The Man and the Flea . Whether on earth , in air , or main , Sure ev'ry thing alive is vain ! Does not the hawk all fowls survey , As destin'd only for his prey ? And do not tyrants , prouder things , Think men were born for slaves to kings ? When the crab views the pearly strands , Or Tagus , bright with golden sands , Or crawles beside the coral grove , And hears the ocean roll above ; Nature is too profuse , says he , Who gave all these to pleasure me ! When bord'ring pinks and roses bloom , And ev'ry garden breaths perfume , When peaches glow with sunny dyes , Like Laura's cheek , when blushes rise ; When with huge figs the branches bend ; When clusters from the vine depend ; The snail looks round on flow'r and tree , And cries , all these were made for me ! What dignity's in human nature , Says Man , the most conceited creature , As from a cliff he cast his eye , And view'd the sea and arched sky ! The sun was sunk beneath the main , The moon , and all the starry train Hung the vast vault of heav'n . The Man His contemplation thus began . When I behold this glorious show , And the wide watry world below , The scaly people of the main , The beasts that range the wood or plain , The wing'd inhabitants of air , The day , the night , the various year , And know all these by heav'n design'd As gifts to pleasure human kind , I cannot raise my worth too high ; Of what vast consequence am I ! Not of th' importance you suppose , Replies a Flea upon his nose : Be humble , learn thyself to scan ; Know , pride was never made for man . 'Tis vanity that swells thy mind . What , heav'n and earth for thee design'd ! For thee ! made only for our need ; That more important Fleas might feed .