REFLEXION.
THIS is the Humour of a great many Travelling Men, as well as Travelling Apes: Men that will be Talking of Places that they never Saw, and of Perſons that they never Heard of. Their Whole Converſation is made up of Councels and Intrigues, Reaſons of State, Embaſlics, and Negotiations, that they never were skill'd in at all. Neither Men, Books, nor Sciences come Amiſs to 'em: And after All This Extravagant Busſle, a Gay Coat and a Grimace is the Upſhot of what they can Pretend to. Theſe Phantomes however are Sometimes taken for Men, and born up by the Well-meaning Ignorant Common People, as the Ape was here by the Dolphin; till in_ the Concluſion, their Sillyneſs lays them Open, Their Supporters give them the Slip, and down they Drop, and Vaniſh. How many of theſe Empty Chattering Fops have we daily put upon us,for Men of Senſe and Bus’neſs; that with Balzack's Prime Miniſter, ſhall Spend ye Eight and Forty Hours together Poring over a Map, to look for Ariſtocracy and Democracy, inſtead of Croatia and Dalmatia, and take the Name of a Country for a Form of Government; Without any more ado, we have Apes in Hiſtory, as well as in Fiction, and not a Ruſh matter whether they go on Four Legs, or on Two.
Fab. CLXX.
Mercury and a Statuary.
MErcury had a Great Mind once to Learn what Credit he had in the World, and he knew no Better VVay, then to Put on the Shape of a Man, and take Occaſion to Diſcourſe the Matter, as by the By, with a Statuary: So away he went to the Houſe of a Great Maſter, where, among Other Curious Figures, he ſaw ſeveral Excellent Pieces of the Gods. The firſt he Cheapen’d was a Jupiter, which would have come at a very Eaſy Rate. Well (ſays Mercury) and what’s the Price of that Juno There? The Carver ſet That a Little Higher. The next Figure was a Mercury, with his Rod and his Wings, and All the Enſigns of his Commiſſion. Why, This is as it ſhould be, ſays he, to Himſelf: For here am I in the Quality of Jupiter's Meſſenger, and the Patron of Artizans, with all my Trade about me: And now will This Fellow ask me Fifteen Times as much for This as he did for T’other: And ſo he put it to him, what he Valu'd that Piece at: VVhy truly, ſays the Statuary, you ſeem to be a Civil Gentleman, give me but my Price for the Other Two, and you ſhall e’en have That into the Bargain.
The
