FABLES. Fab. XXII. Of the Wolf and Carved Heal ^T ~T "X" T As it Ak&o in that impious Age / / Stirr'd up the People's Rage? W hen Dedicated Temples they did And what no Prophet did prsefage, Opyl> With Heroes broken Statues ftrew'd the lie, And horrid Rudenefs did Religion ftile; This trod Upon the Image of his God, And that bold Souldier ftorms Heaven's Queen, and breaks the Marble in her arms: Then Man Began, Seeing Vengeance flow fall from unwilling Sky, To queftion Truth, and Sacred Writ deny : Not fearing Hell,nor hop'd for Heav'n when they dy. 'Mongft Legs, and Arms,and Bulks of Men and Gods, Which lay in mighty Loads, The Sacrilegious Wolf, who preys by Night, In Sacred and Prophane Aboads, Came, and with Eys cafting malignant Light, Through gloomy Shades efpy'd this joyful Sight; And thought Some Battel had been fought, Or fatall (<) Veffers had, with blown-out Lights, Mix'd bloody Butcheries with Sacred Rites. Where beft To kM, And be with Blood and humane Slaughter kd, He mus'd a while,then with much Purple red, Painted to life, he (aw a decollated Head. The ()The SicilUn Vefpen when ill the Trench in th Ifland were mur- dcr'd by the Inhabitants.