FOX HUNTING IN AMERICA. 261 



He is still the glozing and subtle intriguant of the Greek 

 fables. The old "romaunt" is still being enacted, and "all 

 the beasts complain of the fox," daily and hourly, until king 

 lion roars in wrath against his wily minister. 



I fear there is no sober reform or hopeful redemption for 

 tile sad scamp, since his quaint malfeasances, instead of be- 

 coming more tempered and ameliorated by time, have grown 

 only the more glaring and impudent as history brings him 

 nearer to us. 



Verily, it is a sad story that the records tell, for Chaucer 

 found him still "a col fox, full of sleigh iniquitie," even in 

 his day. The young poet, in the prattle of his "garrulous 

 god, innocence," tells us a dreadful story of the morals and 

 manners of Reynard in his time. 



I think it should be blazoned now in the self-same words 

 of him 



" Who first with harmony informed our tongue," * 



that it may be kept before the eyes of all modern and juvenile 

 Reynards, as a warning and example of the fearful conse- 

 quences following upon the unrestrained indulgence of the 

 predatory instinct they have inherited. It appears from 

 Chaucer's evidence, that " Russel, the fox," alias Reynard, 

 (for like all thieves and robbers he has an alias,) did 



" By high imagination forecast — " 



(which hints, I suppose, at clairvoyance,) find his way 



" Into the yerde, there chaunticlere the faire 

 Was wont and eke his wiv6s to repaire." 



This was of course only one of his accustomed jokes ; and 

 although he certainly seemed to be "on the sneak" when 

 crouching 



« in a bed of wortes, still he lay," 



no intimate admirer of his ancestral glory would have sua- 



