Why should a naughty, froward boy
The harmless little fly assail,
Or why his precious time employ
At pulling faithful Rover’s tail?
Where’er I go, each living thing
Has its predestined place to fill;
And naught that moves on foot or wing
Was made for boys to vex or kill.
The little fly, howe’er so frail,
Was made on Rover’s hide to prey;
And faithful Rover’s honest tail
Was made to brush the flies away.
So let each bird and beast enjoy
The vain, brief life which God has given,
Whilst I my youthful hours employ
In works that fit the soul for heaven.
Yet, however much Dick Steele and his friend enjoyed the business of
satirizing Tutor Watts’s poems, they occasionally let slip verse that
not only served to assuage the tutor’s anger, but also redounded to
their own credit. It was Watts’s custom to take his pupils for a walk
every pleasant day, and during these walks he was wont to discourse upon
profitable topics. The following lines, written under date of July 21,
1697, are supposed to have been addressed to Ralph and Delia Hartopp by
Tutor Watts; but Dr. Johnson pronounces them “clearly the work of Joseph
Addison:”—