And merry Peter Pindar thus apostrophises his asinine namesake:--

“What tho’ I’ve heard some voices sweeter;

Yet exquisite thy hearing, gentle Peter!

Whether a judge of music, I don’t know--

If so--

Thou hast th’ advantage got of many a score

That enter at the open door.”----

What an unfounded calumny then must it have been on the part of the

Romans, to declare these “Roussins d’Arcadie” (as La Fontaine calls

them) so deficient in their aural faculties, that “to talk to a deaf

ass” was proverbial for “to labour in vain!”--Perhaps it was under the

same delusion that, as Goldsmith says,--

“John Trott was desired by two witty peers,

To tell them the reason why asses had ears.”