Once on a Time, in Sunshine Weather,
Falshood and Truth walk'd out together,
The neighbouring Woods and Lawns to view,
As Opposites will sometimes do.
Through many a blooming Mead They pass'd,
And at a Brook arriv'd at last.
The purling Stream, the Margin green,
With Flowers bedeck'd (a vernal Scene)
Invited each itinerant Maid
To rest a while beneath the Shade;
Under a spreading Beach they sate,
And pass'd the Time with Female Chat;
Whilst each her Character maintain'd;
One spoke her Thoughts; the other feign'd.

At length quoth Falshood, Sister Truth,
(For so she call'd her from her Youth)
What, if to shun yon sultry Beam,
We bathe in this delightful Stream;
The Bottom smooth, the Water clear,
And there's no prying Shepherd near?--
With all my Heart the Nymph reply'd,
And threw her snowy Robes aside,
Stript herself naked to the Skin,
And with a Spring leapt headlong in.
Falshood more leisurely undress'd,
And laying by her tawdry Vest,
Trick'd herself out in Truth's Array,
And cross the Meadows tript away.

From this curst Hour, the fraudful Dame
Of sacred Truth usurps the Name,
And with a vile, perfidious Mind,
Roams far and near to cheat Mankind;
False Sighs suborns, and artful Tears,
And starts with vain, pretended Fears;
At Court, appears extreamly wise,
And rolls, at Church, her Saint--like Eyes.
Talks, in the City, much of Trade,
And Seizures on the Spaniards made;
Sometimes in pompous, Fustian Rhimes,
Extolls our blest Saturnian Times,
Our Wealth and Power o'er Europe's Fate,
And Wisdom in Affairs of State;
Or when the Nation quite on Fire is,
Writes Observations and Enquiries:
But most affects, in P---
To state Accounts and represent;
To prove that Two and Two make Seven,
That White is Black, and Odds are Even;
Pleads, as Time serves, for Peace or War,
And makes a Jest of Gibraltar,
Speaks pro and con, like honest Y---
And always sticks to what is wrong.

Mean while poor Truth, in this Distress,
Robb'd of her old, engaging Dress,
Became, unhappy Maid! the Sport
Of Country, City, Camp and Court;
And, scorning from her Cause to wince,
Hath gone stark naked ever since.