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Greeks and Romans, who related of him most instructive stories. To them he was a noble animal so remarkable for his patience and firmness that, however much he might be beaten, whipped, or kicked, he would still trudge on without altering his pace. Rightly considered, the ass thus admirably symbolized the Jacobites, whom no force of argument has ever been able to swerve from their principles. If it be objected that the firmness of the ass and the Jacobite inclines to obstinacy, it should be remembered that every virtue in excess borders upon its corresponding vice; for such is the teaching of all the philosophers, ancient and modern.

Several minor details of the print Fielding left to his readers to work out for themselves. They would see in the French sword and the fleurs-de-lis the Jacobite intrigues with France, and in the "Oceana" hanging at the ass's tail a hit at those Republicans who, though they wished to rid England of her kings, preferred the Stuarts to the House of Hanover. They were the tag end of the Jacobite party. Equally clear to everybody would be the meaning of the Jesuit, for from the Protestant standpoint the Church of Rome was the instigator of all disaffection with the House of Hanover. Similar views Fielding had already expressed in his "Dialogue between a Gentleman of London . . . and an Honest Alderman." In his print he depicted, as he had described in his pamphlet, "that notable and mysterious union of French interest, Popery, Jacobitism, and Republicanism; by a coalition of all which parties this nation is to be redeemed from the deplorable state of slavery, under which it at present labours." The art of man, he remarked by the way, could not carry higher than this, "the glory of Jacobitism."

Like the explanation of his frontispiece, the irony of the leading articles had to be patent in order to be effective. In mock praise of the Jacobites, Fielding divided them into