He began to write at once in their interest, and thus to further his own.

Dr.Johnson says: "That conversion will always be suspected which apparently concerns with interest.

He that never finds his error till it hinders his progress toward wealth or honor, will not be thought to love truth only for herself." In this long poem of 2,000 lines, we have the arguments which conducted the poet to this change.

The different beasts represent the different churches and sects.

The Church of Rome is thus represented: A milk-white hind, immortal and unchanged, Fed on the lawns, and in the forest ranged; Without unspotted, innocent within, She feared no danger, for she knew no sin.
The other beasts were united to destroy her; but she could "venture to drink with them at the common watering-place under the protection of her friend the kingly lion." The Panther is the Church of England: The Panther, sure the noblest, next the hind, And fairest creature of the spotted kind; Oh, could her inborn stains be washed away, She were too good to be a beast of prey! Then he Introduces .-- The _Bloody Bear_, an _Independent_ beast; the _Quaking Hare_, for the _Quakers_; the _Bristled Baptist Boar_.
In this fable, quite in the style of AEsop, we find the Dame, _i.e._, the Hind, entering into the subtle points of theology, and trying to prove her position.