012:06,000[' ]| 012:06,000[' ]| <2498 words. Text scanned in from California Dryden. > 012:06,000[' ]| 012:06,001[' ]| Of all our antique sights, and pageantry 012:06,002[' ]| Which English idiots run in crowds to see, 012:06,003[' ]| The Polish Medal bears the prize alone: 012:06,004[' ]| A monster, more the favourite of the town 012:06,005[' ]| Than either fairs or theatres have shown. 012:06,006[' ]| Never did Art so well with Nature strive, 012:06,007[' ]| Nor ever idol seemed so much alive; 012:06,008[' ]| So like the man: so golden to the sight, 012:06,009[' ]| So base within, so counterfeit and light. 012:06,010[' ]| One side is filled with title and with face,<10> 012:06,011[' ]| And, lest the King should want a regal place, 012:06,012[' ]| On the reverse, a tower the town surveys, 012:06,013[' ]| Over which our mounting sun his beams displays. 012:06,014[' ]| The word, pronounced aloud by shrieval voice, 012:06,015[' ]| \7Laetamur\, which, in Polish, is rejoice, 012:06,016[' ]| The day, month, year, to the great act are joined, 012:06,017[' ]| And a new canting holiday designed. 012:06,018[' ]| Five days he sat, for every cast and look; 012:06,019[' ]| Four more than God to finish Adam took. 012:06,020[' ]| But who can tell what essence angels are, <20> 012:06,021[' ]| Or how long Heaven was making Lucifer? 012:06,022[' ]| Oh, could the style that copied every grace, 012:06,023[' ]| And ploughed such furrows for an eunuch face: 012:06,024[' ]| Could it have formed his ever-changing will, 012:06,025[' ]| The various piece had tired the graver's skill! 012:06,026[' ]| A martial hero first, with early care, 012:06,027[' ]| Blown, like a pygmy by the winds, to war; 012:06,028[' ]| A beardless chief, a rebel, e'er a man 012:06,029[' ]| (So young his hatred to his Prince began); 012:06,030[' ]| Next this (how wildly will ambition steer!): <30> 012:06,031[' ]| A vermin, wriggling in the usurper's ear; 012:06,032[' ]| Bartering his venal wit for sums of gold, 012:06,033[' ]| He cast himself into the saint-like mould, 012:06,034[' ]| Groaned, sighed and prayed, while godliness was gain, 012:06,035[' ]| The loudest bagpipe of the squeaking train. 012:06,036[' ]| But, as 'tis hard to cheat a juggler's eyes, 012:06,037[' ]| His open lewdness he could ne'er disguise. 012:06,038[' ]| There split the saint: for hypocritic zeal 012:06,039[' ]| Allows no sins but those it can conceal. 012:06,040[' ]| Whoring to scandal gives too large a scope: <40> 012:06,041[' ]| Saints must not trade; but they may interlope. 012:06,042[' ]| The ungodly principle was all the same, 012:06,043[' ]| But a gross cheat betrays his partner's game; 012:06,044[' ]| Besides, their pace was formal, grave and slack: 012:06,045[' ]| His nimble wit outran the heavy pack. 012:06,046[' ]| Yet still he found his fortune at a stay, 012:06,047[' ]| Whole droves of blockheads choking up his way; 012:06,048[' ]| They took, but not rewarded, his advice: 012:06,049[' ]| Villain and wit exact a double price. 012:06,050[' ]| Power was his aim, but, thrown from that pretence <50> 012:06,051[' ]| The wretch turned loyal in his own defence, 012:06,052[' ]| And Malice reconciled him to his Prince. 012:06,053[' ]| Him, in the anguish of his soul he served, 012:06,054[' ]| Rewarded faster still than he deserved. 012:06,055[' ]| Behold him now exalted into trust: 012:06,056[' ]| His counsel's oft convenient, seldom just. 012:06,057[' ]| Even in the most sincere advice he gave 012:06,058[' ]| He had a grudging still to be a knave; 012:06,059[' ]| The frauds he learnt in his fanatic years 012:06,060[' ]| Made him uneasy in his lawful gears. <60> 012:06,061[' ]| At best as little honest as he could, 012:06,062[' ]| And, like white witches, mischievously good. 012:06,063[' ]| To his first bias longingly he leans, 012:06,064[' ]| And rather would be great by wicked means. 012:06,065[' ]| Thus, framed for ill, he loosed our triple hold; 012:06,066[' ]| (Advice unsafe, precipitous, and bold). 012:06,067[' ]| From hence those tears! that Ilium of our woe! 012:06,068[' ]| Who helps a powerful friend, forearms a foe. 012:06,069[' ]| What wonder if the waves prevail so far 012:06,070[' ]| When he cut down the banks that made the bar? <70> 012:06,071[' ]| Seas follow but their nature to invade, 012:06,072[' ]| But he by art our native strength betrayed. 012:06,073[' ]| So Sampson to his foe his force confessed, 012:06,074[' ]| And, to be shorn, lay slumbering on her breast. 012:06,075[' ]| But when this fatal counsel, found too late, 012:06,076[' ]| Exposed its author to the public hate; 012:06,077[' ]| When his just sovereign, by no impious way, 012:06,078[' ]| Could be seduced to arbitrary sway; 012:06,079[' ]| Forsaken of that hope, he shifts the sail, 012:06,080[' ]| Drives down the current with a popular gale <80> 012:06,081[' ]| And shows the fiend confessed, without a veil. 012:06,082[' ]| He preaches to the crowd, that power is lent, 012:06,083[' ]| But not conveyed to kingly government; 012:06,084[' ]| That claims successive bear no binding force; 012:06,085[' ]| That coronation oaths are things of course; 012:06,086[' ]| Maintains the multitude can never err, 012:06,087[' ]| And sets the people in the papal chair. 012:06,088[' ]| The reason's obvious: interest never lies; 012:06,089[' ]| The most have still their interest in their eyes; 012:06,090[' ]| The power is always theirs, and power is ever wise. <90> 012:06,091[' ]| Almighty crowd, thou shortenest all dispute: 012:06,092[' ]| Power is thy essence, wit thy attribute! 012:06,093[' ]| Nor faith nor reason make thee at a stay: 012:06,094[' ]| Thou leapest o'er all eternal truths, in thy pindarique way! 012:06,095[' ]| Athens, no doubt, did righteously decide, 012:06,096[' ]| When Phocion and when Socrates were tried; 012:06,097[' ]| As righteously they did those dooms repent; 012:06,098[' ]| Still they were wise, whatever way they went: 012:06,099[' ]| Crowds err not, though to both extremes they run, 012:06,100' ]| To kill the father, and recall the son. <100> 012:06,101[' ]| Some think the fools were most, as times went then; 012:06,102[' ]| But now the world's o'erstocked with prudent men: 012:06,103[' ]| The common cry is even religion's test, 012:06,104[' ]| The Turk's is, at Constantinople, best; 012:06,105[' ]| Idols in India, Popery at Rome, 012:06,106[' ]| And our own worship only true at home. 012:06,107[' ]| And true, but for the time, 'tis hard to know 012:06,108[' ]| How long we please it shall continue so: 012:06,109[' ]| This side today, and that tomorrow burns; 012:06,110[' ]| So all are God-almighties in their turns. <110> 012:06,111[' ]| A tempting doctrine, plausible and new: 012:06,112[' ]| What fools our fathers were, if this be true! 012:06,113[' ]| Who, to destroy the seeds of civil war, 012:06,114[' ]| Inherent right in monarchs did declare, 012:06,115[' ]| And, that a lawful power might never cease, 012:06,116[' ]| Secured succession, to secure our peace. 012:06,117[' ]| Thus, property and sovereign sway, at last 012:06,118[' ]| In equal balances were justly cast; 012:06,119[' ]| But this new Jehu spurs the hot-mouthed horse, 012:06,120[' ]| Instructs the beast to know his native force, <120> 012:06,121[' ]| To take the bit between his teeth and fly 012:06,122[' ]| To the next headlong steep of anarchy. 012:06,123[' ]| Too happy England, if our good we knew, 012:06,124[' ]| Would we possess the freedom we pursue? 012:06,125[' ]| The lavish government can give no more, 012:06,126[' ]| Yet we repine, and plenty makes us poor. 012:06,127[' ]| God tried us once; our rebel-fathers fought; 012:06,128[' ]| He glutted 'em with all the power they sought, 012:06,129[' ]| Till, mastered by their own usurping brave, 012:06,130[' ]| The free-born subject sunk into a slave. <130> 012:06,131[' ]| We loath our manna, and we long for quails: 012:06,132[' ]| Ah, what is man, when his own wish prevails! 012:06,133[' ]| How rash, how swift to plunge himself in ill; 012:06,134[' ]| Proud of his power, and boundless in his will! 012:06,135[' ]| That kings can do no wrong we must believe; 012:06,136[' ]| None can they do, and must they all receive? 012:06,137[' ]| Help Heaven! or sadly we shall see an hour 012:06,138[' ]| When neither wrong nor right are in their power! 012:06,139[' ]| Already they have lost their best defence, 012:06,140[' ]| The benefit of laws, which they dispense; <140> 012:06,141[' ]| No justice to their righteous cause allowed, 012:06,142[' ]| But baffled by an arbitrary crowd. 012:06,143[' ]| And medals graved, their conquest to record, 012:06,144[' ]| The stamp and coin of their adopted lord. 012:06,145[' ]| The man who laughed but once, to see an ass 012:06,146[' ]| Mumbling to make the cross-grained thistles pass, 012:06,147[' ]| Might laugh again, to see a jury chaw 012:06,148[' ]| The prickles of unpalatable law. 012:06,149[' ]| The witnesses, that, leech-like, lived on blood, 012:06,150[' ]| Sucking for them were medicinally good; <150> 012:06,151[' ]| But, when they fastened on their festered sore, 012:06,152[' ]| Then justice and religion they forswore, 012:06,153[' ]| Their maiden oaths debauched into a whore. 012:06,154[' ]| Thus men are raised by factions, and decried; 012:06,155[' ]| And rogue and saint distinguished by their side. 012:06,156[' ]| They rack even scripture to confess their cause, 012:06,157[' ]| And plead a call to preach, in spite of laws. 012:06,158[' ]| But that's no news to the poor injured page; 012:06,159[' ]| It has been used as ill in every age 012:06,160[' ]| And is constrained, with patience, all to take, <160> 012:06,161[' ]| For what defence can Greek and Hebrew make? 012:06,162[' ]| Happy who can this talking trumpet seize; 012:06,163[' ]| They make it speak whatever sense they please! 012:06,164[' ]| 'Twas framed, at first, our oracle to enquire, 012:06,165[' ]| But, since our sects in prophecy grow higher, 012:06,166[' ]| The text inspires not them, but they the text inspire. 012:06,167[' ]| London, thou great emporium of our isle, 012:06,168[' ]| Oh, thou too bounteous, thou too fruitful Nile, 012:06,169[' ]| How shall I praise or curse to thy desert, 012:06,170[' ]| Or separate thy sound, from thy corrupted part! <170> 012:06,171[' ]| I called thee Nile; the parallel will stand: 012:06,172[' ]| Thy tides of wealth o'erflow the fattened land; 012:06,173[' ]| Yet monsters from thy large increase we find 012:06,174[' ]| Engendered on the slime thou leavest behind. 012:06,175[' ]| Sedition has not wholly seized on thee, 012:06,176[' ]| Thy nobler parts are from infection free: 012:06,177[' ]| Of Israel's tribes thou hast a numerous band, 012:06,178[' ]| But still the Canaanite is in the land; 012:06,179[' ]| Thy military chiefs are brave and true, 012:06,180[' ]| Nor are thy disenchanted burghers few; <180> 012:06,181[' ]| The head is loyal which thy heart commands, 012:06,182[' ]| But what's a head with two such gouty hands? 012:06,183[' ]| The wise and wealthy love the surest way, 012:06,184[' ]| And are content to thrive and to obey; 012:06,185[' ]| But wisdom is to sloth too great a slave: 012:06,186[' ]| None are so busy as the fool and knave. 012:06,187[' ]| Those let me curse; what vengeance will they urge, 012:06,188[' ]| Whose ordures neither plague nor fire can purge? 012:06,189[' ]| Nor sharp experience can to duty bring, 012:06,190[' ]| Nor angry Heaven, nor a forgiving King! <190> 012:06,191[' ]| In Gospel phrase their chapmen they betray, 012:06,192[' ]| Their shops are dens, the buyer is their prey; 012:06,193[' ]| The knack of trades is living on the spoil; 012:06,194[' ]| They boast, even when each other they beguile. 012:06,195[' ]| Customs to steal is such a trivial thing 012:06,196[' ]| That 'tis their charter, to defraud their King; 012:06,197[' ]| All hands unite of every jarring sect, 012:06,198[' ]| They cheat the country first, and then infect; 012:06,199[' ]| They, for God's cause their monarchs dare dethrone 012:06,200[' ]| And they'll be sure to make his cause their own. <200> 012:06,201[' ]| Whether the plotting Jesuit laid the plan 012:06,202[' ]| Of murthering kings, or the French Puritan, 012:06,203[' ]| Our sacrilegious sects their guides outgo, 012:06,204[' ]| And kings and kingly power would murther too. 012:06,205[' ]| What means their traitorous combination less, 012:06,206[' ]| Too plain to evade, too shameful to confess? 012:06,207[' ]| But treason is not owned when 'tis descried: 012:06,208[' ]| Successful crimes alone are justified. 012:06,209[' ]| The men who no conspiracy would find, 012:06,210[' ]| Who doubts but, had it taken, they had joined, <210> 012:06,211[' ]| Joined, in a mutual covenant of defence, 012:06,212[' ]| At first without, at last against their Prince? 012:06,213[' ]| If sovereign right by sovereign power they scan, 012:06,214[' ]| The same bold maxim holds in God and man; 012:06,215[' ]| God were not safe, his thunder could they shun, 012:06,216[' ]| He should be forced to crown another Son. 012:06,217[' ]| Thus, when the heir was from the vineyard thrown, 012:06,218[' ]| The rich possession was the murtherer's own. 012:06,219[' ]| In vain to sophistry they have recourse: 012:06,220[' ]| By proving theirs no plot, they prove 'tis worse: <220> 012:06,221[' ]| Unmasked rebellion, and audacious force, 012:06,222[' ]| Which, though not actual, yet all eyes may see 012:06,223[' ]| 'Tis working, in the immediate power to be. 012:06,224[' ]| For, from pretended grievances they rise, 012:06,225[' ]| First to dislike, and after to despise; 012:06,226[' ]| Then, Cyclop-like in human flesh to deal, 012:06,227[' ]| Chop up a minister at every meal, 012:06,228[' ]| Perhaps not wholly to melt down the King, 012:06,229[' ]| But clip his regal rights within the ring; 012:06,230[' ]| From thence, to assume the power of peace and war, <230> 012:06,231[' ]| And ease him by degrees of public care; 012:06,232[' ]| Yet, to consult his dignity and fame, 012:06,233[' ]| He should have leave to exercise the name, 012:06,234[' ]| And hold the cards, while commons played the game. 012:06,235[' ]| For what can power give more than food and drink, 012:06,236[' ]| To live at ease, and not be bound to think? 012:06,237[' ]| These are the cooler methods of their crime, 012:06,238[' ]| But their hot zealots think 'tis loss of time; 012:06,239[' ]| On utmost bounds of loyalty they stand, 012:06,240[' ]| And grin and whet like a Croatian band <240> 012:06,241[' ]| That waits impatient for the last command. 012:06,242[' ]| Thus outlaws open villainy maintain; 012:06,243[' ]| They steal not, but in squadrons scour the plain, 012:06,244[' ]| And, if their power the passengers subdue: 012:06,245[' ]| The most have right, the wrong is in the few. 012:06,246[' ]| Such impious axioms foolishly they show, 012:06,247[' ]| For, in some soils republics will not grow: 012:06,248[' ]| Our temperate isle will no extremes sustain, 012:06,249[' ]| Of popular sway, or arbitrary reign, 012:06,250[' ]| But slides between them both into the best, <250> 012:06,251[' ]| Secure in freedom, in a monarch blest. 012:06,252[' ]| And though the climate, vexed with various winds, 012:06,253[' ]| Works through our yielding bodies, on our minds, 012:06,254[' ]| The wholesome tempest purges what it breeds 012:06,255[' ]| To recommend the calmness that succeeds. 012:06,256[' ]| But thou, the pander of the people's hearts, 012:06,257[' ]| (Oh crooked soul, and serpentine in arts!) 012:06,258[' ]| Whose blandishments a loyal land have whored, 012:06,259[' ]| And broke the bonds she plighted to her lord; 012:06,260[' ]| What curses on thy blasted name will fall, <260> 012:06,261[' ]| Which age to age their legacy shall call! 012:06,262[' ]| For all must curse the woes that must descend on all. 012:06,263[' ]| Religion thou hast none, thy mercury 012:06,264[' ]| Has passed through every sect, or theirs through thee; 012:06,265[' ]| But what thou givest, that venom still remains, 012:06,266[' ]| And the poxed nation feels thee in their brains. 012:06,267[' ]| What else inspires the tongues, and swells the breasts 012:06,268[' ]| Of all thy bellowing renegado priests 012:06,269[' ]| That preach up thee for God, dispense thy laws, 012:06,270[' ]| And with thy stumm ferment their fainting cause, <270> 012:06,271[' ]| Fresh fumes of madness raise, and toil and sweat 012:06,272[' ]| To make the formidable cripple great? 012:06,273[' ]| Yet, should thy crimes succeed, should lawless power 012:06,274[' ]| Compass those ends thy greedy hopes devour, 012:06,275[' ]| Thy canting friends thy mortal foes would be, 012:06,276[' ]| Thy God and theirs will never long agree. 012:06,277[' ]| For thine (if thou hast any) must be one 012:06,278[' ]| That lets the world and humankind alone: 012:06,279[' ]| A jolly God, that passes hours too well 012:06,280[' ]| To promise Heaven, or threaten us with Hell; <280> 012:06,281[' ]| That unconcerned can at rebellion sit, 012:06,282[' ]| And wink at crimes he did himself commit. 012:06,283[' ]| A tyrant theirs, the Heaven their priesthood paints 012:06,284[' ]| A conventicle of gloomy sullen saints; 012:06,285[' ]| A Heaven, like Bedlam, slovenly and sad, 012:06,286[' ]| Fore-doomed for souls, with false religion, mad. 012:06,287[' ]| Without a vision poets can foreshow 012:06,288[' ]| What all but fools, by common sense may know: 012:06,289[' ]| If true succession from our isle should fail, 012:06,290[' ]| And crowds profane, with impious arms prevail, <290> 012:06,291[' ]| Not thou, nor those thy factious arts engage, 012:06,292[' ]| Shall reap that harvest of rebellious rage 012:06,293[' ]| With which thou flatterest thy decrepit age. 012:06,294[' ]| The swelling poison of the several sects, 012:06,295[' ]| Which, wanting vent, the nation's health infects, 012:06,296[' ]| Shall burst its bag, and fighting out their way, 012:06,297[' ]| The various venoms on each other prey. 012:06,298[' ]| The Presbyter, puffed up with spiritual pride, 012:06,299[' ]| Shall on the necks of the lewd nobles ride, 012:06,300[' ]| His brethren damn, the civil power defy, <300> 012:06,301[' ]| And parcel out republic prelacy. 012:06,302[' ]| But short shall be his reign: his rigid yoke 012:06,303[' ]| And tyrant power will puny sects provoke, 012:06,304[' ]| And frogs and toads, and all the tadpole train 012:06,305[' ]| Will croak to Heaven for help from this devouring crane. 012:06,306[' ]| The cut-throat sword and clamorous gown shall jar 012:06,307[' ]| In sharing their ill-gotten spoils of war; 012:06,308[' ]| Chiefs shall be grudged the part which they pretend, 012:06,309[' ]| Lords envy lords, and friends with every friend 012:06,310[' ]| About their impious merit shall contend; <310> 012:06,311[' ]| The surly commons shall respect deny, 012:06,312[' ]| And justle peerage out with property; 012:06,313[' ]| Their general either shall his trust betray, 012:06,314[' ]| And force the crowd to arbitrary sway, 012:06,315[' ]| Or they suspecting his ambitious aim, 012:06,316[' ]| In hate of kings shall cast anew the frame, 012:06,317[' ]| And thrust out Collatine that bore their name. 012:06,318[' ]| Thus inborn broils the factions would engage, 012:06,319[' ]| Or wars of exiled heirs, or foreign rage, 012:06,320[' ]| Till halting vengeance overtook our Age, <320> 012:06,321[' ]| And our wild labours, wearied into rest, 012:06,322[' ]| Reclined us on a rightful monarch's breast.