Full Text
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Dryden, John: The works of John Dryden (1882-1892)
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VOL. X.
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THE HIND AND THE PANTHER,
A POEM.
IN THREE PARTS.
THE HIND AND THE PANTHER,
A POEM.
IN THREE PARTS.
(by Dryden, John)
------ Antiquam exquirite matrem ------
------ Et vera incessu patuit Dea.
Virg.
[Page 119]
[Part I.]
1 A milk-white Hind, immortal and unchanged,
2 Fed on the lawns, and in the forest ranged;
3 Without unspotted, innocent within,
4 She feared no danger, for she knew no sin.
5 Yet had she oft been chased with horns and hounds,
6 And Scythian shafts; and many winged wounds
7 Aimed at her heart; was often forced to fly,
8 And doomed to death, though fated not to die.
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9 Not so her young; for their unequal line
10 Was hero's make, half human, half divine.
11 Their earthly mould obnoxious was to fate,
12 The immortal part assumed immortal state.
13 Of these a slaughtered army lay in blood,
14 Extended o'er the Caledonian wood,
15 Their native walk; whose vocal blood arose,
16 And cried for pardon on their perjured foes.
17 Their fate was fruitful, and the sanguine seed,
18 Endued with souls, increased the sacred breed.
19 So captive Israel multiplied in chains,
20 A numerous exile, and enjoyed her pains.
21 With grief and gladness mixed, their mother viewed
22 Her martyr'd offspring, and their race renewed;
23 Their corpse to perish, but their kind to last,
24 So much the deathless plant the dying fruit surpassed.
25 Panting and pensive now she ranged alone,
26 And wandered in the kingdoms, once her own.
27 The common hunt, though from their rage restrained
28 By sovereign power, her company disdained,
29 Grinned as they passed, and with a glaring eye
30 Gave gloomy signs of secret enmity.
31 'Tis true, she bounded by, and tripped so light,
32 They had not time to take a steady sight;
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33 For truth has such a face and such a mien,
34 As to be loved needs only to be seen.
35 The bloody Bear, an independent beast,
36 Unlicked to form, in groans her hate exprest.
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37 Among the timorous kind, the quaking Hare
38 Professed neutrality, but would not swear.
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39 Next her the buffoon Ape, as atheists use,
40 Mimicked all sects, and had his own to choose;
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41 Still when the Lion looked, his knees he bent,
42 And paid at church a courtier's compliment.
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43 The bristled baptist Boar, impure as he,
44 But whitened with the foam of sanctity,
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45 With fat pollutions filled the sacred place,
46 And mountains levelled in his furious race;
47 So first rebellion founded was in grace.
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48 But since the mighty ravage, which he made
49 In German forests, had his guilt betrayed,
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50 With broken tusks, and with a borrowed name,
51 He shunned the vengeance, and concealed the shame;
52 So lurked in sects unseen. With greater guile
53 False Reynard fed on consecrated spoil;
54 The graceless beast by Athanasius first
55 Was chased from Nice, then by Socinus nursed;
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56 His impious race their blasphemy renewed,
57 And nature's king through nature's optics viewed.
58 Reversed, they viewed him lessened to their eye,
59 Nor in an infant could a God descry;
60 New swarming sects to this obliquely tend,
61 Hence they began, and here they all will end.
62 What weight of ancient witness can prevail,
63 If private reason hold the public scale?
64 But, gracious God, how well dost thou provide
65 For erring judgments an unerring guide!
66 Thy throne is darkness in the abyss of light,
67 A blaze of glory that forbids the sight.
68 O teach me to believe thee, thus concealed,
69 And search no farther than thyself revealed;
70 But her alone for my director take,
71 Whom thou hast promised never to forsake!
72 My thoughtless youth was winged with vain desires;
73 My manhood, long misled by wandering fires,
74 Followed false lights; and, when their glimpse was gone,
75 My pride struck out new sparkles of her own.
76 Such was I, such by nature still I am;
77 Be thine the glory, and be mine the shame!
78 Good life be now my task; my doubts are done;
79 What more could fright my faith, than three in one?
80 Can I believe eternal God could lie
81 Disguised in mortal mould, and infancy?
82 That the great Maker of the world could die?
83 And after that trust my imperfect sense,
84 Which calls in question his omnipotence?
85 Can I my reason to my faith compel,
86 And shall my sight, and touch, and taste rebel?
87 Superior faculties are set aside;
88 Shall their subservient organs be my guide?
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89 Then let the moon usurp the rule of day,
90 And winking tapers show the sun his way;
91 For what my senses can themselves perceive,
92 I need no revelation to believe.
93 Can they, who say the Host should be descried
94 By sense, define a body glorified,
95 Impassible, and penetrating parts?
96 Let them declare by what mysterious arts
97 He shot that body through the opposing might
98 Of bolts and bars impervious to the light,
99 And stood before his train confessed in open sight.
100 For since thus wondrously he passed, 'tis plain,
101 One single place two bodies did contain;
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102 And sure the same Omnipotence as well
103 Can make one body in more places dwell.
104 Let reason then at her own quarry fly,
105 But how can finite grasp infinity?
106 'Tis urged again, that faith did first commence
107 By miracles, which are appeals to sense,
108 And thence concluded, that our sense must be
109 The motive still of credibility;
110 For latter ages must on former wait,
111 And what began belief, must propagate.
112 But winnow well this thought, and you shall find
113 'Tis light as chaff that flies before the wind.
114 Were all those wonders wrought by power divine,
115 As means or ends of some more deep design?
116 Most sure as means, whose end was this alone,
117 To prove the Godhead of the Eternal Son.
118 God thus asserted, man is to believe
119 Beyond what sense and reason can conceive,
120 And, for mysterious things of faith, rely
121 On the proponent, heaven's authority.
122 If, then, our faith we for our guide admit,
123 Vain is the farther search of human wit;
124 As when the building gains a surer stay,
125 We take the unuseful scaffolding away.
126 Reason by sense no more can understand;
127 The game is played into another hand.
128 Why choose we then like bilanders to creep
129 Along the coast, and land in view to keep,
130 When safely we may launch into the deep?
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131 In the same vessel, which our Saviour bore,
132 Himself the pilot, let us leave the shore,
133 And with a better guide a better world explore.
134 Could he his Godhead veil with flesh and blood,
135 And not veil these again to be our food?
136 His grace in both is equal in extent,
137 The first affords us life, the second nourishment.
138 And if he can, why all this frantic pain,
139 To construe what his clearest words contain,
140 And make a riddle what he made so plain?
141 To take up half on trust, and half to try,
142 Name it not faith, but bungling bigotry;
143 Both knave and fool the merchant we may call,
144 To pay great sums, and to compound the small;
145 For who would break with heaven, and would not break for all?
146 Rest then, my soul, from endless anguish freed;
147 Nor sciences thy guide, nor sense thy creed.
148 Faith is the best ensurer of thy bliss;
149 The bank above must fail, before the venture miss.
150 But heaven and heaven-born faith are far from thee,
151 Thou first apostate to divinity.
152 Unkennelled range in thy Polonian plains;
153 A fiercer foe the insatiate Wolf remains.
154 Too boastful Britain, please thyself no more,
155 That beasts of prey are banished from thy shore;
156 The bear, the boar, and every savage name,
157 Wild in effect, though in appearance tame,
158 Lay waste thy woods, destroy thy blissful bower,
159 And, muzzled though they seem, the mutes devour.
160 More haughty than the rest, the wolfish race
161 Appears with belly gaunt, and famished face;
162 Never was so deformed a beast of grace.
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163 His ragged tail betwixt his legs he wears,
164 Close clapped for shame; but his rough crest he rears,
165 And pricks up his predestinating ears.
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166 His wild disordered walk, his haggard eyes,
167 Did all the bestial citizens surprise.
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168 Though feared and hated, yet he ruled a while,
169 As captain or companion of the spoil.
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170 Full many a year his hateful head had been
171 For tribute paid, nor since in Cambria seen;
172 The last of all the litter scaped by chance,
173 And from Geneva first infested France.
174 Some authors thus his pedigree will trace,
175 But others write him of an upstart race;
176 Because of Wicliffe's brood no mark he brings,
177 But his innate antipathy to kings.
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178 These last deduce him from the Helvetian kind,
179 Who near the Leman lake his consort lined;
180 That fiery Zuinglius first the affection bred,
181 And meagre Calvin blessed the nuptial bed.
182 In Israel some believe him whelped long since,
183 When the proud sanhedrim oppressed the prince;
184 Or, since he will be Jew, derive him higher,
185 When Corah with his brethren did conspire
186 From Moses' hand the sovereign sway to wrest,
187 And Aaron of his ephod to divest;
188 Till opening earth made way for all to pass,
189 And could not bear the burden of a class.
190 The Fox and he came shuffled in the dark,
191 If ever they were stowed in Noah's ark;
192 Perhaps not made; for all their barking train
193 The dog (a common species) will contain;
194 And some wild curs, who from their masters ran,
195 Abhorring the supremacy of man,
196 In woods and caves the rebel-race began.
197 O happy pair, how well have you increased!
198 What ills in church and state have you redressed!
199 With teeth untried, and rudiments of claws,
200 Your first essay was on your native laws;
201 Those having torn with ease, and trampled down,
202 Your fangs you fastened on the mitred crown,
203 And freed from God and monarchy your town.
204 What though your native kennel still be small,
205 Bounded betwixt a puddle and a wall;
206 Yet your victorious colonies are sent
207 Where the north ocean girds the continent.
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208 Quickened with fire below, your monsters breed
209 In fenny Holland, and in fruitful Tweed;
210 And, like the first, the last affects to be
211 Drawn to the dregs of a democracy.
212 As, where in fields the fairy rounds are seen,
213 A rank sour herbage rises on the green;
214 So, springing where these midnight elves advance,
215 Rebellion prints the footsteps of the dance.
216 Such are their doctrines, such contempt they show
217 To heaven above, and to their prince below,
218 As none but traitors and blasphemers know.
219 God like the tyrant of the skies is placed,
220 And kings, like slaves, beneath the crowd debased.
221 So fulsome is their food, that flocks refuse
222 To bite, and only dogs for physic use.
223 As, where the lightning runs along the ground,
224 No husbandry can heal the blasting wound;
225 Nor bladed grass, nor bearded corn succeeds,
226 But scales of scurf and putrefaction breeds;
227 Such wars, such waste, such fiery tracks of dearth
228 Their zeal has left, and such a teemless earth.
229 But, as the poisons of the deadliest kind
230 Are to their own unhappy coasts confined;
231 As only Indian shades of sight deprive,
232 And magic plants will but in Colchos thrive;
233 So presbytery and pestilential zeal
234 Can only flourish in a commonweal.
235 From Celtic woods is chased the wolfish crew;
236 But ah! some pity e'en to brutes is due;
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237 Their native walks, methinks, they might enjoy,
238 Curbed of their native malice to destroy.
239 Of all the tyrannies on humankind,
240 The worst is that which persecutes the mind.
241 Let us but weigh at what offence we strike;
242 'Tis but because we cannot think alike.
243 In punishing of this, we overthrow
244 The laws of nations and of nature too.
245 Beasts are the subjects of tyrannic sway,
246 Where still the stronger on the weaker prey;
247 Man only of a softer mould is made,
248 Not for his fellows' ruin, but their aid;
249 Created kind, beneficent and free,
250 The noble image of the Deity.
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251 One portion of informing fire was given
252 To brutes, the inferior family of heaven.
253 The smith divine, as with a careless beat,
254 Struck out the mute creation at a heat;
255 But, when arrived at last to human race,
256 The Godhead took a deep considering space;
257 And, to distinguish man from all the rest,
258 Unlocked the sacred treasures of his breast;
259 And mercy mixt with reason did impart,
260 One to his head, the other to his heart;
261 Reason to rule, but mercy to forgive;
262 The first is law, the last prerogative.
263 And like his mind his outward form appeared,
264 When, issuing naked to the wondering herd,
265 He charmed their eyes; and, for they loved, they feared.
266 Not armed with horns of arbitrary might,
267 Or claws to seize their furry spoils in fight,
268 Or with increase of feet to o'ertake them in their flight;
269 Of easy shape, and pliant every way,
270 Confessing still the softness of his clay,
271 And kind as kings upon their coronation day;
272 With open hands, and with extended space
273 Of arms, to satisfy a large embrace.
274 Thus kneaded up with milk, the new-made man
275 His kingdom o'er his kindred world began;
276 Till knowledge misapplied, misunderstood,
277 And pride of empire, soured his balmy blood.
278 Then, first rebelling, his own stamp he coins;
279 The murderer Cain was latent in his loins;
280 And blood began its first and loudest cry,
281 For differing worship of the Deity.
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282 Thus persecution rose, and farther space
283 Produced the mighty hunter of his race.
284 Not so the blessed Pan his flock increased,
285 Content to fold them from the famished beast:
286 Mild were his laws; the sheep and harmless hind
287 Were never of the persecuting kind.
288 Such pity now the pious pastor shows,
289 Such mercy from the British Lion flows,
290 That both provide protection from their foes.
291 O happy regions, Italy and Spain,
292 Which never did those monsters entertain!
293 The Wolf, the Bear, the Boar, can there advance
294 No native claim of just inheritance;
295 And self-preserving laws, severe in show,
296 May guard their fences from the invading foe.
297 Where birth has placed them, let them safely share
298 The common benefit of vital air;
299 Themselves unharmful, let them live unharmed,
300 Their jaws disabled, and their claws disarmed;
301 Here, only in nocturnal howlings bold,
302 They dare not seize the Hind, nor leap the fold.
303 More powerful, and as vigilant as they,
304 The Lion awfully forbids the prey.
305 Their rage repressed, though pinched with famine sore,
306 They stand aloof, and tremble at his roar;
307 Much is their hunger, but their fear is more.
308 These are the chief; to number o'er the rest,
309 And stand, like Adam, naming every beast,
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310 Were weary work; nor will the muse describe
311 A slimy-born and sun-begotten tribe;
312 Who, far from steeples and their sacred sound,
313 In fields their sullen conventicles found.
314 These gross, half-animated, lumps I leave;
315 Nor can I think what thoughts they can conceive.
316 But if they think at all, 'tis sure no higher
317 Than matter, put in motion, may aspire;
318 Souls that can scarce ferment their mass of clay;
319 So drossy, so divisible are they,
320 As would but serve pure bodies for allay;
321 Such souls as shards produce, such beetle things
322 As only buzz to heaven with evening wings;
323 Strike in the dark, offending but by chance,
324 Such are the blindfold blows of ignorance.
325 They know not beings, and but hate a name;
326 To them the Hind and Panther are the same.
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327 The Panther, sure the noblest, next the Hind,
328 And fairest creature of the spotted kind;
329 Oh, could her inborn stains be washed away,
330 She were too good to be a beast of prey!
331 How can I praise, or blame, and not offend,
332 Or how divide the frailty from the friend?
333 Her faults and virtues lie so mixed, that she
334 Nor wholly stands condemned, nor wholly free.
335 Then, like her injured Lion, let me speak;
336 He cannot bend her, and he would not break.
337 Unkind already, and estranged in part,
338 The Wolf begins to share her wandering heart.
339 Though unpolluted yet with actual ill,
340 She half commits who sins but in her will.
341 If, as our dreaming Platonists report,
342 There could be spirits of a middle sort,
343 Too black for heaven, and yet too white for hell,
344 Who just dropt half-way down, nor lower fell;
345 So poised, so gently she descends from high,
346 It seems a soft dismission from the sky.
347 Her house not ancient, whatsoe'er pretence
348 Her clergy-heralds make in her defence;
349 A second century not half-way run,
350 Since the new honours of her blood begun;
351 A lion, old, obscene, and furious made
352 By lust, compressed her mother in a shade.
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353 Then, by a left-hand marriage, weds the dame,
354 Covering adultery with a specious name;
355 So schism begot; and sacrilege and she,
356 A well-matched pair, got graceless heresy.
357 God's and kings' rebels have the same good cause,
358 To trample down divine and human laws;
359 Both would be called reformers, and their hate
360 Alike destructive both to church and state.
361 The fruit proclaims the plant; a lawless prince
362 By luxury reformed incontinence;
363 By ruins, charity; by riots, abstinence.
364 Confessions, fasts, and penance set aside,
365 Oh with what ease we follow such a guide,
366 Where souls are starved, and senses gratified!
367 Where marriage-pleasures midnight prayer supply,
368 And matin bells, a melancholy cry,
369 Are tuned to merrier notes, Increase and multiply.
370 Religion shows a rosy-coloured face;
371 Not hattered out with drudging works of grace;
372 A down-hill reformation rolls apace.
373 What flesh and blood would crowd the narrow gate,
374 Or, till they waste their pampered paunches, wait?
375 All would be happy at the cheapest rate.
376 Though our lean faith these rigid laws has given,
377 The full-fed Mussulman goes fat to heaven;
378 For his Arabian prophet with delights
379 Of sense allured his eastern proselytes.
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380 The jolly Luther, reading him, began
381 To interpret scriptures by his Alcoran;
382 To grub the thorns beneath our tender feet,
383 And make the paths of paradise more sweet,
384 Bethought him of a wife, ere half way gone,
385 For 'twas uneasy travelling alone;
386 And, in this masquerade of mirth and love,
387 Mistook the bliss of heaven for Bacchanals above.
388 Sure he presumed of praise, who came to stock
389 The ethereal pastures with so fair a flock,
390 Burnished, and battening on their food, to show
391 The diligence of careful herds below.
392 Our Panther, though like these she changed her head,
393 Yet, as the mistress of a monarch's bed,
394 Her front erect with majesty she bore,
395 The crosier wielded, and the mitre wore.
396 Her upper part of decent discipline
397 Showed affectation of an ancient line;
398 And Fathers, Councils, Church and Church's head,
399 Were on her reverend phylacteries read.
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400 But what disgraced and disavowed the rest,
401 Was Calvin's brand, that stigmatised the beast.
402 Thus, like a creature of a double kind,
403 In her own labyrinth she lives confined;
404 To foreign lands no sound of her is come,
405 Humbly content to be despised at home.
406 Such is her faith, where good cannot be had,
407 At least she leaves the refuse of the bad:
408 Nice in her choice of ill, though not of best,
409 And least deformed, because reformed the least.
410 In doubtful points betwixt her differing friends,
411 Where one for substance, one for sign contends,
412 Their contradicting terms she strives to join;
413 Sign shall be substance, substance shall be sign.
414 A real presence all her sons allow,
415 And yet 'tis flat idolatry to bow,
416 Because the Godhead's there they know not how.
417 Her novices are taught, that bread and wine
418 Are but the visible and outward sign,
419 Received by those who in communion join;
420 But the inward grace, or the thing signified,
421 His blood and body, who to save us died,
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422 The faithful this thing signified receive:
423 What is't those faithful then partake or leave?
424 For, what is signified and understood,
425 Is, by her own confession, flesh and blood.
426 Then, by the same acknowledgment, we know
427 They take the sign, and take the substance too.
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428 The literal sense is hard to flesh and blood,
429 But nonsense never can be understood.
430 Her wild belief on every wave is tost;
431 But sure no Church can better morals boast.
432 True to her king her principles are found;
433 Oh that her practice were but half so sound!
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434 Stedfast in various turns of state she stood,
435 And sealed her vowed affection with her blood:
436 Nor will I meanly tax her constancy,
437 That interest or obligement made the tie,
438 Bound to the fate of murdered monarchy.
439 Before the sounding axe so falls the vine,
440 Whose tender branches round the poplar twine.
441 She chose her ruin, and resigned her life,
442 In death undaunted as an Indian wife:
443 A rare example! but some souls we see
444 Grow hard, and stiffen with adversity:
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445 Yet these by fortune's favours are undone;
446 Resolved, into a baser form they run,
447 And bore the wind, but cannot bear the sun.
448 Let this be nature's frailty, or her fate, [Footnote: 1Kb] 
449 Or Isgrim's counsel, her new-chosen mate,
450 Still she's the fairest of the fallen crew;
451 No mother more indulgent, but the true.
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452 Fierce to her foes, yet fears her force to try,
453 Because she wants innate authority;
454 For how can she constrain them to obey,
455 Who has herself cast off the lawful sway?
456 Rebellion equals all, and those, who toil
457 In common theft, will share the common spoil.
458 Let her produce the title and the right,
459 Against her old superiors first to fight;
460 If she reform by text, even that's as plain
461 For her own rebels to reform again.
462 As long as words a different sense will bear,
463 And each may be his own interpreter,
464 Our airy faith will no foundation find,
465 The word's a weathercock for every wind:
466 The bear, the fox, the wolf, by turns prevail;
467 The most in power supplies the present gale.
468 The wretched Panther cries aloud for aid
469 To Church and Councils, whom she first betrayed;
470 No help from fathers or tradition's train:
471 Those ancient guides she taught us to disdain,
472 And by that scripture, which she once abused
473 To reformation, stands herself accused.
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474 What bills for breach of laws can she prefer,
475 Expounding which she owns herself may err?
476 And, after all her winding ways are tried,
477 If doubts arise, she slips herself aside,
478 And leaves the private conscience for the guide.
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479 If, then, that conscience set the offender free,
480 It bars her claim to Church authority.
481 How can she censure, or what crime pretend,
482 But scripture may be construed to defend?
483 Even those, whom for rebellion she transmits
484 To civil power, her doctrine first acquits;
485 Because no disobedience can ensue,
486 Where no submission to a judge is due;
487 Each judging for himself by her consent,
488 Whom, thus absolved, she sends to punishment.
489 Suppose the magistrate revenge her cause,
490 'Tis only for transgressing human laws.
491 How answering to its end a Church is made,
492 Whose power is but to counsel and persuade?
493 O solid rock, on which secure she stands!
494 Eternal house, not built with mortal hands!
495 O sure defence against the infernal gate,
496 A patent during pleasure of the state!
497 Thus is the Panther neither loved nor feared,
498 A mere mock queen of a divided herd;
499 Whom soon by lawful power she might control,
500 Herself a part submitted to the whole.
501 Then, as the moon who first receives the light
502 By which she makes our nether regions bright,
503 So might she shine, reflecting from afar
504 The rays she borrowed from a better star;
505 Big with the beams which from her mother flow,
506 And reigning o'er the rising tides below:
507 Now, mixing with a savage crowd, she goes,
508 And meanly flatters her inveterate foes;
509 Ruled while she rules, and losing every hour
510 Her wretched remnants of precarious power.
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511 One evening, while the cooler shade she sought,
512 Revolving many a melancholy thought,
513 Alone she walked, and looked around in vain,
514 With rueful visage, for her vanished train:
515 None of her sylvan subjects made their court;
516 Levées and couchées passed without resort.
517 So hardly can usurpers manage well
518 Those, whom they first instructed to rebel:
519 More liberty begets desire of more;
520 The hunger still increases with the store.
521 Without respect, they brushed along the wood,
522 Each in his clan, and, filled with loathsome food,
523 Asked no permission to the neighbouring flood.
524 The Panther, full of inward discontent,
525 Since they would go, before them wisely went;
526 Supplying want of power by drinking first,
527 As if she gave them leave to quench their thirst.
528 Among the rest, the Hind, with fearful face,
529 Beheld from far the common watering-place,
530 Nor durst approach; till with an awful roar
531 The sovereign Lion bade her fear no more.
532 Encouraged thus, she brought her younglings nigh,
533 Watching the motions of her patron's eye,
534 And drank a sober draught; the rest, amazed,
535 Stood mutely still, and on the stranger gazed;
536 Surveyed her part by part, and sought to find
537 The ten-horned monster in the harmless Hind,
538 Such as the Wolf and Panther had designed.
539 They thought at first they dreamed; for 'twas offence
540 With them, to question certitude of sense,
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541 Their guide in faith: but nearer when they drew,
542 And had the faultless object full in view,
543 Lord, how they all admired her heavenly hue!
544 Some, who, before, her fellowship disdained,
545 Scarce, and but scarce, from inborn rage restrained,
546 Now frisked about her, and old kindred feigned.
547 Whether for love or interest, every sect
548 Of all the savage nation showed respect.
549 The viceroy Panther could not awe the herd;
550 The more the company, the less they feared.
551 The surly Wolf with secret envy burst,
552 Yet could not howl; (the Hind had seen him first;)
553 But what he durst not speak, the Panther durst.
554 For when the herd, sufficed, did late repair
555 To ferny heaths, and to their forest lair,
556 She made a mannerly excuse to stay,
557 Proffering the Hind to wait her half the way;
558 That, since the sky was clear, an hour of talk
559 Might help her to beguile the tedious walk.
560 With much good-will the motion was embraced,
561 To chat a while on their adventures passed;
562 Nor had the grateful Hind so soon forgot
563 Her friend and fellow-sufferer in the Plot.
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564 Yet wondering how of late she grew estranged,
565 Her forehead cloudy, and her countenance changed,
566 She thought this hour the occasion would present,
567 To learn her secret cause of discontent;
568 Which well she hoped might be with ease redressed,
569 Considering her a well-bred civil beast,
570 And more a gentlewoman than the rest.
571 After some common talk what rumours ran,
572 The lady of the spotted muff began.
[Page 157]
PART II.
[Page 159]
1 "Dame," said the Panther, "times are mended well,
2 Since late among the Philistines you fell.
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3 The toils were pitched, a spacious tract of ground
4 With expert huntsmen was encompassed round;
5 The inclosure narrowed; the sagacious power
6 Of hounds and death drew nearer every hour.
7 'Tis true, the younger lion 'scaped the snare,
8 But all your priestly calves lay struggling there,
9 As sacrifices on their altars laid;
10 While you, their careful mother, wisely fled,
11 Not trusting destiny to save your head.
12 For, whate'er promises you have applied
13 To your unfailing Church, the surer side
14 Is four fair legs in danger to provide;
15 And whate'er tales of Peter's chair you tell,
16 Yet, saving reverence of the miracle,
17 The better luck was yours to 'scape so well."
18 "As I remember," said the sober Hind,
19 "Those toils were for your own dear self designed,
20 As well as me; and with the selfsame throw,
21 To catch the quarry and the vermin too,---
22 Forgive the slanderous tongues that called you so.
23 Howe'er you take it now, the common cry
24 Then ran you down for your rank loyalty.
[Page 161]
25 Besides, in Popery they thought you nurst,
26 As evil tongues will ever speak the worst,
27 Because some forms, and ceremonies some
28 You kept, and stood in the main question dumb.
[Page 162]
29 Dumb you were born indeed; but, thinking long,
30 The test, it seems, at last has loosed your tongue:
31 And to explain what your forefathers meant,
32 By real presence in the sacrament,
33 After long fencing pushed against a wall,
34 Your salvo comes, that he's not there at all:
35 There changed your faith, and what may change may fall.
36 Who can believe what varies every day,
37 Nor ever was, nor will be at a stay?"
[Page 163]
38 "Tortures may force the tongue untruths to tell,
39 And I ne'er owned myself infallible,"
40 Replied the Panther: "grant such presence were,
41 Yet in your sense I never owned it there.
42 A real virtue we by faith receive,
43 And that we in the sacrament believe."
44 "Then," said the Hind, "as you the matter state,
45 Not only Jesuits can equivocate;
46 For real, as you now the word expound,
47 From solid substance dwindles to a sound.
48 Methinks, an Æsop's fable you repeat;
49 You know who took the shadow for the meat:
50 Your Church's substance thus you change at will,
51 And yet retain your former figure still.
52 I freely grant you spoke to save your life;
53 For then you lay beneath the butcher's knife.
54 Long time you fought, redoubled battery bore,
55 But, after all, against yourself you swore,
56 Your former self; for every hour your form
57 Is chopped and changed, like winds before a storm.
58 Thus fear and interest will prevail with some;
59 For all have not the gift of martyrdom."
60 The Panther grinned at this, and thus replied:
61 "That men may err was never yet denied;
62 But, if that common principle be true,
63 The canon, dame, is levelled full at you.
64 But, shunning long disputes, I fain would see
65 That wondrous wight, Infallibility.
66 Is he from heaven, this mighty champion, come?
67 Or lodged below in subterranean Rome?
68 First, seat him somewhere, and derive his race,
69 Or else conclude that nothing has no place."
[Page 164]
70 "Suppose, though I disown it," said the Hind,
71 "The certain mansion were not yet assigned;
72 The doubtful residence no proof can bring
73 Against the plain existence of the thing.
74 Because philosophers may disagree,
75 If sight by emission, or reception be,
76 Shall it be thence inferred, I do not see?
77 But you require an answer positive,
78 Which yet, when I demand, you dare not give;
79 For fallacies in universals live.
80 I then affirm, that this unfailing guide
81 In Pope and General Councils must reside;
82 Both lawful, both combined; what one decrees
83 By numerous votes, the other ratifies:
84 On this undoubted sense the Church relies.
[Page 165]
85 'Tis true, some doctors in a scantier space,
86 I mean, in each apart, contract the place.
87 Some, who to greater length extend the line,
88 The Church's after-acceptation join.
89 This last circumference appears too wide;
90 The Church diffused is by the Council tied,
91 As members by their representatives
92 Obliged to laws, which prince and senate gives.
93 Thus, some contract, and some enlarge the space;
94 In Pope and Council, who denies the place,
95 Assisted from above with God's unfailing grace?
96 Those canons all the needful points contain;
97 Their sense so obvious, and their words so plain,
98 That no disputes about the doubtful text
99 Have hitherto the labouring world perplext.
100 If any should in after-times appear,
101 New Councils must be called, to make the meaning clear;
102 Because in them the power supreme resides,
103 And all the promises are to the guides.
104 This may be taught with sound and safe defence;
105 But mark how sandy is your own pretence,
106 Who, setting Councils, Pope, and Church aside,
107 Are every man his own presuming guide.
[Page 166]
108 The sacred books, you say, are full and plain,
109 And every needful point of truth contain;
110 All who can read interpreters may be.
111 Thus, though your several Churches disagree,
112 Yet every saint has to himself alone
113 The secret of this philosophic stone.
114 These principles you jarring sects unite,
115 When differing doctors and disciples fight.
116 Though Luther, Zuinglius, Calvin, holy chiefs,
117 Have made a battle-royal of beliefs;
118 Or, like wild horses, several ways have whirled
119 The tortured text about the Christian world;
120 Each Jehu lashing on with furious force,
121 That Turk or Jew could not have used it worse;
122 No matter what dissension leaders make,
123 Where every private man may save a stake:
124 Ruled by the scripture and his own advice,
125 Each has a blind by-path to Paradise;
126 Where, driving in a circle slow or fast,
127 Opposing sects are sure to meet at last.
128 A wondrous charity you have in store
[Page 167]
129 For all reformed to pass the narrow door;
130 So much, that Mahomet had scarcely more.
131 For he, kind prophet, was for damning none;
132 But Christ and Moses were to save their own:
133 Himself was to secure his chosen race,
134 Though reason good for Turks to take the place,
135 And he allowed to be the better man,
136 In virtue of his holier Alcoran."
137 "True," said the Panther, "I shall ne'er deny
138 My brethren may be saved as well as I:
139 Though Huguenots contemn our ordination,
140 Succession, ministerial vocation;
141 And Luther, more mistaking what he read,
142 Misjoins the sacred body with the bread:
143 Yet, lady, still remember I maintain,
144 The word in needful points is only plain."
145 "Needless, or needful, I not now contend,
146 For still you have a loop-hole for a friend,"
147 Rejoined the matron; "but the rule you lay
148 Has led whole flocks, and leads them still astray,
149 In weighty points, and full damnation's way.
150 For, did not Arius first, Socinus now,
151 The Son's eternal Godhead disavow?
152 And did not these by gospel texts alone
153 Condemn our doctrine, and maintain their own?
154 Have not all heretics the same pretence
155 To plead the scriptures in their own defence?
156 How did the Nicene Council then decide
157 That strong debate? was it by scripture tried?
158 No, sure; to that the rebel would not yield;
159 Squadrons of texts he marshalled in the field:
160 That was but civil war, an equal set,
161 Where piles with piles, and eagles eagles met.
[Page 168]
162 With texts point-blank and plain he faced the foe,
163 And did not Satan tempt our Saviour so?
164 The good old bishops took a simpler way;
165 Each asked but what he heard his father say,
166 Or how he was instructed in his youth,
167 And by tradition's force upheld the truth."
168 The Panther smiled at this;---"And when," said she,
169 "Were those first Councils disallowed by me?
170 Or where did I at sure tradition strike,
171 Provided still it were apostolic?"
172 "Friend," said the Hind, "you quit your former ground,
173 Where all your faith you did on scripture found:
174 Now 'tis tradition joined with holy writ;
175 But thus your memory betrays your wit."
176 "No," said the Panther; "for in that I view,
177 When your tradition's forged, and when 'tis true.
178 I set them by the rule, and, as they square,
179 Or deviate from undoubted doctrine there,
180 This oral fiction, that old faith declare."
Hind.
181 "The Council steered, it seems, a different course;
182 They tried the scripture by tradition's force:
[Page 169]
183 But you tradition by the scripture try;
184 Pursued by sects, from this to that you fly,
185 Nor dare on one foundation to rely.
186 The word is then deposed, and in this view,
187 You rule the scripture, not the scripture you."
188 Thus said the dame, and, smiling, thus pursued:
189 "I see, tradition then is disallowed,
190 When not evinced by scripture to be true,
191 And scripture, as interpreted by you.
192 But here you tread upon unfaithful ground,
193 Unless you could infallibly expound;
194 Which you reject as odious popery,
195 And throw that doctrine back with scorn on me.
196 Suppose we on things traditive divide,
197 And both appeal to scripture to decide;
198 By various texts we both uphold our claim,
199 Nay, often, ground our titles on the same:
200 After long labour lost, and time's expense,
201 Both grant the words, and quarrel for the sense.
202 Thus all disputes for ever must depend;
203 For no dumb rule can controversies end.
204 Thus, when you said,---Tradition must be tried
205 By sacred writ, whose sense yourselves decide,
206 You said no more, but that yourselves must be
207 The judges of the scripture sense, not we.
208 Against our Church-tradition you declare,
209 And yet your clerks would sit in Moses' chair;
210 At least 'tis proved against your argument,
211 The rule is far from plain, where all dissent."
212 "If not by scriptures, how can we be sure,"
213 Replied the Panther, "what tradition's pure?
214 For you may palm upon us new for old;
215 All, as they say, that glitters, is not gold."
216 "How but by following her," replied the dame,
217 "To whom derived from sire to son they came;
218 Where every age does on another move,
219 And trusts no farther than the next above;
[Page 170]
220 Where all the rounds like Jacob's ladder rise,
221 The lowest hid in earth, the topmost in the skies?"
222 Sternly the savage did her answer mark,
223 Her glowing eye-balls glittering in the dark,
224 And said but this:---"Since lucre was your trade,
225 Succeeding times such dreadful gaps have made,
226 'Tis dangerous climbing: To your sons and you
227 I leave the ladder, and its omen too."
Hind.
228 "The Panther's breath was ever famed for sweet;
229 But from the Wolf such wishes oft I meet.
230 You learned this language from the Blatant Beast,
231 Or rather did not speak, but were possessed.
232 As for your answer, 'tis but barely urged:
233 You must evince tradition to be forged;
234 Produce plain proofs; unblemished authors use
235 As ancient as those ages they accuse;
236 Till when, 'tis not sufficient to defame;
237 An old possession stands, till elder quits the claim.
238 Then for our interest, which is named alone
239 To load with envy, we retort your own;
240 For, when traditions in your faces fly,
241 Resolving not to yield, you must decry.
242 As when the cause goes hard, the guilty man
243 Excepts, and thins his jury all he can;
244 So when you stand of other aid bereft,
245 You to the twelve apostles would be left.
[Page 171]
246 Your friend the Wolf did with more craft provide
247 To set those toys, traditions, quite aside;
248 And fathers too, unless when, reason spent,
249 He cites them but sometimes for ornament.
250 But, madam Panther, you, though more sincere,
251 Are not so wise as your adulterer;
252 The private spirit is a better blind,
253 Than all the dodging tricks your authors find.
254 For they, who left the scripture to the crowd,
255 Each for his own peculiar judge allowed;
256 The way to please them was to make them proud.
257 Thus with full sails they ran upon the shelf;
258 Who could suspect a cozenage from himself?
259 On his own reason safer 'tis to stand,
260 Than be deceived and damned at second-hand.
261 But you, who fathers and traditions take,
262 And garble some, and some you quite forsake,
263 Pretending Church-authority to fix,
264 And yet some grains of private spirit mix,
265 Are, like a mule, made up of different seed,
266 And that's the reason why you never breed;
267 At least, not propagate your kind abroad,
268 For home dissenters are by statutes awed.
269 And yet they grow upon you every day,
270 While you, to speak the best, are at a stay,
271 For sects, that are extremes, abhor a middle way:
272 Like tricks of state, to stop a raging flood,
273 Or mollify a mad-brained senate's mood;
274 Of all expedients never one was good.
275 Well may they argue, nor can you deny,
276 If we must fix on Church authority,
277 Best on the best, the fountain, not the flood;
278 That must be better still, if this be good.
[Page 172]
279 Shall she command, who has herself rebelled?
280 Is antichrist by antichrist expelled?
281 Did we a lawful tyranny displace,
282 To set aloft a bastard of the race?
283 Why all these wars to win the book, if we
284 Must not interpret for ourselves, but she?
285 Either be wholly slaves, or wholly free.
286 For purging fires traditions must not fight;
287 But they must prove episcopacy's right.
288 Thus, those led horses are from service freed;
289 You never mount them but in time of need.
290 Like mercenaries, hired for home defence,
291 They will not serve against their native prince.
292 Against domestic foes of hierarchy
293 These are drawn forth, to make fanatics fly;
294 But, when they see their countrymen at hand,
295 Marching against them under Church-command,
296 Straight they forsake their colours, and disband."
297 Thus she; nor could the Panther well enlarge
298 With weak defence against so strong a charge;
[Page 173]
299 But said:---"For what did Christ his word provide,
300 If still his Church must want a living guide?
301 And if all-saving doctrines are not there,
302 Or sacred penmen could not make them clear,
303 From after-ages we should hope in vain
304 For truths which men inspired could not explain."
305 "Before the word was written," said the Hind,
306 "Our Saviour preached his faith to humankind:
307 From his apostles the first age received
308 Eternal truth, and what they taught believed.
309 Thus, by tradition faith was planted first,
310 Succeeding flocks succeeding pastors nursed.
311 This was the way our wise Redeemer chose,
312 Who sure could all things for the best dispose,
313 To fence his fold from their encroaching foes.
314 He could have writ himself, but well foresaw
315 The event would be like that of Moses' law;
316 Some difference would arise, some doubts remain,
317 Like those which yet the jarring Jews maintain.
318 No written laws can be so plain, so pure,
319 But wit may gloss, and malice may obscure;
320 Not those indited by his first command,
321 A prophet graved the text, an angel held his hand.
322 Thus faith was ere the written word appeared,
323 And men believed not what they read, but heard.
324 But since the apostles could not be confined
325 To these, or those, but severally designed
326 Their large commission round the world to blow,
327 To spread their faith, they spread their labours too.
328 Yet still their absent flock their pains did share;
329 They hearkened still, for love produces care.
330 And as mistakes arose, or discords fell,
331 Or bold seducers taught them to rebel,
332 As charity grew cold, or faction hot,
333 Or long neglect their lessons had forgot,
[Page 174]
334 For all their wants they wisely did provide,
335 And preaching by epistles was supplied;
336 So, great physicians cannot all attend,
337 But some they visit, and to some they send.
338 Yet all those letters were not writ to all;
339 Nor first intended but occasional,
340 Their absent sermons; nor, if they contain
341 All needful doctrines, are those doctrines plain.
342 Clearness by frequent preaching must be wrought;
343 They writ but seldom, but they daily taught;
344 And what one saint has said of holy Paul,
345 'He darkly writ,' is true applied to all.
346 For this obscurity could heaven provide
347 More prudently than by a living guide,
348 As doubts arose, the difference to decide?
349 A guide was therefore needful, therefore made;
350 And, if appointed, sure to be obeyed.
351 Thus, with due reverence to the apostles' writ,
352 By which my sons are taught, to which submit,
353 I think, those truths, their sacred works contain,
354 The Church alone can certainly explain;
355 That following ages, leaning on the past,
356 May rest upon the primitive at last.
357 Nor would I thence the word no rule infer,
358 But none without the Church-interpreter;
359 Because, as I have urged before, 'tis mute,
360 And is itself the subject of dispute.
361 But what the apostles their successors taught,
362 They to the next, from them to us is brought,
363 The undoubted sense which is in scripture sought.
364 From hence the Church is armed, when errors rise,
365 To stop their entrance, and prevent surprise;
366 And, safe entrenched within, her foes without defies.
[Page 175]
367 By these all festering sores her Councils heal,
368 Which time or has disclosed, or shall reveal;
369 For discord cannot end without a last appeal.
370 Nor can a council national decide,
371 But with subordination to her guide:
372 (I wish the cause were on that issue tried.)
373 Much less the scripture; for suppose debate
374 Betwixt pretenders to a fair estate,
375 Bequeathed by some legator's last intent;
376 (Such is our dying Saviour's testament:)
377 The will is proved, is opened, and is read,
378 The doubtful heirs their differing titles plead;
379 All vouch the words their interest to maintain,
380 And each pretends by those his cause is plain.
381 Shall then the testament award the right?
382 No, that's the Hungary for which they fight;
383 The field of battle, subject of debate;
384 The thing contended for, the fair estate.
385 The sense is intricate, 'tis only clear
386 What vowels and what consonants are there.
387 Therefore 'tis plain, its meaning must be tried
388 Before some judge appointed to decide."
389 "Suppose," the fair apostate said, "I grant,
390 The faithful flock some living guide should want,
391 Your arguments an endless chase pursue:
392 Produce this vaunted leader to our view,
393 This mighty Moses of the chosen crew."
394 The dame, who saw her fainting foe retired,
395 With force renewed, to victory aspired;
[Page 176]
396 And, looking upward to her kindred sky,
397 As once our Saviour owned his Deity,
398 Pronounced his words---"She whom ye seek am I."
399 Nor less amazed this voice the Panther heard,
400 Than were those Jews to hear a God declared.
401 Then thus the matron modestly renewed:
402 "Let all your prophets and their sects be viewed,
403 And see to which of them yourselves think fit
404 The conduct of your conscience to submit;
405 Each proselyte would vote his doctor best,
406 With absolute exclusion to the rest:
407 Thus would your Polish diet disagree,
408 And end, as it began, in anarchy;
409 Yourself the fairest for election stand,
410 Because you seem crown-general of the land;
411 But soon against your superstitious lawn
412 Some Presbyterian sabre would be drawn;
413 In your established laws of sovereignty
414 The rest some fundamental flaw would see,
415 And call rebellion gospel-liberty.
416 To Church-decrees your articles require
417 Submission mollified, if not entire.
[Page 177]
418 Homage denied, to censures you proceed;
419 But when Curtana will not do the deed,
420 You lay that pointless clergy-weapon by,
421 And to the laws, your sword of justice, fly.
422 Now this your sects the more unkindly take,
423 (Those prying varlets hit the blots you make,)
424 Because some ancient friends of yours declare,
425 Your only rule of faith the scriptures are,
426 Interpreted by men of judgment sound,
427 Which every sect will for themselves expound;
428 Nor think less reverence to their doctors due
429 For sound interpretation, than to you.
430 If then, by able heads, are understood
431 Your brother prophets, who reformed abroad;
432 Those able heads expound a wiser way,
433 That their own sheep their shepherd should obey.
434 But if you mean yourselves are only sound,
435 That doctrine turns the reformation round,
436 And all the rest are false reformers found;
437 Because in sundry points you stand alone,
438 Not in communion joined with any one;
439 And therefore must be all the Church, or none.
440 Then, till you have agreed whose judge is best,
441 Against this forced submission they protest;
442 While sound and sound a different sense explains,
443 Both play at hardhead till they break their brains;
[Page 178]
444 And from their chairs each other's force defy,
445 While unregarded thunders vainly fly.
446 I pass the rest, because your Church alone
447 Of all usurpers best could fill the throne.
448 But neither you, nor any sect beside,
449 For this high office can be qualified,
450 With necessary gifts required in such a guide.
451 For that, which must direct the whole, must be
452 Bound in one bond of faith and unity;
453 But all your several Churches disagree.
454 The consubstantiating Church and priest
455 Refuse communion to the Calvinist;
456 The French reformed from preaching you restrain,
457 Because you judge their ordination vain;
458 And so they judge of yours, but donors must ordain.
459 In short, in doctrine, or in discipline,
460 Not one reformed can with another join;
461 But all from each, as from damnation, fly:
462 No union they pretend, but in non-popery.
463 Nor, should their members in a synod meet,
464 Could any Church presume to mount the seat,
465 Above the rest, their discords to decide;
466 None would obey, but each would be the guide;
467 And face to face dissensions would increase,
468 For only distance now preserves the peace.
469 All in their turns accusers, and accused;
470 Babel was never half so much confused;
471 What one can plead, the rest can plead as well;
472 For amongst equals lies no last appeal,
473 And all confess themselves are fallible.
[Page 179]
474 Now, since you grant some necessary guide,
475 All who can err are justly laid aside;
476 Because a trust so sacred to confer
477 Shows want of such a sure interpreter;
478 And how can he be needful who can err?
479 Then, granting that unerring guide we want,
480 That such there is you stand obliged to grant;
481 Our Saviour else were wanting to supply
482 Our needs, and obviate that necessity.
483 It then remains, that Church can only be
484 The guide, which owns unfailing certainty;
485 Or else you slip your hold, and change your side,
486 Relapsing from a necessary guide.
487 But this annexed condition of the crown,
488 Immunity from errors, you disown;
489 Here then you shrink, and lay your weak pretensions down.
[Page 180]
490 For petty royalties you raise debate;
491 But this unfailing universal state
492 You shun; nor dare succeed to such a glorious weight;
493 And for that cause those promises detest,
494 With which our Saviour did his Church invest;
495 But strive to evade, and fear to find them true,
496 As conscious they were never meant to you;
497 All which the Mother-Church asserts her own,
498 And with unrivalled claim ascends the throne.
499 So, when of old the Almighty Father sate
500 In council, to redeem our ruined state,
501 Millions of millions, at a distance round,
502 Silent the sacred consistory crowned,
503 To hear what mercy, mixed with justice, could propound;
504 All prompt, with eager pity, to fulfil
505 The full extent of their Creator's will:
506 But when the stern conditions were declared,
507 A mournful whisper through the host was heard,
508 And the whole hierarchy, with heads hung down,
509 Submissively declined the ponderous proffer'd crown.
510 Then, not till then, the Eternal Son from high
511 Rose in the strength of all the Deity;
512 Stood forth to accept the terms, and underwent
513 A weight which all the frame of heaven had bent,
514 Nor he himself could bear, but as Omnipotent.
515 Now, to remove the least remaining doubt,
516 That even the blear-eyed sects may find her out,
517 Behold what heavenly rays adorn her brows,
518 What from his wardrobe her beloved allows,
519 To deck the wedding-day of his unspotted spouse!
[Page 181]
520 Behold what marks of majesty she brings,
521 Richer than ancient heirs of eastern kings!
522 Her right hand holds the sceptre and the keys,
523 To show whom she commands, and who obeys;
524 With these to bind, or set the sinner free,
525 With that to assert spiritual royalty.
526 "One in herself, not rent by schism, but sound, [Side note: 1Kb]
527 Entire, one solid shining diamond;
528 Not sparkles shattered into sects like you:
529 One is the Church, and must be to be true;
530 One central principle of unity;
531 As undivided, so from errors free;
532 As one in faith, so one in sanctity.
[Page 182]
533 Thus she, and none but she, the insulting rage
534 Of heretics opposed from age to age;
535 Still when the giant-brood invades her throne,
536 She stoops from heaven, and meets them halfway down,
537 And with paternal thunder vindicates her crown.
538 But like Egyptian sorcerers you stand,
539 And vainly lift aloft your magic wand,
540 To sweep away the swarms of vermin from the land;
541 You could, like them, with like infernal force,
542 Produce the plague, but not arrest the course.
[Page 183]
543 But when the boils and botches, with disgrace
544 And public scandal, sat upon the face,
545 Themselves attacked, the Magi strove no more,
546 They saw God's finger, and their fate deplore;
547 Themselves they could not cure of the dishonest sore.
548 Thus one, thus pure, behold her largely spread,
549 Like the fair ocean from her mother-bed;
550 From east to west triumphantly she rides,
551 All shores are watered by her wealthy tides.
552 The gospel-sound, diffused from pole to pole,
553 Where winds can carry, and where waves can roll,
554 The selfsame doctrine of the sacred page
555 Conveyed to every clime, in every age.
556 "Here let my sorrow give my satire place,
557 To raise new blushes on my British race.
558 Our sailing ships like common-sewers we use,
559 And through our distant colonies diffuse
560 The draught of dungeons, and the stench of stews;
561 Whom, when their home-bred honesty is lost,
562 We disembogue on some far Indian coast,
563 Thieves, panders, palliards, sins of every sort;
564 Those are the manufactures we export,
565 And these the missioners our zeal has made;
566 For, with my country's pardon, be it said,
567 Religion is the least of all our trade.
[Page 184]
568 "Yet some improve their traffic more than we,
569 For they on gain, their only god, rely,
570 And set a public price on piety.
571 Industrious of the needle and the chart,
572 They run full sail to their Japonian mart;
573 Preventing fear, and, prodigal of fame,
574 Sell all of Christian to the very name,
575 Nor leave enough of that to hide their naked shame.
[Page 185]
576 "Thus, of three marks, which in the creed we view,
577 Not one of all can be applied to you;
578 Much less the fourth. In vain, alas! you seek
579 The ambitious title of apostolic:
580 Godlike descent! 'tis well your blood can be
581 Proved noble in the third or fourth degree;
582 For all of ancient that you had before,
583 I mean what is not borrowed from our store,
584 Was error fulminated o'er and o'er;
585 Old heresies condemned in ages past,
586 By care and time recovered from the blast.
587 "'Tis said with ease, but never can be proved,
588 The Church her old foundations has removed,
589 And built new doctrines on unstable sands:
590 Judge that, ye winds and rains! you proved her, yet she stands.
591 Those ancient doctrines charged on her for new,
592 Show when, and how, and from what hands they grew.
[Page 186]
593 We claim no power, when heresies grow bold,
594 To coin new faith, but still declare the old.
595 How else could that obscene disease be purged,
596 When controverted texts are vainly urged?
597 To prove tradition new, there's somewhat more
598 Required, than saying, 'Twas not used before.
599 Those monumental arms are never stirred,
600 Till schism or heresy call down Goliah's sword.
601 "Thus, what you call corruptions, are, in truth,
602 The first plantations of the gospel's youth;
603 Old standard faith; but cast your eyes again,
604 And view those errors which new sects maintain,
605 Or which of old disturbed the Church's peaceful reign;
606 And we can point each period of the time,
607 When they began, and who begot the crime;
608 Can calculate how long the eclipse endured,
609 Who interposed, what digits were obscured:
610 Of all which are already passed away,
611 We know the rise, the progress, and decay.
612 "Despair at our foundations then to strike,
613 Till you can prove your faith apostolic;
614 A limpid stream drawn from the native source;
615 Succession lawful in a lineal course.
616 Prove any Church, opposed to this our head,
617 So one, so pure, so unconfinedly spread,
618 Under one chief of the spiritual state,
619 The members all combined, and all subordinate;
620 Show such a seamless coat, from schism so free,
621 In no communion joined with heresy;---
622 If such a one you find, let truth prevail;
623 Till when, your weights will in the balance fail;
624 A Church unprincipled kicks up the scale.
[Page 187]
625 But if you cannot think, (nor sure you can
626 Suppose in God what were unjust in man,)
627 That He, the fountain of eternal grace,
628 Should suffer falsehood for so long a space
629 To banish truth, and to usurp her place;
630 That seven successive ages should be lost,
631 And preach damnation at their proper cost;
632 That all your erring ancestors should die,
633 Drowned in the abyss of deep idolatry;
634 If piety forbid such thoughts to rise,
635 Awake, and open your unwilling eyes:
636 God hath left nothing for each age undone,
637 From this to that wherein he sent his Son;
638 Then think but well of him, and half your work is done.
639 See how his Church, adorned with every grace,
640 With open arms, a kind forgiving face,
641 Stands ready to prevent her long-lost son's embrace!
642 Not more did Joseph o'er his brethren weep,
643 Nor less himself could from discovery keep,
644 When in the crowd of suppliants they were seen,
645 And in their crew his best-loved Benjamin.
646 That pious Joseph in the Church behold, [Side note: 1Kb]
647 To feed your famine, and refuse your gold;
648 The Joseph you exiled, the Joseph whom you sold."
[Page 188]
649 Thus, while with heavenly charity she spoke,
650 A streaming blaze the silent shadows broke;
651 Shot from the skies a cheerful azure light;
652 The birds obscene to forests winged their flight,
653 And gaping graves received the wandering guilty sprite.
[Page 189]
654 Such were the pleasing triumphs of the sky,
655 For James his late nocturnal victory;
656 The pledge of his almighty Patron's love,
657 The fireworks which his angels made above.
658 I saw myself the lambent easy light [Side note: 1Kb]
659 Gild the brown horror, and dispel the night;
660 The messenger with speed the tidings bore;
661 News, which three labouring nations did restore;
662 But heaven's own Nuntius was arrived before.
663 By this, the Hind had reached her lonely cell,
664 And vapours rose, and dews unwholesome fell;
665 When she, by frequent observation wise,
666 As one who long on heaven had fixed her eyes,
667 Discerned a change of weather in the skies.
668 The western borders were with crimson spread,
669 The moon descending looked all flaming red;
670 She thought good manners bound her to invite
671 The stranger dame to be her guest that night.
672 'Tis true, coarse diet, and a short repast,
673 She said, were weak inducements to the taste
674 Of one so nicely bred, and so unused to fast;
675 But what plain fare her cottage could afford,
676 A hearty welcome at a homely board,
677 Was freely hers; and, to supply the rest,
678 An honest meaning, and an open breast;
679 Last, with content of mind, the poor man's wealth,
680 A grace-cup to their common patron's health.
[Page 190]
681 This she desired her to accept, and stay,
682 For fear she might be wildered in her way,
683 Because she wanted an unerring guide,
684 And then the dewdrops on her silken hide
685 Her tender constitution did declare,
686 Too lady-like a long fatigue to bear,
687 And rough inclemencies of raw nocturnal air.
688 But most she feared, that, travelling so late,
689 Some evil-minded beasts might lie in wait,
690 And without witness wreak their hidden hate.
691 The Panther, though she lent a listening ear,
692 Had more of lion in her than to fear;
693 Yet wisely weighing, since she had to deal
694 With many foes, their numbers might prevail,
695 Returned her all the thanks she could afford,
696 And took her friendly hostess at her word;
697 Who, entering first her lowly roof, a shed
698 With hoary moss and winding ivy spread,
699 Honest enough to hide an humble hermit's head,
700 Thus graciously bespoke her welcome guest:
701 "So might these walls, with your fair presence blest,
702 Become your dwelling-place of everlasting rest;
[Page 191]
703 Not for a night, or quick revolving year,
704 Welcome an owner, not a sojourner.
705 This peaceful seat my poverty secures;
706 War seldom enters but where wealth allures:
707 Nor yet despise it; for this poor abode,
708 Has oft received, and yet receives a God;
709 A God, victorious of the Stygian race,
710 Here laid his sacred limbs, and sanctified the place.
711 This mean retreat did mighty Pan contain;
712 Be emulous of him, and pomp disdain,
713 And dare not to debase your soul to gain."
714 The silent stranger stood amazed to see
715 Contempt of wealth, and wilful poverty;
716 And, though ill habits are not soon controlled,
717 Awhile suspended her desire of gold.
718 But civilly drew in her sharpened paws,
719 Not violating hospitable laws,
720 And pacified her tail, and licked her frothy jaws.
721 The Hind did first her country cates provide;
722 Then couched herself securely by her side.
[Page 193]
PART THIRD.
[Page 195]
1 Much malice, mingled with a little wit,
2 Perhaps may censure this mysterious writ;
3 Because the muse has peopled Caledon
4 With panthers, bears, and wolves, and beasts unknown,
5 As if we were not stocked with monsters of our own.
6 Let Æsop answer, who has set to view
7 Such kinds as Greece and Phrygia never knew;
8 And Mother Hubbard, in her homely dress,
9 Has sharply blamed a British lioness;
10 That queen, whose feast the factious rabble keep,
11 Exposed obscenely naked, and asleep.
[Page 196]
12 Led by those great examples, may not I
13 The wonted organs of their words supply?
14 If men transact like brutes, 'tis equal then
15 For brutes to claim the privilege of men.
16 Others our Hind of folly will indite,
17 To entertain a dangerous guest by night.
18 Let those remember, that she cannot die,
19 Till rolling time is lost in round eternity;
[Page 197]
20 Nor need she fear the Panther, though untamed,
21 Because the Lion's peace was now proclaimed;
22 The wary savage would not give offence,
23 To forfeit the protection of her prince;
24 But watched the time her vengeance to complete,
25 When all her furry sons in frequent senate met;
26 Meanwhile she quenched her fury at the flood,
27 And with a lenten salad cooled her blood.
28 Their commons, though but coarse, were nothing scant,
29 Nor did their minds an equal banquet want.
30 For now the Hind, whose noble nature strove
31 To express her plain simplicity of love,
32 Did all the honours of her house so well,
33 No sharp debates disturbed the friendly meal.
34 She turned the talk, avoiding that extreme,
35 To common dangers past, a sadly-pleasing theme;
36 Remembering every storm which tossed the state,
37 When both were objects of the public hate,
38 And dropt a tear betwixt for her own children's fate.
39 Nor failed she then a full review to make
40 Of what the Panther suffered for her sake;
[Page 198]
41 Her lost esteem, her truth, her loyal care,
42 Her faith unshaken to an exiled heir,
43 Her strength to endure, her courage to defy,
44 Her choice of honourable infamy.
45 On these, prolixly thankful, she enlarged;
46 Then with acknowledgments herself she charged;
47 For friendship, of itself an holy tie,
48 Is made more sacred by adversity.
49 Now should they part, malicious tongues would say,
50 They met like chance companions on the way,
51 Whom mutual fear of robbers had possessed;
52 While danger lasted, kindness was professed;
53 But, that once o'er, the short-lived union ends,
54 The road divides, and there divide the friends.
55 The Panther nodded, when her speech was done,
56 And thanked her coldly in a hollow tone;
57 But said, her gratitude had gone too far
58 For common offices of Christian care.
59 If to the lawful heir she had been true,
60 She paid but Cæsar what was Cæsar's due.
61 "I might," she added, "with like praise describe
62 Your suffering sons, and so return your bribe:
63 But incense from my hands is poorly prized;
64 For gifts are scorned where givers are despised.
65 I served a turn, and then was cast away;
66 You, like the gaudy fly, your wings display,
67 And sip the sweets, and bask in your great patron's day."
[Page 199]
68 This heard, the matron was not slow to find
69 What sort of malady had seized her mind;
70 Disdain, with gnawing envy, fell despite,
71 And cankered malice, stood in open sight;
72 Ambition, interest, pride without control,
73 And jealousy, the jaundice of the soul;
74 Revenge, the bloody minister of ill,
75 With all the lean tormentors of the will.
76 'Twas easy now to guess from whence arose
77 Her new-made union with her ancient foes;
78 Her forced civilities, her faint embrace,
79 Affected kindness, with an altered face;
80 Yet durst she not too deeply probe the wound,
81 As hoping still the nobler parts were sound;
82 But strove with anodynes to assuage the smart,
83 And mildly thus her medicine did impart.
84 "Complaints of lovers help to ease their pain;
85 It shows a rest of kindness to complain;
86 A friendship loath to quit its former hold,
87 And conscious merit, may be justly bold;
88 But much more just your jealousy would show,
89 If others' good were injury to you:
90 Witness, ye heavens, how I rejoice to see
91 Rewarded worth and rising loyalty!
92 Your warrior offspring, that upheld the crown,
93 The scarlet honour of your peaceful gown,
94 Are the most pleasing objects I can find,
95 Charms to my sight, and cordials to my mind:
96 When virtue spooms before a prosperous gale,
97 My heaving wishes help to fill the sail;
[Page 200]
98 And if my prayers for all the brave were heard,
99 Cæsar should still have such, and such should still reward.
100 "The laboured earth your pains have sowed and tilled,
101 'Tis just you reap the product of the field:
102 Yours be the harvest; 'tis the beggar's gain,
103 To glean the fallings of the loaded wain.
104 Such scattered ears as are not worth your care,
105 Your charity, for alms, may safely spare,
106 For alms are but the vehicles of prayer.
107 My daily bread is literally implored;
108 I have no barns nor granaries to hoard.
109 If Cæsar to his own his hand extends,
110 Say which of yours his charity offends;
111 You know, he largely gives to more than are his friends.
112 Are you defrauded, when he feeds the poor?
113 Our mite decreases nothing of your store.
114 I am but few, and by your fare you see
115 My crying sins are not of luxury.
116 Some juster motive sure your mind withdraws,
117 And makes you break our friendship's holy laws;
118 For barefaced envy is too base a cause.
119 Show more occasion for your discontent;
120 Your love, the Wolf, would help you to invent:
121 Some German quarrel, or, as times go now,
122 Some French, where force is uppermost, will do.
123 When at the fountain's head, as merit ought
124 To claim the place, you take a swilling draught,
[Page 201]
125 How easy 'tis an envious eye to throw,
126 And tax the sheep for troubling streams below;
127 Or call her, when no further cause you find,
128 An enemy professed of all your kind!
129 But, then, perhaps, the wicked world would think,
130 The Wolf designed to eat as well as drink."
131 This last allusion galled the Panther more,
132 Because, indeed, it rubbed upon the sore;
133 Yet seemed she not to wince, though shrewdly pained,
134 But thus her passive character maintained.
135 "I never grudged, whate'er my foes report,
136 Your flaunting fortune in the Lion's court.
137 You have your day, or you are much belied,
138 But I am always on the suffering side;
139 You know my doctrine, and I need not say,
140 I will not, but I cannot disobey.
141 On this firm principle I ever stood;
142 He of my sons who fails to make it good,
143 By one rebellious act renounces to my blood."
144 "Ah," said the Hind, "how many sons have you,
145 Who call you mother, whom you never knew!
[Page 202]
146 But most of them, who that relation plead,
147 Are such ungracious youths as wish you dead.
148 They gape at rich revenues which you hold,
149 And fain would nibble at your grandame gold;
150 Enquire into your years, and laugh to find
151 Your crazy temper shows you much declined.
152 Were you not dim and doted, you might see
153 A pack of cheats that claim a pedigree,
154 No more of kin to you, than you to me.
155 Do you not know, that, for a little coin,
156 Heralds can foist a name into the line?
157 They ask you blessing but for what you have,
158 But, once possessed of what with care you save,
159 The wanton boys would piss upon your grave.
160 "Your sons of latitude, that court your grace,
161 Though most resembling you in form and face,
162 Are far the worst of your pretended race;
163 And, but I blush your honesty to blot,
164 Pray God you prove them lawfully begot!
165 For, in some Popish libels I have read,
166 The Wolf has been too busy in your bed;
167 At least their hinder parts, the belly-piece,
168 The paunch, and all that Scorpio claims, are his.
[Page 203]
169 Their malice too a sore suspicion brings,
170 For, though they dare not bark, they snarl at kings.
171 Nor blame them for intruding in your line;
172 Fat bishoprics are still of right divine.
[Page 204]
173 Think you, your new French proselytes are come,
174 To starve abroad, because they starved at home?
175 Your benefices twinkled from afar,
176 They found the new Messiah by the star;
[Page 205]
177 Those Swisses fight on any side for pay,
178 And 'tis the living that conforms, not they.
179 Mark with what management their tribes divide;
180 Some stick to you, and some to t'other side,
181 That many churches may for many mouths provide.
[Page 206]
182 More vacant pulpits would more converts make;
183 All would have latitude enough to take:
184 The rest unbeneficed your sects maintain;
185 For ordinations, without cures, are vain,
186 And chamber practice is a silent gain.
187 Your sons of breadth at home are much like these;
188 Their soft and yielding metals run with ease;
189 They melt, and take the figure of the mould,
190 But harden and preserve it best in gold."
191 "Your Delphic sword," the Panther then replied,
192 "Is double-edged, and cuts on either side.
193 Some sons of mine, who bear upon their shield
194 Three steeples argent in a sable field,
195 Have sharply taxed your converts, who, unfed,
196 Have followed you for miracles of bread;
[Page 207]
197 Such, who themselves of no religion are,
198 Allured with gain, for any will declare.
199 Bare lies, with bold assertions, they can face;
200 But dint of argument is out of place.
[Page 208]
201 The grim logician puts them in a fright;
202 'Tis easier far to flourish than to fight.
203 Thus, our eighth Henry's marriage they defame;
204 They say, the schism of beds began the game,
205 Divorcing from the Church to wed the dame;
[Page 209]
206 Though largely proved, and by himself professed,
207 That conscience, conscience would not let him rest,---
[Page 210]
208 I mean, not till possessed of her he loved,
209 And old, uncharming Catherine was removed.
210 For sundry years before he did complain,
211 And told his ghostly confessor his pain.
[Page 211]
212 With the same impudence, without a ground,
213 They say, that, look the reformation round,
214 No treatise of humility is found.
215 But if none were, the gospel does not want;
216 Our Saviour preached it, and I hope you grant,
217 The sermon on the mount was Protestant."
218 "No doubt," replied the Hind, "as sure as all
219 The writings of Saint Peter and Saint Paul;
220 On that decision let it stand, or fall.
[Page 212]
221 Now for my converts, who, you say, unfed,
222 Have followed me for miracles of bread.
223 Judge not by hearsay, but observe at least,
224 If since their change their loaves have been increased.
225 The Lion buys no converts; if he did,
226 Beasts would be sold as fast as he could bid.
227 Tax those of interest, who conform for gain,
228 Or stay the market of another reign:
229 Your broad-way sons would never be too nice
230 To close with Calvin, if he paid their price;
231 But, raised three steeples higher, would change their note,
232 And quit the cassock for the canting-coat.
233 Now, if you damn this censure, as too bold,
234 Judge by yourselves, and think not others sold.
235 "Meantime, my sons accused, by fame's report,
236 Pay small attendance at the Lion's court,
237 Nor rise with early crowds, nor flatter late;
238 For silently they beg, who daily wait.
239 Preferment is bestowed, that comes unsought;
240 Attendance is a bribe, and then 'tis bought.
241 How they should speed, their fortune is untried;
242 For not to ask, is not to be denied.
243 For what they have, their God and king they bless,
244 And hope they should not murmur, had they less.
245 But if reduced subsistence to implore,
246 In common prudence they would pass your door;
247 Unpitied Hudibras, your champion friend,
248 Has shown how far your charities extend.
[Page 213]
249 This lasting verse shall on his tomb be read,
250 'He shamed you living, and upbraids you dead.'
[Page 214]
251 "With odious atheist names you load your foes;
252 Your liberal clergy why did I expose?
253 It never fails in charities like those.
254 In climes where true religion is professed,
255 That imputation were no laughing jest;
[Page 215]
256 But imprimatur, with a chaplain's name,
257 Is here sufficient licence to defame.
258 What wonder is 't that black detraction thrives?
259 The homicide of names is less than lives;
260 And yet the perjured murderer survives."
261 This said, she paused a little, and suppressed
262 The boiling indignation of her breast.
263 She knew the virtue of her blade, nor would
264 Pollute her satire with ignoble blood;
265 Her panting foe she saw before her eye,
266 And back she drew the shining weapon dry.
267 So when the generous Lion has in sight
268 His equal match, he rouses for the fight;
269 But when his foe lies prostrate on the plain,
270 He sheathes his paws, uncurls his angry mane,
271 And, pleased with bloodless honours of the day,
272 Walks over, and disdains the inglorious prey.
273 So James, if great with less we may compare,
274 Arrests his rolling thunder-bolts in air;
[Page 216]
275 And grants ungrateful friends a lengthened space,
276 To implore the remnants of long-suffering grace.
277 This breathing-time the matron took; and then
278 Resumed the thrid of her discourse again.
279 "Be vengeance wholly left to powers divine,
280 And let heaven judge betwixt your sons and mine:
281 If joys hereafter must be purchased here
282 With loss of all that mortals hold so dear,
283 Then welcome infamy and public shame,
284 And last, a long farewell to worldly fame!
285 'Tis said with ease, but, oh, how hardly tried
286 By haughty souls to human honour tied!
287 O sharp convulsive pangs of agonising pride!
288 Down then, thou rebel, never more to rise!
289 And what thou didst, and dost, so dearly prize,
290 That fame, that darling fame, make that thy sacrifice.
291 'Tis nothing thou hast given; then add thy tears
292 For a long race of unrepenting years:
293 'Tis nothing yet, yet all thou hast to give:
294 Then add those may-be years thou hast to live:
295 Yet nothing still: then poor and naked come,
296 Thy Father will receive his unthrift home,
297 And thy blest Saviour's blood discharge the mighty sum.
298 "Thus," she pursued, "I discipline a son,
299 Whose unchecked fury to revenge would run;
300 He champs the bit, impatient of his loss,
301 And starts aside, and flounders at the cross.
302 Instruct him better, gracious God, to know,
303 As thine is vengeance, so forgiveness too;
[Page 217]
304 That, suffering from ill tongues, he bears no more
305 Than what his sovereign bears, and what his Saviour bore.
306 "It now remains for you to school your child,
307 And ask why God's anointed he reviled;
[Page 218]
308 A king and princess dead! did Shimei worse?
309 The curser's punishment should fright the curse;
310 Your son was warned, and wisely gave it o'er,
311 But he, who counselled him, has paid the score;
312 The heavy malice could no higher tend,
313 But woe to him on whom the weights descend.
314 So to permitted ills the demon flies;
315 His rage is aimed at him who rules the skies:
316 Constrained to quit his cause, no succour found,
317 The foe discharges every tire around,
318 In clouds of smoke abandoning the fight,
319 But his own thundering peals proclaim his flight.
[Page 219]
320 "In Henry's change his charge as ill succeeds;
321 To that long story little answer needs;
322 Confront but Henry's words with Henry's deeds.
323 Were space allowed, with ease it might be proved,
324 What springs his blessed reformation moved.
325 The dire effects appeared in open sight,
326 Which from the cause he calls a distant flight,
327 And yet no larger leap than from the sun to light.
328 "Now last your sons a double pæan sound,
329 A treatise of humility is found.
330 'Tis found, but better it had ne'er been sought,
331 Than thus in Protestant procession brought.
332 The famed original through Spain is known,
333 Rodriguez' work, my celebrated son,
334 Which yours, by ill-translating, made his own;
335 Concealed its author, and usurped the name,
336 The basest and ignoblest theft of fame.
337 My altars kindled first that living coal;
338 Restore, or practise better what you stole;
339 That virtue could this humble verse inspire,
340 'Tis all the restitution I require."
341 Glad was the Panther that the charge was closed,
342 And none of all her favourite sons exposed;
343 For laws of arms permit each injured man,
344 To make himself a saver where he can.
345 Perhaps the plundered merchant cannot tell
346 The names of pirates in whose hands he fell;
347 But at the den of thieves he justly flies,
348 And every Algerine is lawful prize;
349 No private person in the foe's estate
350 Can plead exemption from the public fate.
351 Yet Christian laws allow not such redress;
352 Then let the greater supersede the less.
[Page 220]
353 But let the abettors of the Panther's crime
354 Learn to make fairer wars another time.
355 Some characters may sure be found to write
356 Among her sons; for 'tis no common sight,
357 A spotted dam, and all her offspring white.
358 The savage, though she saw her plea controlled,
359 Yet would not wholly seem to quit her hold,
360 But offered fairly to compound the strife,
361 And judge conversion by the convert's life.
362 "'Tis true," she said, "I think it somewhat strange,
363 So few should follow profitable change;
364 For present joys are more to flesh and blood,
365 Than a dull prospect of a distant good.
366 'Twas well alluded by a son of mine,
367 (I hope to quote him is not to purloin,)
368 Two magnets, heaven and earth, allure to bliss;
369 The larger loadstone that, the nearer this:
370 The weak attraction of the greater fails;
371 We nod a while, but neighbourhood prevails;
372 But when the greater proves the nearer too,
373 I wonder more your converts come so slow.
374 Methinks in those who firm with me remain,
375 It shows a nobler principle than gain."
376 "Your inference would be strong," the Hind replied,
377 "If yours were in effect the suffering side;
378 Your clergy's sons their own in peace possess,
379 Nor are their prospects in reversion less.
380 My proselytes are struck with awful dread,
381 Your bloody comet-laws hang blazing o'er their head;
382 The respite they enjoy but only lent,
383 The best they have to hope, protracted punishment.
[Page 221]
384 Be judge yourself, if interest may prevail,
385 Which motives, yours or mine, will turn the scale.
386 While pride and pomp allure, and plenteous ease,
387 That is, till man's predominant passions cease,
388 Admire no longer at my slow increase.
389 "By education most have been misled;
390 So they believe, because they so were bred.
391 The priest continues what the nurse began,
392 And thus the child imposes on the man.
393 The rest I named before, nor need repeat;
394 But interest is the most prevailing cheat,
395 The sly seducer both of age and youth;
396 They study that, and think they study truth.
397 When interest fortifies an argument,
398 Weak reason serves to gain the will's assent;
399 For souls, already warped, receive an easy bent.
400 "Add long prescription of established laws,
401 And pique of honour to maintain a cause,
402 And shame of change, and fear of future ill,
403 And zeal, the blind conductor of the will;
404 And chief, among the still-mistaking crowd,
405 The fame of teachers obstinate and proud,
406 And, more than all, the private judge allowed;
407 Disdain of fathers which the dance began,
408 And last, uncertain whose the narrower span,
409 The clown unread, and half-read gentleman."
410 To this the Panther, with a scornful smile;---
411 "Yet still you travail with unwearied toil,
412 And range around the realm without control,
413 Among my sons for proselytes to prowl;
414 And here and there you snap some silly soul.
415 You hinted fears of future change in state;
416 Pray heaven you did not prophesy your fate!
[Page 222]
417 Perhaps you think your time of triumph near,
418 But may mistake the season of the year;
419 The Swallow's fortune gives you cause to fear."
[Page 223]
420 "For charity," replied the matron, "tell
421 What sad mischance those pretty birds befell."
422 "Nay, no mischance," the savage dame replied,
423 "But want of wit in their unerring guide,
424 And eager haste, and gaudy hopes, and giddy pride.
[Page 224]
425 Yet, wishing timely warning may prevail,
426 Make you the moral, and I'll tell the tale.
427 "The Swallow, privileged above the rest
428 Of all the birds, as man's familiar guest,
429 Pursues the sun, in summer brisk and bold,
430 But wisely shuns the persecuting cold;
[Page 225]
431 Is well to chancels and to chimneys known,
432 Though 'tis not thought she feeds on smoke alone.
433 From hence she has been held of heavenly line,
434 Endued with particles of soul divine.
435 This merry chorister had long possessed
436 Her summer-seat, and feathered well her nest;
437 Till frowning skies began to change their cheer,
438 And time turned up the wrong side of the year;
439 The shading trees began the ground to strow
440 With yellow leaves, and bitter blasts to blow.
[Page 226]
441 Sad auguries of winter thence she drew,
442 Which by instinct, or prophecy, she knew;
443 When prudence warned her to remove betimes,
444 And seek a better heaven, and warmer climes.
445 "Her sons were summoned on a steeple's height,
446 And, called in common council, vote a flight.
447 The day was named, the next that should be fair;
448 All to the general rendezvous repair,
449 They try their fluttering wings, and trust themselves in air.
450 But whether upward to the moon they go,
451 Or dream the winter out in caves below,
452 Or hawk at flies elsewhere, concerns us not to know.
453 Southwards you may be sure they bent their flight,
454 And harboured in a hollow rock at night;
455 Next morn they rose, and set up every sail;
456 The wind was fair, but blew a mackrel gale;
457 The sickly young sat shivering on the shore,
458 Abhorred salt-water never seen before,
459 And prayed their tender mothers to delay
460 The passage, and expect a fairer day.
461 "With these the Martin readily concurred,
462 A church-begot and church-believing bird;
463 Of little body, but of lofty mind,
464 Round bellied, for a dignity designed,
465 And much a dunce, as Martins are by kind;
466 Yet often quoted canon-laws, and code,
467 And fathers which he never understood;
468 But little learning needs in noble blood.
469 For, sooth to say, the Swallow brought him in,
470 Her household chaplain, and her next of kin;
[Page 227]
471 In superstition silly to excess,
472 And casting schemes by planetary guess;
473 In fine, short-winged, unfit himself to fly,
474 His fear foretold foul weather in the sky.
475 Besides, a Raven from a withered oak,
476 Left of their lodging, was observed to croak.
477 That omen liked him not; so his advice
478 Was present safety, bought at any price;
479 A seeming pious care, that covered cowardice.
480 To strengthen this, he told a boding dream,
481 Of rising waters, and a troubled stream,
482 Sure signs of anguish, dangers, and distress,
483 With something more, not lawful to express:
484 By which he slily seemed to intimate
485 Some secret revelation of their fate.
486 For he concluded, once upon a time,
487 He found a leaf inscribed with sacred rhyme,
488 Whose antique characters did well denote
489 The Sibyl's hand of the Cumæan grot;
490 The mad divineress had plainly writ,
491 A time should come, but many ages yet,
492 In which, sinister destinies ordain,
493 A dame should drown with all her feathered train,
494 And seas from thence be called the Chelidonian main.
495 At this, some shook for fear; the more devout
496 Arose, and blessed themselves from head to foot.
497 "'Tis true, some stagers of the wiser sort
498 Made all these idle wonderments their sport;
[Page 228]
499 They said their only danger was delay,
500 And he, who heard what every fool could say,
501 Would never fix his thought, but trim his time away.
502 The passage yet was good; the wind, 'tis true,
503 Was somewhat high, but that was nothing new,
504 No more than usual equinoxes blew.
505 The sun, already from the Scales declined,
506 Gave little hopes of better days behind,
507 But change from bad to worse, of weather and of wind.
508 Nor need they fear the dampness of the sky
509 Should flag their wings, and hinder them to fly,
510 'Twas only water thrown on sails too dry.
511 But, least of all, philosophy presumes
512 Of truth in dreams, from melancholy fumes;
513 Perhaps the Martin, housed in holy ground,
514 Might think of ghosts, that walk their midnight round,
515 Till grosser atoms, tumbling in the stream
516 Of fancy, madly met, and clubbed into a dream:
517 As little weight his vain presages bear,
518 Of ill effect to such alone who fear;
519 Most prophecies are of a piece with these,
520 Each Nostradamus can foretell with ease:
521 Not naming persons, and confounding times,
522 One casual truth supports a thousand lying rhymes.
523 "The advice was true; but fear had seized the most,
524 And all good counsel is on cowards lost.
525 The question crudely put to shun delay,
526 'Twas carried by the major part to stay.
527 "His point thus gained, Sir Martin dated thence
528 His power, and from a priest became a prince.
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529 He ordered all things with a busy care,
530 And cells and refectories did prepare,
531 And large provisions laid of winter fare;
532 But, now and then, let fall a word or two,
533 Of hope, that heaven some miracle might show,
534 And, for their sakes, the sun should backward go;
535 Against the laws of nature upward climb,
536 And, mounted on the Ram, renew the prime;
537 For which two proofs in sacred story lay,
538 Of Ahaz' dial, and of Joshua's day.
539 In expectation of such times as these,
540 A chapel housed them, truly called of ease;
541 For Martin much devotion did not ask;
542 They prayed sometimes, and that was all their task.
543 "It happened, as beyond the reach of wit
544 Blind prophecies may have a lucky hit,
545 That this accomplished, or at least in part,
546 Gave great repute to their new Merlin's art.
547 Some Swifts, [Footnote: 1Kb] the giants of the Swallow kind,
548 Large limbed, stout hearted, but of stupid mind,
549 (For Swisses, or for Gibeonites designed,)
550 These lubbers, peeping through a broken pane,
551 To suck fresh air, surveyed the neighbouring plain,
552 And saw, but scarcely could believe their eyes,
553 New blossoms flourish, and new flowers arise;
554 As God had been abroad, and, walking there,
555 Had left his footsteps, and reformed the year.
556 The sunny hills from far were seen to glow
557 With glittering beams, and in the meads below
558 The burnished brooks appeared with liquid gold to flow.
559 At last they heard the foolish Cuckoo sing,
560 Whose note proclaimed the holiday of spring.
[Page 230]
561 "No longer doubting, all prepare to fly,
562 And repossess their patrimonial sky.
563 The priest before them did his wings display;
564 And that good omens might attend their way,
565 As luck would have it, 'twas St. Martin's day.
566 "Who but the Swallow now triumphs alone?
567 The canopy of heaven is all her own;
568 Her youthful offspring to their haunts repair,
569 And glide along in glades, and skim in air,
570 And dip for insects in the purling springs,
571 And stoop on rivers to refresh their wings.
572 Their mother thinks a fair provision made,
573 That every son can live upon his trade,
574 And, now the careful charge is off their hands,
575 Look out for husbands, and new nuptial bands.
576 The youthful widow longs to be supplied;
577 But first the lover is by lawyers tied,
578 To settle jointure-chimneys on the bride.
579 So thick they couple in so short a space,
580 That Martin's marriage-offerings rise apace.
581 Their ancient houses, running to decay,
582 Are furbished up, and cemented with clay:
583 They teem already; store of eggs are laid,
584 And brooding mothers call Lucina's aid.
585 Fame spreads the news, and foreign fowls appear,
586 In flocks, to greet the new returning year,
587 To bless the founder, and partake the cheer.
588 "And now 'twas time, so fast their numbers rise,
589 To plant abroad and people colonies.
590 The youth drawn forth, as Martin had desired,
591 (For so their cruel destiny required,)
592 Were sent far off on an ill-fated day;
593 The rest would needs conduct them on their way,
594 And Martin went, because he feared alone to stay.
595 "So long they flew with inconsiderate haste,
596 That now their afternoon began to waste;
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597 And, what was ominous, that very morn
598 The sun was entered into Capricorn;
599 Which, by their bad astronomer's account,
600 That week the Virgin balance should remount.
601 An infant moon eclipsed him in his way,
602 And hid the small remainders of his day.
603 The crowd, amazed, pursued no certain mark,
604 But birds met birds, and jostled in the dark.
605 Few mind the public, in a panic fright,
606 And fear increased the horror of the night.
607 Night came, but unattended with repose;
608 Alone she came, no sleep their eyes to close;
609 Alone, and black she came; no friendly stars arose.
610 "What should they do, beset with dangers round,
611 No neighbouring dorp, no lodging to be found,
612 But bleaky plains, and bare, unhospitable ground?
613 The latter brood, who just began to fly,
614 Sick-feathered, and unpractised in the sky,
615 For succour to their helpless mother call:
616 She spread her wings; some few beneath them crawl;
617 She spread them wider yet, but could not cover all.
618 To augment their woes, the winds began to move,
619 Debate in air for empty fields above,
620 Till Boreas got the skies, and poured amain
621 His rattling hailstones, mixed with snow and rain.
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622 "The joyless morning late arose, and found
623 A dreadful desolation reign around,
624 Some buried in the snow, some frozen to the ground.
625 The rest were struggling still with death, and lay
626 The Crows' and Ravens' rights, an undefended prey:
627 Excepting Martin's race; for they and he
628 Had gained the shelter of a hollow tree;
629 But, soon discovered by a sturdy clown,
630 He headed all the rabble of a town,
631 And finished them with bats, or polled them down.
632 Martin himself was caught alive, and tried
633 For treasonous crimes, because the laws provide
634 No Martin there in winter shall abide.
635 High on an oak, which never leaf shall bear,
636 He breathed his last, exposed to open air;
637 And there his corpse unblessed is hanging still,
638 To show the change of winds with his prophetic bill."
639 The patience of the Hind did almost fail,
640 For well she marked the malice of the tale;
641 Which ribald art their Church to Luther owes;
642 In malice it began, by malice grows;
643 He sowed the serpent's teeth, an iron harvest rose.
644 But most in Martin's character and fate,
645 She saw her slandered sons, the Panther's hate,
646 The people's rage, the persecuting state:
[Page 233]
647 Then said, "I take the advice in friendly part;
648 You clear your conscience, or at least your heart.
649 Perhaps you failed in your foreseeing skill,
650 For Swallows are unlucky birds to kill:
651 As for my sons, the family is blessed,
652 Whose every child is equal to the rest;
653 No Church reformed can boast a blameless line,
654 Such Martins build in yours, and more than mine;
655 Or else an old fanatic author lies,
656 Who summed their scandals up by centuries.
657 But through your parable I plainly see
658 The bloody laws, the crowd's barbarity;
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659 The sunshine, that offends the purblind sight,
660 Had some their wishes, it would soon be night.
661 Mistake me not; the charge concerns not you;
662 Your sons are malcontents, but yet are true,
663 As far as non-resistance makes them so;
664 But that's a word of neutral sense, you know,
665 A passive term, which no relief will bring,
666 But trims betwixt a rebel and a king."
667 "Rest well assured," the Pardalis replied,
668 "My sons would all support the regal side,
669 Though heaven forbid the cause by battle should be tried."
[Page 235]
670 The matron answered with a loud Amen,
671 And thus pursued her argument again:---
672 "If, as you say, and as I hope no less,
673 Your sons will practise what yourselves profess,
674 What angry power prevents our present peace?
675 The Lion, studious of our common good,
676 Desires (and kings' desires are ill withstood)
677 To join our nations in a lasting love;
678 The bars betwixt are easy to remove,
679 For sanguinary laws were never made above.
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680 If you condemn that prince of tyranny,
681 Whose mandate forced your Gallic friends to fly,
682 Make not a worse example of your own,
683 Or cease to rail at causeless rigour shown,
684 And let the guiltless person throw the stone.
685 His blunted sword your suffering brotherhood
686 Have seldom felt; he stops it short of blood:
687 But you have ground the persecuting knife,
688 And set it to a razor-edge on life.
689 Cursed be the wit, which cruelty refines,
690 Or to his father's rod the scorpion joins!
691 Your finger is more gross than the great monarch's loins.
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692 But you, perhaps, remove that bloody note,
693 And stick it on the first reformers' coat.
694 Oh let their crime in long oblivion sleep;
695 'Twas theirs indeed to make, 'tis yours to keep!
696 Unjust, or just, is all the question now;
697 'Tis plain, that, not repealing, you allow.
698 "To name the Test would put you in a rage;
699 You charge not that on any former age,
700 But smile to think how innocent you stand,
701 Armed by a weapon put into your hand.
[Page 238]
702 Yet still remember, that you wield a sword,
703 Forged by your foes against your sovereign lord;
704 Designed to hew the imperial cedar down,
705 Defraud succession, and dis-heir the crown.
706 To abhor the makers, and their laws approve,
707 Is to hate traitors, and the treason love.
[Page 239]
708 What means it else, which now your children say,
709 We made it not, nor will we take away?
710 "Suppose some great oppressor had, by slight
711 Of law, disseised your brother of his right,
712 Your common sire surrendering in a fright;
713 Would you to that unrighteous title stand,
714 Left by the villain's will to heir the land?
715 More just was Judas, who his Saviour sold;
716 The sacrilegious bribe he could not hold,
717 Nor hang in peace, before he rendered back the gold.
718 What more could you have done, than now you do,
719 Had Oates and Bedloe and their plot been true;
720 Some specious reasons for those wrongs were found;
721 The dire magicians threw their mists around,
722 And wise men walked as on enchanted ground.
723 But now when time has made the imposture plain,
724 (Late though he followed truth, and limping held her train,)
725 What new delusion charms your cheated eyes again?
726 The painted harlot might a while bewitch,
727 But why the hag uncased, and all obscene with itch?
728 "The first reformers were a modest race;
729 Our peers possessed in peace their native place,
730 And when rebellious arms o'erturned the state,
731 They suffered only in the common fate;
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732 But now the sovereign mounts the regal chair,
733 And mitred seats are full, yet David's bench is bare.
734 Your answer is, they were not dispossest;
735 They need but rub their metal on the Test
736 To prove their ore;---'twere well if gold alone
737 Were touched and tried on your discerning stone;
738 But that unfaithful test unfound will pass
739 The dross of Atheists, and sectarian brass;
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740 As if the experiment were made to hold
741 For base production, and reject the gold.
742 Thus men ungodded may to places rise,
743 And sects may be preferred without disguise;
744 No danger to the Church or State from these,
745 The Papist only has his writ of ease.
746 No gainful office gives him the pretence
747 To grind the subject, or defraud the prince.
748 Wrong conscience, or no conscience, may deserve
749 To thrive, but ours alone is privileged to starve.
750 Still thank yourselves, you cry; your noble race
751 We banish not, but they forsake the place;
752 Our doors are open:---true, but ere they come,
753 You toss your censing test, and fume the room;
754 As if 'twere Toby's rival to expel,
755 And fright the fiend who could not bear the smell."
756 To this the Panther sharply had replied,
757 But having gained a verdict on her side,
758 She wisely gave the loser leave to chide;
759 Well satisfied to have the butt and peace,
760 And for the plaintiff's cause she cared the less,
761 Because she sued in forma pauperis;
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762 Yet thought it decent something should be said,
763 For secret guilt by silence is betrayed;
764 So neither granted all, nor much denied,
765 But answered with a yawning kind of pride:
766 "Methinks such terms of proffered peace you bring,
767 As once Æneas to the Italian king:
768 By long possession all the land is mine;
769 You strangers come with your intruding line,
770 To share my sceptre, which you call to join.
771 You plead like him an ancient pedigree,
772 And claim a peaceful seat by fate's decree.
773 In ready pomp your sacrificer stands,
774 To unite the Trojan and the Latin bands;
775 And, that the league more firmly may be tied,
776 Demand the fair Lavinia for your bride.
777 Thus plausibly you veil the intended wrong,
778 But still you bring your exiled gods along;
779 And will endeavour, in succeeding space,
780 Those household puppets on our hearths to place.
781 Perhaps some barbarous laws have been preferred;
782 I spake against the Test, but was not heard.
783 These to rescind, and peerage to restore,
784 My gracious sovereign would my vote implore;
785 I owe him much, but owe my conscience more."
786 "Conscience is then your plea," replied the dame,
787 "Which, well-informed, will ever be the same.
788 But yours is much of the chameleon hue,
789 To change the dye with every distant view.
790 When first the Lion sat with awful sway,
791 Your conscience taught your duty to obey:
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792 He might have had your statutes and your Test;
793 No conscience but of subjects was professed.
794 He found your temper, and no farther tried,
795 But on that broken reed, your Church, relied.
[Page 244]
796 In vain the sects essayed their utmost art,
797 With offered treasures to espouse their part;
798 Their treasures were a bribe too mean to move his heart.
[Page 245]
799 But when, by long experience, you had proved,
800 How far he could forgive, how well he loved;
801 (A goodness that excelled his godlike race,
802 And only short of heaven's unbounded grace;
803 A flood of mercy that o'erflowed our isle,
804 Calm in the rise, and fruitful as the Nile,)
805 Forgetting whence your Egypt was supplied,
806 You thought your sovereign bound to send the tide;
807 Nor upward looked on that immortal spring,
808 But vainly deemed, he durst not be a king.
809 Then Conscience, unrestrained by fear, began
810 To stretch her limits, and extend the span;
811 Did his indulgence as her gift dispose,
812 And made a wise alliance with her foes.
813 Can Conscience own the associating name,
814 And raise no blushes to conceal her shame?
815 For sure she has been thought a bashful dame.
816 But if the cause by battle should be tried,
817 You grant she must espouse the regal side;
818 O Proteus-conscience, never to be tied!
819 What Phoebus from the Tripod shall disclose,
820 Which are, in last resort, your friends or foes?
821 Homer, who learned the language of the sky,
822 The seeming Gordian knot would soon untie;
[Page 246]
823 Immortal powers the term of Conscience know,
824 But Interest is her name with men below."
825 "Conscience or Interest be't, or both in one,"
826 (The Panther answered in a surly tone;)
827 "The first commands me to maintain the crown,
828 The last forbids to throw my barriers down.
829 Our penal laws no sons of yours admit,
830 Our Test excludes your tribe from benefit.
831 These are my banks your ocean to withstand,
832 Which, proudly rising, overlooks the land,
833 And, once let in, with unresisted sway,
834 Would sweep the pastors and their flocks away.
835 Think not my judgment leads me to comply
836 With laws unjust, but hard necessity:
837 Imperious need, which cannot be withstood,
838 Makes ill authentic, for a greater good.
839 Possess your soul with patience, and attend;
840 A more auspicious planet may ascend;
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841 Good fortune may present some happier time
842 With means to cancel my unwilling crime;
843 (Unwilling, witness all ye powers above!)
844 To mend my errors, and redeem your love:
845 That little space you safely may allow;
846 Your all-dispensing power protects you now."
847 "Hold," said the Hind, "'tis needless to explain;
848 You would postpone me to another reign;
849 Till when, you are content to be unjust:
850 Your part is to possess, and mine to trust;
851 A fair exchange proposed, of future chance
852 For present profit and inheritance.
853 Few words will serve to finish our dispute;
854 Who will not now repeal, would persecute.
855 To ripen green revenge your hopes attend,
856 Wishing that happier planet would ascend.
857 For shame, let Conscience be your plea no more;
858 To will hereafter, proves she might before;
859 But she's a bawd to gain, and holds the door.
[Page 248]
860 "Your care about your banks infers a fear
861 Of threatening floods and inundations near;
862 If so, a just reprise would only be
863 Of what the land usurped upon the sea;
864 And all your jealousies but serve to show,
865 Your ground is, like your neighbour-nation, low.
866 To intrench in what you grant unrighteous laws,
867 Is to distrust the justice of your cause;
868 And argues, that the true religion lies
869 In those weak adversaries you despise.
870 Tyrannic force is that which least you fear;
871 The sound is frightful in a Christian's ear:
872 Avert it, Heaven! nor let that plague be sent
873 To us from the dispeopled continent.
874 "But piety commands me to refrain;
875 Those prayers are needless in this monarch's reign.
876 Behold how he protects your friends oppressed,
877 Receives the banished, succours the distressed!
878 Behold, for you may read an honest open breast.
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879 He stands in daylight, and disdains to hide
880 An act, to which by honour he is tied,
881 A generous, laudable, and kingly pride.
882 Your Test he would repeal, his peers restore;
883 This when he says he means, he means no more."
884 "Well," said the Panther, "I believe him just,
885 And yet---"
886 "And yet, 'tis but because you must;
887 You would be trusted, but you would not trust."
888 The Hind thus briefly; and disdained to enlarge
889 On power of kings, and their superior charge,
890 As heaven's trustees before the people's choice;
891 Though sure the Panther did not much rejoice
892 To hear those echoes given of her once loyal voice.
893 The matron wooed her kindness to the last,
894 But could not win; her hour of grace was past.
[Page 250]
895 Whom, thus persisting, when she could not bring
896 To leave the Wolf, and to believe her king,
897 She gave her up, and fairly wished her joy
898 Of her late treaty with her new ally:
899 Which well she hoped would more successful prove,
900 Than was the Pigeon's and the Buzzard's love.
901 The Panther asked, what concord there could be
902 Betwixt two kinds whose natures disagree?
903 The dame replied: "'Tis sung in every street,
904 The common chat of gossips when they meet;
905 But, since unheard by you, 'tis worth your while
906 To take a wholesome tale, though told in homely style.
907 "A plain good man, whose name is understood,
908 (So few deserve the name of plain and good,)
[Page 251]
909 Of three fair lineal lordships stood possessed,
910 And lived, as reason was, upon the best.
911 Inured to hardships from his early youth,
912 Much had he done and suffered for his truth:
913 At land and sea, in many a doubtful fight,
914 Was never known a more adventurous knight,
915 Who oftener drew his sword, and always for the right.
916 "As fortune would, (his fortune came, though late,)
917 He took possession of his just estate;
918 Nor racked his tenants with increase of rent,
919 Nor lived too sparing, nor too largely spent,
920 But overlooked his hinds; their pay was just,
921 And ready, for he scorned to go on trust:
922 Slow to resolve, but in performance quick;
923 So true, that he was awkward at a trick.
924 For little souls on little shifts rely,
925 And coward arts of mean expedients try;
926 The noble mind will dare do anything but lie.
927 False friends, his deadliest foes, could find no way,
928 But shows of honest bluntness, to betray;
929 That unsuspected plainness he believed;
930 He looked into himself, and was deceived.
931 Some lucky planet sure attends his birth,
932 Or heaven would make a miracle on earth;
933 For prosperous honesty is seldom seen
934 To bear so dead a weight, and yet to win.
935 It looks as fate with nature's law would strive,
936 To show plain-dealing once an age may thrive;
937 And, when so tough a frame she could not bend,
938 Exceeded her commission, to befriend.
939 "This grateful man, as heaven increased his store,
940 Gave God again, and daily fed his poor.
[Page 252]
941 His house with all convenience was purveyed;
942 The rest he found, but raised the fabric where he prayed;
943 And in that sacred place his beauteous wife
944 Employed her happiest hours of holy life.
945 "Nor did their alms extend to those alone,
946 Whom common faith more strictly made their own;
947 A sort of Doves were housed too near the hall,
948 Who cross the proverb, and abound with gall.
949 Though some, 'tis true, are passively inclined,
950 The greater part degenerate from their kind;
951 Voracious birds, that hotly bill and breed,
952 And largely drink, because on salt they feed.
953 Small gain from them their bounteous owner draws;
954 Yet, bound by promise, he supports their cause,
955 As corporations privileged by laws.
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956 "That house, which harbour to their kind affords,
957 Was built long since, God knows, for better birds;
958 But fluttering there, they nestle near the throne,
959 And lodge in habitations not their own,
960 By their high crops and corny gizzards known.
961 Like Harpies, they could scent a plenteous board,
962 Then to be sure they never failed their lord:
963 The rest was form, and bare attendance paid;
964 They drank, and eat, and grudgingly obeyed.
965 The more they fed, they ravened still for more;
966 They drained from Dan, and left Beersheba poor.
967 All this they had by law, and none repined;
968 The preference was but due to Levi's kind:
969 But when some lay-preferment fell by chance,
970 The gourmands made it their inheritance.
971 When once possessed, they never quit their claim,
972 For then 'tis sanctified to heaven's high name;
973 And hallowed thus, they cannot give consent,
974 The gift should be profaned by worldly management.
975 "Their flesh was never to the table served,
976 Though 'tis not thence inferred the birds were starved;
977 But that their master did not like the food,
978 As rank, and breeding melancholy blood.
979 Nor did it with his gracious nature suit,
980 E'en though they were not doves, to persecute:
981 Yet he refused, (nor could they take offence,)
982 Their glutton kind should teach him abstinence.
983 Nor consecrated grain their wheat he thought,
984 Which, new from treading, in their bills they brought;
985 But left his hinds each in his private power,
986 That those who like the bran might leave the flour.
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987 He for himself, and not for others, chose,
988 Nor would he be imposed on, nor impose;
989 But in their faces his devotion paid,
990 And sacrifice with solemn rites was made,
991 And sacred incense on his altars laid.
992 "Besides these jolly birds, whose corpse impure
993 Repaid their commons with their salt manure,
994 Another farm he had behind his house,
995 Not overstocked, but barely for his use;
996 Wherein his poor domestic poultry fed,
997 And from his pious hands received their bread.
998 Our pampered Pigeons, with malignant eyes,
999 Beheld these inmates, and their nurseries;
1000 Though hard their fare, at evening, and at morn,
1001 (A cruse of water and an ear of corn,)
1002 Yet still they grudged that modicum, and thought
1003 A sheaf in every single grain was brought.
1004 Fain would they filch that little food away,
1005 While unrestrained those happy gluttons prey;
1006 And much they grieved to see so nigh their hall,
1007 The bird that warned St. Peter of his fall;
1008 That he should raise his mitred crest on high,
1009 And clap his wings, and call his family
1010 To sacred rites; and vex the ethereal powers
1011 With midnight matins at uncivil hours;
1012 Nay more, his quiet neighbours should molest,
1013 Just in the sweetness of their morning rest.
1014 Beast of a bird, supinely when he might
1015 Lie snug and sleep, to rise before the light!
1016 What if his dull forefathers used that cry,
1017 Could he not let a bad example die?
1018 The world was fallen into an easier way;
1019 This age knew better than to fast and pray.
[Page 255]
1020 Good sense in sacred worship would appear,
1021 So to begin, as they might end the year.
1022 Such feats in former times had wrought the falls
1023 Of crowing chanticleers in cloistered walls.
1024 Expelled for this, and for their lands, they fled;
1025 And sister Partlet, with her hooded head,
1026 Was hooted hence, because she would not pray abed.
1027 The way to win the restiff world to God,
1028 Was to lay by the disciplining rod,
1029 Unnatural fasts, and foreign forms of prayer;
1030 Religion frights us with a mien severe.
1031 'Tis prudence to reform her into ease,
1032 And put her in undress, to make her please;
1033 A lively faith will bear aloft the mind,
1034 And leave the luggage of good works behind.
1035 "Such doctrines in the Pigeon-house were taught;
1036 You need not ask how wondrously they wrought;
1037 But sure the common cry was all for these,
1038 Whose life and precepts both encouraged ease.
1039 Yet fearing those alluring baits might fail,
1040 And holy deeds o'er all their arts prevail,
1041 (For vice, though frontless, and of hardened face,
1042 Is daunted at the sight of awful grace,)
1043 An hideous figure of their foes they drew,
1044 Nor lines, nor looks, nor shades, nor colours true;
1045 And this grotesque design exposed to public view.
[Page 256]
1046 One would have thought it an Egyptian piece,
1047 With garden-gods, and barking deities,
1048 More thick than Ptolemy has stuck the skies.
1049 All so perverse a draught, so far unlike,
1050 It was no libel where it meant to strike.
1051 Yet still the daubing pleased, and great and small,
1052 To view the monster, crowded Pigeon-hall.
1053 There Chanticleer was drawn upon his knees,
1054 Adorning shrines, and stocks of sainted trees;
1055 And by him, a misshapen, ugly race,
1056 The curse of God was seen on every face:
1057 No Holland emblem could that malice mend,
1058 But still the worse the look, the fitter for a fiend.
[Page 257]
1059 "The master of the farm, displeased to find
1060 So much of rancour in so mild a kind,
1061 Enquired into the cause, and came to know,
1062 The passive Church had struck the foremost blow;
1063 With groundless fears, and jealousies possest,
1064 As if this troublesome intruding guest
1065 Would drive the birds of Venus from their nest,
1066 A deed his inborn equity abhorred;
1067 But interest will not trust, though God should plight his word.
1068 "A law, the source of many future harms,
1069 Had banished all the poultry from the farms;
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1070 With loss of life, if any should be found
1071 To crow or peck on this forbidden ground.
1072 That bloody statute chiefly was designed
1073 For Chanticleer the white, of clergy kind;
1074 But after-malice did not long forget
1075 The lay that wore the robe and coronet.
1076 For them, for their inferiors and allies,
1077 Their foes a deadly Shibboleth devise;
1078 By which unrighteously it was decreed,
1079 That none to trust, or profit, should succeed,
1080 Who would not swallow first a poisonous wicked weed;
1081 Or that, to which old Socrates was cursed,
1082 Or henbane juice to swell them till they burst.
1083 "The patron, as in reason, thought it hard
1084 To see this inquisition in his yard,
1085 By which the sovereign was of subjects' use debarred.
1086 All gentle means he tried, which might withdraw
1087 The effects of so unnatural a law;
1088 But still the dove-house obstinately stood
1089 Deaf to their own, and to their neighbours' good;
1090 And which was worse, if any worse could be,
1091 Repented of their boasted loyalty;
1092 Now made the champions of a cruel cause,
1093 And drunk with fumes of popular applause:
1094 For those whom God to ruin has designed,
1095 He fits for fate, and first destroys their mind.
1096 "New doubts indeed they daily strove to raise,
1097 Suggested dangers, interposed delays,
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1098 And emissary Pigeons had in store,
1099 Such as the Meccan prophet used of yore,
1100 To whisper counsels in their patron's ear,
1101 And veiled their false advice with zealous fear.
1102 The master smiled to see them work in vain,
1103 To wear him out, and make an idle reign:
1104 He saw, but suffered their protractive arts,
1105 And strove by mildness to reduce their hearts;
1106 But they abused that grace to make allies,
1107 And fondly closed with former enemies;
1108 For fools are double fools, endeavouring to be wise.
1109 "After a grave consult what course were best,
1110 One, more mature in folly than the rest,
1111 Stood up, and told them, with his head aside,
1112 That desperate cures must be to desperate ills applied:
1113 And therefore, since their main impending fear
1114 Was from the increasing race of Chanticleer,
1115 Some potent bird of prey they ought to find,
1116 A foe professed to him, and all his kind:
1117 Some haggard Hawk, who had her eyry nigh,
1118 Well pounced to fasten, and well winged to fly;
1119 One they might trust, their common wrongs to wreak.
1120 The Musquet and the Coystrel were too weak,
1121 Too fierce the Falcon; but, above the rest,
1122 The noble Buzzard ever pleased me best:
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1123 Of small renown, 'tis true; for, not to lie,
1124 We call him but a Hawk by courtesy.
1125 I know he haunts the Pigeon-house and Farm,
1126 And more, in time of war, has done us harm:
[Page 261]
1127 But all his hate on trivial points depends;
1128 Give up our forms, and we shall soon be friends.
1129 For Pigeons' flesh he seems not much to care;
1130 Crammed Chickens are a more delicious fare.
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1131 On this high potentate, without delay,
1132 I wish you would confer the sovereign sway;
1133 Petition him to accept the government,
1134 And let a splendid embassy be sent.
1135 "This pithy speech prevailed, and all agreed,
1136 Old enmities forgot, the Buzzard should succeed.
[Page 263]
1137 "Their welcome suit was granted, soon as heard,
1138 His lodgings furnished, and a train prepared,
1139 With B's upon their breast, appointed for his guard.
1140 He came, and, crowned with great solemnity,
1141 'God save king Buzzard!' was the general cry.
1142 "A portly prince, and goodly to the sight,
1143 He seemed a son of Anak for his height:
1144 Like those whom stature did to crowns prefer,
1145 Black-browed, and bluff, like Homer's Jupiter;
1146 Broad-backed, and brawny-built for love's delight,
1147 A prophet formed to make a female proselyte;
[Page 264]
1148 A theologue more by need than genial bent,
1149 By breeding sharp, by nature confident.
1150 Interest in all his actions was discerned;
1151 More learned than honest, more a wit than learned;
1152 Or forced by fear, or by his profit led,
1153 Or both conjoined, his native clime he fled;
1154 But brought the virtues of his heaven along,
1155 A fair behaviour, and a fluent tongue.
1156 And yet with all his arts he could not thrive,
1157 The most unlucky parasite alive;
[Page 265]
1158 Loud praises to prepare his paths he sent,
1159 And then himself pursued his compliment;
1160 But by reverse of fortune chased away,
1161 His gifts no longer than their author stay;
1162 He shakes the dust against the ungrateful race,
1163 And leaves the stench of ordures in the place.
1164 Oft has he flattered and blasphemed the same;
1165 For in his rage he spares no sovereign's name:
1166 The hero and the tyrant change their style,
1167 By the same measure that they frown or smile.
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1168 When well received by hospitable foes,
1169 The kindness he returns, is to expose;
1170 For courtesies, though undeserved and great,
1171 No gratitude in felon-minds beget;
1172 As tribute to his wit, the churl receives the treat.
1173 His praise of foes is venomously nice;
1174 So touched, it turns a virtue to a vice;
1175 'A Greek, and bountiful, forewarns us twice.'
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1176 Seven sacraments he wisely does disown,
1177 Because he knows confession stands for one;
1178 Where sins to sacred silence are conveyed,
1179 And not for fear, or love, to be betrayed:
1180 But he, uncalled, his patron to control,
1181 Divulged the secret whispers of his soul;
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1182 Stood forth the accusing Satan of his crimes,
1183 And offered to the Moloch of the times.
1184 Prompt to assail, and careless of defence,
1185 Invulnerable in his impudence,
[Page 269]
1186 He dares the world; and, eager of a name,
1187 He thrusts about, and jostles into fame.
[Page 270]
1188 Frontless, and satire-proof, he scours the streets,
1189 And runs an Indian-muck at all he meets.
1190 So fond of loud report, that, not to miss
1191 Of being known, (his last and utmost bliss,)
1192 He rather would be known for what he is.
1193 "Such was, and is, the Captain of the Test,
1194 Though half his virtues are not here expressed;
1195 The modesty of fame conceals the rest.
[Page 271]
1196 The spleenful Pigeons never could create
1197 A prince more proper to revenge their hate;
1198 Indeed, more proper to revenge, than save;
1199 A king, whom in his wrath the Almighty gave:
1200 For all the grace the landlord had allowed,
1201 But made the Buzzard and the Pigeons proud;
1202 Gave time to fix their friends, and to seduce the crowd.
[Page 272]
1203 They long their fellow-subjects to enthral,
1204 Their patron's promise into question call,
1205 And vainly think he meant to make them lords of all.
[Page 273]
1206 "False fears their leaders failed not to suggest,
1207 As if the Doves were to be dispossest;
1208 Nor sighs, nor groans, nor goggling eyes did want,
1209 For now the Pigeons too had learned to cant.
[Page 274]
1210 The house of prayer is stocked with large increase;
1211 Nor doors, nor windows, can contain the press,
1212 For birds of every feather fill the abode;
1213 E'en atheists out of envy own a God,
1214 And, reeking from the stews, adulterers come,
1215 Like Goths and Vandals to demolish Rome.
1216 That conscience, which to all their crimes was mute,
1217 Now calls aloud, and cries to persecute:
1218 No rigour of the laws to be released,
1219 And much the less, because it was their Lord's request;
1220 They thought it great their sovereign to control,
1221 And named their pride, nobility of soul.
1222 "'Tis true, the Pigeons, and their prince elect,
1223 Were short of power, their purpose to effect;
1224 But with their quills did all the hurt they could,
1225 And cuffed the tender Chickens from their food:
1226 And much the Buzzard in their cause did stir,
1227 Though naming not the patron, to infer,
1228 With all respect, he was a gross idolater.
1229 "But when the imperial owner did espy,
1230 That thus they turned his grace to villainy,
1231 Not suffering wrath to discompose his mind,
1232 He strove a temper for the extremes to find,
1233 So to be just, as he might still be kind;
1234 Then, all maturely weighed, pronounced a doom
1235 Of sacred strength for every age to come.
[Page 275]
1236 By this the Doves their wealth and state possess,
1237 No rights infringed, but licence to oppress:
1238 Such power have they as factious lawyers long
1239 To crowns ascribed, that kings can do no wrong.
1240 But since his own domestic birds have tried
1241 The dire effects of their destructive pride,
1242 He deems that proof a measure to the rest,
1243 Concluding well within his kingly breast,
1244 His fowls of nature too unjustly were opprest.
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1245 He therefore makes all birds of every sect
1246 Free of his farm, with promise to respect
1247 Their several kinds alike, and equally protect.
1248 His gracious edict the same franchise yields
1249 To all the wild increase of woods and fields,
1250 And who in rocks aloof, and who in steeples builds:
1251 To Crows the like impartial grace affords,
1252 And Choughs and Daws, and such republic birds;
1253 Secured with ample privilege to feed,
1254 Each has his district, and his bounds decreed;
1255 Combined in common interest with his own,
1256 But not to pass the Pigeons' Rubicon.
1257 "Here ends the reign of this pretended Dove;
1258 All prophecies accomplished from above,
1259 For Shiloh comes the sceptre to remove.
1260 Reduced from her imperial high abode,
1261 Like Dionysius to a private rod,
1262 The passive Church, that with pretended grace
1263 Did her distinctive mark in duty place,
1264 Now touched, reviles her Maker to his face.
1265 "What after happened is not hard to guess;
1266 The small beginnings had a large increase,
1267 And arts and wealth succeed the secret spoils of peace.
1268 'Tis said, the Doves repented, though too late,
1269 Become the smiths of their own foolish fate:
1270 Nor did their owner hasten their ill hour,
1271 But, sunk in credit, they decreased in power;
1272 Like snows in warmth that mildly pass away,
1273 Dissolving in the silence of decay.
[Page 277]
1274 "The Buzzard, not content with equal place,
1275 Invites the feathered Nimrods of his race,
1276 To hide the thinness of their flock from sight,
1277 And all together make a seeming goodly flight:
1278 But each have separate interests of their own;
1279 Two Czars are one too many for a throne.
1280 Nor can the usurper long abstain from food;
1281 Already he has tasted Pigeon's blood,
1282 And may be tempted to his former fare,
1283 When this indulgent lord shall late to heaven repair.
[Page 278]
1284 Bare benting times, and moulting months may come,
1285 When, lagging late, they cannot reach their home;
[Page 279]
1286 Or rent in schism, (for so their fate decrees,)
1287 Like the tumultuous college of the bees,
1288 They fight their quarrel, by themselves opprest,
1289 The tyrant smiles below, and waits the falling feast."
1290 Thus did the gentle Hind her fable end,
1291 Nor would the Panther blame it, nor commend;
1292 But, with affected yawnings at the close,
1293 Seemed to require her natural repose;
1294 For now the streaky light began to peep,
1295 And setting stars admonished both to sleep.
1296 The Dame withdrew, and, wishing to her guest
1297 The peace of heaven, betook herself to rest:
1298 Ten thousand angels on her slumbers wait,
1299 With glorious visions of her future state.
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