While a large, handsome Bullock, led there in a halter,

Before it lay stabb'd at the foot of the shrine.

Surpris'd at such doings, he whisper'd his teacher"If 'tisn't impertinent, may I ask why

"Should a Bullock, that useful and powerful creature,

"Be thus offer'd up to a blue-bottle Fly?"

"No wonder" said t'other-"you stare at the

sight,

-

"But we as a Symbol of Monarchy view it— "That Fly on the shrine is Legitimate Right,

"And that Bullock, the People, that's sacrific'd to it."

FABLE V.

CHURCH AND STATE.

PROEM.

"The moment any religion becomes national, or established, its purity must certainly be lost, because it is then impossible to keep it unconnected with men's interests; and, if connected, it must inevitably be perverted by them."-SOAME JENYNS.

THUS did SOAME JENYNS-though a Tory,
A Lord of Trade and the Plantations;

Feel how Religion's simple glory

Is stain'd by State associations.

When CATHERINE, ere she crush'd the Poles,
Appeal'd to the benign Divinity;

Then cut them up in protocols,

Made fractions of their very souls*

All in the name of the bless'd Trinity;

Or when her grandson, ALEXANDER,
That mighty Northern salamandert,

* Ames, demi-ames, &c.

+ The salamander is supposed to have the power of extin guishing fire by its natural coldness and moisture.

Whose icy touch, felt all about,

Puts every fire of Freedom out-
When he, too, winds up his Ukases
With God and the Panagia's praises-
When he, of royal Saints the type,
In holy water dips the spunge,
With which, at one imperial wipe,

He would all human rights expunge;

When Louis (whom as King, and eater,
Some name Dix-huit, and some Des-huitres,)
Calls down" St. Louis' God" to witness
The right, humanity, and fitness

Of sending eighty thousand Solons,

Sages, with muskets and lac'd coats, To cram instruction, nolens volens,

Down the poor struggling Spaniards' throatsI can't help thinking, (though to Kings I must, of course, like other men, bow,) That when a Christian monarch brings Religion's name to gloss these thingsSuch blasphemy out-Benbows Benbow!

* A well-known publisher of irreligious books.

Or-not so far for facts to roam, Having a few much nearer homeWhen we see Churchmen, who, if ask'd, "Must Ireland's slaves be tith'd, and task'd, "And driv'n, like Negroes or Croäts,

"That you may roll in wealth and bliss?" Look from beneath their shovel hats

With all due pomp, and answer "Yes!" But then, if question'd, "Shall the brand "Intolerance flings throughout that land, — "Shall the fierce strife now taught to grow "Betwixt her palaces and hovels,

"Be ever quench'd?"-from the same shovels
Look grandly forth, and answer “No.”—
Alas, alas! have these a claim
To merciful Religion's name?
If more you seek, go see a bevy
Of bowing parsons at a levee-
(Choosing your time, when straw's before
Some apoplectic bishop's door,)
Then, if thou canst, with life, escape
That rush of lawn, that press of crape,
Just watch their rev'rences and graces,

As on each smirking suitor frisks,

And

say,

if those round shining faces

To heav'n or earth most turn their disks?

This, this it is-Religion, made,

'Twixt Church and State, a truck, a trade-
This most ill-match'd, unholy Co.,
From whence the ills we witness flow;
The war of many creeds with one-
Th' extremes of too much faith, and none
Till, betwixt ancient trash and new,
'Twixt Cant and Blasphemy-the two
Rank ills with which this age is curst-
We can no more tell which is worst,
Than erst could Egypt, when so rich
In various plagues, determine which
She thought most pestilent and vile,
Her frogs, like Benbow and Carlisle,
Croaking their native mud-notes loud,
Or her fat locusts, like a cloud
Of pluralists, obesely lowering,
At once benighting and devouring!-

This -this it is-and here I pray
Those sapient wits of the Reviews,