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Fable.
The wise men of Egypt were secret as dummies;

And, even when they most condescended to teach, They pack'd up their meaning, as they did their

mummies, In so many wrappers, 't was out of one's reach. They were also, good people, much given to Kingsm Fond of monarchs and crocodiles, monkeys and

mystery, Bats, hieraphants, blue-bottle flies, and such things

As will partly appear in this very short history. A Scythian philosopher (nephew, they say,

To that other great traveller, young Anacharsis) Stepp'd into a temple at Memphis one day,

To have a short peep at their mystical farces. He saw a brisk blue-bottle Fly on an altar,'

Made much of, and worshipp'd as something

With which, at one imperial wipe,

He would all human rights expunge!
When ****** (whom, as King and eater,
Some name ***_****, and some *** ***
Calls down “Saint Louis' GOD" to witness
The right, humanity, and fitness
Of sending eighty thousand Solons-

Sages with muskets and laced coats-
To cram instruction, nolens volens,

Down the poor struggling Spaniard's throats I 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 things

Such blasphemy out-Benbows Benbow!
Or—not so far for facts to roam,
Having a few much nearer home-
When we see churchmen, who, if ask'd,
“ Must Ireland's slaves be tithed and task'd,
And driven, like negroes or croats,

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,
Betwixt her palaces and hovels,

Suffering nor peace nor love to grow,
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?

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

Before it lay stabb'd at the foot of the shrine. Surprised at such doings, he whisper'd his teacher

“If 't is n't impertinent, may I ask why Should a Bullock, that useful and powerful creature,

Be thus offered 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 sacrificed to it."

FABLE IV.

CHURCH AND STATE.

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Proem. "The moment any religion becomes national, or establishod, its purity must certainly be lost, because it is then impossible to keep it unconnected with men's interests ; and, if connected, it must evidently 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 stained by State associations.
When CATHERINE, after murdering 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 salamander,
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 sponge,

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,
The extremes of too much faith, and none-
The qualms, the fumes of sect and sceptic,
And all that Reason, grown dyspeptic
By swallowing forced or noxious creeds,
From downright indigestion breeds ;
Till, 'twixt old bigotry and new,
"Twixt Blasphemy and Cant—the two
Rank ills with which this age is cursed.
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 Carlile,
Croaking their native mud-notes loud,
Or her fat locusts, like a cloud
Of pluralists, obesely lowering,
At once benighting and devouring!

1 According to Ælian, it was in the island of Leucadia they practised this ceremony_gurou Bour Txos . De Animal. lib. ii. cap. 8.

2 Ames, demi-anies, etc.

This—this it 18—and here I pray

As work like this was unbefitting, Those sapient wits of the Reviews,

And flesh and blood no longer bore it, Who make us poor, dull authors say,

The Court of Common Sense then sitting,
Not what we mean, but what they choose ;

Summon'd the culprits both before it.
Who to our most abundant shares
Of nonsense add still more of theirs,

Where, after hours in wrangling spent
And are to poets just such evils

(As courts must wrangle to decide well,) As caterpillars find those flies'

Religion to Saint Luke's was sent, That, not content to sting like devils,

And Royalty pack'd off to Bridewell : Lay eggs upon their backs likewise

With this proviso-Should they be To guard against such foul deposits,

Restored in due time to their senses, Of others' meanings in my rhymes

They both must give security (A thing more needful here because it's

In future, against such offences-
A subject ticklish in these times)
I here to all such wits make known,

Religion ne'er to lend his cloak,
Monthly and weekly, Whig and Tory,

Seeing what dreadful work it leads to; 'Tis this Religion—this alone

And Royalty to crack his joke I aim at in the following story:

But not to crack poor people's heads, too. Fable. WHEN Royalty was young and bold, Ere, touch'd by Time, he had become

FABLE V. If 't is not civil to say old

THE LITTLE GRAND LAMA. At least, a ci-devant jeune homme.

Proem. One evening, on some wild pursuit,

NOVELLA, a young Bolognese, Driving along, he chanced to see

The daughter of a learn'd law doctor,' Religion, passing by on foot,

Who had with all the subtleties And took him in his vis-à-vis.

Of old and modern jurists stock'd her, This said Religion was a friar,

Was so exceeding fair, 't is said, The humblest and the best of men,

And over hearts held such dominion, Who ne'er had notion or desire

That when her father, sick in bed, Of riding in a coach till then.

Or busy, sent her, in his stead,

To lecture on the Code Justinian, “I say"—quoth Royalty, who rather

She had a curtain drawn before her, Enjoy'd a masquerading joke

Lest, if her charms were seen, the students “I say, suppose, my good old father,

Should let their young eyes wander o'er her, You lend me, for a while, your cloak.”

And quite forget their jurisprudence.?

Just so it is with Truth-when seen, The friar consented-little knew

Too fair and bright—'t is from behind What tricks the youth had in his head;

A light, thin allegoric screen, Besides, was rather tempted, too,

She thus can safest teach mankind.
By a laced coat he got in stead.

Fable.
Away ran Royalty, slap-dash,
Scampering like mad about the town;

IN Thibet once there reign'd, we 're told,
Broke windows_shiver'd lamps to smash,

A little Lama, one year old And knock'd whole scores of watchmen down.

Raised to the throne, that realm to bless,

Just when his little Holiness
While nought could they whose heads were broke, Had cut—as near as can be reckon'd-

Learn of the “why” or the “wherefore,” Some say his first tooth, some his second.
Except that 't was Religion's cloak

Chronologers and verses vary,
The gentleman, who crack'd them, wore. Which proves historians should be wary.

We only know the important truth-
Meanwhile, the Friar, whose head was turn'd His Majesty had cut a tooth."

By the laced coat, grew frisky too Look'd big-his former habits spurn'd

And much his subjects were enchanted, And storm'd about as great men dom

As well all Lamas' subjects may be, Dealt much in pompous oaths and curses

1 Andreas. Said “ Damn you," often, or as bad

2 Quand il étoit occupé d'aucune essoine, il envoyait Laid claim to other people's purses,

Novelle, sa fille, en son lieu lire aux escholes en charge, et,

afin que la biaüté d' elle n'empêchât la pensée des oyants, In short, grew either knave or mad.

elle avoit une petite courtine devant elle.-Christ. de Pise, Cité des Dames, p. 11. chap. 36.

3 See Turner's Embassy to Thibet for an account of his 1 “The greatest number of the ichneumon tribe are seen interview with the Lama. «Teshan Lama (he says) was at settling upon the back of the caterpillar, and darting at dif- this time eighteen months old. Though he was unable to ferent intorvals their stings into its body--at every dart they speak a word, he made the most expressive signs, and con deposit an egg."--Goldsmith

ducted himself with astonishing dignity and decorum”

And would have given their heads, if wanted,

To make tee-totums for the baby As he was there by Right Divine

(What lawyers call Jure Divino, Meaning a right to yours, and mine,

And every body's goods and rhino) Of course his faithful subjects' purses

Were ready with their aids and succoursNothing was seen but pension’d nurses,

And the land groan'd with bibs and tuckers.

Oh! had there been a Hume or Bennet
Then sitting in the Thibet Senate,
Ye gods, what room for long debates
Upon the Nursery Estimates !
What cutting down of swaddling-clothes

And pin-a-fores, in nightly battles !
What calls for papers to expose

The waste of sugar-plums and rattles ! But no-if Thibet had M. Ps., They were far better bred than these; Nor gave the slightest opposition, During the Monarch's whole dentition.

That they and theirs stood by the King,

Throughout his measles and his chin-cough, When others, thinking him consumptive, Had ratted to the heir Presumptive :But, still—though much admiring Kings (And chiefly those in leading-strings) They saw,

with shame and grief of soul, There was no longer now the wise And constitutional control

Of birch before their ruler's eyes;
But that, of late, such pranks, and tricks,

And freaks occurr'd the whole day long,
As all, but men with bishopricks,

Allow'd, even in a King, were wrong-
Wherefore it was they humbly pray'd

That Honourable Nursery,
That such reforms be henceforth made,

As all good men desired to see ;-
In other words (lest they might seem
Too tedious,) as the gentlest scheme
For putting all such pranks to rest,

And in its bud the mischief nippingThey ventured humbly to suggest

His Majesty should have a whipping !

But short this calm; for, just when he
Had reach'd the alarming age of three,
When royal natures-and, no doubt
Those of all noble beasts-break out,
The Lama, who till then was quiet,
Show'd symptoms of a taste for riot ;
And, ripe for mischief, early, late,
Without regard for Church or State,
Made free with whosoe'er came nigh-

Tweak'd the Lord Chancellor by the nose,
Turn'd all the Judges' wigs awry,

And trod on the old General's toes Pelted the Bishops with hot buns,

Rode cock-horse on the City maces,
And shot, from little devilish guns,

Hard peas into his subjects' faces.
In short, snch wicked pranks he play'd,

And grew so mischievous (God bless him !) That his chief Nurse—though with the aid Of an Archbishop—was afraid,

When in these moods, to comb or dress him ; And even the persons most inclined

For Kings, through thick and thin, to stickle, Thought him (if they'd but speak their mind,

Which they did not) an cdious pickle.

When this was read—no Congreve rocket,

Discharged into the Gallic trenches,
E'er equall'd the tremendous shock it

Produced upon the Nursery Benches.
The Bishops, who of course had votes,
By right of age and petticoats,
Were first and foremost in the fuss-

What, whip a Lama !-suffer birch
To touch his sacred infam
Deistical assailing thus

The fundamentals of the Church! No-no-such patriot plans as these (So help them Heaven—and their sees !) They held to be rank blasphemies."

The alarm thus given, by these and other

Grave ladies of the Nursery side,
Spread through the land, till, such a pother,

Such party squabbles, far and wide,
Never in history's page had been
Recorded, as were then between
The Whippers and Non-whippers seen.
Till, things arriving at a state

Which gave some fears of revolution,
The patriot lords' advice, though late,

Was put at last in execution.
The Parliament of Thibet met-

The little Lama, call'd before it,
Did, then and there, his whipping get,
And (as the Nursery Gazette
Assures ús) like a hero bore it.

а

At length, some patriot lords—a breed

Of animals they have in Thibet, Extremely rare, and fit, indeed,

For folks like Pidcock to exhibitSome patriot lords, seeing the length To which things went, combined their strength, And penn'd a manly, plain and free Remonstrance to the Nursery; In which, protesting that they yielded

To none, that ever went before 'emIn loyalty to him who wielded

The hereditary pap-spoon o'er 'emThat, as for treason, 't was a thing

That made them almost sick to think of

And though 'mong Thibet Tories, some
Lament that Royal Martyrdom
(Please to observe, the letter D
In this last word's pronounced like B,)
Yet to the example of that Prince

So much is Thibet's land a debtor, 'Tis said, her little Lamas since

Have all behaved themselves much better FABLE VI.

THE EXTINGUISHERS.

As, in a great lord's neighbourhood,
T was right and fitting all things should.
Accordingly, some large supplies

Of these Extinguishers were furnish'd (All of the true, imperial size,)

And there, in rows, stood black and burnishid, Ready, where'er a gleam but shone Of light or fire, to be clapp'd on.

Proem.
Though soldiers are the true supports,
The natural allies of Courts,
Woe to the Monarch who depends
Too much on his red-coated friends;
For even soldiers sometimes think-

Nay, Colonels have been known to reason,
And reasoners, whether clad in pink,
Or red, or blue, are on the brink

(Nine cases out of ten) of treason. Not many soldiers, I believe, are

As fond of liberty as Mina;
Else-woe to Kings, when Freedom's fever

Once turns into a Scarletina !
For then-but hold—'tis best to veil
My meaning in the following tale :-

Fable.
A LORD of Persia, rich and great,
Just come into a large estate,
Was shock'd to find he had, for neighbours,
Close to his gate, some rascal Ghebers,
Whose fires, beneath his very nose
In heretic combustion rose.
But lords of Persia can, no doubt,

Do what they will—so, one fine morning,
He turn'd the rascal Ghebers out,

First giving a few kicks for warning. Then, thanking Heaven most piously,

He knock'd their temple to the ground, Blessing himself for joy to see

Such Pagan ruins strew'd around. But much it vex'd my lord to find,

That, while all else obey'd his will, The fire these Ghebers left behind

Do what he would-kept burning still. Fiercely he storm'd, as if his frown Could scare the bright insurgent down ; But no—such fires are headstrong things, And care not much for lords or kings. Scarce could his lordship well contrive

The flashes in one place to smother, Before-hey, presto—all alive,

They sprung up freshly in another. At length, when, spite of prayers and damns,

'Twas found the sturdy flame defied him, His stewards came, with low salams,

Offering, by contract, to provide him
Some large extinguishers (a plan
Much used, they said, at Ispahan,
Vienna, Petersburgh-in short,
Wherever light 's forbid at court)
Machines no lord should be without,
Which would, at once, put promptly out
Fires of all kinds—from staring stark
Volcanos to the tiniest spark-
Till all things slept as dull and dark

But, ah! how lordly wisdom errs,
In trusting to extinguishers !
One day, when he had left all sure
(At least believed so,) dark, secure-
The flame, at all its exits, entries,

Obstructed to his heart's content,
And black extinguishers, like sentries,

Placed upon every dangerous ventYe gods! imagine his amaze,

His wrath, his rage, when, on returning, He found not only the old blaze,

Brisk as before, crackling and burningNot only new, young conflagrations, Popping up round in various stationsBut, still more awful, strange, and dire, The Extinguishers themselves on fire!!! They, they—those trusty, blind machines

His lordship had so long been praising, As, under Providence, the means

Of keeping down all lawless blazing, Were now themselves—alas, too true The shameful fact-turn'd blazers too, And, by a change as odd as cruel, Instead of dampers, served for fuel !

Thus, of his only hope bereft,

“What,” said the great man,“must be done ?" All that, in scrapes like this, is left

To great men is—to cut and run.
So run he did ; while to their grounds

The banish'd Ghebers bless'd return'd:
And, though their fire had broke its bounds,

And all abroad now wildly burn'd,
Yet well could they, who loved the flame,
Its wand'ring, its excess reclaim;
And soon another, fairer dome
Arose to be its sacred home,
Where, cherish’d, guarded, not confin'd,
The living glory dwelt inshrined,
And, shedding lustre, strong but even,
Though born of earth, grew worthy Heaven.

Moral.
The moral hence my Muse infers

Is--that such lords are simple elves, In trusting to extinguishers

That are combustible themselves.

1 The idea of this fable was caught from one of those brilliant mots which abound in the conversation of my friend, the author of the Letters to Julia-a production which contains some of the happiest specimens of playful poetry that have appeared in this or any age.

CORRUPTION AND INTOLERANCE;

TWO POEMS.

PREFACE.

rendering unnecessary the frequent exercise of prerogative, that unwieldy power which cannot move a

step without alarm, it limited the only interference The practice which has lately been introduced into of the Crown which is singly and independently exliterature, of writing very long notes upon very indif- posed before the people, and whose abuses are there.

fore obvious to their senses and capacities : like the ferent verses, appears to me rather a happy invention; for it supplies us with a mode of turning stupid poetry Athens, it skilfully veiled from their sight the only

myrtle over a certain statue in Minerva's temple at to account; and as horses too dull for the saddle may obtrusive feature of royalty. At the same time, howserve well enough to draw lumber, so poems of this kind make excellent beasts of burden, and will bear ever, that the Revolution abridged this unpopular notes, though they may not bear reading. Besides, attribute, it amply compensated by the substitution of the comments in such cases are so little under the ne

a new power, as much more potent in its effect as it

is more secret in its operations. In the disposal of cessity of paying any servile deference to the text,

an immense revenue, and the extensive patronage anthat they may even adopt that Socratic dogma,

nexed to it, the first foundations of this power of the “Quod supra nos nihil ad nos."

In the first of the following poems, I have ventured Crown were laid ; the innovation of a standing army to speak of the Revolution in language which has at once increased and strengthened it, and the few sometimes been employed by Tory writers, and slight barriers which the Act of Settlement opposed which is therefore neither very new nor popular.

to its progress have all been gradually removed dur. But, however an Englishman may be reproached this spirit of influence is become the vital principle of

ing the whiggish reigns that succeeded, till at length with ingratitude, for appreciating the merits and re the state, whose agency, subtle and unseen, pervades sults of a measure which he is taught to regard as the source of his liberties—however ungrateful it might be every part of the constitution, lurks under all its in Alderman Birch to question for a moment the pu- invisible sylph or grace which presides over the mo

forms, and regulates all its movements; and, like the rity of that glorious era to which he is indebted for

tions of beauty, the seasoning of so many orations-yet an Irishman, who has none of these obligations to acknowledge, to “Illam, quicquid agit, quoquo vestigia flectit, whose country the Revolution brought nothing but

Componit furtim subsequiturque.” injury and insult, and who recollects that the book The cause of liberty and the Revolution are so haof Molyneux was burned, by order of William's bitually associated by Englishmen, that, probably, in Whig Parliament, for daring to extend to unfortunate objecting to the latter I may be thought hostile or inIreland those principles on which the Revolution was different to the former; but nothing can be more professedly founded—an Irishman may venture to unjust than such a suspicion ;—the very object which criticise the measures of that period, without expos- my humble animadversions would attain is, that in the ing himself either to the imputation of ingratitude, or crisis to which I think England is hastening, and bethe suspicion of being influenced by any popish re-tween which and foreign subjugation she may soon mains of jacobitism. No nation, it is true, was ever be compelled to choose, the errors and omissions of blessed with a more golden opportunity of establish- 1688 may be remedied, and that, as she then had a ing and securing its liberties for ever than the con- Revolution without a Reform, she may now seek a juncture of Eighty-eight presented to the people of Reform without a Revolution. Great Britain. But the disgraceful reigns of Charles In speaking of the parties which have so long agiand James had weakened and degraded the national tated England, it will be observed that I lean as little character. The bold notions of popular right, which to the Whigs as to their adversaries. Both factions had arisen out of the struggles between Charles the have been equally cruel to Ireland, and perhaps First and his Parliament, were gradually supplanted equally insincere in their efforts for the liberties of by those slavish doctrines for which Lord H-kesb-ry England. There is one name, indeed, connected eulogizes the churchmen of that period; and as the with whiggism, of which I can never think but with Reformation had happened too soon for the purity of veneration and tenderness. As justly, however, religion, so the Revolution came too late for the might the light of the sun be claimed by any particuspirit of liberty. Its advantages accordingly were for lar nation, as the sanction of that name be assumed the most part specious and transitory, while the evils by any party whatever: Mr. Fox belonged to manwhich it entailed are still felt and still increasing. By kind, and they have lost in him their ablest friend

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