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33

When lo! a doubt is rais'd about a word:

A doubt that must be ended by the sword: 48
One falls a victim, mark, O man, thy shame,
Because their glossaries were not the same.
Could Bailey's self more tenderness have shown
For his two tomes of words, though half his own?

For what remains of failings without end,
Morals must some, and some the laws must mend.
While others in such monstrous forms appear,
As tongue-ty'd sourness, sly suspicion's leer,
Free-fisted rudeness, dropsical pretence,
Proteus' caprice, and elbowing insolence;
No caution to avoid them they demand,
Like wretches branded by the hangman's hand.

490

If faith to some philosophers be given,
Man, that great lord of earth, that heir of heav'n,
Savage at first, inhabited the wood,

And scrambled with his fellow-brutes for food;
No social home he knew, no friendship's tie,
Selfish in good, in ill without ally;

Till some in length of time, of stronger nerve,

And greater cunning, forc'd the rest to serve 500

Td One common purpose, and, in nature's spite,

Brought the whole jarring species to unite.

But might we not with equal reason say,
That every single particle of clay,

Which forms our body, was at first design'd
To lie for ever from the rest disjoin'd?
Can this be said, and can it be allow'd

570

'Twas with its powers for no one end endow'd?
If so; we own that man, at first, by art
Was sooth'd to act in social life a part.
'Tis true, in some the seeds of discord seem
To contradict this all-uniting scheme :
But that no more hurts nature's general course,
Than matter found with a repelling force.

520

Turn we awhile on lonely man our eyes,
And see what frantic scenes of folly rise:
In some dark monastery's gloomy cells,
Where formal self-presuming Virtue dwells,
Bedoz'd with dreams of grace-distilling caves,
Of holy puddles, and consuming graves,
Of animated plaister, wood, and stone,
And mighty cures by sainted sinners done.
Permit me, Muse, still farther to explore,
And turn the leaves of superstition o'er;
Where wonders upon wonders ever grow,
Chaos of zeal and blindness, mirth and woe;
Visions of devils into monkeys turn'd,
That hot from hell roar at a finger burn'd:
Bottles of precious tears that saints have wept,]
And breath a thousand years in phials kept;
Sun-beams sent down to prop one friar's staff,
And hell broke loose to make another laugh;

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830

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Obedient fleas, and superstitious mice;
Confessing wolves, and sanctifying lice;
Letters and houses by an angel carried;

And, wond'rous! virgin nuns to Jesus married.
One monk, not knowing how to spend his time,
Sits down to find out some unheard-of crime;
Increases the large catalogue of sins,

And where the sober finish, there begins. 50
Of death eternal his decree is past,

For the first crime, as fix'd as for the last.
While that, as idle, and as pious too,
Compounds with false religion for the true;
He, courtly usher to the blest abodes,
Weighs all the niceties of forms and modes;
And makes the rugged paths so smooth and even,
None but an ill-bred man can miss of heav'n.
One heav'n-inspir'd invents a frock, or hood:
The taylor now cuts-out, and men grow good.
Another quits his stockings, breeches, shirt,
Because he fancies virtue dwells with dirt :
While all concur to take away the stress
From weightier points, and lay it on the less.
Anxious each paltry relique to preserve

Of him, whose hungry friends they leave to starve,
Harrass'd by watching, abstinence, and chains;
Strangers to joy, familiar grown with pains;
To all the means of virtue they attend

560

With strictest care, and only miss the end.
Can Scripture teach us, or can Sense persuade,

That man for such employments e'er was made?
Far be that thought! But let us now relate

A character as opposite, as great,

In him, who living gave to Athens fame, ol
And, by his death, immortaliz'd her shame.

Great scourge of sophists! he from heaven brought
down,

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And plac'd true wisdom on th' usurper's throne:
Philosopher in all things, but pretence;
He taught what they neglected, common sense.
They o'er the stiff Lyceum form'd to rule;
He, o'er mankind; all Athens was his school.
The sober tradesman, and smart petit-maitre,
Great lords, and wits, in their own eyes still greater,
With him grew wise; unknowing they were taught ;
He spoke like them, though not like them he
thought:

Nor wept, nor laugh'd, at man's perverted state;
But left to women this, to idiots that.

View him with sophists fam'd for fieree contest,

Or crown'd with roses at the jovial feast;

Insulted by a peevish, noisy wife,

Or at the bar foredoom'd to lose his life;

680

What moving words flow from his artless tongue,
Sublime with ease, with condescension strong!

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Yet scorn'd to flatter vice, or virtue blame;
Nor chang'd to please, but pleas'd because the same;
The same by friends caress'd, by foes withstood,
Still unaffected, cheerful, mild, and good.

Behold one pagan, drawn in colors faint, Outshine ten thousand monks, though each a saint! 590

Here let us fix our foot, hence take our view, And learn to try false merit by the true. We see, when reason stagnates in the brain, The dregs of fancy cloud its purest vein; But circulation betwixt mind and mind Extends its course, and renders it refin'd. When warm with youth we tread the flow'ry way, All nature charms, and every scene looks gay ; Each object gratifies each sense in turn, Whilst now for rattles, now for nymphs we burn; Enslav'd by friendship's or by love's soft smile, We ne'er suspect, because we mean no guile; Till, flush'd with hope from views of past success, We lay on some main trifle all our stress; When lo! the mistress or the friend betrays, And the whole fancied cheat of life displays: Stun'd with an ill that from ourselves arose ; For instinct rul'd, when reason should have chose: We fly for comfort to some lonely scene, Victims henceforth of dirt, and drink, and spleen, But let no obstacles that cross our views, Pervert our talents from their destin'd use; For, as upon life's hill we upwards press, Our views will be obstructed less and less. Be all false delicacy far away,

Lest it from nature lead us quite astray;

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