An Essay on Man Part 18

Against your wors.h.i.+p when had S---k writ?

Or P--ge poured forth the torrent of his wit?

Or grant the bard whose distich all commend (In power a servant, out of power a friend) To W---le guilty of some venial sin; What's that to you who ne'er was out nor in?

The priest whose flattery be-dropt the Crown, How hurt he you? he only stained the gown.

And how did, pray, the florid youth offend, Whose speech you took, and gave it to a friend?

P. 'Faith, it imports not much from whom it came; } Whoever borrowed, could not be to blame, } Since the whole house did afterwards the same. } Let courtly wits to wits afford supply, As hog to hog in huts of Westphaly; If one, through Nature's bounty, or his Lord's, Has what the frugal, dirty soil affords, From him the next receives it, thick or thin, As pure a mess almost as it came in; The blessed benefit, not there confined, Drops to the third, who nuzzles close behind; From tail to mouth, they feed and they carouse: The last full fairly gives it to the House.

F. This filthy simile, this beastly line, Quite turns my stomach- P. So does flattery mine; And all your courtly civet-cats can vent, Perfume to you, to me is excrement.

But hear me further-j.a.phet, 'tis agreed, Writ not, and Chartres scarce could write or read, In all the courts of Pindus guiltless quite; But pens can forge, my friend, that cannot write; And must no egg in j.a.phet's face be thrown Because the deed he forged was not my own?

Must never patriot, then, declaim at gin, Unless, good man! he has been fairly in?

No zealous pastor blame a failing spouse Without a staring reason on his brows?

And each blasphemer quite escape the rod Because the insult's not on man, but G.o.d?

Ask you what provocation I have had?

The strong antipathy of good to bad.

When truth or virtue an affront endures, The affront is mine, my friend, and should be yours.

Mine, as a foe professed to false pretence, Who think a c.o.xcomb's honour like his sense; Mine, as a friend to every worthy mind And mine as man, who feel for all mankind.

F. You're strangely proud.

P. So proud, I am no slave: } So impudent I own myself no knave: } So odd, my country's ruin makes me grave. } Yes, I am proud; I must be proud to see Men not afraid of G.o.d afraid of me: Safe from the Bar, the Pulpit, and the Throne, Yet touched and shamed by ridicule alone.

O, sacred weapon left for truth's defence, Sole dread of folly, vice, and insolence!

To all but heaven-directed hands denied The muse may give thee, but the G.o.ds must guide: Reverent I touch thee! but with honest zeal, To rouse the watchmen of the public weal; To virtue's work provoke the tardy hall, And goad the prelate slumbering in his stall.

Ye tinsel insects whom a Court maintains That counts your beauties only by your stains, Spin all your cobwebs o'er the eye of day!

The muse's wing shall brush you all away; All his Grace preaches, all his Lords.h.i.+p sings, All that makes saints of queens, and G.o.ds of kings.

All, all but truth, drops dead-born from the press, Like the last gazette or the last address.

When black ambition stains a public cause, A monarch's sword when mad vain-glory draws, Not Waller's wreath can hide the nation's scar Nor Boileau turn the feather to a star.

Not so, when diademed with rays divine, Touched with the flame that breaks from Virtue's shrine, Her priestless muse forbids the good to die, And opes the temple of Eternity.

There other trophies deck the truly brave, Than such as Anstis casts into the grave; Far other stars than * and * * wear, And may descend to Mordington from Stair: (Such as on Hough's unsullied mitre s.h.i.+ne, Or beam, good Digby, from a heart like thine).

Let envy howl, while heaven's whole chorus sings, And bark at honour not conferred by kings: Let flattery sickening see the incense rise Sweet to the world, and grateful to the skies: Truth guards the poet, sanctifies the line, And makes immortal, verse as mean as mine.

Yes, the last pen for freedom let me draw, When truth stands trembling on the edge of law; Here, last of Britons! let your names be read; Are none, none living? let me praise the dead, And for that cause which made your fathers s.h.i.+ne Fall by the votes of their degenerate line.

Fr. Alas! alas! pray end what you began, And write next winter more essays on man.