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And what is conscience but a fiend of strife,

That chills the joys, and damps the scenes of life,
The wayward child of Vanity and Fear,
The peevish dam of Poverty and Care?
Unnumber'd woes engender in the breast
That entertains the rude, ungrateful guest.

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POET.

Hail, sacred power! my glory and my guide!
Fair source of mental peace, whate'er betide!
Safe in thy shelter, let disaster roll
Eternal hurricanes around my soul:

My soul serene amidst the storms shall reign,
And smile to see their fury burst in vain!

230

FRIEND.

Too coy to flatter, and too proud to serve,
Thine be the joyless dignity to starve.

POET.

No;-thanks to discord, war shall be my friend;
And mortal rage heroic
heroic courage lend

To pierce the gleaming squadron of the foe,
And win renown by some distinguish'd blow.

240

FRIEND.

Renown! ay, do-unkennel the whole pack
Of military cowards on thy back.

What difference, say, 'twixt him who bravely stood,
And him who sought the bosom of the wood ?1

1 Bosom of the wood:' this last line relates to the behaviour of the Hanoverian general in the battle of Dettingen.

Envenom'd calumny the first shall brand;
The last enjoy a ribbon and command.

POET.

If such be life, its wretches I deplore,
And long to quit the inhospitable shore.

245

REPROOF: A SATIRE.

POET.

HOWE'ER I turn, or wheresoe'er I tread,
This giddy world still rattles round my head!
I pant for silence e'en in this retreat-

Good Heaven! what demon thunders at the gate?

FRIEND.

In vain you strive, in this sequester'd nook,
To shroud you from an injured friend's rebuke.

POET.

An injured friend! who challenges the name?
If you, what title justifies the claim?
Did e'er your heart o'er my affliction grieve,
Your interest prop me, or your praise relieve?
Or could my wants my soul so far subdue,
That in distress she crawl'd for aid to you ?
But let us grant the indulgence e'er so strong;
Display without reserve the imagined wrong:
Among your kindred have I kindled strife,
Deflower'd your daughter, or debauch'd your
Traduced your credit, bubbled you at game;
Or soil'd with infamous reproach your name?

wife;

10

FRIEND.

No: but your cynic vanity (you'll own)
Exposed my private counsel to the town.

POET.

Such fair advice 'twere pity sure to lose :
I grant I printed it for public use.

FRIEND.

Yes, season'd with your own remarks between,
Inflamed with so much virulence of spleen
That the mild town (to give the devil his due)
Ascribed the whole performance to a Jew.

POET.

Jews, Turks, or Pagans-hallow'd be the mouth
That teems with moral zeal and dauntless truth!
Prove that my partial strain adopts one lie,

No penitent more mortified than I;

Not e'en the wretch in shackles doom'd to groan,
Beneath the inhuman scoffs of Williamson.1

FRIEND.

Hold let us see this boasted self-denial

The vanquish'd knight 2 has triumph'd in his trial

What then?

POET.

FRIEND.

Your own sarcastic verse unsay,

That brands him as a trembling runaway.

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POET.

With all my soul;-the imputed charge rehearse;
I'll own my error and expunge my verse.
Come, come, howe'er the day was lost or won,
The world allows the race was fairly run.
But, lest the truth too naked should appear,
A robe of fable shall the goddess wear:
When sheep were subject to the lion's reign,
E'er man acquired dominion o'er the plain,
Voracious wolves, fierce rushing from the rocks,
Devour'd without control the unguarded flocks:
The sufferers, crowding round the royal cave,
Their monarch's pity and protection crave :
Not that they wanted valour, force, or arms,
To shield their lambs from danger and alarms;
A thousand rams, the champions of the fold,
In strength of horn and patriot virtue bold,
Engaged in firm association stood,
Their lives devoted to the public good:
A warlike chieftain was their sole request,
To marshal, guide, instruct, and rule the rest.
Their prayer was heard, and, by consent of all,
A courtier ape appointed general.

He went, he led; arranged the battle stood,
The savage foe came pouring like a flood;
Then Pug, aghast, fled swifter than the wind,
Nor deign'd in threescore miles to look behind,
While every band for orders bleat in vain,
And fall in slaughter'd heaps upon the plain.
The scared baboon, (to cut the matter short)
With all his speed, could not outrun report;
And, to appease the clamours of the nation,
'Twas fit his case should stand examination.

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The board was named-each worthy took his place, 69
All senior members of the horned race;

The wedder, goat, ram, elk, and ox were there,
And a grave hoary stag possess'd the chair.
The inquiry past, each in his turn began
The culprit's conduct variously to scan.
At length the sage uprear'd his awful crest,
And, pausing, thus his fellow chiefs address'd :
'If age, that from this head its honours stole,
Hath not impair'd the functions of my soul,
But sacred wisdom, with experience bought,
While this weak frame decays, matures my thought, 80
The important issue of this grand debate
May furnish precedent for your own fate,
Should ever fortune call you to repel
The shaggy foe, so desperate and fell.
'Tis plain, you say, his excellence Sir Ape
From the dire field accomplish'd an escape;
Alas! our fellow subjects ne'er had bled,
If every ram that fell like him had fled;
Certes, those sheep were rather mad than brave,
Which scorn'd the example their wise leader gave.
Let us then every vulgar hint disdain,

And from our brother's laurel wash the stain.'
The admiring court applauds the president,
And Pug was clear'd by general consent.

FRIEND.

There needs no magic to divine your scope,
Mark'd, as you are, a flagrant misanthrope :
Sworn foe to good and bad, to great and small,
Thy rankling pen produces nought but gall:
Let virtue struggle, or let glory shine,
Thy verse affords not one approving line.

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