PART II.

DARE nobly then: But confcious of your trust,

As ever warm and bold be ever just :

Nor court applause in these degenerate days:
The Villain's cenfure is extorted praise.
But chief, be fteady in a noble end,

170

And fhew Mankind that Truth has yet a friend,

'Tis mean for empty praife of wit to write,

175

As Foplings grin to fhew their teeth are white :
To brand a doubtful folly with a smile,
Or madly blaze unknown defects, is vile:
'Tis doubly vile, when, but to prove your art,
You fix an arrow in a blameless heart.
O loft to honour's voice, O doom'd to shame,
Thou Fiend accurft, thou Murderer of Fame !
Fell Ravisher, from innocence to tear
That name, than liberty, than life more dear!

Where fhall thy baseness meet its just return,
Or what repay thy guilt, but endless scorn?
And know, immortal Truth shall mock thy toil:
Immortal Truth fhall bid the fhaft recoil:

180

185

With rage retorted, wing the deadly dart;

And empty all its poison in thy heart.

190

• With caution next, the dangerous power apply;

An eagle's talon afks an eagle's eye:

Let Satire then her proper object know,

And ere she strike, be fure she strike a foe.

Nor

Nor fondly deem the real fool confest,
Because blind Ridicule conceives a jest:
Before whofe altar Virtue oft hath bled,
And oft a destin'd victim fhall be led :
Lo Shaftesbury rears her high on Reason's throne,
And loads the Slave with honours not her, own:
Big-fwoln with folly, as her smiles provoke,
Prophanenefs fpawns, pert Dunces nurse the joke!
Come, let us join a while this tittering crew,
And own the Ideot Guide for once is true;
Deride our weak forefathers' mufty rule,
Who therefore finil'd, because they saw a Fool;
Sublimer logic now adorns our isle,

We therefore fee a Fool, because we fmile.
Truth in her gloomy cave why fondly feek?
Lo, gay fhe fits in Laughter's dimpled cheek:
Contemns each furly Academic foe,

And courts the spruce Freethinker and the Beau.
Dædalian arguments but few can trace,

But all can read the language of grimace.

Hence mighty Ridicule's all-conquering hand
Shall work Herculean wonders through the Land:
Bound in the magic of her cobweb chain,
You, mighty Warburton, shall rage in vain,
In vain the tracklefs maze of Truth you scan,
And lend th' informing Clue to erring Man :
No more fhall Reafon boaft her power divine,
Her Base eternal shook by Folly's mine!
Truth's facred Fort th' exploded laugh shall win;
And Coxcombs vanquish Berkeley by a grin.

195

200

205

210

215

220

But

But you, more fage, reject th' inverted rule,
That Truth is e'er explor'd by Ridicule:
On truth, on falfehood, let her colours fall,
She throws a dazzling glare alike on all;
As the gay Prism but mocks the flatter'd eye,
And gives to every object every dye.

225

230

Beware the mad Adventurer: bold and blind
She hoifts her fail, and drives with every wind;
Deaf as the ftorm to finking Virtue's groan,
Nor heeds a Friend's deftruction, or her own.
Let clear-ey'd Reason at the helm preside,
Bear to the wind, or ftem the furious tide;

235

Then Mirth may urge, when Reason can explore,
This point the way, that waft us glad to shore.

Though distant Times may rise in Satire's page,

Yet chief 'tis her's to draw the prefent Age:
With Wisdom's luftre, Folly's fhade contrast,

240

And judge the reigning Manners by the paft:
Bid Britain's Heroes (awful Shades !) arife,
And ancient Honour beam on modern Vice:
Point back to minds ingenuous, actions fair,

245

Till the Sons blufh at what their Fathers were:

Ere yet 'twas beggary the great to trust;

Ere yet 'twas quite a folly to be just ;

When low-born Sharpers only dar'd a lye,
Or falfify'd the Card, or cogg'd the Dye;

250

Ere Lewdness the stain❜d garb of Honour wore,
Or Chastity was carted for the Whore ;
Vice flutter'd, in the plumes of Freedom dress'd;
Or public Spirit was the public jeft.

Be

255

Be ever, in a juft expreffion, bold,

Yet ne'er degrade fair Satire to a Scold:
Let no unworthy mien her form debase,

But let her fmile, and let her frown with grace:
In mirth be temperate, temperate in her spleen;
Nor, while fhe preaches modesty, obscene.
Deep let her wound, not rankle to a fore,
her Grace a

The Mufe's charms refiftlefs then affail,

260

Nor call his Lordship

When wrapt in Irony's transparent veil :

Her beauties half-conceal'd the more furprize,

265

And keener luftre sparkles in her eyes.

Then be your line with fharp encomiums grac'd:
Style Clodius honourable, Bufa chaste.
Dart not on Folly an indignant eye :

Who e'er discharg'd Artillery on a Fly?

270

Deride not Vice: Abfurd the thought and vain,
To bind the Tiger in fo weak a chain.

Nay more: when flagrant crimes your laughter move,
The Knave exults: to fmile, is to approve.
The Mufe's labour then fuccefs fhall crown,
When Folly feels her smile, and Vice her frown.

275

280

Know next what measures to each Theme belong, And fuit your thoughts and numbers to your fong: On wing proportion'd to your quarry rise, And stoop to earth, or foar among the skies. Thus when a modifh folly you rehearse, Free the expreffion, fimple be the verse. In artless numbers paint th' ambitious Peer, That mounts the box, and shines a Charioteer:

In

In ftrains familiar fing the midnight toil
Of Camps and Senates disciplin❜d by Hoyle;
Patriots and Chiefs, whofe deep design invades,
And carries off the captive King-of Spades!
Let Satire here in milder vigour fhine,

And gayly graceful sport along the line;
Bid courtly Fafhion quit her thin pretence,
And fmile each Affectation into sense.

285

290

Not fo when Virtue by her Guards betray'd, Spurn'd from her Throne, implores the Mufe's aid; When crimes, which erst in kindred darkness lay, 295 Rife frontlefs, and infult the eye of day; Indignant Hymen veils his hallow'd fires, And white-rob'd Chastity with tears retires; When rank Adultery on the genial bed Hot from Cocytus rears her baleful head : When private Faith and public Truft are fold, And Traitors barter Liberty for gold: When fell Corruption dark and deep, like fate, Saps the foundation of a sinking State:

300

When Giant-Vice and Irreligion rife,

305

On mountain'd falfehoods to invade the Skies:

Then warmer numbers glow through Satire's page,

And all her fmiles are darken'd into rage:

On eagle-wing the gains Parnaffus' height,

Not lofty Epic foars a nobler flight:

310

Then keener indignation fires her eye;

Then flash her lightnings, and her thunders fly;
Wide and more wide her flaming bolts are hurl'd,
Till all her wrath involves the guilty World.

Yet