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HELTER SKELTER;

OR,

The HUE and CRY after the ATTORNIES, upon their riding the CIRCUIT.

No

OW the active

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Brifkly travel on their journies,

Looking big as any giants,

On the horses of their clients,
Like fo many little Mars's
With their tilters at their a-s,
Brazen-hilted, lately burnish'd,
And with harness-buckles furnish'd,
And with whips and spurs so neat,
And with jockey-coats compleat,
And with boots so very greasy,
And with faddles eke so easy,
And with bridles fine and gay,
Bridles borrow'd for a day,
Bridles deftin'd far to roam,

Ah! never, never to come home.
And with hats fo very big, Sir,

And with powder'd caps and wigs, Sir,
And with ruffles to be fhewn,
Cambrick ruffles not their own,

And with Holland fhirts fo white,
Shirts becoming to the fight,

VOL. II.

L

Shirts

Shirts be-wrought with different letters,

As belonging to their betters,

With their pretty tinfel'd boxes,
Gotten from their dainty doxies,

And with rings fo

very trim,

Lately taken out of lim

And with very little pence,
And as very little fenfe,

With fome law, but little justice,
Having ftolen from my hoftefs,
From the barber and the cutler,
Like the foldier from the futler;
From the vintner and the taylor,
Like the felon from the jaylor;
Into this and t'other county,
Living on the public bounty;
Thorough town and thorough village,
All to plunder, all to pillage;
Thorough mountains, thorough vallies,
Thorough ftinking lanes and alleys,
Some to kifs with farmers fpoufes,
And make merry in their houfes;
Some to - tumble country wenches
On their rufhy-beds and benches,
And, if they begin a fray,

Draw their fwords, and -run away;
All to murder equity,

And to take a double fee;
Till the people all are quiet,
And forget to broil and riot,

Low

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THE LOGICIANS REFUTED.

LOGICIANS have but ill defin'd,

As rational, the human-kind.
"Reafon,' they fay, "belongs to man;"
But let them prove it if they can.
Wife Ariftotle and Smiglefius,
By ratiocinations fpecious,

Have ftrove to prove with great precifion,
With definition and divifion,
Homo ef ratione præditum;

But, for my foul, I cannot credit 'em,
And mult, in fpite of them, maintain,
That man and all his ways are vain; '
And that this boated lord of nature
Is both a week and erring creature;
That inftinct is a furer guide

Than reafon-boafting mortals pride;

And that brute beafts are far before 'em,

Deus eft anima brutorum.

Who ever knew an honeft brute
At law his neighbour profecute;
Bring action for affault and battery,
Or friend beguile with lies and flattery ?

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O'er plains they ramble unconfin'd,

No politicks disturb their mind;

They eat their meals, and take their sport,
Nor know who 's in or out at court.

They never to the levee go,

To treat as dearest friend, a foe :
They never importune his grace,
Nor ever cringe to men in place;
Nor undertake a dirty job,

Nor draw the quill to write for Bob;
Fraught with invective they ne'er go
To folks at Pater-nofter-row:
No judges, fiddlers, dancing-masters,
No pick-pockets, or poetafters,
Are known to honeft quadrupeds:
No fingle brute his fellows leads.
Brutes never meet in bloody fray,
Nor cut each other's throats for pay.
Of beafts, it is confefs'd, the ape
Comes nearest us in human shape;
Like man, he imitates each fashion,
And malice is his ruling paffion :
But, both in malice and grimaces,
A courtier any ape furpaffes :
Behold him humbly cringing wait
Upon the minifter of state;
View him foon after to inferiors
Aping the conduct of fuperiors:
He promises with equal air,
And to perform takes equal care.

He

He in his turn finds imitators;

At court, the porters, lacqueys, waiters,
Their masters' manners ftill contract;
And footmen lords and dukes can act.

Thus, at the court, both great and small
Behave alike; for all ape all.

THE

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HE life of man to reprefent,
And turn it all to ridicule,

Wit did a puppet-show invent,
Where the chief actor is a fool.

The gods of old were logs of wood,
And worship was to puppets paid;
In antic drefs the idol ftood,

And priest and people bow'd the head.
No wonder then, if art began

The fimple votaries to frame,

To shape in timber foolish man,

And confecrate the block to fame.

From hence poetic fancy learn'd

That trees might rife from human forms,

The body to a trunk be turn'd,

And branches iffue from the arms.

Thus Dedalus and Ovid too,

That man 's a blockhead, have confeft; Powel and Stretch the hint purfue; Life is a farce, the world a jeft.

*Two famous puppet-fhow men.

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