While others in fuch monftrous forms appear,
As tongue-ty'd fournefs, fly fufpicion's leer,
Free fifted rudeness, dropfical pretence,
Proteus' caprice, and elbowing infolence;
No caution to avoid them they demand,
Like wretches branded by the hangman's hand.
If faith to fome philofophers 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 focial home he knew, no friendship's tie,
Selfish in good, in ill without ally;
'Till fome in length of time, of stronger nerve,
And greater cunning, forc'd the rest to serve
One common purpose, and, in nature's spite,
Brought the whole jarring species to unite.
But might we not with equal reason fay,
That every single particle of clay,
Which forms our body, was at firft design'd
To lie for ever from the reft disjoin'd?
Can this be faid, and can it be allow'd
'Twas with its powers for no one end endow'd? If fo; we own that man, at first, by art
Was footh'd to act in focial life a part.
'Tis true, in fome the feeds of difcord feem
To contradict this all-uniting scheme :
But that no more hurts nature's general course,
Than matter found with a repelling force.
Turn we awhile on lonely man our eyes,
And see what frantic scenes of folly rise :
In fome dark monaftery's gloomy cells,
Where formal felf-prefuming Virtue dwells,
Bedoz'd with dreams of grace-diftilling caves,
Of holy puddles, unconfuming graves,
Of animated plaifter, wood, and stone,
And mighty cures by fainted finners done.
Permit me, Muse, still farther to explore,
And turn the leaves of fuperftition o'er;
Where wonders upon wonders ever grow,
Chaos of zeal and blindness, mirth and woe;
• Vifions of devils into monkeys turn'd,
That hot from hell roar at a finger burn'd;
d Bottles of precious tears that faints have wept,
And breath a thousand years in phials kept;
St. Dominic, vide Janfenius (Nic.)
Of our Saviour and others, vide Ferrand.
Of Jofeph, vide Molinæum.
Sun-beams fent down to prop one friar's staff, * And hell broke loose to make another laugh; h Obedient fleas, and ' fuperftitious mice;
Confeffing wolves, and ' fanctifying lice;
m 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 fome unheard-of crime;
Increases the large catalogue of fins,
And where the fober finish, there begins.
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 bleft abodes,
Weighs all the niceties of forms and modes;
And makes the rugged paths fo fmooth and even,
None but an ill-bred man can miss of heav'n.
f St. Cathro's, vide Colganum.
h Vide life of St. Colman by Colganus.
i The fame life by the fame author.
* Vide fpeculum vitæ fancti Francisci.
1 St. Munnu gathered thofe that dropt from him, and put
them in their place again, vide A&t. San&torum.
m From St. Firman to St. Columba, vide Colganum. Chapel
a Maria de la Vifitation, vide her life by Lufignam.
One heav'n-infpir'd invents a frock, or hood:
The taylor now cuts out, and men grow good.
Another quits his ftockings, breeches, fhirt,
Because he fancies virtue dwells with dirt:
While all concur to take
From weightier points, and lay it on the lefs.
Anxious each paltry relique to preserve
Of him, whofe hungry friends they leave to starve,
Harrass'd by watchings, abftinence, and chains;
Strangers to joys, familiar grown with pains;
To all the means of virtue they attend
With ftrictest care, and only miss the end.
Can fcripture teach us, or can sense persuade,
That man for fuch employments e'er was made?
Far be that thought! But let us now relate
A character as oppofite, as great,
In him, who living gave to Athens fame,
And, by his death, immortaliz'd her shame.
Great scourge of fophifts! he from heaven brought down,
And plac'd true wisdom on th' ufurper's throne:
Philofopher in all things, but pretence;
He taught what they neglected, common sense.
They o'er the ftiff Lyceum form'd to rule ;
He, o'er mankind; all Athens was his school.
The fober tradesman, and smart petit-maitre,
Great lords, and wits, in their own eyes
ftill greater,
With him grew wife; 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 ideots that.
View him with fophifts fam'd for fierce contest,
Or crown'd with roses at the jovial feaft;
Infulted by a peevish, noify wife,
Or at the bar foredoom'd to lose his life;
What moving words flow from his artless tongue,
Sublime with ease, with condefcenfion strong!
Yet fcorn'd to flatter vice, or virtue blame;
Nor chang'd to please, but pleas'd because the fame;
The fame by friends carefs'd, by foes withstood,
Still unaffected, cheerful, mild, and good.
Behold one pagan, drawn in colours faint,
Outfhine ten thousand monks, though each a faint!
Here let us fix our foot, hence take our view,
And learn to try falfe merit by the true.
We fee, when reafon ftagnates in the brain,
The dregs of fancy cloud its pureft vein;
But circulation betwixt mind and mind
Extends its courfe, and renders it refin'd.
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