Confideration, like an angel, came,
And whipp'd th'offending Adam out of him;
Leaving his body as a paradife,
T'invelope and contain celeftial spirits.
Never was such a sudden scholar made:
Never came reformation in a flood
With fuch a heady current, fcow'ring faults:
Nor ever Hydra-headed wilfulness
So foon did lofe his feat, and all at once,
As in this king.
1. We're bleffed in the change.
2. Hear him but reason in divinity,
And, all-admiring, with an inward wish
You would defire, the king were made a prelate :
Hear him debate of commonwealth affairs,
You'd fay, it hath been all in all his ftudy;
Lift his discourse of war, and you shall hear
A fearful battle render'd you in mufick.
Turn him to any cause of policy,
The gordian knot of it he will unloofe,
Familiar as his garter. When he fpeaks,
The air, a charter'd libertine, is ftill;
And the mute wonder lurketh in mens ears,
To steal his sweet and honied fentences:
So that the act, and practick part of life,
Must be the mistress to this rhetorick.
Which is a wonder how his grace should glean it,
Since his addition was to courfes vain.;
His companies unletter'd, rude and fhallow;
His hours fill'd up with riots, banquets, fports;
And never noted in him any ftudy,
Any retirement, any fequeftration,
From open haunts and popularity.
1. The ftraw-berry grows underneath the nettle,
And wholesome berries thrive, and ripen beft,
Neighbour'd by fruit of bafer quality:
And fo the prince obfcur'd his contemplation
Under the veil of wildness; which, no doubt,
Grew like the fummer-grafs, fafteft by night,
Unseen, yet crefcive in his faculty.
2. It must be fo; for miracles are ceas'd:
And therefore we muft needs admit the means,
How things are perfected.
Shakespear's King Henry V.
I know you all, and will awhile uphold
The un-yok'd humour of your idleness,
Yet herein will I imitate the fun,
Who doth permit the bafe contagious clouds
To fmother up his beauty from the world
That when he pleafes again to be himself;
Being wanted, he may be more wonder'd at,
By breaking through the foul and ugly mifts
Of vapours, that did feem to ftrangle him.
If all the year were playing holidays,
The fport would be as tedious as to work;
But when they feldom come, they wish'd-for come,
And nothing pleafeth but rare accidents :
So when this loofe behaviour I throw off,
And pay the debt I never promifed;
By how much better than my word I am,
By fo much fhall I falfify men's hopes;
And, like bright metal on a fullen ground,
My reformation, glitt'ring o'er my fault,
Shall fhew more gocdly, and attract more eyes,
Than that which hath no foil to fet it off.
I'll fo offend, to make offence a skill;
Redeeming time, when men think leaft I will.
Shakespear's First Part of King Henry IV.
Formless themselves, reforming do pretend;
As if confufion could diforder mend.
For never headstrong reformation will
Reft, till to th' extreme oppofite it run,
And over-run, the mean diftrufted ftill,
As b'ing too near of kin to that men fhun:
For good and bad, and all, must be one ill,
When once there is another truth begun.
So hard it is an even hand to bear,
In temp'ring with fueh maladies as these ;
Left that our forward paffions lance too near,
And make the cure prove worse than the disease:
For with the worst, we will not fpare the best,
Because it grows with that which doth displease.
And faults are easier look'd in, than redress'd:
Men running with fuch eager violence,
At the first view of errors, fresh in queft;
As they, to rid an inconvenience,
Stick not to raise a mischief in the ftead,
Which after mocks their weak improvidence ;
And therefore do not make your own fides bleed,
To prick at others.
Daniel's Mufophilus.
Indeed a prince need not travel farther
Than his own kingdom, if he apply himself
Faithfully, worthy the glory of himfelf
And expectation of others and it
Would appear far nobler industry in
Him, to reform thofe fashions that are
Already in his country; than to bring
New ones in, which have neither true form nor
Fashion To make his court an owl,
City an ape, and the country a wolf,
Preying upon the ridiculous pride
Of either: And therefore I hold it a
Safer ftern upon this lucky advantage,
Since my father is near his setting, and
I upon the eastern hill to take my rife,
To look into the heart and bowels of dukedom,
And in difguife, mark all abuses ready
For reformation or punishment.
So much have the complaints and fuits of men,
Seven, nay, feventeen years neglected, ftill
Interpos'd by coin and great enemies,
Prevail'd with pity, that I cannot otherwise
Think, but there are infectious dealings
In most offices, and foul myfteries
Throughout all profeffions: And therefore I
Nothing doubt, but to find travel enough
Within myself, and experience I fear
Too much: Nor will I be curious to fit
My body to the humbleft form and bearing,
So the labour may be fruitful: For how
Can abuses that keep low, come to the
Right view of a prince, unless his looks lie
Level with them, which elfe will be longest
Hid from him, he fhall be the last man fees them?
For oft between kings eyes, and fubjects crimes,
Stands there a bar of bribes; the under-office
Flatters him next above it; he the next,
And fo of moft, or many: ev'ry abuse will chufe a
'Tis through the world, this hand will rub the other.
Who labours to reform, is fit to reign:
How can the king be fafe that ftudies not
The profit of his people?
Gives us to know, that in th'lopping of trees,
The skillful hand prunes but the lower branches,
And leaves the top ftill growing, to extract
Sap from the root; as meaning to reform,
Not to destroy.
Tatham's Diftracted State.
RELIGIO N.
He wears his faith but as the fashion of
His hat, it ever changes with the next block.
Shakespear's Much ado about Nothing.
Religion is a branch, firft fet and bleft
By heav'n's high finger in the hearts of kings;
Which whilome grew into a goodly tree,
Bright angels fat and fung upon the twigs,
And royal branches for the heads of kings
Were twisted of them: But fince fquint-ey'd envy
And pale fufpicion dafh'd the heads of kingdoms
One 'gainst another, two abhorred twins
With two foul tails, ftern war and liberty
Enter'd the world; the tree that grew from heav'n
Is over-run with mofs; the chearful mufick
That heretofore hath founded out of it,
Begins to ceafe; and as fhe cafts her leaves,
By fmall degrees, the kingdoms of the earth
Decline and wither; and look whenfoever
That the pure fap in her, is dry'd up quite,
The lamp of all authority goes out,
And all the blaze of princes is extinct.
Thus as the poet fends a messenger
Out to the stage, to fhew the fum of all
That follows after: So are kings revolts,
And playing both ways with religion,
Fore-runners of afflictions imminent;
Which, like a chorus, subjects must lament.
Chapman's Second Part of Byron's Confpiracy.
Sacred religion! mother of form and fear!
How gorgeously fometimes doft thou fit deck'd?
What
pompous veftures do we make thee wear?
What ftately piles we prodigal erect?
How sweet perfum'd art thou, how fhining clear?
How folemnly obferv'd; with what reípect?
Another time all plain, all quite thread-bare;
Thou must have all within, and nought without;
Sit poorly without light, difrob'd: No care
Of outward grace t'amufe the poor devout;
Pow'rlefs, unfollow'd: Scarcely men can spare
The neceffary rites to fet thee out.
Daniel's Mufophilus.
He whom God chufeth, out of doubt doth well;
What they that chufe their God do, who can tell?
Lord Brooke's Mustapha.
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