But hear me further - Japhet, 'tis agreed,

185

190

Writ not, and Chartres fcarce could write or read,
In all the Courts of Pindus guiltless quite;
But Pens can forge, my Friend, that cannot write;
And muft no Egg in Japhet's face be thrown,
Because the Deed he forg'd was not my own?
Must never Patriot then declaim at Gin,
Unless, good man! he has been fairly in ?
No zealous Paftor blame a failing Spouse,
Without a staring Reafon on his brows?
And each Blafphemer quite efcape the rod,
Because the infult's not on Man, but God?

Afk you what Provocation I have had ?
The ftrong Antipathy of Good to Bad.
When Truth or Virtue an Affront endures,

195

Th' Affront is mine, my friend, and should be yours. Mine, as a Foe profefs'd to false Pretence,

Who think a Coxcomb's Honour like his Sense;

Mine, as a Friend to ev'ry worthy mind;
And mine as Man, who feel for all mankind.

VARIATIONS.

VER. 185. in the MS.

I grant it, Sir; and further, 'tis agreed,"
Japhet writ not, and Chartres fcarce could read.

NOTES.

201

VER. 185. Japhet - Chartres] See the Epistle to Lord Bathurst.

P.

VER. 204. And mine as Man, who feel for all mankind.j

*S

F. You're ftrangely proud.

P. So proud, I am no Slave:1

So impudent, I own myself no Knave:

So odd, my Country's Ruin makes me grave.

Yes, I am proud; I muft be proud to fee

Men not afraid of God, afraid of me:

206

Safe from the Bar, the Pulpit, and the Throne, 210 Yet touch'd and fham'd by Ridicule alone.

O facred weapon! left for Truth's defence, Sole Dread of Folly, Vice, and Infolence ! To all but Heay'n-directed hands deny'd,

The Muse may give thee, but the Gods must guide:

NOTES.

From Terence: "Homo fum: humani nihil a me alienum "puto.". P.

VER. 208. Yes, I am proud; etc.] In this ironical exultation the Poet infinuates a fubject of the deepest humiliation,

VER. 211. Yet touch'd and sham'd by Ridicule alone.] The Paffions are given us to awake and fupport Virtue. But they frequently betray their trust, and go over to the interefts of Vice. Ridicule, when employed in the cause of Virtue, fhames and brings them back to their duty. Hence the ufe and importance of Satire.

"The

VER. 214. To all but Heav'n-directed bands] "Citizen (fays Plato, in his fifth book of Laws) who does no injury to any one, without queftion, merits our ef "teem. He, who, not content with being barely just

himself, oppofes the course of injustice, by profecuting "it before the Magiftrate, merits our esteem vaftly more. "The firft difcharges the duty of a fingle Citizen; but

the other does the office of a Body. But he whose zeal "ftops not here, but proceeds to ASSIST THE MAGISTRATE

Rev'rent I touch thee! but with honeft zeal;
To roufe the Watchmen of the public Weal,
To Virtue's work provoke the tardy Hall,
And goad the Prelate slumb'ring in his Stall.
Ye tinfel Infects! whom a Court maintains,
That counts your Beauties only by your Stains,
Spin all your Cobwebs o'er the Eye of Day!
The Mufe's wing shall brush you all away:

NOTES.

" IN PUNIHING is the most precious bleffing of Society. "This is the PERFECT CITIZEN, to whom we should "adjudge the prize of Virtue."

VER. 220. Ye Infects-The Mufe's wing shall brush you all away:] This it did very effectually; and the memory of them had been now forgotten, had not the Poet's charity, for a while, protracted their miferable Being. There is now in his library a complete collection of all the horrid Libels written and published against him;

The tale reviv'd, the lye fo oft o'erthrown,

Th' imputed trash, and dulnefs not his own;
The morals blacken'd, when the writings 'Scape,
The libell'd Perfon, and the pictur'd shape.

Thefe he had bound up in feveral volumes, according to their various fizes, from folios down to duodecimos; and to each of them hath affixed this motto out of the book of Job:

Bebold, my defire is, that mine adverfary should write a book. Surely Ifhould take it upon my shoulder, and bind it as a crown to me. Ch. xxxi. 35, 36.

VER. 222. Cobwebs] Weak and flight fophiftry against virtue and honour. Thin colours over vice, as unable to hide the light of Truth, as cobwebs to shade the fun.

224

All his Grace preaches, all his Lordship fings,
All that makes Saints of Queens, and Gods of Kings.
All, all but Truth, drops dead-born from the Press,
Like the laft Gazette, or the laft Address.

When black Ambition ftains a public Caufe,
A Monarch's fword when mad Vain-glory draws,.
Not Waller's Wreath can hide the Nation's Scar,
Nor Boileau turn the Feather to a Star.

231

Not fo, when diadem'd with rays divine, Touch'd with the Flame that breaks from Virtue's

Shrine,

VARIATIONS.

After 227. in the MS.

Where's now the Star that lighted Charles to rife ?

-With that which follow'd Julius to the skies.

Angels, that watch'd the Royal Oak fo well,
How chanc'd ye nod, when luckless Sorel fell?
Hence, lying miracles! reduc'd fo low
As to the regal-touch, and papal-toe;
Hence haughty Edgar's title to the Main,
Britain's to France, and thine to India, Spain !

NOTES.

VER. 228. When black Ambition etc.] The cafe of Cromwell in the civil war of England; and ( 229.) of Louis XIV. in his conqueft of the Low Countries. P.

VBR. 231. Nor Boileau turn the Feather to a Star.] See his Ode on Namur; where (to use his own words) "ill a "fait un Aftre de la Plume blanche que le Roy porte or"dinairement à fon Chapeau, et qui eft en effet une espece "de Comete, fatale à nos ennemis.” P.

Her Prieftefs Mufe forbids the Good to die,
And opes the Temple of Eternity.

There, other Trophies deck the truly brave,
Than fuch as Anftis cafts into the Grave;
Far other Stars than * and ** wear,

235

240

And may defcend to Mordington from STAIR :
(Such as on HOUGH's unfully'd Mitre shine,
Or beam, good DIGBY, from a heart like thine)
Let Envy howl, while Heav'n's whole Chorus fings,
And bark at Honour not confer'd by Kings;

Let Flatt'ry fickening fee the Incense rise,

Sweet to the World, and grateful to the Skies: 245
Truth guards the Poet, fanctifies the line,
And makes immortal, Verfe as mean as mine,

Yes, the laft Pen for Freedom let me draw,
When Truth ftands trembling on the edge of Law

NOTES.

VER. 237. Anftis] The chief Herald at Arms. It is the tuftom, at the funeral of great peers, to caft into the grave the broken ftaves and enfigns of honour. P.

VER. 239. Stair;] John Dalrymple Earl of Stair, Knight the Thistle; ferved in all the wars under the Duke Marlborough; and afterwards as Embaffador in France.

VER. 240, 241. Hough and Digby] Dr. John Hough Bishop of Worcester, and the Lord Digby. The one an ffertor of the Church of England in oppofition to the falfe measures of King James II. The other as firmly attached to the caufe of that King. Both acting out of principle, and equally men of honour and virtue.~ P.

VER.

249. on the edge of Law :1 From the fummit of