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Next them a train of loyal peers afcend;
Sharp-judging Adriel, the Mufes' friend,
Himfelf a Mufe: in fanhedrims debate
True to his prince, but not a flave of state;
Whom David's love with honours did adorn,
That from his difobedient fon were torn.
Jotham of piercing wit, and pregnant thought;
Endued by nature, and by learning taught,
To move affemblies, who but only tried

The worfe awhile, then chofe the better fide:
Nor chofe alone, but turn'd the balance too;
So much the weight of one brave man can do.
Hufhai, the friend of David in diftrefs;
In public ftorms of manly stedfaftness:
By foreign treaties he inform'd his youth,
And join'd experience to his native truth.
His frugal care fupplied the wanting throne;
Frugal for that, but bounteous of his own:
'Tis eafy conduct when exchequers flow;
But hard the task to manage well the low:
For fov'reign pow'r is too deprefs'd or high,
When kings are forc'd to fell, or crowds to buy.
Indulge one labour more, my weary Mufe,
For Amiel: who can Amiel's praise refuse?
Of ancient race by birth, but nobler yet
In his own worth, and without title great:
The fanhedrin long time as chief he rul'd,
Their reafon guided, and their paffion cool'd:
So dext'rous was he in the crown's defence,
So form'd to fpeak a loyal nation's fenfc,
That, as their band was Ifrael's tribes in fmall,
So fit was he to reprefent them all.
Now rafher charioteers the feat afcend,
Whose loofe careers his fteady skill commend:
They, like th' unequal ruler of the day,
Milguide the feasons, and mistake the way;
While he withdrawn at their mad labours fmiles,
And fafe enjoys the fabbath of his toils.

These were the chief, a fmall but faithful band
Of worthies, in the breach who dar'd to ftand,
And tempt th' united fury of the land.
With grief they view'd fuch pow'rful engines

bent

To batter down the lawful government :
A num'rous faction, with pretended frights,
In fanhedrims to plume the regal rights;
The true fucceffor from the court remov'd;
The plot by hireling witneffes improv'd.
Thefe ills they faw, and, as their duty bound,
They fhew'd the king the danger of the wound:
That no conceffions from the throne would pleafe,
But lenitives fomented the difeafe:
That Abfalom, ambitious of the crown,
Was made the lure to draw the people down :
That falle Achirophel's pernicious hate.
Had turn'd the plot to ruin church and state;
The council violent, the rabble worfe :
That Shimei taught Jerufalem to curfe.

With all thefe loads of injuries oppreft,
And long revolving in his careful breaft
Th' event of things, at last his patience tir'd,
Thus from his royal throne, by heaven infpir'd,
The godlike David fpoke, with awful fear
His train their Maker in their mafter hear:

Thus long have I, by native mercy fway'd,
My wrongs diffembled, my revenge delay'd:
So willing to forgive th' offending age;
So much the father did the king ailuage.
But now fo far my clemency they flight,
Th' offenders queftion my forgiving right:
That one was made for many, they contend;
But 'tis to rule; for that 's a monarch's end.
They call my tenderness of blood my fear;
Though manly tempers can the longest bear.
Yet, fince they will divert my native courfe,
'Tis time to fhew I am not good by force.
Those heap'd affronts that haughty subjects bring
Are burdens for a camel, not a king.
Kings are the public pillars of the state,
Born to fuftain and prop the nation's weight:
If my young Samfon will pretend a call
To thake the column, let him share the fall:
But, oh that yet he would repent and live!
How eafy 'tis for parents to forgive!
With how few tears a pardon might be won
From nature, pleading for a darling fon!
Poor, pitied youth, by my paternal care
Rais'd up to all the height his fame could bear:
Had God ordain'd his fate for empire born,
He would have given his foul another turn:
Gull'd with a patriot's name, whose modern
fenfe

Is one that would by law fupplant his prince;
The people's brave, the politician's tool ;
Never was patriot yet but was a fool.
Whence comes it that religion and the laws
Should more be Abialom's than David's caufe?
His old inftructor, ere he loft his place,
Was never thought endued with fo much grace.
Good heavens! how faction can a patriot paint!
My rebel ever proves my people's faint.
Would they impofe an heir upon the throne,
Let fanhed.ims be taught to give their own.
A king's at least a part of government;
And mine as requifite as their confent :
Without my leave a future king to choose,
Infers a right the prefent to depofe.
True, they petition me t' approve their choice:
But Efau's hands fuit ill with Jacob's voice.
My pious fubjects for my fafety pray;
Which to fecure, they take my pow'r away.
From plots and treafons heaven preferve my years,
But fave me moft from my petitioners!
Unfatiate as the barren womb or grave,
God cannot grant fo much as they can crave.
What then is left, but with a jealous cye
To guard the fmall remains of royalty?
The law fhall fill direct my peaceful sway,
And the fame law teach rebels to obey:
Votes fhall no more eftablifh'd power controul,
Such votes as make a part exceed the whole.
No groundless clamours fhall my friends remove,
Nor crowds have pow'r to punish ere they prove;
For Gods and godlike kings their care exprefs,
Still to defend their iervants in diftrefs.
Oh, that my pow'r to faving were confin'd!
Why am I forc'd, like heaven, against my mind,
To inake examples of another kind?

Muft

Muft I at length the fword of justice draw?
Oh curft effects of neceffary law!
How ill my fear they by my merey fcan!
Beware the fury of a patient man.
Law they require, let law then fhew her face;
They could not be content to look on grace,
Her hinder parts, but with a daring eye
To tempt the terror of her frent, and die.
By their own arts 'tis righteously decreed,
Thofe dire artificers of death thall bleed;
Against themselves their witnoffes will fwear,
Till, viper-like, their mother plot they tear;
And fuck for nutriment that bloody gore,
Which was their principle of life before.
Their Belial with their Beelzebub will fight:
Thus on my foes my foes fhall do me right.
Nor doubt th' event: for factious crowds engage,
In their first onfet, all their brutal rage.
Then let them take an unrefifted course:
Retire, and traverfe, and delude their force :
But when they ftand all breathlefs, urge the
And rife upon them with redoubled might:
For lawful pow'r is ftill fuperior found;
When long driven back, at length it ftands the
ground.

[While pamper'd crowds to mad fedition run,
And monarchs by indulgence are undone.
Thus David's clemency was fatal grown,
While wealthy faction aw'd the wanting throne.
For now their fovereign's orders to contema
Was held the charter of Jerulalem;
His rights t' invade, his tributes to refufe,
A privilege peculiar to the Jews;
As if from heavenly call this license fell,
And Jacob's feed were chofen to rebel!

Achitophel with triumph fees his crimes Thus fuited to the madnets of the times; And Abfalom, to make his hopes fucceed, Of flatt'ring charms no longer ftands in need; While, fond of change, tho' ne'er fo dearly bought, Our tribes outstrip the youth's ambitious thought; His fwifteft hopes with fwifter homage meet, And crowd their fervile necks beneath his feet. Thus to his aid while preffing tides repair, He mounts, and spreads his fircainers in the air. fight,The charms of empire might his youth milead, But what can our belotted Ifrael plead ? Sway'd by a monarch whofe ferene command Seems half the bleffing of our promis'd land, Whofe only grievance is excels of cafe; Freedom our pain, and plenty our difcafe! Yet as all folly would lay claim to fenfe, And wickedness ne'er wanted a pretence, With arguments they 'd make their treafon good, And righteous David's felf with flanders load: That arts of foreign fway he did affect, And guilty Jebutites from law protect, Whofe very chiefs, convict, were never freed; Nay we have feen their facrifices bleed! Accufers' infamy is urg'd in vain, While in the bounds of fenfe they did contain; In the year 1680, Mr. Dryden undertook the But foon they launch'd into th' unfathom'd tide, poem of Abfalem and Achitophel, upon the defire of And in the depths they knew difdain'd to ride. king Charles II. The performance was applauded or probable difcoveries to difpenfe, by every one; and several perfons preffing him to Was thought below a penfion'd evidence; write a Second Part, be, upon declining it binjelf, Mere truth was dull, nor fuited with the port Spoke to Mr. Tate to write one, and gave bini bis Of pamper'd Corah when advanc'd to couit. advice in the direction of it: and that part begin-No lefs than wonders now they will impofe, ning with

He faid: th' Almighty nodding gave confent;
And peals of thunder thook the firmament.
Henceforth a series of new time began,
The mighty years in long proceffion ran:
Once more the godlike David was reftor'd,
And willing nations knew their lawful lord.

PART

II.

i quis tamen haec quoque, fi quis "Captus amore leget---"

"Next thefe, a troop of bufy fpirits prefs," and ending with

And projects void of grace or fense disclose. Such was the change on pious Michal brought, Michal that ne'er was cruel even in thought, The best of queens, and most obedient wife, "To talk like Doeg, and to write like thee,' Impeach'd of curst designs on David's life! His life, the theme of her eternal pray`r, containing near two hundred verfes, was entirelyTis fcarce fo much his guardian angel's care. Mr. Dryden's compofition, befides fome touches in Not fummier moras fuch mildaels can difciole, other places.-The preceding lines, upwards of three The Hermon lily, nor the Sharon rofe. hundred in number, were written by Mr. Tate. Neglecting each vain pomp The poem is bere printed complete. of majesty, Tranfported Michal feeds her thoughts on high: She lives with angels, and, as angels do, Quits heaven fometimes to blefs the world below: Where, cherish'd by her bounty's plenteous fpring, Reviving widows fimile, and orphans fing. Oh! when rebellious Ifrael's crimes at height Are threaten'd with her lord's approaching fate, The picty of Michal then remain In Heaven's remembrance, and prolong his reign! Lefs defolation did the peft purfue I hat from Dan's limits to Beersheba flew,

ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL. SINCE men, like beafts, each other's prey were made;

Since trade began, and priesthood grew a trade;
Since realms were form'd, none fure fo curft as
thofe

That madly their own happiness oppofe;
There Heaven itself, and godlike kings in vain
Show'r down the manna of a gentle reign;

Lefs

Lefs fatal the repeated wars of Tyre,
And lefs Jerufalem's avenging fire;
With gentler terror thefe our itate o'er-ran,
Than fince our evidencing days began!
On ev'ry cheek a pale confufion fat,
Continued fear beyond the worst of fate!
Truft was no more; art, fcience, ufelefs made;
All occupations loft but Corah's trade.
Meanwhile a guard on modeft Corah wait,
If not for fafety, needful yet for state.
Well might he deem each peer and prince his flave.
And lord it o'er the tribes which he could fave
Even vice in him was virtue-what fad fate
But for his honefty had feiz'd our state!
And with what tyranny had we been curft,
Had Corah never prov'd a villain first!
T'have told his knowledge of th' intrigue in
Had been, alas! to our deponent's lofs: [grofs,
The travell'd Levite had th' experience got,
To husband well, and make the beft of 's plot;
And therefore, like an evidence of skill,
With wife referves fecur'd his pension still;
Not quite of future pow'r himfelf bereft,
But limbos large for unbelievers left.
And now his writ fuch reverence had got,
'Twas worse than plotting to fufpect his plot.
Some were fo well convinc'd, they made no doubt
Themfelves to help the founder'd fwearers out.
Some had their fenfe impos'd on by their fear,
But more for intereft fake believe and fwear :
Even to that height with fome the phrenfy grew,
They rag'd to find their danger not prove true.
Yet, than all thefe a viler crew remain,
Who with Achitophel the cry maintain;
Not urg'd by fear, nor thro' mifguided fenfe-
Blind zeal and ftarving need had fome pretence-
But for the good old caufe that did excite
Th' original rebels' wiles--revenge, and fpite.
Thefe raife the plot to have the fcandal thrown
Upon the bright fucceffor of the crown,
Whofe virtue with fuch wrongs they had pursued,
As feem'd all hope of pardon to exclude.
Thus, while on private ends their acal is built,
The cheated crowd applaud and share their guilt.
Such practices as t.cfe, too grofs to lie
Long unobferv'd by each difcerning cye,
The more judicious Ifraelites unfpell'd,
Though fill the charm the giddy rabble held.
Even Abfaloin, amidst the dazzling beams
Of empire, and ambition's flatt'ring dreams,
Perceives the plot, too foul to be excus'd,
To aid defigns, no lefs pernicious, us':
And, filial fenfe yet striving in his breast,
Thus to Achitophel his doubts exprefs'd :
Why are my thoughts upon a crown employ'd,
Which once obrain'd can be but half enjoy'd?
Not fo when virtue did my arms require,
And to my father's wars I flew entire.
My regal pow'r how will my focs refent,
When I myself have fca ce my own confent!
Give me a fon's unblemish'd truth again,
Or quench the fparks of duty that remain.
How flight to force a throne that legions guard
The talk to me; to prove unjuft, how hard!

And if th' imagin'd guilt thus wound my thought,
What will it when the tragic fcene is wrought?
Dire war muft firit be conjur'd from below,
The realm we'd rule we firft muft overthrow;
And when the civil furies are on wing,
That blind and undiftinguith'd flaughters fling,
Who knows what impious chance may reach
the king?

Oh! rather let me perish in the ftrife,
Than have my crown the price of David's life!
Or, if the tempest of the war he stand,
in peace, fome vile officious villain's hand
ifis foul's anointed temple may invade,

r, prefs'd by clam'rous crowds, myself be made
His murderer-rebellious crowds, whofe guilt
Shall dread his vengeance till his blood be fpilt.
Which if my filial tenderness oppofe,
since to the empire by their arms I rofe,
Thofe very arms on me fhall be employ'd,
A new ufurper crown'd, and I deftroy'd:
The fame pretence of public good will hold,
And new Achitophels be found as bold

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He faid: the ftatefman with a fmile replics,
A fmile that did his rifing fpleen difguife:
My thoughts prefum'd our labours at an end,
And are we ftill with confcience to contend,
Whofe want in kings as needful is allow'd
As 'tis for them to find it in the crowd?
Far in the doubtful paffage you are gone,
And only can be fafe by preffing on.
The crown's true heir, a prince fevere and wife,
Has view'd your motions long with jealous eyes;
Your perfon's charms, your more prevailing arts,
And mark'd your progrefs in the people's hearts,
Whofe patience is th' effect of flinted pow'r,
But treafures vengeance for the fatal hour;
And, if remote the peril he can bring,
Your prefent danger's greater from the king.
Let not a parent's name deceive your fente,
Nor trust the father in a jealous prince !
Your trivial faults if he could fo refent,
To doom you little lefs than banifhment,
What rage muft your prefumption fince inspire!
Against his orders you return from Tyre.
Nor only fo, but with a pomp more high,
And open court of popularity,

The factious tribes-And this reproof from thee?
The prince replies, O ftatefman's winding fkill!
They firft condemn that firft advis'd the ill!
!lluftrious youth, return'd Achitophel,
Mifconftrue not the words that mean you well.
The course you fteer I worthy blame conclude,
But 'tis because you leave it unpursued.
A monarch's crown with fate furrounded lies;
Who reach, lay hold on death that miss the prize.
Did you for this expofe yourself to show,
And to the crowd bow popularly low?
For this your glorious progrefs next ordain,
With chariots, horfemen, and a numerous train;
With fame before you like the morning ftar,
And fhouts of joy faluting from afar?
Oh,from the heights you've reach'd but take a view,
Scarce leading Lucifer could fall like you!

And

And must I here my fhipwreck'd arts bemoan?
Have I for this fo oft made Ifrael groan?
Your fingle int'reft with the nation weigh'd,
And turn'd the fcale where your defires were laid!
Even when at helm a courfe fo dang'rous mov'd
To land your hopes as my removal prov'd.

I not difpute, the royal youth replies,
The known perfection of your policies;
Nor in Achitophel vet grudge or blame
The privilege that ftatcimen ever claim;
Who private int reft never yet purfued,
Put ftill pretended 'twas for others' good:
What politician yet e'er fcap'd his fate,
Who faving his own neck not fav'd the ftate?
From hence on ev'ry humorous wind that
veer'd,

With fhifted fails a feveral courfe you steer'd.
What from a fway did David e'er pursue,
That feem'd like abfolute, but fprung from you?
Who at your infance quafh'd cach penal law,
That kept differting factious Jews in awe;
And who fufpends fix'd laws, may abrogate;
That done, form new, and fo enflave the state.
Even property, whofe champion now you ftand,
And feem for this the idol of the land,
Did ne'er fuftain fuch violence before,
As when your counfel fhut the royal store;
Advice, that ruin to whole tribes procur'd,
But fecret kept till your own banks fecur'd.
Recount with this the triple cov'nant broke,
And Ifrael fitted for a foreign yoke;
Nor here your counfels' fatal progrefs ftaid,
But fent our levied pow'rs to Pharaoh's aid.
Hence Tyre and Ifrael low in ruins laid,
And Egypt, once their fcorn, their common terror
made.

Even yet of fuch a season can we dream,
When royal rights you made your darling theme,
For pow'r unlimited could reafons draw,
And place prerogative above the law;
Which on your fall from office grew unjust,
The laws made king, the king a flave in truft:
Whom with ftate-craft, to int reft only true,
You now accufe of ills contriv'd by you.

To this hell's agent-Royal youth, fix here, Let int'reft be the ftar by which you steer; Hence to repofe your truft in me was wife, Whofe int'reft moft in your advancement lies: A tie fo firm as always will avail,

When friendship, nature, and religion, fail.
On ours the fafety of the crowd depends;
Secure the crowd, and we obtain our ends;
Whom I will caufe fo far our guilt to share,
Till they are made our champions by their fear.
What oppofition can your rival bring,
While tanhedrims are jealous of the king?
His ftrength as yet in David's friendship lies,
And what can David's felf without fupplies?
Who with exclufive bills must now difpente,
Debar the heir, or ftarve in his defence;
Conditions which our elders ne'er will quit,
And David's juftice never can admit.
Or forc'd by wants his brother to betray,
To your ambition next he clears the way;

For if fucceffion once to nought they bring,
Their next advance removes the prefent king:
Perfifting elfe his fenates to diffeİve,
In equal hazard fhall his reign involve.
Our tribes, whom Pharaoh's pow'rfo much alarms,
Shall rife without their prince t'oppofe his arms;
Nor boots it on what caufe at first they join,
Their troops once up are tools for our defign.
At leaft fuch fubtile cov'nants fhall be made,
Till peace itfelf is war in masquerade.
Affociations of myfterious fenfe,
Again, but feeming for, the king's defence—
Een on their courts of juftice fetters draw,
And from our agents muzzle up their law:
By which a conqueft if we fail to make,
"Tis a drawn game at worst, and we fecure our
ftake.

He faid; and for the dire fuccefs depends
On various fects, by common guilt made friends;
Whofe heads, tho' ne'er fo diff'ring in their creed,
I' th' point of treafon yet were well agreed.
Mongft thefe, extorting Ifhban firft appears,
Purfued by meagre troops of bankrupt heirs.
Bleft times, when Ifhban, he whofe occupation
So long has been to cheat, reforms the nation!
Ifhban of confcience fuited to his trade,
As good a faint as ufurer ever made.
Yet Mammon has not fo engrofs'd him quite,
But Belial lays as large a claim of spite;
Who, for thofe pardons from his prince he draws,
Returns reproaches, and cries up the caufe.
That year in which the city he did fway,
He left rebellion in a hopeful way.

Yet his ambition once was found fo bold,
To offer talents of extorted gold;

Could David's wants have fo been brib'd, to

fhame

And fcandalize our peerage with his name;
For which, his dear fedition he'd forfwear,
And ev'n turn loyal to be made a peer.
Next him, let railing Rabfheka have place,
So full of zeal he has no need of grace;
A faint that can both fleth and fpirit ufe,
Alike haunt conventicles and the stews:
Of whom the question difficult appears,
If moft i' th' preacher's or the bawd's arrears.
What caution could appear too much in him
That keeps the treafure of Jerufalem !
Let David's brother but approach the town,
Double our guards, he cries, we are undone!
Protefting that he dares not fleep in 's bed,
Left he should rife next morn without his head.
"Next thefe, a troop of busy spirits press,
Of little fortunes, and of confcience lets;
With them the tribe, whofe luxury had drain'd
Their banks, in former fequeftrations gain'd;
Who rich and great by paft rebellions grew,
And long to fith the troubled ftreams anew.
Some future hopes, fome prefent payment draws,
To fell their confcience and efpoufe the cause.
Such ftipends thofe vile hirclings beft beat,
Priefs without grace, and poets without wit.
Shall that ife Hebronite efcape our curfe,
Judas that keeps the rebels' pentive purfe;

Judas

Judas that pays the treafon-writer's fee,
Judas that well deferves his namefake's tree;
Who at Jerufalem's own gates erects
His college for a nursery of fects;
Young prophets with an early care fecures,
And with the dung of his own arts manures?
What have the men of Hebron here to do?

What part in Ifrael's promis'd land have you?
Here Phaleg the lay-Hebronite is come,
'Caufe like the rest he could not live at home;
Who from his own poffeffions could not drain
An omer even of Hebronitifh grain,
Here ftruts it like a patriot, and talks high
Of injur'd fubjects, alter'd property:
An emblem of that buzzing infect juft,
That mounts the wheel, and thinks the raifes duft.
Can dry bones live or fkeletons produce
The vital warmth of cuckoldizing juice?
Slim Phaleg could, and at the table fed,
Return'd the grateful product to the bed.
A waiting-man to travelling nobles chofe,
He his own laws would faucily impose;
Till baftinadeed back again he went,
To learn thofe manners he to teach was fent.
Chaftis'd he ought to have retreated home;
But he reads politics to Abfalom.

For never Hebronite, tho' kick'd and fcorn'd,
To his own country willingly return'¿.
But, leaving famifh'd Phaleg to be fed,
And to talk treafon for his daily bread,
Let Hebron, nay let hell, produce a man
So made for mifchief as Ben-Jochanan;
A Jew of humble parentage was he,
By trade a Levite, though of low degree:
His pride no higher than the desk aspir'd;
But for the drudgery of priests was hir'd,
To read and pray in linen ephod brave,
And pick up fingle fhekels from the grave.
Married at lait, but finding charge come fafter,
He could not live by God, fo chang'd his mafter:
Infpir'd by want, was made a factious tool;
They got a villain, and we loft a fool.
Still violent, whatever caufe he took,
But most against the party he fortcok.
For renegadocs, who ne'er turn by halves,
Are bound in confcience to be double knaves.
So this profe-prophet took moft monitrous pains,
To let his maiters fee he earn'd his gains.
But, as the devil owes all his imps a thame,
He chofe th' apoftate for his proper theme;
With little pains he made the picture true,
And from reflection took the rogue he drew.
A wondrous work, to prove the Jewish nation
In every age a murmuring generation;
To trace them from their infancy of finning,
And fhew them factious from their first beginning.
To prove they could rebel, and rail, and mock,
Much to the credit of the chofen flock;
Aftrong authority, which muft convince,
That faints own no allegiance to their prince.
As 'tis a leading card to make a whore,
To prove her mother had turn'd up before.
But, tell me, did the drunken patriarch blefs
The fun that fhew'd his father's nakedness:

Such thanks the prefent church thy pen will give
Which proves rebellion was fo primitive.
Muit ancient failings be examples made?
Then murderers from Cain may learn their trade,
As thou the heathen and the faint haft drawn,
Methinks th' apoftate was the better man ;
And thy hot father, waving my respect,
Not of a mother-church, but of a fect:
And fuch he needs must be of thy inditing;
This comes of drinking affes milk, and writing.
If Balak should be call'd to leave his place,
As profit is the loudest call of grace,
His temple, difpoffefs'd of one, would be
Replenish'd with feven devils more by thee.

Levi, thou art a load, I'll lay thee down,
And fhew rebellion bare, without a gown;
Poor flaves in metre, dull and addle-pated,
Who rhyme below ev'n David's Pfalms tranflated.
Some in my fpeedy pace I muft out-run,
As lame Mephibofheth, the wizard's fon :
To make quick way, I'll leap o'er heavy blocks,
Shun rotten Uzza as I would the pox;
And haften Og and Docg to rehearse,
Two fools that crutch their feeble fenfe on verfe;
Who by my Mufe to all fucceeding times
Shall live, in fpite of their own doggrel rhymes.

Doeg, though without knowing how or why, Made fill a blundering kind of melody; Spurr'd boldly on, and dafh'd thro' thick and thin, Thro' fenfe and nonfenfe, never out nor in; Free from all meaning, whether good or bad, And, in one word, heroically mad: He was too warm on picking-work to dwell, But fagotted his notions as they fell, And, if they rhym'd and rattled, all was well; Spiteful he is not, though he wrote a fatire, For ftill there goes fome thinking to ill-nature: He needs no more than birds and beafts to think,

}

All his occafions are to eat and drink.
If he call rogue and rafcal from a garret,
He means you no more mifchief than a parrot :
The words for friend and foe alike were made;
To fetter them in verfe, is all his trade.
For almonds he'll cry whore to his own mother;
And call young Abfilom king David's brother.
Let him be gallows-free by my confent,
And nothing fuffer fince he nothing meant;
Hanging fuppofes human foul and reafon;
This animal's below committing treafon;
Shall he be hang'd who never could rebel?
That's a preferiment for Achitophel.
The woman that committed buggery
Was rightly fentenc'd by the law to die;
But 't was hard fate that to the gallows led
The dog that never heard the ftatute read.
Railing in other men may be a crime,
But ought to pafs for mere inftinct in him:
Inftinct he follows, and no farther knows;
For to write verfe with him is to tranfprofe.
'Twere pity treafon at his door to lay,
Who makes heaven's gate a lock to its own key:
Let him rail on, let his invective Mufe
Have four-and-twenty letters to abufe;

X

Which,

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