MODERN SCEPTICS. No wild enthusiast ever yet could rest Church quacks, with passions under no command, Deposit in those shallows all their spawn. The wriggling fry soon fill the creeks around, And own his crab-computing pow'rs o'ercome. Is this hyperbole? The world well known, If stubborn Greek refuse to be his friend, Like trout pursued, the critic, in despair, Darts to the mud, and finds his safety there. Patient of contradiction, as a child Affable, humble, diffident, and mild; Such was Sir Isaac, and such Boyle and Locke: The creature is so sure to kick and bite, Tell him he wanders; that his error leads Thus men go wrong with an ingenious skill; One leg by truth supported, one by lies; Faults in the life breed errors in the brain; Each, sire and dam of an infernal race, Hear the just law-the judgment of the skies! He that hates truth shall be the dupe of lies: And he that will be cheated to the last, Delusions, strong as hell, shall bind him fast.. TRUE GAIETY. WHOM call we gay? That honour has been long The boast of mere pretenders to the name. That dries his feathers, saturate with dew, But save me from the gaiety of those Whose head-aches nail them to a noon-day bed; The mouth with blasphemy, the heart with wo. |