And fonie wild curs, who from their masters ran,
Abhorring the supremacy of man,

In woods and caves the rebel-race began.

O happy pair, how well have you increas'd!
What ills in church and ftate have you redress'd?
With teeth untry'd, and rudiments of claws,
Your firft effay was on your native laws :
Those having torn with eafe, and trampled down,
Your fangs you faften'd on the mitred crown,
And freed from God and monarchy your town.
What though your native kennel ftill be fmall,
Bounded betwixt a puddle and a wall; -
Yet your victorious colonies are fent
Where the north ocean girds the continent.
Quicken'd with fire below, your monsters breed

In fenny Holland, and in fruitful Tweed :
And like the firft the laft affects to be

Drawn to the dregs of a democracy.

As, where in fields the fairy rounds are seen,
A rank four herbage rifes on the green;
So, fpringing where thofe midnight elves advance,
Rebellion prints the footsteps of the dance.
Such are their doctrines, fuch contempt they fhow
To heaven above, and to their prince below,
As none but traitors and blafphemers know.
God, like the tyrant of the fkies, is plac'd,
And kings, like flaves, beneath the crowd debas'd.
So fulfome is their food, that flocks refufe
To bite, and only dogs for phyfic ufe.

}

As,

As, where the lightning runs along the ground,
No husbandry can heal the blafting wound;
Nor bladed grafs, nor bearded corn fucceeds,
But fcales of fcurf and putrefaction breeds :
Such wars, fuch wafte, fuch fiery tracks of dearth
Their zeal has left, and fuch a teemless earth.
But, as the poisons of the deadliest kind
Are to their own unhappy coafts confin'd;
As only Indian shades of fight deprive,
And magic plants will but in Colchos thrive;
So prefbytery and peftilential zeal

Can only flourish in a commonweal.

From Celtic woods is chas'd the wolfish crew;
But ah! fome pity ev'n to brutes is due :
Their native walks methinks they might enjoy,
Curb'd of their native malice to destroy.
Of all the tyrannies on human-kind,
The worst is that which persecutes the mind.
Let us but weigh at what offence we strike,
'Tis but because we cannot think alike.
In punishing of this, we overthrow
The laws of nations and of nature too.
Beafts are the subjects of tyrannic sway,
Where still the stronger on the weaker prey.
Man only of a fofter mold is made,
Not for his fellow's ruin, but their aid:
Created kind, beneficent, and free,
The noble image of the Deity.

One portion of informing fire was given
To brutes, th' inferior family of heaven :

The

The smith divine, as with a careless beat,
Struck out the mute creation at a heat:
But when arriv'd at last to human race,
The Godhead took a deep confidering space;
And to distinguish man from all the rest,
Unlock'd the facred treasures of his breaft;
And mercy mixt with reason did impart,
One to his head, the other to his heart:
Reason to rule, but mercy to forgive :
The first is law, the last prerogative.

And like his mind his outward form appear'd,
When, iffuing naked, to the wondering herd,
He charm'd their eyes; and, for they lov'd, they fear'd:
Not arm'd with horns of arbitrary might,

Or claws to feize their furry fpoils in fight,
Orwith increase of feet t' o'ertake them in their flight:
Of easy shape, and pliant every way;

Confeffing still the softness of his clay,
And kind as kings upon their coronation-day:
With open hands, and with extended space
Of arms, to fatisfy a large embrace.

Thus kneaded up with milk, the new-made man
His kingdom o'er his kindred world began :
Till knowledge mifapply'd, misunderstood,
And pride of empire four'd his balmy blood.
Then, first rebelling, his own ftamp he coins;
The murderer Cain was latent in his loins:
And blood began its firft and loudest cry,
For differing worship of the Deity.

VOL. II.

C

Thus

Thus perfecution rose, and farther space
Produc'd the mighty hunter of his race.
Not fo the bleffed Pan his flock increas'd,
Content to fold them from the famish'd beast:
Mild were his laws; the sheep and harmless hind
Were never of the perfecuting kind.

Such pity now the pious pastor shows,
Such mercy from the British lion flows,
That both provide protection from their foes.
Oh happy regions, Italy and Spain,

Which never did thofe monsters entertain!

The wolf, the bear, the boar, can there advance
No native claim of just inheritance.

And felf-preferving laws, fevere in show,

May guard their fences from th' invading foe.
Where birth has plac'd them, let them fafely share
The common benefit of vital air.

Themselves unharmful, let them live unharm'd;
Their jaws difabled, and their claws difarm'd:

Here, only in nocturnal howlings bold,

They dare not feize the Hind, nor leap the fold.
More powerful, and as vigilant as they,

The lion awfully forbids the prey.

Their rage reprefs'd, though pinch'd with famine fore,
They ftand aloof, and tremble at his roar :
Much is their hunger, but their fear is more.
These are the chief to number o'er the reft,
And ftand, like Adam, naming every beast,
Were weary work; nor will the Mufe defcribe
A flimy-born and fun-begotten tribe;

}

1

Who, far from steeples and their facred found,
In fields their fullen conventicles found.
Thefe grofs, half-animated, lumps I leave ;
Nor can I think what thoughts they can conceive.
But, if they think at all, 'tis sure no higher
Than matter, put in motion, may aspire :
Souls that can scarce ferment their mass of clay:
So droffy, fo divisible are they,

As would but ferve pure bodies for allay :
Such fouls as fhards produce, fuch beetle things
As only buz to heaven with evening wings;
Strike in the dark, offending but by chance,
Such are the blindfold blows of ignorance.
They know not beings, and but hate a name;
To them the Hind and Panther are the fame.

The Panther fure the nobleft, next the Hind,
And fairest creature of the spotted kind;
Oh, could her in-born ftains be wash'd away,
She were too good to be a beast of prey!
How can I praife, or blame, and not offend,
Or how divide the frailty from the friend?
Her faults and virtues lie fo mix'd, that the
Nor wholly stands condemn'd, nor wholly free.
Then, like her injur'd lion, let me speak;
He cannot bend her, and he would not break.
Unkind already, and estrang'd in part,
The wolf begins to share her wandering heart.
Though unpolluted yet with actual ill,

She half commits who fins but in her will.