And each blasphemer quite escape the rod, Because the insult's not on man, but God?

Ask you what provocation I have had?

The strong antipathy of good to bad.

When truth or virtue an affront endures, The affront is mine, my friend, and should be yours. 200 Mine, as a foe profess'd to false pretence, Who think a coxcomb's honour like his sense; Mine, as a friend to every worthy mind; And mine, as man, who feel for all mankind.

_F_. You're strangely proud.

_P_. So proud, I am no slave: So impudent, I own myself no knave: So odd, my country's ruin makes me grave.

Yes, I am proud; I must be proud to see Men not afraid of God, afraid of me: Safe from the bar, the pulpit, and the throne, 210 Yet touch'd and shamed by ridicule alone.

O sacred weapon! left for truth's defence, Sole dread of folly, vice, and insolence!

To all but heaven-directed hands denied, The Muse may give thee, but the gods must guide: Rev'rent I touch thee! but with honest zeal; To rouse the watchmen of the public weal, To virtue's work provoke the tardy Hall, And goad the prelate slumbering in his stall.

Ye tinsel insects! whom a court maintains, 220 That counts your beauties only by your stains, Spin all your cobwebs o'er the eye of day!

The Muse's wing shall brush you all away: All his grace preaches, all his lordship sings, All that makes saints of queens, and gods of kings,-- All, all but truth, drops dead-born from the press, Like the last gazette, or the last address.

When black ambition[219] stains a public cause, A monarch's sword when mad vain-glory draws, Not Waller's wreath can hide the nation's scar, 230 Nor Boileau[220] turn the feather to a star.

Not so, when, diadem'd with rays divine, Touch'd with the flame that breaks from Virtue's shrine, Her priestess Muse forbids the good to die, And opes the temple[221] of Eternity.

There, other trophies deck the truly brave, Than such as Anstis[222] casts into the grave; Far other stars than ---- and ---- wear,[223]

And may descend to Mordington from Stair:[224]

(Such as on Hough's unsullied mitre shine, 240 Or beam, good Digby,[225] from a heart like thine) Let Envy howl, while Heaven's whole chorus sings, And bark at honour not conferr'd by kings; Let Flattery sickening see the incense rise, Sweet to the world, and grateful to the skies: Truth guards the poet, sanctifies the line, And makes immortal verse as mean as mine.

Yes, the last pen for freedom let me draw, When truth stands trembling on the edge of law; Here, last of Britons! let your names be read; 250 Are none, none living? let me praise the dead, And for that cause which made your fathers shine, Fall by the votes of their degenerate line.

_F_. Alas! alas! pray end what you began, And write next winter more 'Essays on Man.'

VARIATIONS.

VER. 185 in the MS.--

I grant it, sir; and further, 'tis agreed, Japhet writ not, and Chartres scarce could read.

After VER. 227 in the MS.--

Where's now the star that lighted Charles to rise?

--With that which follow'd Julius to the skies Angels that watch'd the Royal Oak so well, How chanced ye nod, when luckless Sorel fell?

Hence, lying miracles! reduced so 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!

VER. 255 in the MS.--

Quit, quit these themes, and write 'Essays on Man.'

FOOTNOTES:

[1] We may mention that Roscoe and Dr Croly (in his admirable Life of Pope, prefixed to an excellent edition of his works) take a different view, and defend the poet.

[2] 'Preface:' to the miscellaneous works of Pope, 1716.

[3] Written at sixteen years of age.

[4] 'Trumbull:' see Life. He was born in Windsor Forest.

[5] 'Phosphor:' the planet Venus.

[6] 'Wondrous tree:' an allusion to the royal oak.

[7] 'Thistle:' of Scotland.

[8] 'Lily:' of France.

[9] 'Garth:' Dr Samuel Garth, author of the 'Dispensary.'

[10] 'The woods,' &c., from Spenser.

[11] 'Wycherley:' the dramatist. See Life.

[12] This pastoral, Pope's own favourite, was produced on occasion of the death of a Mrs Tempest, a favourite of Mr Walsh, the poet's friend, who died on the night of the great storm in 1703, to which there are allusions. The scene lies in a grove--time, midnight.

[13] 'Stagyrite: Aristotle.

[14] 'La Mancha's knight:' taken from the spurious second part of 'Don Quixote.'

[15] 'Unlucky as Fungoso:' see Ben Johnson's 'Every Man in his Humour.'

[16] 'Timotheus:' see 'Alexander's Feast.'

[17] 'Scotists and Thomists:' two parties amongst the schoolmen, headed by Duns Scotus and Thomas Aquinas.

[18] 'Duck-lane:' a place near Smithfield, where old books were sold.

[19] 'Milbourns:' the Rev. Mr Luke Milbourn, an opponent of Dryden.

[20] Hall has imitated and excelled this passage. See his pamphlet, 'Christianity consistent with a Love of Freedom.'

[21] In this passage he alludes to Cromwell, Charles II., and the Revolution of 1688, and to their various effects on manners, opinions, &c.

[22] 'Appius:' Dennis.

[23] 'Garth did not write:' a common slander at that time in prejudice of that author.

[24] 'Maeonian star:' Homer.

[25] 'Dionysius:' of Halicarnassus.