And though as thin as Fraud almost. IV. There is a Chancery Court; a King; An army; and a public debt. V. Which last is a scheme of paper money, 66 Bees, keep your wax-give us the honey, And we will plant, while skies are sunny, Flowers, which in winter serve instead." VI. There is great talk of revolution- Gin-suicide—and methodism : VII. Taxes too, on wine and bread, And meat, and beer, and tea, and cheese, From which those patriots pure are fed, Who gorge before they reel to bed The tenfold essence of all these. VIII There are mincing women, mewing, (Like cats, who amant miserè,1) 1 One of the attributes in Linnæus's description of the Cat. To a similar cause the caterwauling of more than one species of this genus is to be referred ;-except, indeed, that the poor quadruped is compelled to quarrel with its own pleasures, whilst the biped is supposed only to quarrel with those of others. Of their own virtue, and pursuing IX. Lawyers-judges-old hobnobbers Are there-bailiffs-chancellorsBishops-great and little robbers— Rhymesters pamphleteers-stock-jobbersMen of glory in the wars, X. Things whose trade is, over ladies To lean, and flirt, and stare, and simper, Till all that is divine in woman Grows cruel, courteous, smooth, inhuman, Crucified 'twixt a smile and whimper. XI. Thrusting, toiling, wailing, moiling, Each with never-ceasing labour, Whilst he thinks he cheats his neighbour, XII. And all these meet at levees ;- Breakfasts professional and critical; 1 What would this husk and excuse for a virtue be without its kernel prostitution, or the kernel prostitution without this husk of a virtue? I wonder the women of the town do not form an association, like the Society for the Suppression of Vice, for the support of what may be called the "King, Church, and Constitution' of their order. But this subject is almost too horrible for a joke. XIII. Lunches and snacks so aldermanic That one would furnish forth ten dinners, Where reigns a Cretan-tongued panic, Lest news Russ, Dutch, or Alemannic Should make some losers, and some winners; XIV. At conversazioni-balls Conventicles and drawing-rooms- XV. And this is Hell-and in this smother XVI. 'Tis a lie to say, "God damns!"1 Where was Heaven's Attorney General They are mines of poisonous mineral. XVII. Statesmen damn themselves to be Churchmen damn themselves to see God's sweet love in burning coals. 1 This libel on our national oath, and this accusation of all our countrymen of being in the daily practice of solemnly asseverating the most enormous falsehood, I fear deserves the notice of a more active Attorney General than that here alluded to. XVIII. The rich are damned, beyond all cure, Stripe on stripe, with groan on groan. XIX. Sometimes the poor are damned indeed XX. And some few, like we know who, XXI. Thus, as in a town, plague-stricken, Must indifferently sicken; As when day begins to thicken, None knows a pigeon from a crow, XXII. So good and bad, sane and mad, XXIII. All are damned-they breathe an air, Each pursues what seems most fair, PART THE FOURTH. SIN. I. Lo, Peter in Hell's Grosvenor-square, To virtue would prefer vice. II. But Peter, though now damned, was not Which ere it finds them, is not what III. All things that Peter saw and felt IV. And so the outward world uniting To those who, meditation slighting, Were moulded in a different frame. |