Their flesh was never to the table ferv'd; Tho 'tis not thence inferr'd the birds were ftarv'd;

But that their mafter did not like the food,
As rank, and breeding melancholy blood.
Nor did it with his gracious nature suit,
E'en tho they were not doves, to perfecute :
Yet he refus'd (nor could they take offence)
Their glutton kind should teach him abftinence.
Nor confecrated grain their wheat he thought,
Which new from treading in their bills they
brought :

But left his Hinds each in his private power,

That those who like the bran might leave the flower.

He for himself, and not for others, chose,
Nor would he be impos'd on, nor impofe;
But in their faces his devotion paid,

And facrifice with folemn rites was made,
And facred incenfe on his altars laid.

Befides thefe jolly birds, whofe corps impure
Repaid their commons with their falt-manure ;
Another farm he had behind his house,
Not overstock'd, but barely for his ufe:
Wherein his poor domeftic poultry fed,

And from his pious hands receiv'd their bread. ·

Our pamper'd Pigeons, with malignant eyes,
Beheld thefe inmates, and their nurferies:
Tho hard their fare, at evening, and at morn,
A cruise of water and an ear of corn;
Yet ftill they grudg'd that modicum, and thought
A sheaf in every single grain was brought.
Fain would they filch that little food away,
While unreftrain'd thofe happy gluttons prey.
And much they griev'd to fee fo nigh their hall,
The bird that warn'd St. Peter of his fall;
That he should raise his mitred creft on high,
And clap his wings, and call his family
To facred rites; and vex th' etherial powers
With midnight mattins at uncivil hours:
Nay more, his quiet neighbors fhould moleft,
Juft in the sweetness of their morning rest.
Beast of a bird, fupinely when he might
Lie fnug and fleep, to rife before the light!
What if his dull forefathers us'd that cry,
Could he not let a bad example die ?
The world was fallen into an eafier way;

This age knew better than to faft and
pray.
Good fenfe in facred worship would appear
So to begin, as they might end the year.
Such feats in former times had wrought the falls
Of crowing Chanticleers in cloyfter'd walls.

1

Expell'd for this, and for their lands, they filed;) And fifter Partlet with her hooded head

Was hooted hence, because she would not pray

a-bed.

The way to win the reftiff world to God,
Was to lay by the disciplining rod,
Unnatural fafts, and foreign forms of prayer:
Religion frights us with a mien severe.

'Tis prudence to reform her into ease,
And put her in undress to make her please:
A lively faith will bear aloft the mind,
And leave the luggage of good works behind.

Such doctrines in the pigeon-house were taught:
You need not ask how wond'roufly they wrought;
But fure the common cry was all for these,
Whofe life and precepts both encourag'd eafe.
Yet fearing those alluring baits might fail,
And holy deeds o'er all their arts prevail;
For vice, tho frontlefs, and of harden'd face,
Is daunted at the fight of awful grace,
An hideous figure of their foes they drew,
Nor lines, nor looks, nor fhades, nor colors true ;
And this grotefque defign expos'd to public view.
One would have thought it fome Egyptian piece,
With garden-gods, and barking deities,
More thick than Ptolemy has stuck the skies.

All fo perverfe a draught, fo far unlike,
It was no libel where it meant to ftrike.

Yet ftill the daubing pleas'd, and great and small
To view the monfter-crowded Pigeon-hall.
There Chanticleer was drawn upon his knees
Adorning shrines, and stocks of sainted trees;
And by him, a mishapen, ugly race;

The curfe of God was feen on every face:
No Holland emblem could that malice mend,
But ftill the worse the look, the fitter for a fiend.
The master of the farm, difpleas'd to find
So much of rancor in fo mild a kind,
Enquir'd into the cause, and came to know,
The paffive church had ftruck the foremost blow;
With groundless fears, and jealoufies poffeft,
As if this troublesome intruding guest

Would drive the birds of Venus from their neft.
A deed his inborn equity abhorr'd;

But intereft will not truft, tho God should plight

his word.

A law, the fource of many future harms,
Had banish'd all the poultry from the farms;
With lofs of life, if any should be found
To crow or peck on this forbidden ground.
That bloody ftatute chiefly was defign'd
For Chanticleer the white, of clergy kind;

But after-malice did not long forget

The lay that wore the robe and coronet.
For them, for their inferiors and allies,
Their foes a deadly Shibboleth devise :
By which unrighteously it was decreed,
That none to truft, or profit fhould fucceed,
Who would not fwallow fitft a poisonous wicked
weed :

Or that, to which old Socrates was curs'd,
Or henbane juice to swell them till they burst.
The patron (as in reafon) thought it hard

To fee this inquifition in his yard,

By which the fovereign was of subjects use debarr'd.

All gentle means he try'd, which might withdraw Th'effects of fo unnatural a law:

But ftill the dove-house obftinately stood

Deaf to their own, and to their neighbors good;
And which was worse, if any worse could be,
Repented of their boasted loyalty:
Now made the champions of a cruel cause,
And drunk with fumes of popular applaufe ;
For those whom God to ruin has design'd,
He fits for fate, and first destroys their mind.

New doubts indeed they daily ftrove to raise, Suggested dangers, interpos'd delays;