What wonder is't that black detraction thrives;
The homicide of names is lefs than lives;
And yet the perjur'd murderer furvives.
This faid, the paus'd a little, and fupprefs'd
The boiling indignation of her breast.
She knew the virtue of her blade, nor would
Pollute her fatire with ignoble blood :
Her panting foe fhe faw before her eye,
And back the drew the fhining weapon dry.
So when the generous Lion has in fight
His equal match, he rouzes for the fight;
But when his foe lies proftrate' on the plain,
He fheaths his paws, uncurls his angry mane,
And, pleas'd with bloodless honors of the day,
Walks over and difdains th' inglorious prey.
So James, if great with less we may compare,
Arrests his rolling thunder-bolts in air;
And grants ungrateful friends a lengthen'd space,
T'implore the remnants of long-fuffering grace.
This breathing-time the matron took; and then
Refum'd the thread of her difcourfe again.
Be vengeance wholly left to powers divine,
And let heaven judge betwixt your fons and mine:
If joys hereafter must be purchas'd here
With lofs of all that mortals hold fo dear,
Then welcome infamy and public shame,
And, laft, a long farewel to worldly fame.
"Tis faid with ease, but, oh, how hardly try'd
By haughty fouls to human honor ty'd!
O sharp convulfive pangs of agonizing pride!
Down then thou rebel, never more to rife,
And what thou didft and doft so dearly prize,
That fame, that darling fame, make that thy
facrifice.
'Tis nothing thou haft given, then add thy tears
For a long race of unrepenting years:
'Tis nothing yet, yet all thou haft to give :
Then add those may-be years thou hast to live :
Yet nothing still; then poor, and naked come:
Thy father will receive his unthrift home,
And thy bleft Saviour's blood discharge the
mighty fum.
Thus (fhe purfu'd) I difcipline a fon,
Whofe uncheck'd fury to revenge would run :
He champs the bit, impatient of his lofs,
And ftarts afide, and flounders at the crofs.
Inftruct him better, gracious God, to know,
As thine is vengeance, fo forgiveness too:
That, fuffering from ill tongues, he bears no more Than what his fov'reign bears, and what his Sa-, viour bore.
It now remains for your child, And ask why God's anointed he revil'd;
A king and princefs dead! did Shimei worse ?
The curfer's punishment fhould fright the curfe:
Your fon was warn'd, and wifely gave it o'er,
But he who counfell'd him has paid the score:
The heavy malice could no higher tend,
But woe to him on whom the weights defcend.
So to permitted ills the dæmon flies;
rage is aim'd at him who rules the skies: Conftrain'd to quit his caufe, no fuccor found, The foe discharges every tire around,
In clouds of smoke abandoning the fight;
But his own thundering peals proclaim his flight.
In Henry's change his charge as ill fucceeds;
To that long ftory little anfwer needs:
Confront but Henry's words with Henry's deeds.
Were space allow'd, with ease it might be prov'd,
What fprings his bleffed reformation mov'd.
The dire effects appear'd in open fight,
Which from the cause he calls a distant flight,
And yet no larger leap than from the fun to light-
Now laft your fons a double pæan found,
A treatise of humility is found.
"Tis found, but better it had ne'er been fought,
Than thus in proteftant proceffion brought.
The fam'd original thro Spain is known,
Rodriguez' work, my celebrated fon,
Which yours, by ill-tranflating, made his own;
Conceal'd its author, and ufurp'd the name,
The bafeft and ignobleft theft of fame.
My altars kindled first that living coal;
Restore or practise better what you ftole:
That virtue could this humble verse inspire,
'Tis all the reftitution I require.
Glad was the Panther that the charge was clos'd.
And none of all her fav'rite fons expos'd.
For laws of arms permit each injur'd man,
To make himself a faver where he can.
Perhaps the plunder'd merchant cannot tell
The names of pirates in whofe hands he fell;
But at the den of thieves he justly flies,
And every Algerine is lawful prize.
No private perfon in the foe's eftate
Can plead exemption from the public fate.
Yet chriftian laws allow not fuch redrefs;
Then let the greater fuperfede the lefs.
But let the abetters of the Panther's crime
Learn to make fairer wars another time.
Some characters may fure be found to write
Among her fons; for 'tis no common sight,
A fpotted dam, and all her offspring white.
The favage, tho the faw her plea controul'd,
Yet would not wholly feem to quit her hold,
But offer'd fairly to compound the ftrife,
And judge converfion by the convert's life.
'Tis true, the faid, I think it fomewhat strange,
So few fhould follow profitable change:
For prefent joys are more to flesh and blood,
Than a dull profpect of a distant good.
'Twas well alluded by a son of mine,
(I hope to quote him is not to purloin)
Two magnets, heaven and earth, allure to bliss
The larger loadstone that, the nearer this:
The weak attraction of the
greater fails;
We nod a while, but neighbourhood prevails :
But when the greater proves the nearer too,
I wonder more your converts come fo flow.
Methinks in thofe who firm with me remain,
It shows a nobler principle than gain.
Your inference would be ftrong (the Hind re
If yours were in effect the suffering fide:
Your clergy's fons their own in peace poffefs,
Nor are their prospects in reverfion less.
My profelytes are struck with awful dread ;
Your bloody comet-laws hang blazing o'er their
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