Ev'n fair Religion, native of the skies,

Scorn'd by the crowd, seeks refuge with the wise; The crowd with laughter spurns her awful train, And Mercy courts, and Justice frowns in vain.20 But SATIRE's shaft can pierce the harden'd breast; She plays a ruling passion on the rest :

Undaunted mounts the battery of his pride,

And awes the Brave, that earth and heav'n defy'd.
When fell Corruption, by her vassals crown'd,
Derides fall'n Justice prostrate on the ground;
Swift to redress an injur'd people's groan,
Bold SATIRE shakes the tyrant on her throne
Pow'rful as death, defies the sordid train,
And slaves and sycophants surround in vain.

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But with the friends of Vice, the foes of SATIRE, All truth is spleen; all just reproof, ill-nature.

Well may they dread the Muse's fatal skill; Well may they tremble when she draws her quill: Her magic quill, that like ITHURIEL's spear Reveals the cloven hoof, or lengthen'd ear: Bids Vice and Folly take their natural shapes, Turns duchesses to strumpets, beaux to apes; Drags the vile whisperer from his dark abode, 'Till all the daemon starts up from the toad.

O sordid maxim, form'd to screen the vile, That true good-nature still must wear a smile!

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In frowns array'd her beauties stronger rise,
When love of virtue wakes her scorn of vice:
Where justice calls, 'tis cruelty to save;
And 'tis the law's good-nature hangs the knave.
Who combats Virtue's foe is Virtue's friend;
Then judge of SATIRE'S merit by her end:
To guilt alone her vengeance stands confin'd,
The object of her love is all mankind.

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Scarce more the friend of man, the wise must own,
Ev'n ALLEN's bounteous hand, than SATIRE's frown:
This to chastise, as that to bless, was giv'n;
Alike the faithful ministers of heav'n.

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Oft on unfeeling hearts the shaft is spent: Though strong th' example, weak the punishment. They least are pain'd, who merit SATIRE most; Folly the Laureate's, Vice was Chartres' boast; Then where's the wrong, to gibbet high the name Of fools and knaves already dead to shame ? Oft' SATIRE acts the faithful surgeon's part; Generous and kind, though painful is her art: With caution bold, she only strikes to heal, Tho' folly raves to break the friendly steel. Then sure no fault impartial SATIRE knows, Kind, evʼn in vengeance kind, to Virtue's foes. Whose is the crime, the scandal too be theirs; The knave and fool are their own libellers,

PART II.

DARE nobly then: but conscious of your trust,
As ever warm and bold, be ever just:
Nor court applause in these degenerate days:
The villain's censure is extorted praise.

But chief, be steady in a noble end,
And shew mankind that truth has yet a friend.
'Tis mean for empty praise of wit to write,
As foplings grin to show their teeth are white:
To brand a doubtful folly with a smile,
Or madly blaze unknown defects, is vile :
'Tis doubly vile, when but to prove your art,
You fix an arrow in a blameless heart.
O lost to honor's voice, O doom'd to shame,
Thou fiend accurs'd, thou murderer of fame!
Fell ravisher, from innocence to tear

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That name, than liberty, than life more dear!
Where shall thy baseness meet its just return,
Or what repay thy guilt, but endless scorn!
And know, immortal truth shall mock thy toil :
Immortal truth shall bid the shaft recoil;
With rage retorted, wing the deadly dart;
And empty all its poison in thy heart.

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With caution, next, the dang'rous power apply; An eagle's talon asks an eagle's eye :

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Let SATIRE then her proper object know,
And ere she strike, be sure she strikes a foe.
Nor fondly deem the real fool confest,.
Because blind Ridicule conceives a jest:
Before whose altar Virtue oft hath bled,
And oft a destin'd victim shall be led :
Lo, Shaftsb'ry rears her high on Reason's throne,
And loads the slave with honors not her own:
Big-swoln with folly, as her smiles provoke,
Profaneness spawns, pert dunces nurse the joke!
Come, let us join awhile this tittering crew,
And own the idiot guide for once is true;
Deride our weak forefathers' musty rule,
Who therefore smil'd, because they saw a fool:
Sublimer logic now adorns our isle,
We therefore see a fool, because we smile.
Truth in her gloomy cave why fondly seek?
Lo, gay she sits in Laughter's dimpled cheek:
Contemns each surly academic foe,

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And courts the spruce free-thinker and the beau,
Daedalian arguments but few can trace,

But all can read the language of grimace.
Hence mighty Ridicule's all-conqu❜ring hand
Shall work Herculean wonders through the land:
Bound in the magic of her cobweb chain,

You, mighty WARBURTON, shall rage in vain, 50
In vain the trackless maze of Truth You scan,
And lend th' informing clue to erring man:
No more shall Reason boast her power divine,
Her base eternal shook by Folly's mine!

Truth's sacred fort th' exploded laugh shall win
And coxcombs vanquish BERKLEY by a grin.

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But you, more sage, reject th' inverted rule, That Truth is e'er explor'd by ridicule : On truth, on falsehood let her colors fall, She throws a dazzling glare alike on all; As the gay prism but mocks the flatter'd eye, And gives to every object every dye. Beware the mad advent'rer: bold and blind She hoists her sail, and drives with every wind; Deaf as the storm to sinking Virtue's groan, Nor heeds a friend's destruction, or her own. Let clear-ey'd Reason at the helm preside, Bear to the wind, or stem the furious tide; Then mirth may urge, when reason can explore, This point the way, that waft us glad to shore. J

Though distant times may rise in SATIRE'S page, Yet chief 'tis her's to draw the present age: With Wisdom's lustre, Folly's shade contrast, And judge the reigning manners by the past: Bid Britain's Heroes (awful shades!) arise, And ancient honor beam on modern vice: Point back to minds ingenuous, actions fair, Till the sons blush at what their fathers were; Ere yet 'twas beggary the great to trust; Ere yet 'twas quite a folly to be just; When low-born sharpers only dar'd a lie, Or falsify'd the card, or cogg'd the dye :

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