Spar'd yet again th'ignobler for his fake. And now his prowefs prov'd, and his fincere Incurable obduracy evinc'd, His rage grew cool; and, pleas'd perhaps t'have
earn d So cheaply the renown of that attempt, With looks of some complacence he resum'd His road, deriding much the blank amaze Of good Evander, still where he was left Fixt motionless, and petrified with dread. So on they far’d; difcourse on other themes Ensuing, seem'd to obliterate the past, And tamer far for so much fury shown, (As is the course of rash and fiery men) The rude companion smil'd, as if transform'd. But t'was a tranfient calm. A storm was near, An unsuspected storm. His hour was come. The impious challenger of Pow'r divine Was now to learn, that Heav'n though now to
wrath, Is never with impunity defied. His horse, as he had caught his master's mood, Sporting, and starting into sudden rage, Unbidden, and not now to be contrould, Rush'd to the cliff, and having reach'd it, stood. At once the shock unseated him: he flew Sheer o'er the craggy barrier, and immers'd Deep in the flood; found; when he fought it not;
The death he had deserv'd, and died alone. So God wrought double justice; made the fool The victim of his own tremendous choice, And taught a brute the way to safe revenge.
I would not enter on my list of friends (Though grac'd with polish'd manners and fine
sense, Yet wanting sensibility) the man Who needlessly sets foot upon a worm. An inadvertent fiep may crush the snail That crawls at evening in the public path ; But he that has humanity, forewarn'd, Will tread afide, and let the reptile live. The creeping vermin, loathsome to the fight, And charg'd perhaps with venom, that intrudes, A visitor unwelcome, into scenes Sacred to neatness and repose, th' alcove, The chamber, or refectory, may
die : A necessary act incurs no blame. Not fo, when held within their proper bounds, And guiltless of offence, they range the air, Or take their pastime in the spacious field : There they are privileg'd ; and he that hunts Or harms them there, is guilty of a wrong, Disturbs th' æconomy of nature's realm, Who, when the form’d, design'd, them an abode. The fum is this : If man's convenience, health, Or safety interfere, his rights and claims
Are
Are paramount and must extinguish theirs. Else they are all the meanest things that are, As free to live, and to enjoy that life, As God was free to form them at the first, Who, in his fov’reign wisdom, made them all. Ye therefore who love mercy, teach your fons To love it too. The spring-time of our years Is soon dishonour'd and defil'd in most By budding ills, that ask a prudent hand To check them. But, alas ! none sooner shoots, If unrestrain'd, into luxuriant growth,. Than cruelty, most dev’lisir of them all. Mercy to him that shews it, is the rule And righteous limitation of its act, By which Heav'n moves in pard’ning guilty man; And he that shows none, being ripe in years, And conscious of the outrage he commits, Shall seek it, and not find it in his turn.
Distinguish'd much by reason, and still more By our capacity of grace divine, From creatures that exist but for our sake, Which having serv'd us, perish, we are held Accountable, and God, fome future day, Will reckon with us roundly for th' abuse Of what he deems no mean or trivial trust. Superior as we are, they yet depend Not more on human help, than we on theirs. Their strength, or speed, or vigilance were given In aid of our defects. In some are found K4
Such
Such teachable and apprehensive parts, That man's attainments in his own concerns, Match'd with th' expertness of the brutes in theirs, Are oft-times vanquish'd and thrown far behind. Some shew that nice fagacity of smell, And read with such discernment, in the port And figure of the man, his secret aim, That oft we owe our safety to a skill We could not teach, and must despair to learn. But learn we might, if not too proud to stoop To quadrupede instructors, many a good And useful quality, and virtue too, Rarely exemplified among ourselves. Attachment never to be wean'd, or chang?d By any change of fortune ; proof alike Against unkindness, absence, and neglect : Fidelity, that neither bribe nor threat Can move or warp; and gratitude for fmall And trivial favours, lasting as the life, And gliftning even in the dying eye.
Man praises man. Defert in arts or arms Wins public honour; and ten thousand fit Patiently present at a sacred song, Commemoration-mad; content to hear (Oh wonderful effect of music's pow'r!) Meffiali's eulogy, for Handel's fake.
But less, methinks, than facrilege might serve; (For was it less, what heathen would have dar'd
To
To strip Jove's ftatue of his oaken wreath, And hang it up'in honour of a man?) Much less might serve, when all that we design Is but to gratify an itching ear, And give the day to a musician's praise. Remember Handel? Who that was not born Deaf as the dead to harmony, forgets, Or can, the more than Homer of his age ? Yes--we remember him; and while we praise A talent so divine, remember too That His most holy book from whom it came Was never meant, was never us'd before, To buckram out the mem'ry of a man. But hush !—the mufe perhaps is too fevere,
vere, And with a gravity beyond the fize And measure of the offence, rebukes a deed Lef impious than abfurd, and owing more To want of judgment than to wrong design : So in the chapel of old Ely House, When wand'ring Charles, who meant to be the
third, Had fled from William, and the news was fresh, The simple clerk, but loyal, did announce, And eke did.rear right merrily, two staves, Sung to the praise and glory of King George. -Man praises man, and Garrick's mem'ry next, When time hath somewhat meliow'd it, and made The idol of our worship while he livid,
K 5
The
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