Tales | Page 2

floats upon a mind that always overflows.
This ready man at every meeting rose,?Something to hint, determine, or propose;?And grew so fond of teaching, that he taught?Those who instruction needed not or sought:?Happy our hero, when he could excite?Some thoughtless talker to the wordy fight:?Let him a subject at his pleasure choose,?Physic or law, religion or the muse;?On all such themes he was prepared to shine, -?Physician, poet, lawyer, and divine.?Hemm'd in by some tough argument, borne down?By press of language and the awful frown,?In vain for mercy shall the culprit plead;?His crime is past, and sentence must proceed:?Ah! suffering man, have patience, bear thy woes -
For lo! the clock--at ten the Justice goes.?This powerful man, on business, or to please?A curious taste, or weary grown of ease,?On a long journey travelled many a mile?Westward, and halted midway in our isle;?Content to view a city large and fair,?Though none had notice--what a man was there!
Silent two days, he then began to long?Again to try a voice so loud and strong;?To give his favourite topics some new grace,?And gain some glory in such distant place;?To reap some present pleasure, and to sow?Seeds of fair fame, in after-time to grow:?Here will men say, "We heard, at such an hour,?The best of speakers--wonderful his power."
Inquiry made, he found that day would meet?A learned club, and in the very street:?Knowledge to gain and give, was the design;?To speak, to hearken, to debate, and dine:?This pleased our traveller, for he felt his force?In either way, to eat or to discourse.
Nothing more easy than to gain access?To men like these, with his polite address:?So he succeeded, and first look'd around,?To view his objects and to take his ground;?And therefore silent chose awhile to sit,?Then enter boldly by some lucky hit;?Some observation keen or stroke severe,?To cause some wonder or excite some fear.
Now, dinner past, no longer he supprest?His strong dislike to be a silent guest;?Subjects and words were now at his command -?When disappointment frown'd on all he plann'd;?For, hark!--he heard amazed, on every side,?His church insulted and her priests belied;?The laws reviled, the ruling power abused,?The land derided, and its foes excused: -?He heard and ponder'd--What, to men so vile,?Should be his language?--For his threat'ning style?They were too many;--if his speech were meek,?They would despise such poor attempts to speak:?At other times with every word at will,?He now sat lost, perplex'd, astonish'd, still.
Here were Socinians, Deists, and indeed?All who, as foes to England's Church, agreed;?But still with creeds unlike, and some without a creed:?Here, too, fierce friends of liberty he saw,?Who own'd no prince and who obey no law;?There were reformers of each different sort,?Foes to the laws, the priesthood, and the court;?Some on their favourite plans alone intent,?Some purely angry and malevolent:?The rash were proud to blame their country's laws;?The vain, to seem supporters of a cause;?One call'd for change, that he would dread to see;?Another sigh'd for Gallic liberty!?And numbers joining with the forward crew,?For no one reason--but that numbers do.
"How," said the Justice, "can this trouble rise,?This shame and pain, from creatures I despise?"?And Conscience answer'd--"The prevailing cause?Is thy delight in listening to applause;?Here, thou art seated with a tribe, who spurn?Thy favourite themes, and into laughter turn?Thy fears and wishes: silent and obscure,?Thyself, shalt thou the long harangue endure;?And learn, by feeling, what it is to force?On thy unwilling friends the long discourse:?What though thy thoughts be just, and these, it seems,?Are traitors' projects, idiots' empty schemes;?Yet minds, like bodies, cramm'd, reject their food,?Nor will be forced and tortured for their good!"
At length, a sharp, shrewd, sallow man arose,?And begg'd he briefly might his mind disclose;?"It was his duty, in these worst of times,?T'inform the govern'd of their rulers' crimes:"?This pleasant subject to attend, they each?Prepare to listen, and forbore to teach.
Then voluble and fierce the wordy man?Through a long chain of favourite horrors ran: -?First of the Church, from whose enslaving power?He was deliver'd, and he bless'd the hour;?"Bishops and deans, and prebendaries all,"?He said, "were cattle fatt'ning in the stall;?Slothful and pursy, insolent and mean,?Were every bishop, prebendary, dean,?And wealthy rector: curates, poorly paid,?Were only dull;--he would not them upbraid."
From priests he turn'd to canons, creeds, and prayers,?Rubrics and rules, and all our Church affairs;?Churches themselves, desk, pulpit, altar, all?The Justice reverenced--and pronounced their fall.
Then from religion Hammond turn'd his view?To give our Rulers the correction due;?Not one wise action had these triflers plann'd;?There was, it seem'd, no wisdom in the land,?Save in this patriot tribe, who meet at times?To show the statesman's errors and his crimes.
Now here was Justice Bolt compell'd to sit,?To hear the deist's scorn, the rebel's wit;?The fact mis-stated, the envenom'd lie,?And, staring spell-bound, made not one reply.
Then were our Laws abused--and with the laws,?All who prepare, defend, or judge a cause:?"We have no lawyer whom