Who needlessly sets foot upon a worm.
An inadvertent step may crush the snail
That crawls at evening in the public path,
But he that has humanity, forewarned,
Will tread aside, and let the reptile live.

565

The creeping vermin, loathsome to the sight,
And charged perhaps with venom, that intrudes

570

A visitor unwelcome into scenes

Sacred to neatness and repose, the alcove,
The chamber, or refectory, may die ".
A necessary act incurs no blame.

Not so 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 privileged; and he that hunts
Or harms them there, is guilty of a wrong,
Disturbs the economy of nature's realm,
Who when she form'd, design'd them an abode.
The sum is this: if man's convenience, health,
Or safety interfere, his rights and claims
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,

575

580

585

17

Other creature here

Beast, bird, insect, or worm, durst enter none.

Par. Lost, iv. 703.

Chase from all my bounds

Each thing impure or noxious. Enter in,

O stranger, undismay'd. Nor bat, nor toad
Here lurks.

Akenside. Inscrip. for a Grotto.

Who in his sovereign wisdom made them all.
Ye therefore who love mercy, teach your sons
To love it too. The spring-time of our years
Is soon dishonour'd and defiled 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 devilish of them all.

590

Mercy to him that shows it, is the rule

And righteous limitation of its act

595

By which Heaven moves in pardoning 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 served us, perish, we are held
Accountable, and God, some future day,
Will reckon with us roundly for the 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.

600

605

Their strength, or speed, or vigilance, were given 610 In aid of our defects. In some are found

Such teachable and apprehensive parts,

That man's attainments in his own concerns,

Match'd with the expertness of the brutes in theirs, Are oft-times vanquish'd and thrown far behind. Some show that nice sagacity of smell,

And read with such discernment in the port

615

And figure of the man, his secret aim,

That oft we owe our safety to a skill

625

We could not teach, and must despair to learn 18. 620
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 changed
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 small
And trivial favours, lasting as the life,
And glistening even in the dying eye.

Man praises man. Desert in arts or arms
Wins public honour; and ten thousand sit
Patiently present at a sacred song,
Commemoration-mad; content to hear
(Oh wonderful effect of music's power!)
Messiah's eulogy, for Handel's sake.

But less, methinks, than sacrilege might serve—
(For was it less? What heathen would have dared
To strip Jove's statue 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,

18

In their looks

Much reason, and in their actions, oft appears.

Par. Lost, ix. 558.

Book ii. 394.

On sculls that cannot teach and will not learn.

630

635

640

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?

645

Yes we remember him. And while we praise
A talent so divine, remember too

650

That His most holy book from whom it came
Was never meant, was never used before
To buckram out the memory of a man.
But hush!-the muse perhaps is too severe,
And with a gravity beyond the size

And measure of the offence, rebukes a deed
Less impious than absurd, and owing more
To want of judgement than to wrong design.
So in the chapel of old Ely House,

655

When wandering Charles, who meant to be the third, Had fled from William, and the news was fresh, 660 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 memory next,

When time hath somewhat mellow'd it, and made 665 The idol of our worship while he lived,

The God of our idolatry once more,

Shall have its altar; and the world shall go

In pilgrimage to bow before his shrine.

The theatre too small, shall suffocate

Its squeezed contents, and more than it admits
Shall sigh at their exclusion, and return
Ungratified. For there some noble lord

670

Shall stuff his shoulders with King Richard's bunch,

Or wrap

himself in Hamlet's inky cloak,

And strut and storm and straddle, stamp and stare,

To show the world how Garrick did not act 19.
For Garrick was a worshipper himself;

He drew the Liturgy, and framed the rites
And solemn ceremonial of the day,

675

And call'd the world to worship on the banks

Of Avon famed in song. Ah! pleasant proof
That piety has still in human hearts

Some place, a spark or two not yet extinct.

680

686

The mulberry tree was hung with blooming wreaths,
The mulberry tree stood centre of the dance,
The mulberry tree was hymn'd with dulcet airs,
And from his touchwood trunk the mulberry tree
Supplied such relics as devotion holds

Still sacred, and preserves with pious care.
So 'twas an hallow'd time.

And mirth without offence.

690

Decorum reign'd,

No few return'd

The rabble all alive,

Doubtless much edified, and all refreshed.

-Man praises man.

Swarm in the streets.

From tippling-benches, cellars, stalls, and styes,

The statesman of the day,

A pompous and slow-moving pageant comes.
Some shout him, and some hang upon

eyes

his car

Το gaze in his
Their 'kerchiefs, and old women weep for joy;

and bless him. Maidens wave

19 How his eyes languish! how his thoughts adore That painted coat which Joseph never wore.

Young. Satire iv.

That the world may know

How far he went for what was nothing worth.

Book vi. 238.

695

700