Free from the wayward bias bigots feel,
From fancy's influence, and intemperate zeal :
But above all, (or let the wretch refrain,
Nor touch the page he cannot but profane)
Free from the domineering power of luft;
A lewd interpreter is never juft.
How fhall I fpeak thee, or thy power address,
Thou god of our idolatry, the prefs?
By thee religion, liberty, and laws,
Exert their influence, and advance their caufe ;
By thee worfe plagues than Pharaoh's land befel,
Diffused, make earth the vestibule of hell;
Thou fountain, at which drink the good and wife;
Thou ever-bubbling spring of endless lies ;
Like Eden's dread probationary tree,
Knowledge of good and evil is from thee.
No wild enthufiaft ever yet could reft,
Till half mankind were like himself poffeffed.
Philofophers, who darken and put out
Eternal truth by everlasting doubt ;
Church quacks, with paffions under no command, Who fill the world with doctrines contraband,
Discoverers of they know not what, confined Within no bounds the blind that lead the blind
To ftreams of popular opinion drawn,
Depofit in those shallows all their spawn.
The wriggling fry foon fill the creeks around,
Poisoning the waters where their fwarms abound.
Scorned by the nobler tenants of the flood,
Minnows and gudgeons gorge the unwholesome food.
The propagated myriads spread so fast,
Even Lewenhoeck himself would stand aghaft,
Employed to calculate the enormous fum,
And own his crab-computing powers overcome.
Is this hyperbole? The world well known,
Your fober thoughts will hardly find it one.
Fresh confidence the fpeculatift takes
From every hair-brained profelyte he makes ;
And therefore prints. Himfelf but half deceived,
Till others have the foothing tale believed.
Hence comment after comment spun as fine
As bloated spiders draw the flimfy line.
Hence the fame word, that bids our lufts obey,
Is mifapplied to fanctify their sway.
If ftubborn Greek refuse to be his friend,
Hebrew or Syriac fhall be forced to bend :
If languages and copies all cry, No-
Somebody proved it centuries ago.
Like trout pursued, the critic in despair
Darts to the mud, and finds his fafety there :
Women, whom custom has forbid to fly
The fcholar's pitch, (the fcholar best knows why)
With all the fimple and unlettered poor,
Admire his learning, and almoft adore.
Whoever errs, the prieft can never be wrong,
With fuch fine words familiar to his tongue.
Ye ladies! (for indifferent in your cause,
I should deferve to forfeit all applause)
Whatever fhocks or gives the leaft offence
To virtue, delicacy, truth, or fense,
(Try the criterion, 'tis a faithful guide)
Nor has, nor can have, fcripture on its fide.
None but an author knows an author's cares,
Or fancy's fondness for the child she bears.
Committed once into the public arms,
The baby feems to fmile with added charms.
Like fomething precious ventured far from shore,
'Tis valued for the danger's fake the more.
He views it with complacency fupreme,
Solicits kind attention to his dream;
And daily more enamoured of the cheat,
Kneels, and afks heaven to blefs the dear deceit.
So one, whofe ftory ferves at least to show
Men loved their own productions long ago,
Wooed an unfeeling ftatue for his wife,
Nor refted till the gods had given it life.
If fome mere driveller fuck the fugared fib,
One that still needs his leading ftring and bib,
And praise his genius, he is soon repaid
In praise applied to the fame part-his head,
For 'tis a rule, that holds for ever true,
Grant me difcernment, and I grant it you.
Patient of contradiction as a child,
Affable, humble, diffident, and mild;
Such was fir Ifaac, and fuch Boyle and Locke :
Your blunderer is as fturdy as a rock.
The creature is fo fure to kick and bite,
A muleteer's the man to fet him right.
Firft appetite enlifts him truth's fworn foe,
Then obftinate felf-will confirms him fo.
Tell him he wanders; that his error leads
To fatal ills; that, though the path he treads
Be flowery, and he fee no cause of fear,
Death and the pains of hell attend him there;
In vain; the flave of arrogance and pride,
He has no hearing on the prudent fide.
His ftill refuted quirks he ftill repeats ;
New raised objections with new quibbles meets
Till, finking in the quickfand he defends,
He dies difputing, and the conteft ends-
But not the mischiefs; they, ftill left behind
Like thistle-feeds, are fown by every wind.
Thus men go wrong with an ingenious skill;
Bend the ftraight rule to their own crooked will;
And with a clear and fhining lamp fupplied,
First put it out, then take it for a guide.
Halting on crutches of unequal fize,
One leg by truth supported, one by lies;
They fidle to the goal with awkward pace,
Secure of nothing-but to lose the race.
Faults in the life breed errors in the brain
And these reciprocally thofe again.
The mind and conduct mutually imprint
And ftamp their image in each other's mint:
Each, fire and dam, of an infernal race,
Begetting and conceiving all that's base.
None fends his arrow to the mark in view, Whofe hand is feeble, or his aim untrue. For though, ere yet the shaft is on the wing, Or when it first forfakes the elastic string, It err but little from the intended line, It falls at laft far wide of his defign: So he, who feeks a manfion in the sky, Must watch his purpose with a ftedfast eye; That prize belongs to none but the fincere, The leaft obliquity is fatal here.
With caution tafte the fweet Circean cup : He that fips often, at laft drinks it up. Habits are foon affum'd; but when we ftrive To ftrip them off, 'tis being flayed alive.
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