205

What though your native kennel ftill be small,
Bounded betwixt a puddle and a wall;
Yet your victorious colonies are fent
Where the north ocean girds the continent.
Quicken'd with fire below, your monsters breed
In fenny Holland, and in fruitful Tweed :
And, like the first, the last affects to be
Drawn to the dregs of a democracy.

As, where in fields the fairy rounds are seen,
A rank four herbage rifes on the green;

210

So, fpringing where those midnight elves ad

vance,

Rebellion prints the footsteps of the dance. 215 Such are their doctrines, fuch contempt they

fhow

To heaven above, and to their prince below,
As none but traitors and blafphemers know.
God, like the tyrant of the fkies, is plac'd,
And kings, like flaves, beneath the crowd de-
bas'd.

220

Ver. 216. Such are their doctrines,] He does not mention John Hufs and Jerom of Prague, two chief promoters of the Reformation. L'Enfant, in his Hiftory of the War of the Huffites, fays, that two English students becoming acquainted with John Hufs at Prague, having painted, in the porch of their houfe, a reprefentation of our Saviour entering into Jerufalem upon an afs, with crowds following him on foot, and on the other fide the pope riding a horfe magnificently caparifoned, and attended with guards, drums, and hautboys, Hufs was fo delighted with this picture, that he mentioned and commended it in his fermons, and the whole city crowded to fee it. This was the beginning of John Hufs's attachment to the opinions of Wickliff. Dr. J. WARTON,

So fulfome is their food, that flocks refufe
To bite, and only dogs for phyfic use.

As, where the lightning runs along the ground, No husbandry can heal the blasting wound ; Nor bladed grafs, nor bearded corn fucceeds, 225 But scales of fcurf and putrefaction breeds: Such wars, fuch wafte, fuch fiery tracks of dearth

230

Their zeal has left, and fuch a teemlefs earth.
But, as the poisons of the deadliest kind
Are to their own unhappy coafts confin'd;
As only Indian fhades of fight deprive,
And magic plants will but in Colchos thrive;
So Prefbytery and peftilential zeal
Can only flourish in a commonweal.

From Celtic woods is chas'd the wolfifh crew; But ah! fome pity e'en to brutes is due: 236 Their native walks, methinks, they might enjoy,

Curb'd of their native malice to destroy.
Of all the tyrannies on human kind,

The worst is that which perfecutes the mind. 240
Let us but weigh at what offence we strike;
"Tis but because we cannot think alike.

Ver. 235. From Celtic woods is chas'd the wolfish crew;] This paffage alludes to the revocation of the edict of Nantz, by which two millions of the Reformed Church were profcribed, and two hundred thousand drove into foreign countries: a proceeding that must throw an eternal blemish on the reign of Louis XIV. The remainder of this paragraph does great honour to Dryden, as it manifefts, that whatever faults he had, a perfecuting spirit was not one of them. DERRICK.

In punishing of this, we overthrow
The laws of nations and of nature too.
Beafts are the fubjects of tyrannic sway,
Where still the ftronger on the weaker prey.
Man only of a fofter mold is made,
Not for his fellow's ruin, but their aid:
Created kind, beneficent and free,
The noble image of the Deity.

245

250

255

One portion of informing fire was given To brutes, the inferior family of heaven: The smith divine, as with a careless beat, Struck out the mute creation at a heat: But, when arriv'd at laft to human race, The Godhead took a deep confidering space; And, to diftinguifh man from all the reft, Unlock'd the facred treasures of his breaft; And mercy mixt with reafon did impart, One to his head, the other to his heart: Reason to rule, but mercy to forgive: The first is law, the laft prerogative. And like his mind his outward form appear'd, When, iffuing naked, to the wondering herd, He charm'd their eyes; and, for they lov'd, they fear'd:

260

265

Not arm'd with horns of arbitrary might,
Or claws to feize their furry fpoils in fight,
Or with increase of feet to o'ertake them in

their flight:

Of easy shape, and pliant every way;
Confeffing still the softness of his clay,

270

And kind as kings upon their coronation day:

With open hands, and with extended space
Of arms, to fatisfy a large embrace.

280

Thus kneaded up with milk, the new-made man
His kingdom o'er his kindred world began: 275
Till knowledge mifapply'd, misunderstood,
And pride of empire four'd his balmy blood.
Then, first rebelling, his own ftamp he coins;
The murderer Cain was latent in his loins:
And blood began its first and loudest cry,
For differing worship of the Deity.
Thus perfecution rofe, and farther space
Produc'd the mighty hunter of his race.
Not fo the bleffed Pan his flock increas'd,
Content to fold them from the famifh'd beaft:
Mild were his laws; the Sheep and harmless
Hind

Were never of the perfecuting kind.

286

Such pity now the pious paftor shows,
Such mercy from the British Lion flows,
That both provide protection from their foes.
Oh happy regions, Italy and Spain,
Which never did those monsters entertain!

291

protection from their foes.] The original

Ver. 290.

edition has, protection for their foes.

TODD.

The Wolf, the Bear, the Boar, can there ad

vance

No native claim of juft inheritance.

295

And felf-preferving laws, fevere in fhow,
May guard their fences from the invading foe.
Where birth has plac'd them, let them fafely
share

The common benefit of vital air.

Themselves unharmful, let them live unharm'd ;

301

Their jaws difabled, and their claws difarm'd :
Here, only in nocturnal howlings bold,
They dare not feize the Hind, nor leap the fold.
More powerful, and as vigilant as they,
The Lion awfully forbids the prey.
Their rage reprefs'd, though pinch'd with fa-
mine fore,

305

They stand aloof, and tremble at his roar :
Much is their hunger, but their fear is more.
These are the chief: to number o'er the rest,
And ftand, like Adam, naming every beast,
Were weary work: nor will the Mufe defcribe
A flimy-born and fun-begotten tribe;
Who, far from steeples and their facred found,
In fields their fullen conventicles found.
These grofs, half-animated, lumps I leave;
Nor can I think what thoughts they can con-

311

ceive.

315