"When that GREAT CHARTER, which our Fathers bought With their best blood, was into question brought; When, big with ruin, o'er each English head Vile Slavery hung suspended by a thread; When LIBERTY, all trembling and aghast, Fear'd for the future, knowing what was past: When every breast was chill'd with deep despair, Till Reason pointed out that PRATT was there; Lurking, most Ruffian-like, behind a screen, So plac'd all things to see, himself unseen, VIRTUE, with due contempt, saw HOGARTH stand, The murderous pencil in his palsied hand. What was the cause of Liberty to him, Or what was Honour? Let them sink or swim, So he may gratify, without controul, The mean resentments of his selfish soul. Let Freedom perish, if, to Freedom true, In the same ruin WILKES may perish too. "With all the symptoms of assur'd decay, With age and sickness pinch'd, and worn away, Pale quivering lips, lank cheeks, and faultering tongue, The spirits out of tune, the nerves unstrung, The body shrivel'd up, the dim eyes sunk Within their sockets deep, the weak hams shrunk The body's weight unable to sustain, The stream of life scarce trembling through the vein, More than half-kill'd by honest truths, which fell, Through thy own fault, from men who wish'd thee well; Canst thou, e'en thus, thy thoughts to vengeance give, And, dead to all things else, to Malice live? Hence, Dotard, to thy closet, shut thee in, By deep repentance wash away thy sin, From haunts of men to shame and sorrow fly, And, on the verge of death, learn how to die. "Vain exhortation! wash the Ethiop white, Discharge the leopard's spots, turn day to night, Controul the course of Nature, bid the deep Hush at thy Pygmy voice her waves to sleep, Perform things passing strange, yet own thy art Too weak to work a change in such a heart. _That_ ENVY, which was woven in thy frame At first, will to the last remain the same. Reason may droop, may die; but Envy's rage Improves by time, and gathers strength from age, Some, and not few, vain triflers with the pen, Unread, unpractis'd in the ways of men, Tell us that ENVY, who with giant stride Stalks through the vale of life by Virtue's side, Retreats when she hath drawn her latest breath, And calmly hears her praises after death. To such observers HOGARTH gives the lie; Worth may be hears'd, but Envy cannot die; Within the mansion of his gloomy breast, A mansion suited well to such a guest, Immortal, unimpair'd, she rears her head, And damns alike the living and the dead.