By rapes and blood the path to greatness stain'd, By rapes and blood the glittering station gain'd; Succeeding knaves succeeding Gods became, And sin aspired to an immortal name! The mighty wretches dwell among the stars, And vice in virtue's glorious robes appears; And Poets celebrate their praises there, As Indians worship Devils that they fear! Yet let us look around the world awhile, And find a Patron-God for Albion's Isle; Has she so many Tyrants borne in vain? Has she no Star in the celestial train? Heaven knows, the difficulty only lies, In who's the fittest monster for the skies!-- Satire, reflect with care, due caution give, Some -------- are dead, beware of those that live. If thou too near the present age begin, Truth will be crime, and courage will be sin! Look back two ages, see where shines on high Great James, the modern Bacchus of the sky; But give him time before his ghost appear, Lest his uneasy fame bewray his fear: Alive, the patron of the tim'rous race, Fear in his head, and frenzy in his face; His constellation, were it felt beneath, Would make men strive to die--for fear of death! His exaltation with his crimes begin, See how we worship in his _House of Sin_, Aloft--we view the Bacchanalian King; Below--the sacred anthems daily sing; His vast excess the pencil's art displays, And triumphs in the clouds above our praise: {147} What can, with equal force, devotion move, We pray below, and He's debauch'd above!* Look lower down the galaxy and see, In yon crown'd Goat another Deity; His orgied reel and lecherous leer outvie The old Priapian glory of the sky; His furious lusts the other Gods deface And spread his viler image through the place; On obscene altars blaze unholy fires To him, the God of all unchaste desires! ** * The Banqnetling House at Whitehall is now the Chapel Royal, where sermons are preached and Divine service is sung by the choir of the king's household. On the floor, are the pews for the congregation, the pulpits of the clergy, the altar with the sacramental vessels, and the other arrangements for sacred wor-ship. On the ceiling, the apotheosis of King James the First, painted by Rubens, represents the king in different situations crowned with the triumphs of drunkenness.