Present this great triumvirate, (A method which received we find, In other cases, by mankind) 620 Elected with a joint consent, All fools in town to represent. The clock strikes twelve--Moore starts and swears. In oaths, we know, as well as prayers, Religion lies, and a church-brother May use at will, or one, or t'other; Plausible from his cassock drew A holy manual, seeming new; A book it was of private prayer, But not a pin the worse for wear: 630 For, as we by-the-bye may say, None but small saints in private pray. Religion, fairest maid on earth! As meek as good, who drew her birth From that bless'd union, when in heaven Pleasure was bride to Virtue given; Religion, ever pleased to pray, Possess'd the precious gift one day; Hypocrisy, of Cunning born, Crept in and stole it ere the morn; 640 Whitefield, that greatest of all saints, Who always prays and never faints, (Whom she to her own brothers bore, Rapine and Lust, on Severn's shore) Received it from the squinting dame; From him to Plausible it came, Who, with unusual care oppress'd, Now, trembling, pull'd it from his breast; Doubts in his boding heart arise, And fancied spectres blast his eyes, 650 Devotion springs from abject fear, And stamps his prayers for once sincere. Pomposo, (insolent and loud, Vain idol of a scribbling crowd, Whose very name inspires an awe, Whose every word is sense and law, For what his greatness hath decreed, Like laws of Persia and of Mede, Sacred through all the realm of Wit, Must never of repeal admit; 660 Who, cursing flattery, is the tool Of every fawning, flattering fool; Who wit with jealous eye surveys, And sickens at another's praise; Who, proudly seized of Learning's throne, Now damns all learning but his own; Who scorns those common wares to trade in, Reasoning, convincing, and persuading, But makes each sentence current pass With puppy, coxcomb, scoundrel, ass; 670 For 'tis with him a certain rule, The folly's proved when he calls fool; Who, to increase his native strength, Draws words six syllables in length, With which, assisted with a frown By way of club, he knocks us down; Who 'bove the vulgar dares to rise, And sense of decency defies; For this same decency is made Only for bunglers in the trade, 680 And, like the cobweb laws, is still Broke through by great ones when they will)-- Pomposo, with strong sense supplied, Supported, and confirm'd by Pride, His comrades' terrors to beguile 'Grinn'd horribly a ghastly smile:' Features so horrid, were it light, Would put the Devil himself to flight. Such were the three in name and worth Whom Zeal and Judgment singled forth 690 To try the sprite on Reason's plan, Whether it was of God or man. Dark was the night; it was that hour