And from reflexion took the rogue he drew. A wondrous work, to prove the Jewish nation In every age a murmuring generation; To trace them from their infancy of sinning, And shew them factious from their first beginning. To prove they could rebel, and rail, and mock, Much to the credit of the chosen flock; A strong authority which must convince, That saints own no allegiance to their prince; As 'tis a leading-card to make a whore, To prove her mother had turned up before. But, tell me, did the drunken patriarch bless The son that shewed his father's nakedness? Such thanks the present church thy pen will give, Which proves rebellion was so primitive. Must ancient failings be examples made? Then murtherers from Cain may learn their trade. As thou the heathen and the saint hast drawn, Methinks the apostate was the better man; And thy hot father, waving my respect, Not of a mother-church, but of a sect. And such he needs must be of thy inditing; This comes of drinking asses milk and writing. If Balack[376] should be called to leave his place, As profit is the loudest call of grace, His temple, dispossessed of one, would be Replenished with seven devils more by thee. Levi, thou art a load; I'll lay thee down, And shew rebellion bare, without a gown; Poor slaves in metre, dull and addle-pated, Who rhime below even David's psalms translated: Some in my speedy pace I must out-run, As lame Mephibosheth the wizard's son;[377] To make quick way I'll leap o'er heavy blocks, Shun rotten Uzza[378] as I would the pox; And hasten Og and Doeg to rehearse, Two fools that crutch their feeble sense on verse; Who by my muse to all succeeding times Shall live, in spite of their own doggrel rhimes. Doeg,[379] though without knowing how or why, Made still a blundering kind of melody; Spurred boldly on, and dashed through thick and thin, Through sense and nonsense, never out nor in; Free from all meaning, whether good or bad, And, in one word, heroically mad. He was too warm on picking-work to dwell, } But fagotted his notions as they fell, } And, if they rhimed and rattled, all was well. } Spiteful he is not, though he wrote a satire, For still there goes some thinking to ill-nature; He needs no more than birds and beasts to think, All his occasions are to eat and drink. If he call rogue and rascal from a garret, He means you no more mischief than a parrot; The words for friend and foe alike were made, To fetter them in verse is all his trade. For almonds he'll cry whore to his own mother, And call young Absalom king David's brother.[380] Let him be gallows-free by my consent, And nothing suffer since he nothing meant; Hanging supposes human soul and reason, This animal's below committing treason;