Oft in unfeeling hearts the fhaft is spent :
Tho' ftrong th' example, weak the punishment.
They least are pain'd, who merit Satire moft;
Folly the Laureat's, Vice was Chartres' boaft:
Then where's the wrong, to gibbet high the name
Of Fools and Knaves already dead to shame?
Oft SATIRE acts the faithful Surgeon's part;
Gen'rous and kind, tho' painful is her art:
With caution bold, fhe only strikes to heal ;
Tho' folly raves to break the friendly steel.
Then fure no fault impartial SATIRE knows,
Kind ev'n in Vengeance, kind to Virtue's foes.
Whofe is the crime, the fcandal too be theirs:
The Knave and Fool are their own Libellers.
DARE nobly then: But confcious of your trust,
As ever warm and bold, be ever just :
Nor court applause in these degenʼrate days:
The Villain's cenfure is extorted praise.
But chief, be fteady in a noble end,
And fhew mankind that Truth has yet a friend.
'Tis mean for empty praise of wit to write,
As Foplings grin to fhew their teeth are white:
To brand a doubtful folly with a smile,
Or madly blaze unknown defects, is vile:
'Tis doubly vile, when, but to prove your art,
You fix an arrow in a blameless heart.
O loft to honour's voice, O doom'd to fhame,
Thou Fiend accurft, thou Murderer of Fame!
Fell Ravifher, from Innocence to tear
That name, than liberty, than life more dear!
Where fhall thy baseness meet its just return!
Or what repay thy guilt, but endless fcorn?
And know, immortal Truth fhall mock thy toil:
Immortal Truth fhall bid the fhaft recoil;
With rage retorted, wing the deadly dart;
And empty all its poison in thy heart.
With caution next, the dang'rous pow'r apply;
An eagle's talon afks an eagle's eye:
Let SATIRE then her proper object know,
And ere the strike, be fure fhe ftrike a foe.
Nor fondly deem the real fool confest,
Because blind Ridicule conceives a jest:
Before whofe altar Virtue oft hath bled,
And oft a destin'd Victim fhall be led:
Lo, Shaftfb'ry rears her high on Reason's throne,
And loads the Slave with honours not her own: 200
Big-fwoln with folly, as her fmiles provoke,
Prophaneness spawns, pert Dunces nurse the joke!
Come, let us join a while this titt'ring crew,
And own the Ideot Guide for once is true;
Deride our weak forefathers' mufty rule,
Who therefore fmil'd, because they faw a Fool;
Sublimer logic now adorns our ifle,
We therefore fee a Fool, because we fmile.
Truth in her gloomy Cave why fondly feek?
Lo, gay fhe fits in Laughter's dimple cheek:
Contemns each furly academic foe,
And courts the spruce Freethinker and the Beau.
Dadalion arguments but few can trace,
But all can read the language of grimace.
Hence mighty Ridicule's all-conqu❜ring hand
Shall work Herculean wonders through the Land:
Bound in the magic of her cob-web chain,
You, mighty WARBURTON, fhall rage in vain,
In vain the trackless maze of Truth you scan,
And lend th' informing Clue to erring Man :
No more fhall Reason boast her pow'r divine,
Her Base eternal fhook by Folly's mine!
Truth's facred Fort th' exploded laugh fhall win;
And Coxcombs vanquish BERKLEY by a grin.
But you, more fage, reject th' inverted rule, 225
That Truth is e'er explor'd by Ridicule :
On truth, on falsehood let her colours fall,
She throws a dazzling glare alike on all;
As the
gay Prism but mocks the flatter'd eye,
And gives to ev'ry object ev'ry dye.
Beware the mad Advent'rer: bold and blind
She hoifts her fail, and drives with ev'ry wind;
Deaf as the storm to finking Virtue's groan,
Nor heeds a Friend's deftruction, or her own.
Let clear-ey'd Reason at the helm preside,
Bear to the wind, or stem the furious tide;
Then Mirth may urge, when Reason can explore,
This point the way, that waft us glad to fhore.
Tho' distant Times may rife in SATIRE's page,
Yet chief 'tis Her's to draw the prefent Age:
With Wisdom's luftre, Folly's fhade contrast,
And judge the reigning Manners by the past;
Bid Britain's Heroes (awful Shades!) arife,
And ancient Honour beam on modern Vice
Point back to minds ingenuous, actions fair,
Till the Sons blufh at what their Fathers were:
yet 'twas beggary the great to truft; Ere yet 'twas quite a folly to be juft; When low-born Sharpers only dar'd a lie,
Or falfify'd the card, or cogg'd the die;
Ere Lewdness the ftain'd garb of Honour wore,
Or Chastity was carted for the Whore;
Vice flutter'd, in the plumes of freedom dress'd;
Or public Spirit was the public jest.
Be ever, in a juft expreffion, bold,
Yet ne'er degrade fair SATIRE to a Scold:
Let no unworthy mien her form debase,
But let her fmile, and let her frown with grace:
In mirth be temp'rate, temp'rate in her fpleen;
Nor, while fhe preaches modefty, obscene.
Deep let her wound, not rankle to a fore,
Nor call his Lordship her Grace a
The Muse's charms refiftless then affail,
When wrapt in Irony's tranfparent veil;
Her beauties half conceal'd, the more furprize,
And keener luftre fparkles in her eyes.
Then be your line with fharp encomiums grac❜d:
Style Clodius honourable, Bufa chaste.
Dart not on Folly an indignant eye:
Whoe'er discharg'd Artillery on a Fly?
Deride not Vice: Abfurd the thought and vain,
To bind the Tiger in fo weak a chain,
Nay more: when flagrant crimes your laughter move, The Knave exults: to fmile is to approve.
The Mufe's labour then fuccefs fhall crown,
When Folly feels her fmile, and Vice her frown.
Know next what Measures to each Theme belong,
And fuit your thoughts and numbers to your fong:
On wing proportion'd to your quarry rise,
And stoop to earth, or foar among the skies.
Thus when a modish folly you rehearse,
Free the expreffion, fimple be the verse.
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