For what remains of failings without end,
Morals must fome, and fome the laws must mend.
While others in fuch monftrous forms appear,
As tongue-ty'd fournefs, fly fufpicion's leer,
Free-fifted rudeness, dropfical pretence,
Proteus' caprice, and elbowing infolence;
No caution to avoid them they demand,
Like wretches branded by the hangman's hand.
If faith to fome philofophers be given,

Man, that great lord of earth, that heir of heav'n,
Savage at first, inhabited the wood,

And scrambled with his fellow-brutes for food;
No focial home he knew, no friendship's tie,
Selfish in good, in ill without ally;

Till fome in length of time, of ftronger nerve,
And greater cunning, forc'd the rest to serve
One common purpose, and, in nature's spite,
Brought the whole jarring fpecies to unite.
But might we not with equal reason fay,
That ev'ry fingle particle of clay,

Which forms our body, was at first design'd
To lie for ever from the reft disjoin'd?

Can this be faid, and can it be allow'd
'Twas with its powers for no one end endow'd?
If fo; we own that man, at first, by art
Was footh'd to act in focial life a part.
'Tis true, in fome the feeds of difcord feem

To contradict this all-uniting scheme;

But

But that no more hurts nature's general courfe,
Than matter found with a repelling force.

Turn we awhile on lonely man our eyes,
And fee what frantick scenes of folly rife:
In fome dark monaftery's gloomy cells,
Where formal felf-prefuming virtue dwells,
Bedoz'd with dreams of grace-diftilling caves,
Of holy puddles, unconfuming graves,
Of animated plaifter, wood, and stone,
And mighty cures by fainted finners done.
Permit me, Muse, still farther to explore,
And turn the leaves of fuperftition o'er ;
Where wonders upon wonders ever grow,
Chaos of zeal and blindness, mirth and woe;
• Vifions of devils into monkeys turn'd,
That hot from hell roar at a finger burn'd;
d Bottles of precious tears that faints have wept,
. And breath a thousand years in phials kept;
f Sun-beams fent down to prop one friar's staff,
8 And hell broke loose to make another laugh;
X 2

Obedient

St. Dominick, vide Janfenius (Nic.)
Of our Saviour and others, vide Ferrand.

• Of Jofeph, vide Molinæum.

St. Cathro's, vide Colganum.

• St. Anthony.

Obedient fleas, and i fuperftitious mice;
* Confeffing wolves, and fanctifying lice;
m Letters and houses by an angel carried;
And, wondrous! virgin nuns to JESUS married.
One monk, not knowing how to spend his time,
Sits down to find out fome unheard-of crime;
Increases the large catalogue of fins,

And where the fober finish, there begins.
Of death eternal his decree is past,

For the firft crime, as fix'd as for the last.
While that, as idle, and as pious too,
Compounds with false religion for the true;
He, courtly ufher to the bleft abodes,

Weighs all the niceties of forms and modes;
And makes the rugged paths fo smooth and even,
None but an ill-bred man can mifs of heav'n.
One heav'n-infpir'd invents a frock, or hood:
The taylor now cuts out, and men grow good.
Another quits his stockings, breeches, fhirt,
Because he fancies virtue dwells with dirt:

While

Vide life of St. Colman by Colganus. i The fame life by the fame author.

* Vide fpeculum vitæ fancti Francifci.

1

St. Munnu gathered thofe that dropt from him, and put them in their place again, vide Act. Sanctorum.

m From St. Firman to St. Columba, vide Colganum. Chapel of Loretto.

Maria de la Vifitation, vide her life by Lufignam.

While all concur to take

away the stress

From weightier points, and lay it on the less.
Anxious each paltry relique to preferve

Of him, his hungry friends they leave to starve.
Harrafs'd by watchings, abftinence, and chains;
Strangers to joys, familiar grown with pains;
To all the means of virtue they attend
With strictest care, and only miss the end.
Can fcripture teach us, or can fenfe perfuade,
That man for fuch employments e'er was made?
Far be that thought! but let us now relate
A character as oppofite, as great,

In him, who living gave to Athens fame,

And, by his death, immortaliz'd her fhame.

Great scourge of fophifts! he from heav'n brought down,
And plac'd true wisdom on th' usurper's throne :
Philofopher in all things, but pretence;

He taught what they neglected, common fenfe.
They o'er the stiff Lyceum form'd to rule ;
He, o'er mankind; all Athens was his fchool.
The fober tradefman, and smart petit-maitre,
Great lords, and wits, in their own eyes ftill greater,
With him grew wife; unknowing they were taught;
He spoke like them, tho' not like them he thought:
Nor wept, nor laugh'd, at man's perverted state;
But left to women this, to ideots that.

View him with fophift fam'd for fierce conteft,

Or crown'd with roses at the jovial feast;

Infulted by a peevish, noisy wife,

Or at the bar foredoom'd to lose his life;

What moving words flow from his artless tongue,
Sublime with ease, with condefcenfion ftrong!
Yet fcorn'd to flatter vice, or virtue blame;
Nor chang'd to please, but pleas'd because the fame :
The fame by friends carefs'd, by foes withstood,
Still unaffected, cheerful, mild, and good.
Behold one pagan, drawn in colours faint,
Outshine ten thousand monks, tho' each a faint!
Here let us fix our foot, hence take our view,
And learn to try false merit by the true.
We fee, when reafon ftagnates in the brain,
The dregs of fancy cloud its pureft vein ;
But circulation betwixt mind and mind
Extends its course, and renders it refin'd.
When warm with youth we tread the flow'ry way,
All nature charms, and ev'ry scene looks gay;
Each object gratifies each fenfe in turn,

Whilft now for rattles, now for nymphs we burn;
Enflav'd by friendship's or by love's soft smile,
We ne'er fufpect, because we mean no guile :
Till, flush'd with hope from views of paft fuccefs,
We lay on fome main trifle all our ftrefs;
When lo! the mistress or the friend betrays,
And the whole fancied cheat of life difplays:
Stun'd with an ill that from ourfelves arofe;
For instinct rul'd, when reafon should have chofe ;

We