Methinks an Englishman, who is so proud of being called a good fellow, should be civil. And it cannot be denied, but we are, in many cases, and particularly to strangers, the most churlish people alive.

As to vices, who can dispute our intemperance, while an honest drunken fellow is a character in a man's praise. All our reformations are banters, and will be so, till our magistrates and gentry reform themselves, by way of example; then, and not till then, they may be expected to punish others without blushing.

As to our ingratitude, I desire to be understood of that particular people, who, pretending to be protestants, have all along endeavoured to reduce the liberties and religion of this nation into the hands of king James and his popish powers: together with such who enjoy the peace and protection of the present government, and yet abuse and affront the king who procured it, and openly profess their uneasiness under him: these, by whatsoever names or titles they are dignified or distinguished, are the people aimed at ; nor do I disown, but that it is so much the temper of an Englishman to abuse his benefactor, that I could be glad to see it rectified.

They who think I have been guilty of any error, in exposing the crimes of my own countrymen to themselves, may, among many honest instances of the like nature, find the same thing in Mr. Cowley,

in his imitation of the second Olympic Ode of Pindar; his words are these:

But in this thankless world, the givers
Are envied even by the receivers.
'Tis now the cheap and frugal fashion,
Rather to hide than pay an obligation.
Nay, 'tis much worse than so;
It now an artifice doth grow,
Wrongs and outrages they do,
Lest men should think we owe.

INTRODUCTION.

SPEAK, Satire, for there's none can tell like thee,
Whether 'tis folly, pride, or knavery,

That makes this discontented land appear
Less happy now, in times of peace, than war;
Why civil feuds disturb the nation more
Than all our bloody wars have done before.

Fools, out of favour, grudge at knaves in place,
And men are always honest in disgrace.
The court preferments make men knaves in course,
But they which would be in them would be worse.
'Tis not at foreigners that we repine,

Would foreigners their perquisites resign:
The grand contention's plainly to be seen,
To get some men put out, and some put in.
For this our senators make long harangues,
And florid ministers whet their polished tongues.
Statesmen are always sick of one disease,
And a good pension gives them present ease.
That's the specific makes them all content
With any king, and any government.
Good patriots at court-abuses rail,
And all the nation's grievances bewail:
But when the sov'reign balsam's once applied,
The zealot never fails to change his side,
And when he must the golden key resign,
The railing spirit comes about again.

Who shall this bubbled nation disabuse, While they their own felicities refuse? Who, at the wars have made such mighty pother, And now are falling out with one another: With needless fear the jealous nations fill, And always have been saved against their will; Who fifty millions sterling have disbursed, To be with peace and too much plenty, cursed; Who their old monarch eagerly undo,

And yet uneasily obey the new.

Search, Satire, search, a deep incision make,
The poison's strong, the antidote's too weak ́:
"Tis pointed truth must manage this dispute,
And downright English, Englishmen confute.

Whet thy just anger at the nation's pride,
And with keen phrase repel the vicious tide,
To Englishmen their own beginning show,
And ask them, why they slight their neighbours so:
Go back to elder times, and ages past,

And nations into long oblivion cast;
To elder Britain's youthful days retire,
And there for true-born Englishmen inquire,
Britannia freely will disown the name,

And hardly knows herself from whence they came;
Wonders that they, of all men, should pretend

To birth, and blood, and for a name contend.
Go back to causes where our follies dwell,
And fetch the dark original from hell:

Speak, Satire, for there's none like thee can tell.