THE CLERICAL COXCOMB.
In man or woman, but for most in man,
And most of all in man that ministers
And serves the altar, in my soul I loath
All affectation. "Tis my perfect scorn;
Object of my implacable disgust.
What! will a man play tricks, will he indulge
A silly fond conceit of his fair form,
And just proportion, fashionable mien,
And pretty face, in presence of his God?
Or will he seek to dazzle me with tropes,
As with the diamond on his lily hand,
And play his brilliant parts before my eyes,
When I am hungry for the bread of life?
He mocks his Maker prostitutes, and shames
His noble office; and, instead of truth,
Displaying his own beauty, starves his flock!
Therefore avaunt all attitude, and stare,
And start theatric, practis'd at the glass!
He that negociates between God and man,
As God's ambassador, the grand concerns
Of judgment and of mercy, should beware
Of lightness in his speech. Tis pitiful
To court a grin, when you should woo a soul;
To break a jest, when pity would inspire
Pathetic exhortation; and to address
The skittish fancy with facetious tales,
When sent with God's commission to the heart!
Who handles things divine; and all besides,
Though learn'd with labour, and though much admir'd
By curious eyes and judgments ill inform'd
To me is odious. A heavenly mind
May be indiff rent to her house of clay,
And slight the hovel as beneath her care;
But how a body so fantastic, trim,
And quaint in its deportment and attire,
Can lodge a heavenly mind-demands a doubt.
I WOULD not enter on my list of friends, (Though grac d with polish d manners and fine sense, Yet wanting sensibility) the man
Who needlessly sets foot upon a worm.
An inadvertant step may crush the snail,
That crawls at evening in the public path;
But he that has humanity, forewarn d,
Will tread aside, and let the reptile live,
The creeping vermine. loathsome to the sight,
And charg'd perhaps with venom, that intrudes
A visitor unwelcome into scenes
Sacred to neatness and repose, the alcove,
The chamber or refectory, may die.
A necessary act incurs no blame,
Not so, when held within their proper bounds,
And guiltless of offence, they range the air,
Or take their pastime in the spacious field;
There they are privileg'd. And he that hunts
Or harms them there, is guilty of a wrong;
Disturbs the economy of Nature's realm,
Who, when she form d, design d them an abode.
The sum is this: if man's convenience, health,
Or safety interfere, his rights and claims
Are paramount and must extinguish theirs.
Else they are all-the meanest things that are,
As free to live and to enjoy that life
As God was free to form them at the first,
Who in his sov reign wisdom, made them all,
Ye therefore who love mercy, teach your sons
To love it too. The spring-time of our years
Is soon dishonour'd and defil'd, in most,
By budding ills, that ask a prudent band
To check them. But alas! none sooner shoots,
If unrestrain'd into luxuriant growth,
Than cruelty, most cruel of them all.
Mercy to him that shows it, is the rule
Aud righteous limitation of its act,
By which Heav n moves in pard ning guilty man ;
And that shows none, being ripe in years,
And conscious of the outrage he commits,
Shall seek it, and not find it in his turn.
CHAPTER CXLVIII.
REFLECTION ON BODIES CORPORATE.
MAN in society is like a flower
Blown in its native bed; 'tis there alone
His faculties expanded in full bloom,
Shine out; there only reach their proper use.
But man. associated and leagu d with man
By regal warrant, or self join d by bond
For interest sake, or swarming into clans
Beneath one head for purposes of war,
Like flowers selected from the rest, and bound,
And bundled close to fill some crowed vase,
Fades rapidly, and, by compression marr'd,
Contracts defilement not to be endur d.
Hence charter & boroughs are such public plaguės;
And burghers, men immaculate perhaps
In all their private functions, once combin'd,
Become a loathsome body, only fit
For dissolution, hurtful to the main.
Hence merchants, unimpeachable of sin
Against the charities of domestic life,
Incorporated, seem at once to lose
Their nature; and, disclaiming all regard
For mercy and the common rights of man,
Build factories with blood, conducting trade
At the sword's point, and dying the white robe
Of innocent commercial justice red.
Hence too, the field of glory, as the world
Misdeems it, dazzled by its bright array,
With all its majesty of thund ring pomp,
Enchanting music and immo tal wreaths,
Is but a school where thoughtlessness is taught
On principle; where foppery atones
For folly: gallantry, for every vice.
AN ODE COMMEMORATIVE OF THE LATE GEN. WASHINGTON.
Performed before the Mechanic Interest in Boston, Feb. 22d, 1800.
1. LO! sorrow reigneth, and the nations mourn; for the LORD GOD of Israel hath taken away the Counsellor, the Mighty Man, the man of But the LORD giveth, and the LORD taketh away, blessed be the name of the LORD.
Parent of mercy, LORD benign,
Who sits on hi h enthron'd:
Who gives the beam of day to shine;
Whose mandates nature own d;
Who fills the sick ning rose with vivid dew,
And fix d the cause from whence existence grew;
Look down upon a nation s wo2,
Forbid the streams of misery to flow.
2. He tempered the energies of Roman virtue with the forbearance of the Christian spirit; and will remain to posterity an illustrious example; the theme of praise and mortal admiration.
He burst the fetters of the land,
He taught us to be free;
He rais d the dignity of man,
He bade a nation be.
3. In a crisis of dark and unexampled peril, when anarchy had enfeebled reason, he had the power and constancy to preserve the commonwealth from imminent desolation.
Sedition, who had madd'ning reign'd,
Ere he the foaming fiend enchain `d,
Now bursting from his iron cave,
Will stalk again as ruin's slave,
Untwine the serpent from his hair,
To wander as a social snare;
Thus guilt will wound his own repose!
Thus folly doubts the good he knows!
4. Elevated by the conquest of himself, he was superior te vanity. His feelings were honour, and his thoughts wisdom. Ia blessing others, he was amply blessed. He feared to do wrong, but he knew no other fear.
Nor Syrian perfume, nor the regal gem,
Nor beauty's potency, nor valor ́s might,
Can abrogate the destiny of man;
Or stay the mantle of oblivious night.
The noble and the impotent of soul,
Adown the ebbless, ceaseless current flow
"Tis ours to brighten life's illusive guile,
And make our virtue mitigate our woe.
He burst the tetters of the land,
He taught us to be free;
He rais d the dignity of man,
He bade a nation be.
5. His laurels as a conquerer were spotless, and his code of legislation perfect. He consecrated the federal compact upon the altar of justice. His life evinced the glory of humanity: his end displayed the bliss of resignation; released from mortal care he's now ascended to the Heaven of Heavens.
He burst the fetters of the land,
He taught us to be free;
He rais d the dignity of man,
He bade a nation be.
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