15

This set the heathen priesthood in a flame,
For priests of all religions are the same.
Of whatsoe'er descent their godhead be,
Stock, stone, or other homely pedigree,
In his defense his servants are as bold,
As if he had been born of beaten gold.
The Jewish rabbins, though their enemies, 20
In this conclude them honest men and
wise.

For 'twas their duty, all the learned think, To espouse his cause by whom they eat and drink.

From hence began that Plot, the nation's curse,

25

Bad in itself, but represented worse,
Raised in extremes, and in extremes decried,
With oaths affirmed, with dying vows denied,
Not weighed or winnowed by the multitude,
But swallowed in the mass, unchewed and
crude.

Some truth there was, but dashed and brewed with lies

30

To please the fools and puzzle all the wise: Succeeding times did equal folly call, Believing nothing or believing all.

The Egyptian rites the Jebusites embraced,

Where gods were recommended by their taste;

35

Such savory deities must needs be good
As served at once for worship and for food.
By force they could not introduce these gods,
For ten to one in former days was odds:
So fraud was used, the sacrificer's trade; 40
Fools are more hard to conquer than per-
suade.

Their busy teachers mingled with the Jews And raked for converts even the court and stews:

Which Hebrew priests the more unkindly took,

Because the fleece accompanies the flock. 45 Some thought they God's anointed meant to slay

By guns, invented since full many a day: Our author swears it not; but who can know How far the devil and Jebusites may go? This plot, which failed for want of common

sense,

50

Had yet a deep and dangerous consequence;
For as, when raging fevers boil the blood,
The standing lake soon floats into a flood,
And every hostile humor which before
Slept quiet in its channels bubbles o'er;
So several factions from this first ferment
Work up to foam and threat the govern-

ment.

55

Unbribed, unsought, the wretched to redress, Swift of despatch and easy of access. Oh! had he been content to serve the crown With virtues only proper to the gown, Or had the rankness of the soil been freed 110 From cockle that oppressed the noble seed, David for him his tuneful harp had strung And Heaven had wanted one immortal song. But wild ambition loves to slide, not stand. And fortune's ice prefers to virtue's land. 115 Achitophel, grown weary to possess A lawful fame and lazy happiness, Disdained the golden fruit to gather free And lent the crowd his arm to shake the tree. Now, manifest of crimes contrived long since,

120

He stood at bold defiance with his prince Held up the buckler of the people's cause Against the crown, and skulked behind the laws.

The wished occasion of the plot he takes; Some circumstances finds, but more he

Then all for women, painting, rhyming, drinking,

Besides ten thousand freaks that died in thinking.

Blest madman, who could every hour employ With something new to wish or to enjoy!

175

That every man with him was God or Devil. In squandering wealth was his peculiar art; Nothing went unrewarded but desert. Beggared by fools whom still he found too late,

He had his jest, and they had his estate. He laughed himself from Court; then sought relief

By forming parties, but could ne'er be chief: For spite of him, the weight of business fell

On Absalom and wise Achitophel;
Thus wicked but in will, of means bereft,
He left not faction, but of that was left.

[From The Hind and the Panther, 1687]

180

And Scythian shafts, and many wingèd wounds

Aimed at her heart; was often forced to fly, And doomed to death, though fated not to die.

Not so her young; for their unequal line Was hero's make, half human, half divine. 10 Their earthly mould obnoxious was to fate, The immortal part assumed immortal state. Of these a slaughtered army lay in blood, Extended o'er the Caledonian wood, Their native walk; whose vocal blood arose And cried for pardon on their perjured foes. Their fate was fruitful, and the sanguine seed,

15

And wandered in the kingdoms once her

own.

The common hunt, though from their rage restrained

By sovereign power, her company disdained,

Grinned as they passed, and with a glaring eye

30

Gave gloomy signs of secret enmity. 'Tis true she bounded by and tripped so light,

They had not time to take a steady sight; For truth has such a face and such a mien As to be loved needs only to be seen.

The bloody Bear, an Independent beast 35 Unlicked to form, in groans her hate expressed.

Among the timorous kind the quaking Hare Professed neutrality, but would not swear. Next her the buffoon Ape, as atheists use, Mimicked all sects and had his own to

Still when the Lion looked, his knees he bent,

And paid at church a courtier's compliment.
The bristled Baptist Boar, impure as he,
But whitened with the foam of sanctity,
With fat pollutions filled the sacred place, 45
And mountains leveled in his furious race;
So first rebellion founded was in grace.
But, since the mighty ravage which he made
In German forests had his guilt betrayed,
With broken tusks and with a borrowed

His impious race their blasphemy renewed, And Nature's King through Nature's optics viewed;

Reversed they viewed him lessened to their eye,

Nor in an infant could a God descry.

New swarming sects to this obliquely tend. 60 Hence they began, and here they all will end.

Too boastful Britain, please thyself no more That beasts of prey are banished from thy shore;

The Bear, the Boar, and every savage name, Wild in effect, though in appearance tame, 65

To them the Hind and Panther are the same. The Panther, sure the noblest next the Hind

And fairest creature of the spotted kind; Oh, could her inborn stains be washed away She were too good to be a beast of 100 prey! How can I praise or blame, and not offend, Or how divide the frailty from the friend? Her faults and virtues lie so mixed, that she Nor wholly stands condemned nor wholly free.

Then, like her injured Lion, let me speak; 105 He cannot bend her and he would not break.

Unkind already, and estranged in part, The Wolf begins to share her wandering heart.

Though unpolluted yet with actual ill,

She half commits who sins but in her will.

110

THE RAPE OF THE LOCK

AN HEROI-COMICAL POEM

ALEXANDER POPE

Canto I

With golden crowns and wreaths of heavenly flowers;

Hear and believe! thy own importance know,

35

Nor bound thy narrow views to things below, Some secret truths, some learned pride concealed,

To maids alone and children are revealed. What though no credit doubting wits may give?

The fair and innocent shall still believe. 40 Know, then, unnumbered spirits round thee fly,

The light militia of the lower sky.

These, though unseen, are ever on the wing, Hang o'er the box, and hover round the Ring.

Think what an equipage thou hast in air, 45 And view with scorn two pages and a chair. As now your own, our beings were of old, And once enclosed in woman's beauteous