To which the mind reforts, in chafe of terms
Though apt, yet coy, and difficult to win-
To arreft the fleeting images, that fill
The mirror of the mind, and hold them faft,
And force them fit, till he has penciled off
A faithful likenefs of the forms he views;
Then to difpofe his copies with fuch art,
That each may find its moft propitious light,
And shine by fituation, hardly lefs

Than by the labour and the skill it coft;
Are occupations of the poet's mind

So pleafing, and that steal away the thought
With fuch addrefs from themes of fad import,
That, loft in his own mufings, happy man!
He feels the anxieties of life, denied

Their wonted entertainment, all retire.

Such joys has he that fings. But ah! not fuch,
Or feldom fuch, the hearers of his fong.
Faftidious, or else listless, or perhaps
Aware of nothing arduous in a task,
They never undertook, they little note
His dangers or escapes, and haply find

Their leaft amufement where he found the moft.
But is amusement all? Studious of fong,
And yet ambitious not to fing in vain,

I would not trifle merely, though the world

Be loudeft in their praise, who do no more.
Yet what can fatire whether grave or gay?
It may correct a foible, may chastise
The freaks of fashion, regulate the dress,
Retrench a fword-blade, or difplace a patch;
But where are its fublimer trophies found?
What vice has it fubdued? whofe heart reclaimed
By rigour, or whom laughed into reform?
Alas! Leviathan is not so tamed:

Laughed at he laughs again; and ftricken hard
Turns to the ftroke his adamantine fcales,
That fear no difcipline of human hands.

The pulpit, therefore (and I name it filled With folemn awe, that bids me well beware With what intent I touch that holy thing)The pulpit (when the satirist has at last, Strutting and vapouring in an empty school, Spent all his force and made no profelyte)

I fay the pulpit (in the fober use

Of its legitimate, peculiar powers)

Muft ftand acknowledged, while the world shall stand,

The most important and effectual guard,

Support, and ornament, of virtue's cause.

There ftands the messenger of truth: there ftands

The legate of the skies!-His theme divine,

His office facred, his credentials clear.
By him the violated law speaks out

Its thunders; and by him, in ftrains as sweet
As angels ufe, the gospel whispers peace.

He stablishes the ftrong, reftores the weak,
Reclaims the wanderer, binds the broken heart,
And, armed himself in panoply complete
Of heavenly temper, furnishes with arms,
Bright as his own, and trains, by every rule
Of holy difcipline, to glorious war,

The facramental hoft of God's elect!

Are all fuch teachers?-would to heaven all were!
But hark-the doctor's voice!-faft wedged between
Two empirics he ftands, and with fwoln cheeks
Inspires the news, his trumpet. Keener far
Than all invective is his bold harangue,
While through that public organ of report
He hails the clergy; and, defying shame,
Announces to the world his own and their's!
He teaches those to read, whom schools difmiffed,
And colleges, untaught; fells accent, tone,
And emphafis in fcore, and gives to prayer
The adagio and andante it demands.

He grinds divinity of other days

Down into modern ufe; transforms old print
To zig-zag manuscript, and cheats the eyes

Of gallery critics by a thousand arts.

Are there who purchase of the doctor's ware?

Oh, name it not in Gath!-it cannot be,

That grave and learned clerks should need fuch aid.
He doubtless is in fport, and does but droll,
Affuming thus a rank unknown before-
Grand caterer and dry-nurse of the church!

I venerate the man, whose heart is warm, Whofe hands are pure, whose doctrine and whose life Coincident exhibit lucid proof

That he is honeft in the facred caufe.

To fuch I render more than mere respect,

Whofe actions say that they respect themselves,
But loofe in morals, and in manners vain,

In converfation frivolous, in drefs

Extreme, at once rapacious and profuse;
Frequent in park with lady at his fide,
Ambling and prattling scandal as he goes;
But rare at home, and never at his books,
Or with his pen, fave when he fcrawls a card;
Conftant at routs, familiar with a round
Of ladyfhips, a ftranger to the poor;
Ambitious of preferment for its gold,

And well-prepared, by ignorance and floth,
By infidelity and love of world,

To make God's work a finecure; a flave

To his own pleasures and his patron's pride.
From fuch apoftles, oh ye mitred heads,

Preferve the church! and lay not careless hands
On fculls, that cannot teach, and will not learn.

Would I defcribe a preacher, fuch as Paul,
Were he on earth, would hear, approve, and own,
Paul fhould himself direct me. I would trace
His mafter-ftrokes, and draw from his defign.
I would express him fimple, grave, fincere;
In doctrine uncorrupt; in language plain,
And plain in manner; decent, folemn, chafte,
And natural in gefture; much impreffed
Himself, as conscious of his awful charge,
And anxious mainly that the flock he feeds
May feel it too; affectionate in look,

And tender in address, as well becomes
A meffenger of grace to guilty men.

Behold the picture!-Is it like?-Like whom?
The things that mount the roftrum with a skip,
And then skip down again; pronounce a text;
Cry-hem; and reading what they never wrote
Juft fifteen minutes, huddle up their work,
And with a well-bred whifper close the scene!