Of likeness; thine's a tympany of sense. 195 A tun of man in thy large bulk is writ,

But sure thou'rt but a kilderkin of wit.
Like mine, thy gentle numbers feebly creep;
Thy tragic muse gives smiles, thy comic sleep.
With whate'er gall thou sett'st thyself to write,
200 Thy inoffensive satires never bite;

In thy felonious heart though venom lies,
It does but touch thy Irish pen, and dies.
Thy genius call thee not to purchase fame
In keen iambics, but mild anagram.

205 Leave writing plays, and choose for thy command, Some peaceful province in Acrostic land.

There thou may'st wings display, and altars raise, And torture one poor word ten thousand ways; Or, if thou wouldst thy different talents suit, 210 Set thy own songs, and sing them to thy lute." He said: but his last words were scarcely heard; For Bruce and Longvil had a trap prepared, And down they sent the yet declaiming bard. Sinking he left his drugget robe behind, 215 Borne upwards by a subterranean wind. The mantle fell to the young prophet's part, With double portion of his father's art.

FROM ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL,

PART I

ACHITOPHEL

Of these the false Achitophel was first;
A name to all succeeding ages curst:

For close designs, and crooked counsels fit;
Sagacious, bold, and turbulent of wit;
Restless, unfixed in principles and place;
In power unpleased, impatient of disgrace;
A fiery soul, which, working out its way,
Fretted the pigmy-body to decay,

And o'er-informed the tenement of clay.
A daring pilot in extremity,

Pleased with the danger, when the waves went high,
He sought the storms; but, for a calm unfit,
Would steer too nigh the sands, to boast his wit.
Great wits are sure to madness near allied,

And thin partitions do their bounds divide;
Else, why should he, with wealth and honour blest,
Refuse his age the needful hours of rest?
Punish a body which he could not please;
Bankrupt of life, yet prodigal of ease?
And all to leave what with his toil he won,
To that unfeathered two-legged thing, a son;
Got, while his soul did huddled notions try;

150

*55

160

165

170

And born a shapeless lump, like anarchy.
In friendship false, implacable in hate;
Resolved to ruin, or to rule the state.

175 To compass this the triple bond he broke;
The pillars of the public safety shook;

And fitted Israel for a foreign yoke;

Then, seized with fear, yet still affecting fame,
Usurped a patriot's all-atoning name.

180 So easy still it proves in factious times,
With public zeal to cancel private crimes.

How safe is treason, and how sacred ill,

Where none can sin against the people's will?

Where crowds can wink, and no offence be known,

185 Since in another's guilt they find their own?
Yet fate deserved no enemy can grudge;
The statesman we abhor, but praise the judge.
In Israel's courts ne'er sat an Abethdin

With more discerning eyes, or hands more clean, 190 Unbribed, unsought, the wretched to redress; Swift of despatch, and easy of access,

Oh! had he been content to serve the crown,
With virtue only proper to the gown;

Or had the rankness of the soil been freed
195 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.

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,
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 makes;
By buzzing emissaries fills the ears

Of listening crowds with jealousies and fears
Of arbitrary counsels brought to light,
And proves the king himself a Jebusite.
Weak arguments! which yet, he knew full well,
Were strong with people easy to rebel.

For, governed by the moon, the giddy Jews
Tread the same track when she the prime renews;
And once in twenty years their scribes record,
By natural instinct they change their lord.

200

205

210

215

ZIMRI

SOME of their chiefs were princes of the land:

In the first rank of these did Zimri stand;

A man so various, that he seemed to be
Not one, but all mankind's epitome;
Stiff in opinions, always in the wrong,

543

Was everything by starts, and nothing long;

But, in the course of one revolving moon, 550 Was chemist, fiddler, statesman, and buffoon;

Then all for women, painting, riming, drinking,
Besides ten thousand freaks that died in thinking.
Blest madman, who could every hour employ,

With something new to wish, or to enjoy!
555 Railing and praising were his usual themes;
And both, to show his judgment, in extremes;
So over violent, or over civil,

That every man with him was God or devil. In squandering wealth was his peculiar art; 560 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;
565 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.

BARZILLAI

In this short file Barzillai first appears; Barzillai, crowned with honour and with years. Long since, the rising rebels he withstood

820 In regions waste beyond the Jordan's flood: