The Works of the British Poets: With Lives of the Authors, Volume 9

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Mitchell, Ames, and White, 1819

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Page 20 - Twas Presbyterian true blue; For he was of that stubborn crew Of errant saints whom all men grant To be the true church militant; Such as do build their faith upon The holy text of pike and gun; Decide all controversies by Infallible artillery; And prove their doctrine orthodox, By apostolic blows and knocks; Call fire and sword and desolation A godly, thorough reformation, Which always must be carried on, And still be doing, never done; As if religion were intended For nothing else but to be mended...
Page 14 - He'd undertake to prove by force Of argument a man's no horse; He'd prove a buzzard is no fowl, And that a lord may be an owl; A calf an alderman, a goose a justice, And rooks committee-men and trustees.
Page 15 - For rhetoric, he could not ope His mouth, but out there flew a trope ; And when he happen'd to break off I...
Page 16 - In Mathematics he was greater Than Tycho Brahe or Erra Pater; For he by geometric scale Could take the size of pots of ale; Resolve by sines and tangents straight If bread or butter wanted weight; And wisely tell what hour o' th' day The clock does strike, by algebra.
Page 16 - Or Cerberus himself pronounce A leash of languages at once. This he as volubly would vent As if his stock would ne'er be spent : And truly to support that charge, He had supplies as vast and large; For he could coin or counterfeit New words, with little or no wit; Words so debas'd and hard, no stone Was hard enough to touch them on : And when with hasty noise he spoke 'em, The ignorant for current took 'em...
Page 143 - The primrose and the violet ; All spices, perfumes, and sweet powders, Shall borrow from your breath their odours ? Nature her charter shall renew, And take all lives of things from you ; The world depend upon your eye ; And when you frown upon it, die : Only our loves shall still survive, New worlds and natures to outlive,. And like to heralds' moons remain, All crescents, without change or wane.
Page 20 - God for spite, The self-same thing they will abhor One way, and long another for. Free-will they one way disavow, Another, nothing else allow. All piety consists therein In them, in other men all sin. Rather than fail, they will defy That which they love most tenderly, Quarrel with minc'd pies, and disparage Their best and dearest friend, plum-porridge; Fat pig and goose itself oppose, And blaspheme custard through the nose. Th...
Page 21 - Freewill they one way disavow, Another, nothing else allow ; All piety consists therein In them, in other men all sin ; Rather than fail, they will defy That which they love most tenderly : Quarrel with minced pies, and disparage Their best and dearest friend, plum-porridge ; Fat pig and goose itself oppose, And blaspheme custard through the nose. Th' apostles of this fierce religion, Like Mahomet's, were ass and widgeon.
Page 11 - Th' adventure of the bear and fiddle Is sung, but breaks off in the middle. When civil fury first grew high, And men fell out, they knew not why; When hard words, jealousies, and fears, Set folks together by the ears, And made them fight, like mad or drunk, For Dame Religion, as for punk...

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