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 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
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 THE 
 
 JUDGE; 
 
 OR, 
 
 AN ESTIMATE OF THE IMPORTANCE OF THE 
 
 JUDICIAL CHARACTER, 
 
 Occasioned by the Death of the Late 
 
 LORD CLARE, 
 
 LORD CHANCELLOR OF IRELAND. 
 
 A Poem, 
 
 IN THREE CANTOS. 
 
 By the Rev. JEROME ALLEY, 
 
 Chaplain to the Right Honourable Lord Sheffield, 8cc. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 Printed by J. Swan, Angel Street; 
 FOR VERNOR AND HOOD, POULTRY. 
 
 1803.
 
 DEDICATION 
 
 TO THE 
 
 RIGHT HONOURABLE 
 
 LORD SHEFFIELD, 
 
 My Lord 
 
 From the classical days 
 of Horace and Virgil, to those of our 
 own Dryden, it has frequently been the 
 fate of dedications to excite contempt, 
 or to be consigned to neglect. That 
 which should have been consecrated to 
 truth, has been devoted to meanness; 
 and adulation has been lavished, till 
 the page, which, otherwise, might have 
 reflected honour on the patronised and 
 
 8528^8
 
 DEDICATION. 
 
 the patron, has become but a monument 
 of disgrace to the folly which accepted, 
 and the flattery which tendered it. 
 
 But, fear not, my Lord. This ad- 
 dress is not to be polluted by that lan- 
 guage of interested praise, which, while 
 it would disgust you, would disgrace my- 
 self. Servility, I am sufficiently aware, 
 is a wretch, contemptible, and contemn- 
 ed, who voluntarily forges his own 
 chains, and drudges at the oar for the 
 recompence of shame. Instead, there- 
 fore, of toiling to delineate a fanciful 
 picture of fancied virtue, I shall hope 
 only to attach belief to the assertion, 
 that the respect which I feel for a cha- 
 racter of acknowledged talents and 
 worth, and the gratitude with which I 
 recollect obligation, enhanced by the 
 kindness and liberality with which it 
 was conferred, are not such as to per- 
 mit me to inscribe the following pages
 
 DEDICATION. 
 
 to any other name than that of Lord 
 Sheffield. 
 
 Yet, my Lord, were I wishful to ex- 
 hibit, in this place, the character of 
 high respectability, I should have little 
 occasion to resort to fancy. In days 
 of outrageous and extending dissipa- 
 tion, I have beheld, associated in your 
 house, the best and purest of the do- 
 mestic virtues; in days of wandering 
 weakness or profligacy, I have beheld, 
 in your person, the country gentleman, 
 exemplifying and diffusing the spirit of 
 useful activity, and exercising influence 
 but to multiply the comforts, promote 
 the labours, and encourage the integri- 
 ty, of the farmer and the peasant. Nor, 
 if I wanted subjects of a more public 
 nature, should I have long to seek them. 
 They are before me: and the spirit 
 which, at a period of common danger,' 
 could nobly shake off the incumbrances
 
 DEDICATION. 
 
 of party, and, without personal connec- 
 tion with the minister, afford the aids of 
 wisdom and activity to the administra- 
 tion: the toil, and the talents, which 
 have contributed so much, not merely 
 to ascertain, but to protect and support 
 the true commercial and maritime inte- 
 rests of the state: the patience and 
 prudence of investigation which, in op- 
 position to individual and general pre- 
 judices, have exhibited the best, and, 
 perhaps, the only " means of future 
 plenty," and thus laid open the true 
 sources of national prosperity: the 
 discernment that has endeavoured, so 
 long and so well, to remove the obstruc- 
 tions that retard the plough, to expose 
 the dangers of relying on foreign soil for 
 that food which we might easily and 
 abundantly exstract from our own, and 
 to direct the attention of men to those 
 invaluable stores which, at present, lie
 
 DEDICATION. 
 
 uselessly buried in our forests and 
 wastes, and which almost a triennial 
 scarcity urges the Legislature to procure 
 for the community these, my Lord, 
 are topics on which eulogy might ex- 
 patiate, with little trouble and much gra- 
 tification, and these are among the topic* 
 which your aims, exertions, and public- 
 spirit supply. 
 
 To the motives, however, arising from 
 such circumstances to induce this ad- 
 dress, I might add one more, possibly 
 of some weight You, my Lord, knew 
 and respected the late Lord Clare. I 
 have persuaded myself, therefore, that, 
 in detailing the virtues, and vindicating 
 the character, of that illustrious man, I 
 was but erecting an altar, however hum- 
 ble, to integrity and to truth, on the 
 front of which you would not be dis- 
 pleased if you were to behold your 
 name inscribed by that grateful and
 
 DEDICATION. 
 
 affectionate respect, with' which I have 
 the honour to be, 
 
 YOUR LORDSHIP'S MOST OBLIGED 
 AND 
 OBEDIENT SERVANT, 
 
 JEROME ALLEY.
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 I am indebted for the title of the following poem 
 to the taste and kindness of Mr. Pratt; and I could 
 not, without injustice, withhold this public acknow- 
 ledgment, because, as he himself has adopted a title 
 somewhat similar for a new work, he might be ac- 
 cused, hereafter, if I were now silent, of having in- 
 dolently borrowed from the stores of another, that 
 which originally In-longed but to his own. 
 
 The work to which I have here alluded, will 
 speedily, I hoj>e, be communicated to the public. 
 It exhibits a poetic " analysis of the importance of 
 the medical character ," and I do not hesitate to 
 predict that it will be regarded as a fine and finished 
 monument of sensibility and oi taste.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 Of the English constitution, and of English 
 law, it is not, now, necessary to assert the 
 wisdom, or to demonstrate the utility. It 
 would be worse than idle to expatiate on a 
 subject, already occupied by the eloquence 
 of Blackstone and De Lolme: and, if fac- 
 tion still continue to complain, and artifice 
 to pervert, experience cannot want the 
 means of confuting both; and of evincing, 
 by facts and blessings, the excellence of 
 tints, legal institutions which e.il characters 
 are so earnest in declamation to decry, and 
 with malignity to revile. 
 
 If, however, the law and constitution of 
 these happy countries no longer require to 
 be minutely defended or detailed, let not 
 the character Ik- forgotten, that contributes 
 most to diffuse the benefits into which they
 
 11 PREFACE. 
 
 issue. A Nelson and a Hutchinson may 
 toil and triumph, and conduct a nation to 
 glory. But the acquisition of glory is of 
 little importance, compared with the main- 
 tenance of right; and the maintenance of 
 right depends on the wisdom and firmness 
 of legal administration. To " the Judge," 
 therefore, are Englishmen principally to 
 look for freedom and happiness. He holds 
 in his hands the palladium of our Troy; 
 and if the city be to fall, it must be, in a 
 great measure, by his guilt, or by his neg- 
 lect. 
 
 Under these impressions, the following 
 poem was undertaken and finished. I have 
 not ventured, however, to pursue my subject 
 through all its suggestions. What is the 
 importance, and what should be the virtues 
 and acquirements, of the Judicial Character, 
 are the principal questions which I have pre- 
 sumed to propose and discuss; and, though 
 I may be condemned for that feebleness of 
 talent with which I have endeavoured to 
 accomplish my design, it will, at least, be
 
 PREFACE. Ill 
 
 admitted, that I have been cautious to infuse 
 into my lines no |>oison of sarcasm, and no 
 bitterness of personality. 
 
 Nor have I merely endeavoured, in this 
 manner, to preserve the purity of my page. 
 The spirit of accusation, which I have my- 
 self refused to exercise, I have been solicit- 
 ous to repel, when exercised by others. I 
 have not only respected character, but en- 
 deavoured to maintain it. 
 
 Of those who inherit, apparently but to 
 degrade, humanity, the envious and the 
 malignant are, perhaps, the most unhappy. 
 To such as, under the influence of other 
 passions, occasionally resist the admonitions 
 of truth, those joys may not be utterly un- 
 known which result from social and friendly 
 intercourse; nor those virtues of kindness 
 and good will which are connective, in 
 their tendency, of man with man. But en- 
 vy and malignity are voluntary aliens, not 
 only from every virtue, but every joy. For, 
 what principle, or what gratification, that
 
 IV PREFACE. 
 
 is not equally vile and worthless, can be con- 
 sistent with eternal efforts to blast the name 
 of the eminent, or to depreciate the motives 
 of the good; or what can be the temper 
 of those, but vicious and miserable, who, 
 while they labour to stigmatize all, general- 
 ly stigmatize but themselves; and who are 
 destined so frequently to prove, that slander 
 is pursued but to be overtaken by detection ; 
 and that to asperse, and to fail, is to add 
 the remorse of guilt to the ignominy of de- 
 feat? 
 
 Yet, unhappily, though the folly of male- 
 volence be obvious, and the punishment am- 
 ple and sure, malevolence is not the less ac- 
 tive to prepare the furnace for virtue. In 
 private life, wherever there is merit, there is 
 also a will found to assail and to depreciate; 
 and, in public, the licence allowed to speech 
 by the noble temper of the constitution, is 
 hourly perverted to the purposes of slander. 
 Character is maligned in direct proportion 
 to its excellence: and station and office, no 
 matter by what labours or virtues acquired,
 
 PREFACE. V 
 
 never fail to expose their possessor to the 
 detestation of evil minds, and the calumny 
 of evil tongues. 
 
 The late Lord Chancellor of Ireland, with 
 a perseverance not less honourable than zea- 
 lous, devoted almost the whole of a labori- 
 ous life to the service of the public; and, 
 equally as a judge, a legislator, a minister of 
 the crown, and a friend to the constitution, 
 he was bold and active to sustain, at all per- 
 sonal ri.sks, and against all op|X)sition, the 
 duties and interests which he was called to 
 fulfil or to support. Yet the zeal thus issue- 
 ing from his heart into his life, was to ex- 
 cite, in a peculiar degree, the obloquy of 
 which I have here complained, and which, 
 though despised and defied, was yel labori- 
 ous and loud. The language of indigna- 
 tion, by which he nobly repressed the prac- 
 titioner of chicane, or the worthless pretend- 
 er to public spirit, was naturally to be re- 
 proached as petulant, or as unjust, by those 
 who felt, or those who feared it : and, how- 
 ever meritorious his conduct, whether he
 
 VI PREFACE. 
 
 maintained the cause of his sovereign and of 
 the state against error and party; whether 
 he terminated the career of litigation, or de- 
 terged the courts of law ; or whether he toil- 
 ed for the preservation of social order, at a 
 period when all order and all society were 
 menaced by the most dangerous and auda- 
 cious foes; he was to be exhibited, not, in- 
 deed, by those who reflect, but those who 
 rail, as a partizan, bigotted to a cause and 
 to a sect; as an oppressor, who wielded 
 power but to crush, and exercised talent but 
 to betray. 
 
 Even death has not been able to shelter 
 this illustrious man from the malevolence of 
 the foe which his virtues scorned. Slander 
 has dared to shed her poisons on his grave ; 
 and the arts of sarcasm and subtilty continue 
 to be exercised, to calumniate the merits, 
 and vilify the memory of the man, who, in 
 his life, well knew how to protect himself, 
 and whose name shall be long cherished by 
 the grateful recollection of his country.
 
 PREFACE. VII 
 
 Happily, the censure of the malicious is 
 the glory of the good ; and Slander, in her 
 efforts to depress, is often active hut to ex- 
 alt. Lord Clare, therefore, whose virtues 
 had secured the attachment of the friends of 
 the constitution, had little reason to depre- 
 cate the enmity of its foes; and, accompa- 
 nied though he was to the earth, in which he 
 now moulders, hy respect and affection, as 
 honourable as they were sincere; his cha- 
 racter has scarcely derived higher distinc- 
 tion from that circumstance, than from the 
 boasted pleasure with which faction has be- 
 lnld his grave, or the clamorous virulence 
 with which conspiracy has pursued his name. 
 
 That his language was, sometimes, tinc- 
 tured with severity, and sometimes, per- 
 haps, heightened by exaggeration, truth is 
 ready to admit. The ambitious and inte- 
 rested vehemence of partizans and of party, 
 excited in him, at times, a momentary de- 
 testation or contempt, which bis ardent spi- 
 rit was little anxious to conceal or to repress. 
 But the open statement of his persuasions 
 b
 
 Vlll PREFACE. 
 
 and views, obstructed and encumbered no 
 public service. On the contrary, his voice, 
 resounding over the realm, gave intrepidity 
 to the loyal, and courage to the 'infirm. 
 The crime, hurrying to perpetration, was 
 repressed as he spoke. Faction heard him 
 but to be intimidated, treason but to be 
 appalled : and that eloquence which has 
 been so much censured as vindictive and 
 stern, as the mildew to blight, or the 
 lightning to kill, was not only vindicated 
 and eulogized by the vices and events which 
 called it forth, but by the salutary and na- 
 tional consequences which it failed not to 
 produce. 
 
 With this fearless and wholesome freedom 
 did he proclaim his sentiments to the world ; 
 and it is not, therefore, to be wondered at, 
 that his temper and character should have 
 been destined to endure the utmost malice 
 of scrutiny. But the malice of scrutiny me- 
 rits only the derision of virtue: the feeble 
 dart will not bring down the eagle: he who 
 has been praised by those whose praise is
 
 PREFACE. )X 
 
 "honour, may cheerfully submit to the cen- 
 sure of those whose applause is degradation; 
 and the name which has been asserted and 
 vindicated by an Kldon and an Addington, 
 can have nothing to fear from the misrepre- 
 sentations of the ignorant, or the calumnies 
 of the vile. 
 
 I, also, have wished to add my attesta- 
 tion, however humble, to that of those who 
 have thus sustained the honours of the dead. 
 The plan which 1 had formed, obviously 
 permitted me to exemplify the virtues I was 
 to describe; and if, in justifying the conduct 
 of Lord Clan-, I indulged in the pleasure 
 which the writer -< Idom fails to enjoy, who 
 devotes himself to the vindication of depart- 
 ed worth; 1 have, at the same time, been 
 enabled to confirm my views of the import- 
 ance of the judicial character, by exhibiting, 
 in action and in effect, the talents and the 
 integrity of the Judge. 
 
 How I have executed my design, the pul>- 
 lic are to determine. 1 neither deprecate
 
 X PREFACE. 
 
 nor defy the severity of the critic. But if, 
 as my apprehensions suggest, the tribute 
 here offered by respect to virtue shall be de- 
 cried as small; let it be recollected, at least, 
 that I have done nothing to injure the inte- 
 rests of truth, and that motive may give va- 
 lue even to the oblation of a mite.
 
 THE JUDGE.
 
 ARGUMENT. 
 
 The subject opened. Invocation to the spirit of Blackstone, 
 and the Genius of England. The power and glory of 
 Britain. Whence. The just administration of equitable 
 laws essential to the maintenance of national dignity, and 
 national happiness. The Judge. His talents, and pre- 
 paratory views of Grecian, Roman, and Feudal Law. 
 The danger of legal erudition associated with chicane, and 
 fraud. A general exhibition of the judicial character. 
 The duty of Monarchs in the appointment of Judges. 
 Address to the King. The Canto closed.
 
 THE JUDGE. 
 
 CANTO I. 
 
 -No more, ye smiling Loves, ye rustic Powers, 
 Fair though ye be, I load your humble shrine 
 With fruits and fragrance; nor, by willow'd bank 
 Of mazy stream, nor, mid the twilight shades 
 Of the moist grotto's ever-cool recess, 
 I woo ye, by such wildly-warbled strains 
 As simple Nature fancies. Other song, 
 Of nobler argument, occasion claims : 
 The hour of sjx>rt has clos'd; and he, erewhile, 
 Who idly trifled with the mirthful shell, 
 And bung with wilding blooms the Muse's bower, 
 Shall, now, to bolder tones awake the wire. 
 Spirit of him, that, in th' immortal page, 
 Trtasur'd each gem of truth, by happiest toils
 
 THE JUDGE. 
 
 Won from the mines of law; and, from the mass 
 
 Of legal chaos drear, called order forth, 
 
 And beautyj and one lovely system fram'd, 
 
 Of scatter'd institutes, and dark decrees, 
 
 And rules, descending, in ambiguous phrase, 
 
 From days of ancient date (a)! Or, rather, thou, 
 
 Wont in yon cloud of solar gold to sit, 
 
 Watching the fates of Britain, while thine eyes 
 
 With glory brighten'd, and thine arm sustain'd 
 
 The sceptre of command ; but who, alas ! 
 
 In sorrow bending o'er that mould'ring turf (b), 
 
 Now giv'st thy tresses to obtrusive winds, 
 
 Nor heed'st the ruffled vesture, in whose folds, 
 
 Inwrought by magic hands, the lion scowls ! 
 
 O, come ! and in my mind each thought awake, 
 
 Various, or bold, as best high theme may suit j 
 
 And let me learn to syllable the praise 
 
 Thou deal'st, with smiles inwov'n, to him whose lips* 
 
 Expound, proclaim, and vindicate, the laws.
 
 THE JUDGE. 
 
 Power and (lory of Britain. 
 
 Lo! mid the nations, gen'rous Britain claims 
 Pre-eminence of glory. If her soil 
 Be scant, she owns a bold and vig'rous race. 
 If she not find, within her procreant glebe, 
 The ingot and the gem, she boasts of more 
 Than Mexic suns e'er rijx?n'd into gold, 
 In arts, whose cunning from the wide world draws 
 Tribute to swell her pomp. Where'er she points 
 Her angry thunders, and her lightnings blaze, 
 War, palsied and dismay'd, his gory spear 
 Rejects, and many a trophy of renown, 
 Yet moist with human tears j and, as he kneels 
 Before her, trembling, round his iron brow, 
 Binds, with submissive awe, the wreaths of peace. 
 Yet, not in well-fought fields alone, she seeks 
 The meed of genuine fame. Tis hers, yet more, 
 To aid the injur'd, or the humbled spare; 
 Or. as high Honour bids, the sacred rights 
 Of amity maintain. Hence, nor the hosts
 
 THE JUDGE. 
 
 Whence derived. 
 
 That crowd her tented plains, nor the proud might 
 Her canvass'd bulwarks boast, so awe the realms, 
 As her firm favour wins ; and, if the foe 
 Shrink, fear-struck, from her frown, the humblest friend 
 Finds, in her smile, security and peace ! 
 
 But whence this majesty of power ; this fame, 
 That spreads and brightens where the scorching beam 
 Of Roman glory reach'd not ? Ah ! from whence, 
 These congregated blessings, such, of old, 
 As Greece herself, though counting in each son 
 A God, and rich in wisdom and renown, 
 Ne'er knew, perchance, nor fancy'd ? The dread sword ; 
 The laurel'd deed divine ; the gen' rous will ; 
 The genius, science, art, that think and toil 
 For public welfare; these, 'tis true, adorn, 
 Protect, distinguish, dignify, a realm ! 
 Yet, what are these, save beauteous forms, at best, 
 Of fragile clay, if not inform'd with soul 
 By common justice, and by equal laws ?
 
 THE JUDGE. 
 
 JuM ulmlniitration of law. 
 
 Yes ! to her laws, and to the ermin'd Worth 
 That gives them utt'rance, hardy Britain owes 
 Her best and brightest honours : and the voice 
 Which hails the hero, round her daring prows, 
 That twines the palm of conquest, or conducts 
 Her hosts to triumph o'er the fields of death j 
 That voice is, also, heard, and heard in tones 
 More glad and sweet, what time the upright Judge 
 Proclaims the sentence of the upright law. 
 
 In right, in freedom, lives the glowing mind 
 That prompts to noblest deeds, and forms, and move* 
 The patriot, and the sage. But Freedom's self, 
 Dear friend of ev'ry truth and ev'ry worth, 
 There only dwells where faithful Law abides, 
 And Judgment, awful, dignified, and pure, 
 Propounds what Law inspires. Does Desj>ot- Power 
 The golden seats of equity invade ? 
 Lo ! Effort, frozen at the heart, expires ; 
 \a>\ eaglet Hope, late soaring to the sun,
 
 THE JUDGE. 
 
 The Judge's talents. 
 
 Expands her wing no more ; and free-born man 
 Is palsied into slave ! But, oh ! not thus 
 He falls, extinct of soul, when guardian Right 
 Hears and protects him, and the powers of Law 
 Are ministers of Justice. Reason, then, 
 Then Will and Worth aspire. Sad Fear no more 
 Points wildly to the tyrant frown, nor kills 
 The infant talent. All is man. The heart 
 With independence throbs. Illustrious deeds 
 Are done. The glow of patriot honour spreads j 
 And virtue, genius, glory, grace the state ! 
 
 Yet, let the Judge misdeem not of his power : 
 For if, as wanton Speculation wills, 
 He pour the awful sentence, countless ills 
 Shall spring around him, and each erring word, 
 As once the seed by wand'ring Cadmus strew'd (c), 
 Engender armed mischiefs. Oh ! 'tis his 
 To wield the angry lightnings, or dispense 
 Maturing dews abroad. The various Woes,
 
 THE JUDGE. 
 
 tin preparatory viewi. 
 
 Offspring of Want and Anguish, crowding, wait 
 His potent bidding ; and his fateful tongue 
 Sends forth or life or death. Still, therefore, still, 
 If aught he rev'rence or in earth or heaven, 
 Bo wisdom his sole guide. Let him presume, 
 With no unsandell'd foot (d), no thought impure, 
 No fleshly will unholy, to approach 
 The fearful ground of judgment : and be heard, 
 Ere yet his lip shalV utter, or his mind 
 Frame one decree, that sober voice of Truth, 
 Which tells him, he is but the priest of Law, 
 To pour the oracles by Law inspird! 
 
 Nor, ere the ermine grace his rev'rend form, 
 Has he no toils to brave. To the rude deep, 
 It he not trust, as Av'rice bids, his bark ; 
 If he not woo the demon, Wealth, in mines 
 Breathing infection; nor the burning plains 
 Tread, with parch dsole, where blue-ey'dSamiel wafts. 
 On his dark pinions, Pestilence and Death :
 
 10 THE JUDGE. ' 
 
 His intense application to obtain knowledge. v. 130. 
 
 He other labours shares, nor slight, nor few, 
 
 Which often pale the cheek, and dim the eye, 
 
 And give Distemper, in the vital stream, 
 
 To blend her subtlest poisons . Many a tome, 
 
 Within whose folds the soul of Science lives, 
 
 His midnight search explores. From fairy scenes, 
 
 Where sport the youthful Joys, and braid their locks, 
 
 Locks lovelier than the beams that gild the morn, 
 
 With odour-dropping blooms ; he bends his step, 
 
 Studious and patient, to the solemn cell, 
 
 Where hoary Wisdom broods away 'the hours, 
 
 O'er the long-labour'd page. What gives to Right 
 
 His claims legitimate, and holy powers : 
 
 How Rapine best is crush'd, and Weakness sav'd 
 
 From head-long Will and Strength : howmanistrain'd 
 
 From savage up to social, and inspir'd 
 
 With sense of public duty, and the love 
 
 Of all-protecting law : such are the themes 
 
 Profound, that, while, in Pleasure's roseate bowers,
 
 THE JUDGE. 11 
 
 Slodiei Grecian, Roman, and Feudal law. 
 
 So many idly flaunt, engage his thought 
 
 In meditations, intricate and deep. 
 
 Hence, by the waning taper, by the beam 
 
 Of morning sun and ev'ning, he enquires 
 
 What or the ethic, or historic sage 
 
 Reports, of laws, their origin, and end, 
 
 Their progress, and their means. To Graecian halls 
 
 I le hastens, now, from Solon's lips to draw 
 
 Preceptive truth ; or, by the sedgy banks 
 
 Of yellow Tiber, now, much musing, strays, 
 
 And round him calls the spirits, which, of old, 
 
 Gave mighty Rome her code, and, on that code, 
 
 I fpbuilt the throne of empire (e). Yet not less, 
 
 Amid the glooms of German forests, he 
 
 Puisnes judicial Wisdom (f). The fair page, 
 
 Whence Roman Sapience, in a Roman tone, 
 
 Still speaks to list'ning realms, his patient steps 
 
 Happ'ly directs (g) ; and customs on his view, 
 
 And institutes, and changeful manners, throng,
 
 12 THE JUDGE. 
 
 His studies continued. v. 167. 
 
 Picturing the social progress, and high truths 
 
 Unfolding to his mind. Thence, forth he hastes 
 
 To other realms, where Chivalry displays 
 
 Her proud and feudal halls(H); and, round the throne 
 
 The assembl'd chiefs, and, round the assembl'd chiefs, 
 
 The vassal tribes beholds. The British world 
 
 Next, all-auspicious to his glowing toils, 
 
 Its rich, ripe harvest yields. The Saxon hosts, 
 
 And Norman, pouring, wide, the tide of war, 
 
 Or, slowly-framing, in more happy hour, 
 
 Of native institutes and Gothic forms, 
 
 The goodly structure, not alone are call'd 
 
 Before his vision ( i ) . He, with eager step, 
 
 Hastes to the halls where kingly Weakness doz'd, 
 
 Till British rights, sustain'd by British swords, 
 
 Upsprung, to cheer a world (k) . He watches yet 
 
 Advancing freedom, and improving law. 
 
 He marks, (as once pure water from the rock 
 
 Forth well'd, and plenteous), from the hated throne
 
 THE JUDGE. IS 
 
 Mrk (he growth of liberty. 
 
 Of despot-power, the streams of good that flow'd 
 Diffusive o'er the realm (l). Ev'n in the frown 
 Of blood-stain'd Henry, he, with rapture! eye, 
 Surveys but future blessings : and, at length, 
 After wild storms had pass'd, and wintry hours 
 Had led to spring-tide days, the sacred plant 
 Of Liberty is seen to spread abroad 
 Its shelt'ring branches; and unnumber'd fruits, 
 Fruits of immortalizing power, to yield 
 Mature, beneath a William's fost'ring reign, 
 And more. O lov'd, paternal Brunswick, thine! 
 
 Behold yon busy stream. By verd'rous slopca, 
 Wild warbling, now, it bends ; through glimm'ring vales 
 Now sweeps ; or, now, beside the thick wood's tangling 
 
 edge, 
 Wanders, and still, from fount or brook, receives 
 Some new accession to its limpid wave. 
 So has the student journey 'd ; various realms, 
 Or neighb'ring, or remote, have so conferr'd
 
 14 THE JUDGE. 
 
 The danger of legal erudition when misapplied. v. ao6. 
 
 Their willing tribute, to augment his hoard. 
 Yet, ah ! what may, at best, such tribute boot, 
 If, Knowledge won, fair Virtue be contemn'd? 
 Laws, unadminister'd, are idle shades : 
 But, ill administer'd, are pests that sweep 
 All Justice to the grave. Lo ! Bacon tow'rs 
 In wisdom, like a giant ; but the heart 
 Is frail ; and Wisdom, which should bless, destroys. 
 Lo ! subtle Coke, with skilful toil, collects 
 The scatter'd treasures of the legal world : 
 Yet that, which, well employ 'd, had bless'd a realm, 
 Becomes dread mischief in the sophist's hands (m). 
 No ! Worth alone can consecrate the stores 
 By Learning glean'd . Ev'n for holiest institues, 
 Where skilful Fraud presides, are worse than nought \ 
 And the dread judgment of unrighteous lips, 
 Derives from Knowledge but new pow'rs to curse. 
 
 O, then, celestial Truth ! O lend thy tints, 
 Thy pencil lend, while, with ambitious hand,
 
 THE JUDGE. 15 
 
 v. 0*5. The judicial character pourtraycd. 
 
 The British Judge, and all his various worth, 
 I venture to pourtray. To him a world 
 Lifts the exploring eye. From him the laws 
 Claim, with a voice which bending Seraphs hear, 
 Support and execution. As he speaks, 
 Nations decline or Hourish, live or die. (w) 
 Before his throne, full many a holy Right 
 Demands asylum, from the giant Crimes 
 That lord it o'er the land. The Orphan, there, 
 Tells oft, with intermingling sighs, the tale 
 Of guardian guilt accurs"d; the frequent tear 
 There softly pleads the drooping widow's cause; 
 And Liberty herself, celestial dame, 
 There hastes from tyrant Wrong, to feed her ho>es 
 Of full protection, and of sure redress! 
 
 O ! does he, then, a coward, or a slave, 
 Tremble before the mighty ? Does he dare 
 Dash Justice from him, when the sinner bribes * 
 < )r does the poor man's tatter'd garb exj>ose
 
 16 THE JUDGE. 
 
 Character continued. 
 
 The poor man to his scorn ? O ! if his soul 
 
 Be made of stuff thus worldly; and if, thus, 
 
 His ermin'd honours he most foully stain, 
 
 The incensed skies shall mark it j and each smile 
 
 Of guilt, acquitted by his traitor voice, 
 
 And each sad drop, that trembles on the lids 
 
 Of Innocence condemn'd, shall yet be weigh'd 
 
 Weigh'd in the presence of unnumber'd worlds 
 
 Against his plea for mercy. But I turn, 
 
 Contemptuous, from th' unholy wretch, to him 
 
 Who, like a Mitford (o), as pure Wisdom wills, 
 
 Directs the stream of justice. Firm he sits, 
 
 As on a mighty mount, above the mists 
 
 Of pestilent passions, and of evil days. 
 
 To him the humblest right that cheers the hut, 
 
 Outweighs all treasures of the golden East. 
 
 A Peru, flaming at his feet, would seem 
 
 A mite, compared with that his bosom owns 
 
 In self-esteem, and self-esteem a world.
 
 THE JUDGE. ir 
 
 The fudge trail the hw with power. 
 
 Others for gold exist ; for virtue he, 
 Alone, and public good. Others the robe 
 For profit seek, or pride, and so profane j 
 On him 'tis pure as if 'twere woven snow. 
 Honoring, at once, and honor 'd. Is the law, 
 Dead to infliction, dead, and, in his den 
 As is the lifeless lion, all despised? 
 He arms the law with pow'r, and sends it forth 
 To pluck Oppression from his seat of strength, 
 And shield dejected Virtue. Is the lance 
 Of scept'red Station rais'd to shake his will ? 
 Justice his hallow'd buckler, and his host, 
 He laughs at Fear, and, as in adamant 
 Of heav'nly temper cas*d, he braves, and scorns 
 The menace, and the mischief. Fame itself, 
 So priz'd and sought by fools, his virtue views 
 But as the painted glory of a cloud ; 
 And, to the poor Ixions of the hour, 
 He y\Mi the frail illusion. Not the voice, 
 i
 
 18 THE JUDGE. 
 
 Not to be biased by friendship or pity. v. s8o. 
 
 Hoarse murm'ring, of the mutinous multitude j 
 
 Nor all the tuneful eloquence divine, 
 
 With which imploring Friendship wooes the heart; 
 
 Nor melting Pity, though in tones as soft 
 
 As e'er were breath'd by rose-enamour'd breeze, 
 
 Or angel lips divine, she tell her tale, 
 
 May warp his sacred purpose. Hence, confirm'd 
 
 In wisdom, and in gen'rous justice bold, 
 
 And dead to Self, that Siren of the heart, 
 
 He lives to gen'ral man (p). Before his frown 
 
 Guilt flees, and all the host of legal Fraud, 
 
 A monster crew, appall'd. The Laws repose, 
 
 Fearless, upon his lips. Fair Equity 
 
 Beholds her golden balance in his hands, 
 
 Well-pleas'd ; and nations, cheer'd and bless'd, 
 
 Hail, in the Judge, the patriot and the man ! 
 
 Such is the man I rev'rence; in his life 
 Exemplifying wisdom ; calm, but firm ; 
 That holy right which all his soul adores,
 
 THE JUDGE. 19 
 
 Hu virtuei contrailed. 
 
 Sustaining by his toils; beyond the reach 
 Of fraud, or flatt'ry, which by gold perverts, 
 Or drugs with opium of deceitful speech ; 
 Careless of self, but thoughtful for the world; 
 A living mine, that makes an empire rich 
 In more than gems and gold; such is the man, 
 (And plausive cherubs join me in the act) 
 I venerate as a God ! But, O, from those, 
 I care not what their knowledge, those the shame 
 Of manhood, and their country, whose low soul 
 In dust and ashes creeps; whose sordid ear 
 I lears but the bribe lodg"d in the ready palm ; 
 Who toil for treasure but to hoard disgrace; 
 And talk and argue lx>ldlv, yet not heed 
 Whether protracted judgment, like a curse, 
 Kail on the widow 'd mourner ; or chicane 
 Devour the means of orphan'd innocence; 
 (), from such sinners, O, anointed kings, 
 Preserve the legal hall, the sacred seat
 
 20 THE JUDGE. 
 
 Duty of monarch* in appointing judge?. v. 318. 
 
 Of Equity, your subjects, and your laws! 
 
 And thou shalt still preserve them, thou, in whom 
 The patriot guides the monarch j and the king 
 Feels as a father ! For alone thy will 
 Points not the British thunders, nor constrains 
 War, and his blood-intoxicated tribe, 
 To crouch beneath thy feet. Thou, also, lov'st 
 To shield each right, on which Oppression, else, 
 With tiger-fang, had fasten'd ; thou to deal 
 Freely each blessing to thy happy realms, 
 Which Justice claims from power, and Freedom asks 
 From laws, at once, that, by thy throne sustain'd, 
 Sustain themselves thy throne ! Lo ! at thy word, 
 A Mansfield, Thurlow, Kenyon, o'er the land 
 Diffuse the dews of unadult'rate law. 
 Lo ! Loughborough, heedful of thy good intent, 
 Protects the injur'd. or upholds the weak : 
 And Eldon, wise, delib'rate, firm, sustains 
 The sacred honors of the legal throne.
 
 THE JUDGE. 21 
 
 1. 337. AdJrtM to the Ring. 
 
 As Truth, and Liberty, and Thou require ! 
 
 Where, then, paternal monarch, where thy seat 
 Of genuine glory ? where thy throne of power ? 
 Uprear'd, O King ! within a people's heart. 
 The world-embracing trade; the hero-host; 
 The navy pouring lightning on the foe; 
 The wealth that ripens in uncounted mines; 
 Were, else, but splendid nothingness. The toil 
 Of restless Faction, else, had, o'er thy realm*, 
 Now happy, scatter'd wide the seeds of woe, 
 And fatten'd howling Discord with the blood 
 Of myriads, martyr'd at her Haming shrine. 
 Rut, so upheld, the upright King may hear, 
 Nor dread the shout of war. He wields a sworsi 
 On which ha* tall'ii the blessing of the skies; 
 Rebellion shrinks, soul-palsied, from his frown. 
 And dies; the wild ambition of the foe 
 Rend to his virtue?, and reject* the speai .
 
 22 THE JUDGE. 
 
 The first Canto closed. 
 
 And matron Europe, she whose chasten'd praise 
 
 Is glory, weaves the amaranthine wreath, 
 
 And fondly twines it round his patriot brow (a) '.
 
 NOTES 
 
 CANTO I. 
 
 (a) Blackstone. (b) The grave of Lord Clare. 
 
 (c) Pallas adest : nota?que jubet supponere terrae 
 Vipereos dentes populi incrementa futuri. 
 Paret : et, ut presso sulcum patescit aratro 
 Spargit humi jussos, mortalia semina, dentes. 
 Inde, (fide majus) glebae caepere moveri : 
 Primaque de sulcis acies adparuit hasta?. 
 Tegmina mox capitum picto nutantia cono : 
 Mox humeri pectusque, onerataque brachia telis 
 Existunt : crescitque seges clypeata virorum. 
 
 Ovid. Met. lib. iii. lin. 102, &c. 
 
 (d) "And he said, Draw not nigh hither : put off thy shoes 
 from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy 
 ground." Exodus, ch. iii. ver. 5. 
 
 (f.) If the Romans borrowed many of their political and 
 maritime institutions from the Greeks, England has derived
 
 24 NOTES TO 
 
 from Rome some of her most admired and wholesome laws. 
 The Pandects of Justinian, as well as other remains of Ro- 
 man jurisprudence, have descended to these times: and a 
 Loughborough and a Redesdale might not be ashamed to 
 enrich themselves from the plenteous coffers of the ancient 
 lawyers of Constantinople. 
 
 (f) The principles of the German institutions, in early 
 times, were diffused by German conquests and colonies ; 
 and may be still found to exist in many of the English laws. 
 
 (o) Tacitus de Mor. Germ. 
 
 (h) "The history of the establishment and progress of the 
 feudal system, is an interesting object to all the nations of 
 Europe. In some countries, their jurisprudence and laws 
 are still feudal. In others, many forms and practices, esta- 
 blished by custom, or founded on statutes, took their rise 
 from the feudal law, and cannot be understood without at- 
 tending to the ideas peculiar to it." Rob. Charles V. note 
 8. sect. i. This, in a very eminent degree, is the case in 
 England ; and the feudal doctrines, accordingly, merit the 
 especial attention of the English lawyer. See Hume, vol. i. 
 and ii. puss. 
 
 (i) The Saxons and Normans respected, in some degree, 
 the old institutions of the country they had subdued, though, 
 on those institutions, they endeavoured to graft the laws of 
 their own nations. The feudal policy, however, as most likely 
 to strengthen the conqueror and restrain the conquered, was
 
 CANTO I. 25 
 
 especially maintained by William the Norman. "II distri- 
 bua l'Angleterre," says De Lolme, " en soixante mille deux 
 cens quinze fiefs simples, tous relevant de la couronne: les 
 possesseurs devoient, au premier signal, se rendre en armes 
 aupres de lui, a peine de confiscation ; il soumit non seule- 
 ment le peuple, mais, de plus, les seigneurs, a toutes les ri- 
 gueurs du droit feodal. De Lolme, Ed. 1778, p. 11. 
 
 (k) Alluding to Magna Cbarta; extorted from tbe fortu- 
 nate imbecility of John, and the happy temerity of his barons. 
 
 (l) The laws and liberties of England sprang from des- 
 potism, and were confirmed by it : " Ce fut l'immense pou- 
 voir du roi qui rendit l'Angleterre libre, parce que ce fut 
 cette immensite mme qui y fit naitre l'esprit d'union et 
 d'une resistance raisonne." De Lolme, p. 16. This obser- 
 vation might be easily confirmed by a detail of facts ; and it 
 would not, I think, be difficult to show, that almost every 
 effort made by arbitrary power, in these countries, to extend 
 the authority of the crown, has ultimately tended to enlarge 
 the liberties of the people. 
 
 (m) Sir Edward Coke was one of those unhappy charac- 
 ters, who occasionally disgrace a high name and pre-emi- 
 nent talents, by a vile perversion of both, to purposes equally 
 profligate and mischievous. When permitted to enjoy the 
 fruits of royal favour, he seemed to have adopted no logic 
 but that of courtly servility, and to have admitted no right 
 but that which was to be found in the will of the monarch. 
 Hence, in direct opposition to all equity and law, and to all
 
 26 NOTES TO 
 
 established rules of forensic evidence, he pursued, and he 
 oppressed the unfortunate Raleigh ; and, hence, the shame- 
 less epithets of the most detestable malignity, "monster, 
 traitor, viper, spider of hell," were to be applied to a man 
 of illustrious endowments ; under trial for his life ; opposed 
 by the tyranny of a despotic government ; and defending 
 himself, "with a temper, eloquence, and courage, which 
 should have procured him universal admiration and respect." 
 
 I do not mean to assert here that Raleigh was utterly 
 guiltless of the conspiracy of which he was accused. But, as 
 far as we may infer from the testimony on which he was 
 condemned, he was not guilty; and his judges and his ac- 
 cuser were, in this instance, not the ministers of law, but the 
 minions of revenge. 
 
 The virulent detlaimer, who thus loaded this "great man" 
 with reproach, was equally skilled in the arts of adula- 
 tion. The " spider of hell" was to have its contrast ; and 
 the malevolence which crushed, was to be followed by the 
 flattery which deified. It is hard to say, indeed, whether 
 the oppressor of Raleigh, or the adherent of Buckingham, 
 was most mean and vile; but, if we detest the man who 
 conducted the first to the scaffold, we behold him with dis- 
 gust, who could profanely and impiously pamper the vanity 
 of the last with the denomination of Saviour ! 
 
 In his subsequent conduct, the great lawyer, of whom I have 
 spoken, was, also, and not rarely, culpable and mischievous ; 
 and he was among the most violent of those who toiled to 
 confirm the schism between Charles the First and his parlia- 
 ment ; and who may be said, perhaps, even when they ap- 
 peared most zealous for public and private liberty, to have
 
 CANTO I. 27 
 
 been rather occupied in accelerating those miseries, which 
 were, so speedily, to be felt and deplored by the nation. 
 
 In a word, Sir Edward Coke, though, considered as a 
 lawyer, and, still more, as the framer and proposer of the 
 Bill of Right, he has merited peculiar admiration and respect ; 
 yet, considered as a man, he is entitled, at least, but to the 
 tear of pity, and the sigh of regret. 
 
 (n) " When a judge is capable of being influenced by 
 any thing but law, or a cause may be recommended by any 
 thing that is foreign to its own merits, we may venture to 
 pronounce that the nation is hastening to its ruin. Guar- 
 dian, No. 99. 
 
 (o) Lord Redesdale. Of this nobleman, the character 
 and talents were sufficiently known, before he was called to 
 preside over the Irish bar. Firm, vigorous, and wise, he has 
 brought to an arduous station, a mind prepared for arduous 
 duty ; and, after having long distinguished himself by legal 
 penetration, in one kingdom, he is, now, to advance the 
 welfare of a people, by liberal and safe adjudication, in an- 
 other. The law, in its spirit, rather than in its letter, is the 
 civil gospel, from which he derives, and by which he sanc- 
 tions, his judicial determinations. They who know him best, 
 and who can best estimate his merits, readily admit that he 
 is eloquent without sophistry, and discriminating without 
 fastidiousness ; that he is acquainted witli forms but to ren- 
 der them subservient to utility ; and that he is prepared, by 
 equity and promptitude of decision, to render even defeat a 
 comparative blessing. The people of Ireland have had rea*
 
 23 NOTES TO 
 
 son to recollect, with gratitude, the name and the virtues of 
 Lord Clare ; and the successor of Lord Clare, if the future 
 may be predicted from the past, will not fail to excite a gra- 
 titude no less honourable and permanent, by the display of 
 Tirtues not less salutary and distinguished. 
 
 (p) Non sibi, sed toti genitum se credere mundo. Lucan. 
 
 (q) A late writer has expatiated more amply on the cha- 
 racter of George the Third ; and the temper of his obser- 
 vations induces me to quote them, without apology or com- 
 ment. 
 
 " Of the private life of George the Third, we all know 
 and acknowledge the desert. His domestic character, little 
 imitated, and not to be surpassed, is the best satire on the 
 prevailing vices of the times. He has left it to other hands 
 to transplant foreign iniquities into British soil ; and, when 
 he flings aside the encumbrances of royalty, and gives the 
 father and husband to his family, we behold excellence 
 adorning and ennobling station, and are tauglit to love whom 
 we are commanded to obey. 
 
 " But lie has been studious not merely to render prudence 
 and reason fashionable. He has beheld the increasing splen- 
 dour of the arts and sciences with no indifferent eye. He 
 has erected an academy in his capital, in which the English 
 pencil has acquired Italian perfection. He has distinguish- 
 ed the talents of a Johnson, and recompensed the Christian 
 labours of a Porteus : and " the five great voyages suces- 
 sivcly undertaken by his command, and inspired," says Gib- 
 bon, " by the pure love of virtue and of mankind," have not
 
 CANTO i. 29 
 
 only contributed to the comfort and civilization of distant 
 nations, but have opened new prospects on the mind of man, 
 and afforded additional scope to the excursions of know- 
 ledge. 
 
 " As a magistrate, his conduct is measured by his duty. 
 He seeks for distinction, rather as the subject of the law, 
 than as the sovereign of the empire : and while, with one 
 hand, he holds the balance of Europe, he sheds, with the 
 other, the blessings of justice and liberty upon his country. 
 
 " The ability and worth of individuals, when wisely em- 
 ployed, become public blessings. The king has acted as if 
 he thought so, for he has been assiduous to call talent and 
 virtue into action. By the appointments, especially, which 
 he has made in his courts of judicature, he has eminently 
 contributed to the illumination of the legal world: and it is 
 owing to his care that, if the laws were never more impar- 
 tially administered, they were never better understood than 
 they have lately been; they were never expounded and ex- 
 plained with greater accuracy and erudition ; they were ne- 
 ver ascertained by discussions of more important topics of 
 constitutional wisdom; and they were never confirmed by 
 more interesting determinations of disputed points, and by 
 decisions more favourable to private property and public 
 right. 
 
 " But in this truly excellent character there is still another 
 feature, which, at such an aera as the present, is peculiarly 
 deserving of notice and applause. 
 
 " It has, of late, become common to indulge, on the most 
 sacred topics, a boldness of opinion, equally censurable and 
 extreme. The scoffer no longer confines his credulous in-
 
 30 NOTES, &c. 
 
 credulity to himself. In the fashionable world, to other 
 vices those are, now, frequently added,-which are the parents 
 of them all irreligion and infidelity ; and many, without 
 judgment to reason, or candour to examine, or zeal for wis- 
 dom, or love of truth, have renounced the tenets cherished 
 for ages by the wise and good, and demonstrated, by their 
 conduct, that, not in fabulous ages alone, have folly and im- 
 piety dared to make war on heaven. 
 
 " Happy is it, then, that he whose example is most conspi- 
 cuous amongst us, is eminently attached to the Christian 
 cause ; happy is it that we recognize in the sovereign, not 
 merely domestic virtue, a paternal regard to the welfare of 
 the nation, and an earnest zeal to maintain and meliorate the 
 laws, but a sincere and stedfast veneration for evangelical 
 wisdom. The world acknowledges that he is great as a king ; 
 and greater still as the king of a people, not only prosperous 
 and brave, but free. In the eye of reason, however, he ap- 
 pears still more dignified, as the humble disciple of the gos- 
 pel ; and the piety which leads him into retreat, exalts the 
 man in the Christian, and confers, in the moments of self- 
 abasement, a nobility and elevation, before which the glory 
 of potentates and the splendor of thrones are less than no- 
 thing!" Letter to Lord Sheffield, on the Political 
 Principles of certain modern Whigs. Debrett, 1792.
 
 THE JUDGE.
 
 ARGUMENT. 
 
 Invocation. Subject of the Canto. Fragility of life. lite 
 death of Lord Clare. His grave. Admonition to vanity 
 and pleasure. The different effects of the wise and licen- 
 tious enjoyment of worldly good. Final j'ate of the vain 
 and worthless. The Judge exemplified in the character and 
 conduct of Lord Clare. The court over which he presided, 
 restored to its purity. Chicane, oratory, delay, form, ba- 
 nished or regulated. Legal knowledge, Jidclity of interpre- 
 tation, dispatch, justice, encouraged and displayed. Con- 
 sequences to individuals and the public. Address to Law. 
 Its birth, progress, improvement, and effects. Endanger- 
 ed, in Ireland, by the revolutionary temper of the times. 
 Faction. Treason. General perversion of the lower orders 
 of the people. The story of Desmond. The miseries issue- 
 ingfrom Rebellion. Rebellion extinguished. Salutary mo- 
 deration of Government. The tranquillity and order of the 
 country re-established. A general dew of the consequences. 
 "Die Canto closed.
 
 THE JUDGE. 
 
 CANTO II. 
 
 (jtenius! I woo thee still. From yonder mound (a), 
 
 Where genuine Honor slumbers, the slow crowd 
 
 Retires. The melancholy herse no more 
 
 Waves, there, his sable plumes: and the dread tomb, 
 
 Insatiate monster, in dull silence, feasts 
 
 On what, erewhile, was man ! There, then, I haste, 
 
 Genius, at this dim hour of dewy eve, 
 
 Steeping my harp in tears, and breathing thoughts 
 
 Full of departed virtue. O ! that harp, 
 
 In honor of the rev'renc'd dead, attune ! 
 
 Nor, solely, let my flying hand awake 
 
 Its slumb'ring raptures, in accordance sweet 
 
 With the pure voice of praise 5 but let me call, 
 
 Also, such wholesome music from the strings, 
 
 D
 
 34 THE JUDGE. 
 
 Nothing cn withstand the jtroke of Death. 
 
 As best the living soul may reach, and warm, 
 And moralize; and teach the future Judge 
 To love and shield his country like the past ! 
 Ah, me ! how vain the iron mace of power 
 Against the stroke of death ! How more than frail 
 Fame, treasure, pomp, when, horror in his frown, 
 The heartless despot aims his fatal lance ! 
 The gorgeous fane, smote by the hand of Time, 
 Falls, and its chisel'd glories, far-renown'd, 
 Wide scatters in the dust. So, touch'd by Death, 
 The human temple, heav'n-form'd structure, sinks, 
 And all its mortal splendors, bright and rare, 
 Though mortal, perish in the yawning grave ! 
 Can Genius' self, on Fancy's buoyant wing, 
 Who soars among the stars, or, far beyond 
 All worlds, ascends, to dwell amid the blaze 
 Ineffable, that, round the throne of heav'n, 
 Sheds everlasting radiance; can ev'n she, 
 Sister of angels, Virtue, she on whom
 
 THE JUDGE. . 35 
 
 The Death of Lord Clare. 
 
 Cherubs look down with love, with favour God, 
 Immortal, and divine, one little hour 
 Win from determin'd fate ? The blessed beam, 
 Issueing abroad, diffuses life and light, 
 O'er many a hill and dale, and so expires. 
 'Tis thus, O Virtue, bright-ey'd Genius, thus, 
 Ev'n with thy son. A passing day he shines 
 Upon the cheered world ; but mortals scarce 
 Have felt and own'd his influence, when he dies j 
 And darkness closes on the scenes he cheer'd. 
 
 Clare is no more ! The statesman and the sage, 
 Whose mighty mind explor'd each depth of law, 
 And by whose voice determin'd Justice spoke 
 Her chaste decree, now shares one common sod 
 With the poor mendicant, that died, unwept, 
 In some lorn hovel. O ye vain, and great, 
 Who fancy in a particle ye grasp 
 A realm imperial, O approach, and learn 
 To think, at length, and fear. Ye boast, perchance.
 
 36 THE JUDGE. 
 
 Hi* Grave. v. 53. 
 
 Golconda in your coffers, and your will 
 Deals kingdoms to your slaves. But can ye rule 
 The grave? Or, while, ev'n now, with critic hand, 
 Ye cull fresh flow'rs to breathe upon your brow, 
 Or to your lip, experienc'd epicure, 
 Ye yield the sparkling goblet; mark ye not, 
 From yonder mound of dust and bones, his throne, 
 How Death, grim-laughing at your idiot sports, 
 Points his unerring dart? No! On ye sail, 
 In quest of pleasure, fearless of the ill 
 Already nigh, like her, th' /Egyptian dame, 
 When, reckless of th' immediate asp, she gave 
 Her silken streamers to the breeze, and sought 
 Her Antony on the Cydnus. Yet that earth, 
 Fresh from the delving spade, might well awake 
 Far different thought. It is a volume, rich 
 In precious wisdom ; a Lycasan school, 
 Where every bone becomes a Stagyrite, 
 Skill'd in such inference, as should make the heart
 
 THE JUDGE. 37 
 
 v. 7s. Man lives at if he were immortal. 
 
 Of each poor frail one quake. Who rests beneath, 
 Was he not gifted with whate'er the world 
 Deems best and rarest? Yet the wealth is gone, 
 Swift as the mocking dream. But, O! not so, 
 The blessings which it won from grateful lips, 
 And which, yet scarcely utter'd, angel hands 
 Were busy to record on adamant, 
 Where Time nor Death shall reach! 'Tisthus a tongue, 
 Ev'n from the wasting ashes of the dead, 
 Would teach vain man to live. Yet he, meanwhile, 
 Nor heeds, nor hears. He hourly sees a race 
 Swept to the hideous caverns of the tomb, 
 Yet deems himself immortal. He beholds, 
 In every " reeky shank," and " chapless scull," 
 His frailty character'd; yet but for time 
 He tills, and plants, and sows, as if his hand 
 Were sure to reap the fruits ; as if the fruits, 
 When gather d in, would fill the barns of hope ! 
 But, see ! the arm of Fate already grasps
 
 38 THE JUDGE. 
 
 Truth admonishes him. 
 
 The self-deluding victim. Round his couch 
 He views but mocking Pageants, dying Joys, 
 And Horror, shrinking from the stroke of death : 
 And on his ear, the rapturous strains instead 
 Of holy Hope ; instead of songs of joy, 
 Pour'd by attendant seraphs, such as cheer 
 Expiring Virtue ; falls the fearful voice 
 Alone of angry Truth. " Weak wretch, no more 
 Thou barterest heav'n's intrusted wealth, for shades 
 As transient as thyself. That very world, 
 So hugg'd and courted, strips thee, now, of all 
 Her treacherous bounty yielded. Not a shred 
 Of comfort, but is gone: and thou, the heir, 
 So destin'd, of yon blessed realms, art left, 
 Solely, the dower of sin remorse, and woe!" 
 
 Clare is no more! yet, in his deeds, the man 
 Outlives himself: and grateful Fancy, still, 
 Within those walls, where Equity adorns 
 Her well-cemented throne, beholds the Judg<
 
 THE JUDGE. 39 
 
 v. no. The Judge exemplified in Lord Clare. 
 
 In whose decrees, decisive, liberal, clear, 
 Was genuine wisdom heard (b) . There, many a day, 
 Had dwelt, 'tis said, the harpy-pest, Chicane. 
 Nor right he knew, nor wrong The villain Gain 
 Was his sole guide, and God. Each faded form 
 Of Want, Chagrin, and Ruin, round him wav'd, 
 Ominous, their wings, and on his guilty head 
 Pour'd keenest execration. Yet the more, 
 Feasting and fattening on their woes, he ply'd 
 His arts, impure and vile. Now, Jesuit-like, 
 Sculk'd he from censure in sophistic glooms; 
 Now dealt out cheating promises to fools, 
 In barter for their gold; or, yet more bold, 
 With many a mighty folio at his foot 
 Of dread, black-letter, magic, now assum'd 
 A louder tone, and, Themis half-convinc'd, 
 Promulg'd, as truths confirm'd by ancient seers, 
 His own most foul and cheating fallacies (c). 
 But, lo ! his reign is o'er. He saw, in Clare,
 
 40 THE JUDGE. 
 
 Chicane, oratory, delay, 8ce. banished. v. ltg. 
 
 His master-power approach : and, at each point, 
 Though arm'd, a human porcupine, for war, 
 Litigious war, with keen forensic trick, 
 Muttering, he fled, dismayed, his Stygian form 
 In ten-fold glooms to hide (n). Nor he, alone ; 
 For Eloquence, so idly term'd, who spreads 
 Her rainbow-robe to catch the vulgar gaze, 
 And weaves, in Fancy's loom, her cobweb snares 
 For fools, then, also, fled (e) 5 and with her bore 
 Her progeny, Delay, a Proteus fell, 
 Caught in whose toils sweet Patience' self expires, 
 And from whose Daedal maze no clue conducts, 
 Too often, but to misery and the grave. 
 
 O ! at that hour of renovated law, 
 Ye Burstons say, and Saurins, for ye know, 
 What hallow'd forms the place and power assum'd, 
 Of this the host of Fraud. Say, in your halls, 
 Did not staid Knowledge sojourn, she right rich 
 In legal science, but in virtue more ?
 
 THE JUDGE. 41 
 
 v. 148. Legal knowledge and dispatch take their place. 
 
 And pure Interpretation, whose keen eye 
 Pierc'd through each wordy cloud, that,darkling, hung 
 Upon the orb of truth ? And wing'd Dispatch, 
 That, strong in facts and wisdom, quickly gain'd 
 The goal he sought, which tortoise-footed Form 
 Had ask'd an age to reach (f) ? And she, enrob'd 
 In moteless sun-beams, who, as speaks her name (g), 
 Shrinks from the thought of wrong,and bravely stands, 
 For right, if so requir'd, against a world ? 
 
 Ah ! well ye deem, that, still, around his seat, 
 Whose hearse ye lately follow'd, these were seen, 
 Lovely, though awful graces, or were heard 
 In each decree, while ev'n defeat approv'd 
 The sentence which it mourn'd. Hence from the scenes, 
 Where lame and slumb'rous Equity, so oft, 
 Had dealt out ruin with a legal hand, 
 Issu'd pure truths, by rare appeal deny'd; 
 Hence precedents of wisdom, to descend 
 To future ages ; and decisions, hence,
 
 42 THE JUDGE. 
 
 Consequences to individuals and the public. v. 148. 
 
 Which pour'd upon the darksome page of law, 
 A more than solar noon What though thy name 
 Fell Envy, then, hell -born, herself a hell ! 
 Illustrious Clare, pursue ? What though the fiends 
 Of foul-lip'd Malice, all their bosom'd spleen 
 Effuse, to blast the verdures of thy grave ? 
 Thy fame, embalm'd by virtue, ne'er shall prove 
 A wretched reptile's feast. The precious wreath, 
 Wov'n by thy country, with maternal hand, 
 To grace the living patriot, still shall bloom 
 The honor of the dead. And the pure praise 
 Conferr'd by nations, in thy day of deeds, 
 Shall still, that day expir'd, exalt the man, 
 Whose lip expounded, and whose life sustain'd, 
 Thy sense and spirit, all-protective Law ! 
 
 Yes ! thee I hail, deriv'd, in times of yore, 
 From Freedom, loveliest of the mountain nymphs, 
 And Wisdom, heav'n-descended ! Thee I hail, 
 Ev'n at thy birth endow'd with powers to bless,
 
 THE JUDGE. 43 
 
 v. 167. An address to Law. 
 
 And by old Time the sage whose slightest thought 
 Outprizes all ere heard amid the groves 
 Where stray'd the Attic Moses hast been dower'd 
 With grace, and dignity, and truth, and worth, 
 'Till Britain proudly own'd thee as his bride, 
 The world its paragon ! Beneath thy rule, 
 Behold ! thine hand-maid, Safety, o'er the mess, 
 Alike, presides, that strews the cottage board, 
 As o'er the steaming feasts, in palace halls, 
 That woo the lordly lip : nor the poor means 
 She less delights to guard, which pilgrim Need 
 Hoards in his scanty scrip, than the best gem 
 That glows and blazes in Britannia's crown. 
 Beneath thy rule, behold ! her busy swarms 
 Blithe Industry leads forth ; and, now, the sail, 
 An India in its secret chambers lodg'd, 
 Dares wildest elements ; the mine is fore'd 
 To yield her prison'd glories; the rude rock 
 Springs into lovely form; the furnace flames;
 
 44 THE JUDGE. 
 
 Address continued. 
 
 The panting bellows toils; the mineral mass 
 
 Spreads, like a mirror, to the dancing beam ; 
 
 Or, labour varying, eager shuttles fly; 
 
 And future plenty in the upturn'd glebe 
 
 Is sown; till all the land, made rich, and warm, 
 
 And fruitful, like a happy mother smiles 
 
 Amid a joyous race ! Yes, thine it is, 
 
 And thine alone, all-guarding Law, to deal 
 
 These varied blessings round: and thine, yet more, 
 
 To nurse the patriot thought ; and wake and warm 
 
 The dormant manhood of the public soul ; 
 
 And, holding each a willing subject, bind 
 
 In social union all. O'er other realms, 
 
 Why spreads destruction round? Why, hopeless, mourns 
 
 Old ./Egypt mid her deserts? Why extends 
 
 Syria her plague-engendering marshes, where, 
 
 In better days, was sun-burnt Autumn wont 
 
 To pour his treasures forth ? Thou art not there, 
 
 To bid the wild be green, the fen be gay,
 
 THE JUDGE. 45 
 
 Law endangered. 
 
 The sand be fertile, and the man be man ! 
 Thou art not there ! But there despotic Rule, 
 Before whose blasting frown each beauty dies, 
 And ev'n the soul, its heavenly lineaments 
 Transform'd to savage, knows itself no more ! 
 O, therefore, long, o'er these thy happiest seats 
 Sole mistress reign. In every upright heart 
 Shalt thou find reverence; every hand shall join 
 To twine the olive round thy matron browj 
 Or should the rebel plot rebel to thee, 
 More rebel to himself thy peaceful throne, 
 In evil hour, to rase; forth-issueing firm, 
 Shall, then, each Power and Virtue of the land 
 Beneath thy standard league, and smite the foe. 
 Yet has the foe been found, the contest try'd! 
 For are there not whose earthly will profane 
 Would war ev'n with Perfection, though she came, 
 Omnipotent, to bless? From those dire scenes, 
 Where shuddering France beheld God's altars fir'd
 
 46 THE JUDGE. 
 
 Evils attendant on Revolution. 
 
 By impious hands; and her fair cities spoil'd 
 
 By villain vagrants into despots rais'd; 
 
 And her best sons by foul Proscription fall, 
 
 In countless thousands from that land of blood 
 
 The maniac, Revolution, rob'd in flames, 
 
 And frowning fear and death, his hasty step 
 
 Bent, also, to thy shores, Ierne, fraught 
 
 With many a spell of woe. In hideous state, 
 
 Around her waited, and of hideous form, 
 
 Discord, and Want, and civil War, and Death, 
 
 Infernal ministers of infernal Ills, 
 
 To mar the human world ! But, first, and chief, 
 
 Hell in his heart, and horror in his eye, 
 
 At her dread word, the giant Faction rose, 
 
 Claiming the affrighted realm ; and, while meek Peace, 
 
 That vainly sought to soothe him, shrieking, died 
 
 Within his iron grasp, the monster laugh'd, 
 
 Frantic with joy, and call'd the land his own. 
 
 Then was thehourof Fate ! Wide, wild,and fierce,
 
 THE JUDGE. 47 
 
 v. 243. Perversion of the lower orders of people in Ireland. 
 
 Swept Ruin his keen scythe ! And not a mead 
 But saw its vernant honors stain'd with blood; 
 Nor airless cell but shelter'd in its glooms 
 Fell Plunder's midnight congress (h) ! Fear herself 
 Scarce reach'd th' impending ill; and every sin 
 That steels the bigot breast, and fires the thought 
 Of maddening Murder, wildly rush'd abroad, 
 In desperate league, and, as they swept along, 
 O'er all the realm shed misery and death, 
 Till Horror's self was glutted, and the Grave ! 
 
 Where, now, the virtues of the simple swain? 
 Where, now, the wholesome toils of rural life? 
 Alas ! beside the rustic hearth, no more 
 Content her carol sings ; the rustic board 
 No more to tranquil Innocence outspreads 
 The temperate viand pure. To other scenes 
 The guests, erewhile that made the cottage gay, 
 And tUn'd its owner's heart, their living lyre, 
 To sweetest music, flee: and, in their stead,
 
 48 THE JUDGE. 
 
 The story of Deimond. v. 181. 
 
 Wild Want, and Woe, and Treason, steep'd in blood, 
 And conscious Dread, that sleeps on daggers' points, 
 The hut usurping, lavish curses round, 
 Stol'n from the hoards of hell. Beside the banks 
 Where beauteous Banna (i) guides her silv'ry stream, 
 The shepherd Desmond dwelt. His toiling hand 
 Was wont to scatter verdure o'er the glebe. 
 The annual fleece was his} and milky sweets, 
 Health's nectar, in o'erflowing streams, enrich'd 
 His morning pail and evening. But the hour 
 Of guilt, is that of woe. In Desmond's ear 
 Has Faction also whisper'd, and the heart 
 Of Desmond feels the influence of the fiend. 
 Peace flees afar. The cool and shadowy haunts 
 Are shunn'd, where oft, at glowing noon, retir'd, 
 He wood sweet fancies. Ev'n the little brook, 
 Gay warbler, that beside his cottage strays; 
 Ev'n the ripe sheaves that load his barn with gold, 
 And the pure feasts that swelling udders yield,
 
 THE JUDGE. 49 
 
 v. 300. Leads forth a band to plunder. 
 
 All, all, are scorn'd. That which, in other days, 
 He hugg'd as plenty, now, as want and shame, 
 Is flung, indignant, from him ; and, alone, 
 Of plunder, and of fair domains (k), his spoil, 
 And thrones o'erturn'd by popular Licence wild, 
 His hideous madness dreams. Then follow deeds 
 Most foul and fearful. At that darksome hour 
 That hoods the villain best, oft leads he forth 
 A crew, for plunder wild, and steep'd in blood. 
 Horror the while exults. The destin'd dome 
 Is wrapp'd in sudden flames, the fleet ball flies, 
 And Pillage swells the murderer's hideous hoard (l). 
 But heeds not Justice, then ? Or sleep the Powers 
 Of Punishment, and Law? They do not. Mark ! 
 They issue forth, and chase, from haunt to haunt, 
 Their fated victim ; till, who brav'd, of late, 
 The hosts of heav'n, is fear-struck at a leaf. 
 O'er moors and heights, deep-panting, and appall'd, 
 Ah, see, he flees! And, now, he plunges deep 
 
 K
 
 40 THE JUDGE. 
 
 Desmond's fate. W -3'Q- 
 
 Within the mountain cavern ; mid the cliffs, 
 Now lurks, of the steep rock, or wildly seeks 
 The wat'ry refuge of the deep morass. 
 In vain. The partners of his guilt betray. 
 He feels the grasp of Fate. The galling chain 
 Clanks on his failing limbs. The dungeon cells 
 Hear his sad moan. The scaffold scares his heart. 
 He dies. And o'er the pale corse bend and weep 
 A phrenzy'd widow, and an orphan boy. 
 
 And often shall they weep. The hand is cold 
 That once sustain'd their wants ! The sacred cares 
 That once with comfort fill'd their little cup, 
 No longer wake and watch to cheer their days ! 
 Hence toils no plough for them ; hence weeds obscene 
 Deform their scanted glebe} and Want and Grief 
 Prey on their wasting strength. Where, then, their hope ? 
 Who, then, to listen to their prayers, and yield 
 The cordial and the balm ? Alas ! the World, 
 Cruel, so oft, except to. fools and knavea,
 
 THE JUDGE. 51 
 
 The misery entailed on his family. 
 
 Reserves for other hands its sweets and flowers : 
 And, ev'n now, while o'er the realm they rove, 
 Poor, houseless, hopeless, wanderers in a wild ; 
 The abject garb, and dim and lifeless eye, 
 And tottering step, and slow-decaying form, 
 All speak their sufferings, and attest the crimes 
 For which the father and the husband fell. 
 
 At length tir'd Nature yields. The tear, the sigh, 
 Not long shall dew their closing lids, nor long 
 Their woe-worn bosom heave. He, hapless boy, 
 Wasted and wan, in Famine's wither'd arms 
 Already falls; and on her shrunken cheek, 
 Where flourish'd, once, the loveliest rose of health, 
 Consumption feasts, in hectic flushes wrapp'd, 
 That preface speedy death. A little while, 
 Sad sufferer, then, be patient. Few the pangs 
 That yet remain to try thee. Mercy hastes 
 Thy passage to the grave ; and Mercy, thence, 
 Shall lead thee where thine eyes shall weep no more '
 
 52 THE JUDGE. 
 
 Faction destroyi the peace of Ireland. v. 357. 
 
 But say, O Faction, are thy trophies these ? 
 Are these the blessings from thy toils that spring, 
 Boaster, to cheer the realms ? O, let that grave, 
 Let the poor victims that now slumber there, 
 Reply : or, if the ashes of the dead 
 Know not a tongue to speak thee as thou art, 
 Let Erin, then, be heard. For many a day, 
 The Canaan of the "West, he liv'd in peace, 
 And Plenty revel'd at the board she spread. 
 Rich were her fields. Her joyous swains beheld 
 Their fleecy people, and their numerous kine, 
 O'er fatt'ning pastures stray ; or the rich glebe 
 They, rather, to the shining coulter gave, 
 While the glad prophet, Hope, in whisp' rings sweet 
 As heavenly harpings, of ripe harvests told, 
 And the full treasures of the ample barn, 
 Till all their heart was joy. Ah ! what her vales 
 Irriguous, and her sunny uplands, then, 
 But scenes where Beauty sported, and were found
 
 THE JUDGE. 53 
 
 v. 376. Order and tranquillity restored. 
 
 Fruits, more than ev'n her active millions crav'd? 
 Ah ! what her pure ambition, but to prove 
 In virtue high ; by smiling concord blest ; 
 Renown'd for liberal arts; and dear to Fame 
 For countless deeds, 'mid battling hosts achiev'd, 
 Of gallant hardihood ? But thou art nigh ! 
 And, see, her joys expire; her fields, that smil'd 
 So late, are stain'd with blood j her lowing herds, 
 And golden harvests, are the prey of war; 
 And Woe and Guilt, in execrable league 
 United, toil to crush her matron hopes, 
 And all her blooming Paradise deface ! 
 
 But short thy boast and triumph. Bold, and firm, 
 The State still liv'd, and grasp'dthe sword of strength; 
 And. every nobler Virtue, by those crimes 
 Awak'd, that brav'd the heavns, with sacred zeal 
 Around her rallied, as*heir ark, and thee, 
 Fell monster, smote, who, else, her rights had spoil'd, 
 And cast her in the dust. Yet hers to wield
 
 54 THE JUDGE. 
 
 %i 
 
 The Laws resume their tway. v, 395. 
 
 No unrelenting steel ; the felon few, 
 
 Thy prime artificers of treason, fell ; 
 
 But, there, wise" Justice paus'd; and, round his sword, 
 
 While throbbing Mercy twin'd her wreaths, were heard 
 
 Innumerous blessings from a pardon'd host. 
 
 Hence varied good arose. The idiot crowd, 
 Tutor'd by woe, renew'd, in happy .hour, 
 The peaceful labours of the loom, or plough ; 
 The Laws resum'd their sway} the ripening ear, 
 The herd, the fleecy tribe, no longer fear'd 
 The midnight ruffian} Peace and Order shed, 
 And firm, protective Power, o'er all the land, 
 Their various blessings ; and glad Trade renew'd 
 Her active plans, whether new marts to ope, 
 Orient or Western, or conduct abroad, 
 With skill, Riquet(M), like thine, the bright canal, 
 And all the sources of domestic wealth, 
 Numerous as rich, with patient toil, explore (n). 
 Where now, O, where, the bold and clamorous crew
 
 THE JUDGE. 56 
 
 v, 414, General view of the coniequencu. 
 
 Of raving Discord ? Faction's furious bands ? 
 The hords of Murder ? and the thousand Woes 
 That lately sham'd and curs'd the sickening realm ? 
 Where, now, the clouds that, o'er the horizon, charg'd 
 With livid lightning, hung, and widely shed 
 Pernicious influence, till the fell fiends smil'd, 
 Who feast on human ills, and pitying drops 
 Moisten'd angelic cheeks ? 'Tis calmness all ! 
 The fearful glooms retire. Each active port 
 Reopes his bosom to the thronging sail. 
 The ghastly Power, that rules o'er marsh and moor, 
 Resigns to fair Fertility his throne : 
 And the glad realm her provinces conjoin'd 
 In wholesome league; her people brave, and free} 
 Her precious products courted by the world; 
 Her future heirdom, glory Lo! renew'd 
 In hope, in strength, in confidence, in worth, 
 She calls her children to one common feast 
 Of peace and plenty; and prepares, alike,
 
 56 THE JUDGE 
 
 Canto closed. v. 433. 
 
 To cherish wholesome arts -, or, if so urg'd 
 By haughty Gaul, to seize the ready sword, 
 And in the shock of arms her Britain aid, 
 Till Victory lead the sisters from the field (o) !
 
 NOTES 
 
 CANTO II. 
 
 (a) The grave of the late Lord Clare. 
 
 (b) Lord Clare presided in the Court of Chancery for 
 many years, and of the great number of decrees which he 
 pronounced, the few that have been reversed scarcely merit 
 enumeration. The rapidity of his adjudication appeared 
 astonishing to a people who had learned to regard a suit in 
 Chancery as the business of an age : but astonishment was 
 converted into admiration and esteem, when it was found 
 that lie who excelled his predecessors in facility of decision, 
 surpassed them also in strength and accuracy of judgment. 
 
 (c) I believe it is well known to many at the bar, that, in 
 the courts of justice, doctrines are, sometimes, advanced, 
 with all the parade of learned quotation, which, however, 
 are merely the fabrications of adventurous fraud, to delude 
 weakness into assent. But of such conduct, I scarcely know 
 whether the guilt or folly be most distinguishable. It is 
 guilty; because, aiming at the perversion of law, it endan-
 
 59 NOTES TO 
 
 gcrs the security of social life : it is foolish ; because, seeking 
 to sustain imposition in the presence of many who are vigi- 
 lant and skilful to detect the fallacy, it can rarely escape the 
 ignominy which is attached most justly to a lie. Let young 
 men, therefore, beware. Independant of all considerations 
 of conscience, a thousand instances of success will not com- 
 pensate for one instance of exposure. There is a meanness 
 in such proceedings which cannot want its punishment, so 
 long as there shall be reflection to think, and sagacity to en- 
 quire ; and he who permits himself to trust to so despicable 
 an auxiliary for support, must have first renounced " the 
 dignity of virtue, and the manliness of truth." 
 
 (d) I bend with acknowledgment to the French satyrist ; 
 but, if I may be thought to have borrowed my colours from 
 his palette, let it be recollected that the chicane of one age 
 must resemble that of another. 
 
 On Pappelle Chicane, et ce monstre odieux 
 
 Jamais pour l'Equite n'eut d'oreilles ni d'yeux. 
 
 La disette, au teint bleroe, et la triste famine, 
 
 .Les chagrins devorans, et l'infame ru'i'ne, 
 
 Enfans infortunez de ses raflinemens, 
 
 Troublent 1'air d'alentour de longs gemissemens. 
 
 Sans cesse feuilletant les loix et la coutoume, 
 
 Pour consumer autrui, le Monstre se consume, 
 
 Et devorans maisons, palais, chateaux entiers, 
 
 Rend pour des monceaux d'or de vams tas des papiers. 
 
 Sous le coupable effort de sa noire insolence, 
 
 Tbemis a vu cent foist chanceler sa balance. 
 
 Lutrin, chant, v. line ."57.
 
 CANTO II. 59 
 
 (e) Of the oratory which, affluent in words, is penurious in 
 meaning, Lord Clare, equally as a man of wisdom and of bu- 
 siness, was the decided foe. 
 
 Tous ces pompeux amas d'expressions frivoles, 
 Sont d'un declamateur, amoreux des paroles. 
 
 With the good sense of the poet, he condemned the pompous 
 trifles of declamation ; and with the vigour of the public 
 character, he honestly forbade a sacrifice of those hours to 
 verbal contention, which duty required him to dedicate to 
 public purposes. 
 
 (f) I mean not here to imply that there should exist no 
 forms in the proceedings of legal investigation, or that the 
 forms should invariably depend on the discretion of the 
 Judge. Form is essential to the due administration of law ; 
 because, without it, adjudication would be frequently preci- 
 pitate, and defect and disorder would be as frequently intro- 
 duced into the mass of evidence on which the verdict is to 
 rest. But forms exist which it is the business and the duty 
 of a judge to overrule. The motion without cause, the oath 
 without substance, the litigious application for delay, and 
 the reply and rejoinder, pushed, so frequently, to the extre- 
 mity of chicane, till defendant and plaintiff" are alike silenced 
 by the grave ; are formalities, indisputably, in which the wise 
 discretion of the bench may laudably interfere, and to which 
 judicial submission is not merely individual weakness, but 
 general injury. 
 
 Lord Clare, acute and vigilant in the investigation of truth, 
 and in the detection of error, and equally determined as a 
 man and a judge, disdained an acquiescence thus criminal or
 
 60 NOTES TO 
 
 weak. He had an Alps of litigation to remove. He had 
 much to reform, and something to restore. His progress 
 was often impeded by frauds fabricated in the office of the 
 Attorney ; or by the fallacies and circumlocutions of a spe- 
 cies of oratory, which, however miserably instructed in law, 
 was deeply informed in chicane. Against this host of evils 
 he stood collected and firm, and it, at length, vanished from 
 before him. The powers of legal sophistry, in whatever 
 disguise, trembled beneath his influence ; and forensic fraud 
 no longer degraded and disgraced an honourable profes- 
 sion. If, therefore, he may have been, sometimes, preci- 
 pitate; let it be recollected that he was, generally, right; 
 if he excited the paltry enmity of a disappointed few ; 
 let it be acknowledged that the many who were rescued 
 from the evils of protracted contest, continue to approve 
 and applaud ; or, if slander have railed, and enmity ac- 
 cused, let it be owned that Equity has been redressed, 
 her chains have been struck off, her rights confirmed, and 
 the pollutions of her temple done away, by a new and hap- 
 pier consecration. 
 
 In these observations, I intend no general impeachment 
 of the Irish bar. So very remote, on the contrary, is such 
 an idea from my purpose, that, gladly, and without any 
 qualification, I acknowledge that there is displayed at it, and 
 by not a few, such eminence and variety of talent, and with 
 a zeal so suitable to sound law and perfect right, that it is im- 
 possible for me but to honour a profession, which has induced 
 a display of such extensive ability. My object, therefore, 
 is, simply, to stigmatize the fraud whose feelings extend not 
 beyond the periphery of the purse, and whose knowledge 
 frequently repays, in ruin, what it received in gold.
 
 CANTO II. 6i 
 
 (0) Justice. 
 
 (h) The progress of faction and sedition is described by 
 De Bosch, with such force and elegance, that I presume to 
 transcribe the whole passage. 
 
 Qualis fortis equus, quem fervidus impetus egit, 
 
 Quique reluctante discussit ab ore catenas, 
 
 Dum ruit, artificumque manus, oblataque signa, 
 
 Et leetas Cereris pedibus conculcat aristas ; 
 
 Sic populus, qui more caret vitaeque magistris, 
 
 Ahjecitque sacras legum furibundus habenas, 
 
 Seditione domos sociorum invadit et urit, 
 
 Oblitusque dei votivas disjicit aras. 
 
 His si vesanis praesit Catalina maniplis, 
 
 Qui clandestinos aminos superinjicit ignes, 
 
 *#*#* 
 
 Tunc gens humanum, mollissima corde benigne 
 
 Cui natura dedit, fit detestabile monstrum. 
 
 Hnic socium occidisse parum est, nee suflicit, hujus, 
 
 Majus at admittat scelus insutiabilis ira, 
 
 Pectora dilaniat, capita amputat, ossaque saxis. 
 
 Illidit contis abscissaque colla cruentis 
 
 Inipoiilt, circumque ferens squalentia multo 
 
 Cum claniore parem sortem metuentibus eflfert. 
 
 Carmen de Fqualitate Horn. Amsterdam, 1793. 
 
 (1) A river of the county of Wexford. That county was 
 the principle scene of the rebellion. 
 
 (k) It is a certain fact, that multitudes of the lower classes
 
 62 NOTES TO 
 
 had assumed to themselves, early in the rebellion, the future 
 ownership of the estates in their respective districts. There 
 were some, nevertheless, who, though much enamoured of 
 woods and lawns, confined not their soariug ambition to the 
 paltry acquirement of lands and tenements. Such of the 
 wives and daughters of their superiors as appeared to them 
 sufficiently beautiful, were also apportioned out by the 
 amorous imagination of these secret lovers, to decorate the 
 bed of the valorous pike-inan, and the aspiring rebel. It 
 was even said, and, I think, it appeared in evidence, that 
 the jolly and well-fed coachman of a Dublin citizen, was 
 among those who were "smitten with the love of noble 
 dames;" and that he had already chosen the Right Honour- 
 able Lady as the joy or solace of his future life. 
 
 (l) This was the usual progress of the nocturnal banditti, 
 who, at that period, harassed the country ; and who, though 
 their principal object was arms of whatever kind, had no ob- 
 jection to other valuable commodities. The loyalist, or even 
 the reputed loyalist, was, of course, to be plundered ; and if, 
 after the first demand of admission iuto his house, he refused 
 to open his doors, and to submit tamely to the pistol or the 
 pike ; a volley of bullets was instantly poured through his 
 windows ; aud his house, if possible, was devoted to the 
 flames. In this manner, at the dead of night, when scarcely 
 suspicion was prepared for violence, the comparatively fee- 
 ble individual was to be assaulted by a band of human Fu- 
 ries; and Law and Justice, for a time, were to be eluded 
 and insulted by Robbery and by Murder. 
 
 I would here add that the whole of this story is literally 
 true. The crimes and sorrows which it details were com-
 
 CANTO I. 63 
 
 mon. Indeed, in many instances, the guilt of the father 
 and the husband terminated in the beggary and ruin of his 
 family ; and description knows no colours in which she 
 miglit delineate, with any adequate effect, the atrocities and 
 sufferings which were really perpetrated and endured 
 
 (m) The history which Monsieur De la Lande has given 
 of the canal of Languedoc, sufficiently attests the virtues of 
 the illustrious citizen here mentioned. Impelled, we are 
 told, by the most honourable motives, and instructed in eve- 
 ry science necessary to the accomplishment of his design, 
 Monsieur Riquet de Bonrepos undertook, by a work asto- 
 nishing even in the conception, to open a communication, 
 through France, between the Mediterranean and the Ocean. 
 Having, after much preliminary expence, obtained the coun- 
 tenance of Louis the Fourteenth, lie made, in two years, 
 (1665 and 1666), such a progress in the execution of his 
 plan, as fully justified his views, and sufficiently excited the 
 national hope. Twelve thousand men were, now, daily em- 
 ployed under his direction. Rocks and precipices, and 
 mountains, yielded to his perseverence and skill; and, at 
 length, in little more than thirteen years, the canal was com- 
 pleated, in which France was to find new and ample sources 
 of public prosperity, and a new and noble cause for public 
 gratitude. 
 
 The grand and stupendous works, necessarily connected 
 with this canal, do honour, not merely to the genius by which 
 they were constructed, but to the nation which they benefit 
 and adorn. The harbour of Cette, the reservoir of Saint 
 Ferriol, the bason of Narouie, the aqueduct of Repoudre, 
 the arched vault of Malpas, are all, and in a pre-eminent
 
 64 NOTES TO 
 
 degree, distinguished by their magnificence and utility. 
 The canal, which is sometimes led for more than a mile through 
 passages scooped from the solid rock, is, according to Cham- 
 bers, sixty-one leagues in length, and is supplied by one 
 hundred and one basons. The annual expence of mainte- 
 nance is, indisputably, great ; but the actual tolls more than 
 double the amount of the expence ; and what is the advan- 
 tage to the nation has not, as yet, been calculated, because, 
 perhaps, it is incalculable. 
 
 (n) One of the last grants of the Irish parliament was 
 conferred for the purpose of promoting the Inland Naviga- 
 tion of Ireland ; and a considerable degree of national atten- 
 tion has been lately directed to that most important object. 
 
 (o) I have anxiously avoided all details of revolutionary 
 calamities and crimes ; for who would wish to dwell on the 
 degradations of humanity ; and to exhibit man stained with 
 the blood of his fellow-citizen, and exercising faculty and 
 power, solely to render his guilt more deplorable and more 
 deep ? But I observe, with full gratification, the salutary 
 consequences resulting from that administrative wisdom, 
 which, though firm to punish, was liberal to spare ; and 
 which, consigning the factious and unfeeling leader to jus- 
 tice, has toiled to save the ignorant and deluded multitude 
 even from themselves. On this wisdom, the best comment 
 is written in the diffusive blessings which have issued from it. 
 The fever of insurrection has been followed by the convales- 
 cence of peace. A nation, so recently menaced by a foul, 
 and most unnatural conspiracy, has already beheld the in- 
 dustry of her people renewed, and general welfare re-esta-
 
 CANTO II. 65 
 
 blished on the firm basis of public order and law. The very 
 miseries that have conferred a detestable distinction on the 
 past ; the blood, the pillage, the parricide, so utterly unpro- 
 fitable, even in a temporal view, to the frightful lunacy from 
 which they issued, might be thought to exist only in the page 
 of the historian, as so many monuments of the phrenzy of 
 times that are gone, for the admonition and instruction of 
 those that are to come. Thus the crimes of treason have 
 counteracted the will; and thus, under the influence of a 
 mild and enlightened government, tranquillity has arisen 
 from confusion, and " the pomegranate, and myrtle, and fig- 
 iree, have sprung up in the habitation of dragons."
 
 THE JUDGE.
 
 ARGUMENT. 
 
 jddress to Public Spirit. The efforts of Faction to prevent 
 the restoration of public tranquillity. Treason and Rebel- 
 lion counteracted by the. vigilance aiid activity of Lord 
 Clare. Tlie Jirmness, wisdom, and courage of that noble- 
 man. The praise he sought and obtained. His errors. 
 Their cause and effect. A view of his conduct as a Land- 
 lord. The suffering loyalist relieved by his munificence 
 and protection. Admonitory appeal to the dissipated and 
 affluent. The consequences of time and talents misapplied. 
 The genuine sources of felicity. Concluding address to 
 the students of Trinity College, Dublin. Study and inte- 
 grity contrasted with indolence and vice, in their occupa- 
 tions and consequences. The claims of country. Genuine 
 honours by ichom to be obtained. Precepts moral and lite- 
 rary, and the result of conduct regulated by than. Wis- 
 dom ussociuted uith happiness. Inducements to early in- 
 dustry. Learned pursuits. Polite literature. The hu- 
 man mind. The Earth. The Heavens. Caution against 
 the scepticul subtilties of modern philosophy. The poem 
 closed.
 
 THE JUDGE. 
 
 CANTO III. 
 
 Idlest be the toils which spread this good around I 
 Blest, Public Spirit, those, thy favor'd sons, 
 Who, while the tempest rag'd, thus seiz'd the helm, 
 And safely through the wild waves steer'd the State, 
 In which she, else, had founder'd! Yet the host 
 Ev'n then, of Faction, gladden'd by each shriek 
 Of the loud-beating storm, were prompt to mar 
 The patriot purpose, and to plunge the bark, 
 Freighted with all our rights, and civic hopes, 
 Deep in the boiling surge. But what their fruits. 
 Save dust and ashes (a) ? On the lips of Clare 
 Detecting Truth abode, and, as he spoke, 
 Upsprung, impure and vile, to public scorn, 
 The traitor and the treason. Nor the shades
 
 70 THE JUDGE. 
 
 Rebellion detected. 
 
 Of villain-favouring night, nor the deep glooms 
 
 Of spectred cavern, from his view conceal'd 
 
 Thy hideous toils, Rebellion. For, what time, 
 
 Frantic for future mischiefs, on thy spells 
 
 Thou ponderedst, Daemon, he thy labours mark'd, 
 
 And mark'd the monster Crimes that in thy heart 
 
 Were born, fell brood, and, by dire nurture train'd 
 
 For deeds of woe, and blood. O, at that hour, 
 
 How vain the vigilance of all thy tribes, 
 
 Thy fearful mysterits, and oaths of hell ! 
 
 Forth from the shrouding darkness of thy haunts, 
 
 He dragg'd thee, struggling fiend, and gave to scorn 
 
 Thyself, and schemes, alike. Nor one mean fear 
 
 Check'd the bold counsels of his warning voice, 
 
 Nor reach'd his patriot heart. Erect and firm, 
 
 He brav'd, as duty will'd, conspiring foes ; 
 
 And, like old Israel's favour'd son, he stood 
 
 Between the living and the dead, till Heav'n 
 
 Sent Mercy forth, and the foul plague was stay'd (b) .
 
 THE JUDGE. 71 
 
 . 34, The recompence of the Patriot. 
 
 And you, ye senates, for ye mark'd them, oft, 
 And bless'd them as ye mark'd, his generous toils 
 And virtues shall proclaim, that wak'd and watch'd, 
 Unwearied, while one trait' rous arm was rais'd, 
 And Right and Freedom had a foe to fear. 
 You shall proclaim who first, of Honour's sons, 
 Wa? prompt, by strong anticipating law, 
 To shield the menac'd state, or, danger nigh, 
 Array its powers, and send the phalanx forth, 
 Assur'd of triumph (c) Yes! No boaster he, 
 That, changing with the moment, could renounce 
 The toil of action for the play of words; 
 The chae of dangerous honour for the praise 
 Conferr'd by giddy crowds. His better praise 
 He proudly sought within, from the pure voice 
 That ne'er was bought nor sold ! And, if the din 
 Of noisy Glory follow'd not his deeds, 
 That often follows guilt, and ends in shame, 
 His country mark'd him well : and Public Good.
 
 11 THE JUDGE. 
 
 Error expiated by motive. v. 53. 
 
 His other deity, and stedfast Truth, 
 
 And civil Virtue, eulogists divine, 
 
 Conferr'd, inwhisp'rings sweet, his more than fame(r>) ! 
 
 True, he did err. All virtue at his heart, 
 All public spirit in his aim and will, 
 He felt what others feign'd. Hence from his lip 
 May scorn, perchance, have fall'n, and stern rebuke, 
 Which calmer thought had still'd. But, also, hence, 
 The keen, quick lightnings of the angry eye, 
 That smote, in every nerve, the shrinking knave; 
 And, hence, the bold, detecting eloquence, 
 And prompt, and dreadless counsel, that appal I'd 
 The soul of Faction, and the rabble rout 
 Of Treason, furious, a Satanic throne, 
 Mid the sad ruins of a realm, to rear ! 
 
 True ! he did err. But yon fair plant, that benu> 
 Beneath its ruddy treasures, shall we slight, 
 Because it shows an unproductive branch ? 
 Or, if yon ample stream o'erHow its banks,
 
 THE JUDGE. 73 
 
 Appeal to Malice. 
 
 With momentary license, shall wc, thence, 
 Forget how cheers it many a parched mead ? 
 No ! though his casual frailties may, perchance, 
 Yield feasts to envy, and, to evil tongues, 
 Texts for most slanderous comment, yet the worth 
 Mature and fruitful, and the lab'ring life, 
 That scatter'd o'er the realm such varied good, 
 Shall have their record still ! The hand of Truth 
 Shall gladly trace it in a nation's heart ! 
 A nation's praise proclaim it to the world ! 
 
 Malice, yet more! With all a miser's care 
 Who watch'd the orphan's treasure? Who repell'd 
 The foul and griping guardian ? Who sustain'd 
 The high-soul'd patriot in the upright Judge ? 
 Or mid those scenes, where Shannon leads his stream, 
 Majestic, through the woods, and winding vales, 
 That bless his copious wave, and what he deals 
 In precious moisture, pay in buds, and flowers, 
 And fruitage, yet more precious (e) Who rejoie'd
 
 74 THE JUDGE. 
 
 The good Landlord. v. 91. 
 
 To cheer the peasant's hearth ; to aid his toils ; 
 
 To spread his wholesome board; to bid him call 
 
 The wheaten sheaf his own, and thriving flock, 
 
 Nor fear a rigid master? Ah ! full well 
 
 Thou know'st him, and thou, also, know'st, his name 
 
 Has past thy fiery furnace, and, unhurt, 
 
 Come forth, from midst the flames ! Else holy Truth 
 
 Had fail'd; and Virtue had deplor'd thy power, 
 
 Now scorn'd, and own'd thee victor. For he felt, 
 
 As man, for man ; he watch'd, with anxious eye, 
 
 The humblest cottage right; and not like those. 
 
 Who o'er their lands with tyrant folly rule, 
 
 Till, a whole province ruin'd, they remain 
 
 The living pyramids of unpeopled wilds ! 
 
 He lov'd the little hamlet ; lov'd and sooth'd 
 
 The toiling tenant, and gave Hope to twine 
 
 The peasant's sickle with her fairy flowers. 
 
 Hence, o'er his grounds, no sorrowing vassal sigh'd.. 
 
 Pampering a despot's ear ; no wretched race
 
 THE JUDGE. 7S 
 
 v. 1 10. The story of Loyd and Emma. 
 
 Of starving slaves proclaim'd the landlord's guilt. 
 Peace, and her sister Plenty, led the flocks 
 That o'er his pastures stray 'd; or held the plough 
 That furrow'd his rich glebe. Nor they, alone, 
 In gold, of earthly currency, discharg'd 
 What he had lent in soil. A nobler price 
 They paid, in coin made sterling in the skies, 
 Looks, picturing all the gay and happy heart, 
 And blessings, bursting from the grateful lip (f). 
 
 Such tribute have the looks and lips of Loyd, 
 Glad debtors, often tender'd ; for his hut 
 Thy bounties, Clare ! and favour, also, cheer'd. 
 In various comforts rich, his early days 
 He pass'd, and not a tear bedew'd his cheek, 
 Save such as pity dropp'd. But cruel Time, 
 By gradual theft, his hoarded treasures stole, 
 One gem except, gne pure and priceless gem. 
 His Emma, guarded by protecting heav'n ! 
 She, the last, dearest gift of wedded love,
 
 76 THE JUDGE. 
 
 Happiness pursued by Trial. 
 
 Gay as the smiling spring, and pure as snows, 
 
 Ere yet heav'n's beam hath kiss'd them, was his hord, 
 
 She, and the virtues coffer' d at his heart; 
 
 And not a thousand gorgeous thrones, though rich 
 
 In all by hell-delighting Conquest won, 
 
 Might hope to buy his store. Hence, if, full oft, 
 
 He mourn'd for what was lost, as oft his heart, 
 
 For what was left, in grateful prayer arose j 
 
 And, though no stretch was his of fair domain, 
 
 No marble structure op'd its gilded halls 
 
 For him, such blessings linger'd in his cot, 
 
 As shun the palace, and renounce the lord. 
 
 Yet is the fate of mortal man, at best, 
 But of still varying texture. The fair form 
 Of Joy, now dances in the web, and sheds 
 Around him sweetest blossoms; but the shapes, 
 Foul shapes deform'd, of Woe, and Trial, now, 
 Upspring, and Joy expires, and every bloom 
 Is drench' d in countless tears. So Loyd had prov'd j
 
 THE JUDGE. 77 
 
 v. 148. The cottage consumed. 
 
 So still was doom'd to prove. A rebel band, 
 
 For every rebel was the foe of Loyd, 
 
 With dire intent approach, at midnight hour, 
 
 His lowly hut. The ball already flies. 
 
 The fierce flame seizes on the humble roof. 
 
 Half yields the feeble door " Haste, haste, my child," 
 
 The father cry'd, " that postern yet is safe, 
 
 And yonder wood thou mark'st me I, meanwhile, 
 
 Shall brave the rabble rout, that else thy flight 
 
 Might mark, and seize my all!" The maiden fled, 
 
 Guided by viewless powers. Then forth the sire 
 
 Flung d through the fiery deluge, and the foe 
 
 Felt with what force the steel in valonr's hand 
 
 Falls on the coward's breast. Appall'd, the band 
 
 Gradual retire ; yet still, by phrenzy fir'd, 
 
 But erring in the deepen'd glooms, they pour 
 
 The wild, and random ball. In vain. Each ball 
 
 Is billeted by heav'n (g) . Angelic wings 
 
 The sire o'ershadow, and angelic hands
 
 78 THE JUDGE. 
 
 The Father and Daughter reunited. v. 167. 
 
 Conduct him, till, at length, ere yet the dawn 
 Had ting'd the eastern skies, his hastening stops 
 Approach the green haunts where his treasure lay. 
 
 Soon the glad father to his bosom clasps 
 The throbbing damsel, and his rapturous tear, 
 As, from some loftier plant, the precious balm 
 Drops on the rose beneath, bedews her cheek. 
 But, ah ! where, now, the home ? What pleasant cot 
 Now yields asylum ? Or what rustic door, 
 O'erhung with woodbine, and commixing rose, 
 And jessamine blossoms sweet, poor sufferers, now, 
 Opens as ye approach ? That smouldering hut 
 Contain'd your little all. But there, no more, 
 Beside the cheerful hearth, Simplicity 
 Shall spread your guiltless feast ; nor more your voice, 
 With holy welcome, call the pilgrim in, 
 And bid his heart be glad. Yon spreading scene, 
 Erewhile, in gayest loveliness was drest, 
 And meek Content, and laughing Hope, and she,
 
 THE JUDGE. 79 
 
 Afflicted Virtue. 
 
 Queen of the ruddy cheek, blithe Comfort, oft 
 
 There led your step, what time, at early morn, 
 
 When heav'n and earth smil'd,beauteous,or when Eve, 
 
 Thron'd in her lucid star, on bud and bloom 
 
 Shed the cool blessings of pure dews, ye stray'd 
 
 By hill, or dale, or mazy wood obscure, 
 
 Or fairy-haunted stream, in converse sweet 
 
 Pouring the filial or paternal soul. 
 
 But, ah, not now, shall meek Content, or Hope, 
 
 Or Comfort, meet you there ; for o'er each haunt, 
 
 So lov'd of late, hill, dale, and mazy wood, 
 
 Lo ! Sadness spreads her glooms, and the dun glare 
 
 Flings horror, of the half-extinguish'd flames. 
 
 What, then, alas, remains ? The sad regret} 
 
 The visible woe that on the eye-lid hangs; 
 
 The sigh that sorrows} and the secret thought 
 
 That, in afflictive silence, weeps within. 
 
 These are your blessings, now, unhappy Loyd} 
 
 These, Emma, all the dow'r the world hath left !
 
 80 THE JUDGE. 
 
 The consolations of Integrity. 
 
 Yet, yet, despond not. 'Tis a wintry day, 
 And the fell tempest howls along the sky ; 
 But spring-tide hours approach, and genial suns 
 Shall wake, perchance, again, each slumb 'ring sweet, 
 And deck the heav'ns in beauty. Nor may he, 
 Who feels the throb of conscious innocence, 
 Mid his worst ills despair. For his, alone, 
 His, still, the fearless, and Herculean soul 
 That wins from trial glory; the pure hope 
 That opens in the heart an early heav'n; 
 The trust that heirs the future, and beholds 
 A sure and just protector in the skies 
 His to exclaim and feel, whate'er his lot, 
 Whether in dungeon glooms to dwell, or feast 
 In roseate bowers with Joy, " Fair Virtue owns, 
 Beyond those clouds, exhaustless store of good; 
 
 n d honest Poverty is more than rich, 
 When wealthy Villany is more than poor." 
 The bounteous spirit is Heav'n's almoner.
 
 THE JUDGE. 81 
 
 Loyalty rewarded. 
 
 Clare heard the tale of Loyd, nor, solely, paid 
 
 The willing tribute of a generous tear 
 
 To suffering gallantry. He felt, to act, 
 
 He acted, to redress the poor man's ills; 
 
 And, at his bidding, lo, that cot arose, 
 
 Neat as might suit a wood-nymph ; that smooth lawn 
 
 Of verdurous velvet spread; those thriving shrubs 
 
 Began to bud and bloom ; and grateful Loyd, 
 
 And Emma, blushing sweetest thankfulness, 
 
 Call'd all the little paradise their own. 
 
 O, pamper'd progeny of pride and power! 
 O, ye, o often, mid your glittering stores, 
 With Disappointment doom'd to weep and moan, 
 Here turn, and learn where true content is found. 
 Tread ye not, still, the round of gorgeous halls? 
 Explore ye not the incense-breathing bowers, 
 Where pomp and pleasure feast? Or hoard ye les5 
 Than Mexic treasures, to procure the all 
 Ere found or sought by epicure Desire ? - 
 
 G
 
 82 THE JUDGE. 
 
 The true sources of happiness. v. 143. 
 
 Yet what your mighty gain ? Ask the vain heart, 
 Is Peace its guest, or Hope its source of joy ? 
 Enquire, within, what wealth and time, mispent, 
 And Passion, nurs'd to wantonness, supply, 
 If not the jaundice of the fading cheek ? 
 If not the scalding tear, and bursting sigh r 
 Yes ! not alone within your sparkling bowlj 
 Play liquid raptures; nor do golden joys 
 Dwell solely in your coffers. There, besides, 
 Lurks, often, Guilt; and Guilt is sire to Woe. 
 Try, then, what virtue yields. Disperse abroad 
 The dews of mercy. Let the widow'd soul 
 Be sooth'd and cherish'd, and its crowding grief* 
 Hush'd, gently, into peace: and then, O, then, 
 While, at your bidding, o'er your procreant glebe, 
 1'he happy peasant, like the morning lark, 
 Sings the sweet song of joy ; and, round your homes, 
 Ye mark the meads and vallies, gloom'd no more 
 By tyranny and want, but, rather, lent,
 
 THE JUDGE. 83 
 
 Address to young students. 
 
 Beneath a grateful tenantry, to feed 
 The countless flock, or wheaten treasure yield j 
 Then, from the scant circumference of self, 
 While, thus, in deeds that speak the generous soul, 
 Ye issue forth to bless, shall Hope, once more, 
 Beam cheerful on your mind; and every joy 
 Ye deal, like Clare, to Poverty, or Pain, 
 Shall have its righteous record in the skies, 
 And yield return in blessings, such as Time 
 Shall reverence, and the Powers of heav'n protect! 
 
 And you, ingenuous youths, for whom her halls, 
 Within yon ample dome(H), fair Learning opes, 
 Delighted, and with lavish hand outspreads 
 Stores, from full many an age, and realm, purloin'd, 
 O slight not his example (i). Did he reach, 
 By patient toil, the eminence, to which 
 A just ambition pointed? Did he woo 
 Meek Knowledge, in her dim and cloister'd seats, 
 And, wooing, win her? Did he, at the hour
 
 84 THE JUDGE. 
 
 When Pleasure reigns too oft, and Prudence sleeps, 
 And Youth, by frail but potent passions lur'd, 
 Squanders, in Circe's hall, his precious dow'r 
 Of time and talent did he, then, inspir'd 
 By all those hopes that wake new man in man, 
 Pursue the paths of Fame; and gain, at last, 
 Those Alpine heights, on which mid cloudless skies, 
 Her mighty temple soars? Be yours, like him, 
 To think, aspire, and labour; yours to seek 
 Whate'er hath Learning in her varied page 
 Treasur'd, of good and just; and scornful, still, 
 Of Syren-spells, conceal'd in dimpling smiles 
 Of Harlotry, or Riot's midnight bowls, 
 Be yours for future years to toil, and win, 
 By just and generous deeds, a fair renown. 
 
 To youth, 'tis true, is Pleasure's voice most sweet ; 
 And charms within her mantling goblet work, 
 Of magic potency. Yet, ah, not long 
 Her voice is sweet, her goblet boasts its charms;
 
 THE JUDGE. 85 
 
 For that which lures to sin, and deals disease, 
 Transforms, full soon, the poor, precarious joy, 
 To keen and lingering ill. Nor evil here 
 Solely is found. Dull Indolence, that dreams, 
 On beds of flowers, her useless years away, 
 Deeming that toil is woe, and effort pain, 
 Which Foil)' only braves, and Wisdom shuns, 
 Also can snare and ruin. Let her spells 
 En witch the youthful breast, her gentle song 
 The youthful ear enthral, and heav'n, in vain, 
 Shall lavish soul, and all that soul adorns 
 Of faculty and pow'r. The wizard wight 
 Benumbs each talent, opiates every sense, 
 Fetters with chains of lead each better thought, 
 Weds to procrastination, will, and sheds 
 Torpor on all the heart. At fir&t her cheek 
 W'ears smiles and blushes that discourse of heav'n : 
 But soon her beauties fade; and that which won 
 Uy opening loveliness, ere long becomes
 
 86 THE JUDGE. 
 
 Consequences of both. 
 
 One bloated mass of rank, unwieldy woe, 
 Waking disgust and horror. O beware, 
 Dear youths, of real foes, and seeming friends, 
 Like these. They softly whisper but of bliss ; 
 They strew the early violet at your feet; 
 They tell of flowery vales, where, rapt in dreams 
 Of paradise, their happy votaries dwell. 
 But, know, that whisper is a summery breath 
 To end in wintry storms; those tales of joy 
 Are but of Fancy's framing, to delude 
 The frivolous and the frail ; and better far 
 Had he, who yields him to such things as these, 
 Brav'd the dank cell where deadliest vapours flit, 
 The blue blasts of the un ventilated mine, 
 Or the rude Deep, when, anger'd by the storm, 
 He rages, and, in every foaming wave, 
 Flings to the skies a frightful Appenine. 
 
 Yes, yes, believe Experience, and the Muse, 
 Ere yet too late, that he who lives estrang'd
 
 THE JUDGE. 87 
 
 v. 338. The Balance. 
 
 From Worth and Wisdom, lives no longer man. 
 
 All else, what proves it, at the final hour, 
 
 But silence and the grave ? Lo, heavenly forms, 
 
 Whose lips breathe violets, and whose dimpled cheeks 
 
 Blush living roses Lo, gigantic Strength, 
 
 And Health, and Youth, and careless Jollity, 
 
 All haste, alike, with kindling speed, to strew 
 
 Their mortal glories at the foot of Death ! 
 
 Assume the balance, then, ye idiot souls, 
 
 Who, chasing earth-born Bliss, are chas'd by Woe ; 
 
 Assume the balance; weigh the mighty all 
 
 Of mortal blessing, 'gainst one generous thought, 
 
 One little, stedfast virtue; and, behold ! 
 
 You shall but weigh an atom 'gainst a world, 
 
 A frail, and fleeting, and fantastic phasm, 
 
 Against a priceless, and eternal good (k) ! 
 
 Go, now, unhappy ; and, in Pleasure's vale 
 Delusive, fling your days and years away, 
 Lavish of more than kingdoms. Go ! misdeem
 
 88 THE JUDGE. 
 
 The gift of the world. 
 
 The wide world and its vaunted joys your own, 
 
 Ev'n while ye lose yourselves ; and idly boast, 
 
 Though all extinct in talent, and at heart, 
 
 Ye, only, live, living in Folly's amis, 
 
 Call'd Bliss by idiots, and renouncing all, 
 
 Lent by the prodigality of heav'n, 
 
 To dignify and bless, for the world's gift, 
 
 A moment's rapture, and an age of woe ! 
 
 Go ! Feast your fill, though evil worse than death, 
 
 In reason's estimate, the viand taint ; 
 
 And term alone that giddy Licence good, 
 
 Which, though she promise joy, is yet, at best, 
 
 A smiling 111, with foul and fell disease 
 
 Pregnant, and keen remorse, " the thief of time," 1 
 
 And pillager of soul Ah, rge, not so! 
 
 Not so in dust and ashes shall ye creep; 
 
 Nor so, methinks, with less than school-boy thought, 
 
 In chase of gaudy phantoms, till the grave 
 
 Arrest your footstep, shall ye run, and lose,
 
 THE JUDGE. 8g 
 
 . 376. The wreath of Honour and Virtue. 
 
 Meantime, the genuine blessing. Public Love 
 In you the pride of coming years beholds; 
 For you high-minded Honour weaves her wreath 
 And patriot Virtue, and unbending Truth, 
 Of blossoms richer than the choicest blooms 
 That deck th' immortal amaranth. They weave ! 
 And Hope flits nigh, on pinions dipp'd in heav'n, 
 While, purest rapture beaming in her eyes, 
 Forth issue from her lips, cherubic lips, 
 Touch'd with celestial fire ! predictive tones 
 Of more than mortal sound. Nor vainly glows 
 Th' extatic prophet; since, if present worth 
 Omen the future virtue, ye, by deeds 
 Of generous note, by learned labours wise, 
 Ere long that wreath of various bloom shall gain, 
 And, as it more than diadems your brow, 
 Evince, at once, the wisdom, and the meed, 
 Of youthful effort, and ingenuous toil. 
 
 Lo ! with what ardent zeal the vain and proud
 
 THE JUDGE. 
 
 Conquest, Selfishneu, Impiety, v. 395. 
 
 Aspire such recompence to win, by acts 
 
 Of daring frailty, and adventurous schemes 
 
 Of civil change, and innovations dire, 
 
 And conquest, gladden'd by the tears of worlds. 
 
 But, O, for those it blooms not, who, possess'd 
 
 But of a villain's will, and monster's heart, 
 
 Delight in deeds of blood, and mar the peace 
 
 Of toiling realms by statesman's tricks, or grasp 
 
 Ambition's snaky lash to scourge the globe. 
 
 No! nor for those, the base and scowling tribe, 
 
 That talk of country much, yet are, within, 
 
 Slaves to the miscreant, Self j nor those, profane, 
 
 Vers'd in the scholarship of hell, who hope, 
 
 By impious wit, in sceptic war, to gain 
 
 Renown, which, gain'd, shall prove, at last, but shame, 
 
 Meet fruit of such desert; nor those, extoll'd 
 
 By fools, or parasites, as human Gods, 
 
 Whose swords gleam ruin, and who proudly build 
 
 Their throne of glory on an Alps of death,
 
 THE JUDGE. gi 
 
 Diligence, Public Spirit, Charity. 
 
 Rear'd by their hideous triumphs, nor bethink, 
 While in their ears the lying plaudits sound, 
 Calling them kings and heroes, who, in heav'n, 
 Are ruffians term'd, and spoilers, and condemn' d, 
 O just decree! to final scorn, and woe. 
 
 Ye letter'd band, ye, in whose growing strength. 
 Your country, so she trusts, ere long, shall rise 
 A Hercules, to crush each monster-ill 
 Of blood-fed Treason born, not thus your hours 
 Shall waste; nor thus the hideous purpose form, 
 Preface to hideous deeds. But, rather, ye 
 Shall rule the giddy passions; and aspire 
 To win those realms of science which might well 
 Awake ambition in an angel's breast; . 
 And yield, with Grecian pride, the glowing heart 
 To ardent virtue, and to public zeal; 
 And, issueing forth the patriots of the world, 
 And warm with Gospel charity for all, 
 Embrace whate'er is man. These, these your arts,
 
 92 THE JUDGE. 
 
 The Christian Pastor. 
 
 If ye not win the praise of parasites, 
 Nor swell your hord by pillage steep'd in tears, 
 Nations shall be your debtors. Public Love 
 Shall shed the sweetest incense on your name. 
 Oblivion's self, huge cormorant, that devours, 
 With ravenous hunger, oft, imperial thrones, 
 And states t>f mighty circuit, shall, in vain, 
 Hope on that name to feast. And Glory, glad 
 Once more to ope her temple, rarely op'd 
 In days like these, shall call you to her seats; 
 Deal to your lips immortalizing dews, 
 And, with a mother's fondness, place you high 
 Mid those her love has thron'd on adamant ! 
 
 Hear yet the Muse. Does fav'ring Heav'n foredoom 
 The awful mitre for your brow mature? 
 O, wear it meekly. Cherish holy thoughts. 
 Be not the sycophant of courts. Disdain 
 To pamper palate at imperial boards. 
 Seek, with less toil, to treasure gems and gold,
 
 THE JUDGE. 93 
 
 v. 452. His duties and talents. 
 
 Than the pure blessings won by bounteous deeds : 
 
 And, for no idols of a frivolous world, 
 
 Unhallow'd pageantries, and tainted joys, 
 
 God's holy altars shun. But, if thine heart 
 
 Throb with one Christian virtue, go ! and snatch 
 
 Poor, widow'd Sorrow from th' untimely grave, 
 
 And shelter orphan'd Woe. With Cranmer's zeal. 
 
 Fling erring frailty from thee(L). Pour abroad, 
 
 Like Porteus, the pure wisdom, from his lips 
 
 Recorded, who, for man, in sorrow liv'd, 
 
 In agony expir'd. Nor to the great 
 
 Preach only, anxious by the well-turn'd phrase 
 
 To catch the courtly ear. Ah ! better far 
 
 Shall ye approach where pale Contrition drops 
 
 The expiating tear; far better hafte 
 
 To scatter there the blessed beams of truth, 
 
 Or there the dole of charity dispense, 
 
 Where untaught Want abides. Nor deem, howe'er 
 
 Such labours may not find one golden meed,
 
 94 THE JUDGE. 
 
 The duties of the judicial rharacter. 
 
 Nor spread one smile on mortal Glory's cheek, 
 
 No recompence is theirs. Celestial praise 
 
 Is wak'd, full oft, by that the vain world scorns } 
 
 Celestial favour falls, where earthly hands 
 
 Not tender, oft, a mite; and he who lives, 
 
 As pastoral Alley once (m), the poor man's friend, 
 
 And cottage teacher, wins a nobler name 
 
 And prize, beyond compare, than e'er were won 
 
 By statesmen's cunning, or by conquerors' swords ! 
 
 Or, is pure Justice o'er your form to fling 
 The snowy honours of her ermin'd robe? 
 Be staid, and vigilant, as if your lips 
 Were, in each word, to fix the doom of worlds. 
 Oppose to Mammon, should the tempter lure, 
 A heart of adamant. When your awful tongue 
 Expounds the law, bethink that, o'er your head, 
 Recording angels wave the viewless wing. 
 Fear but to err. Pronounce the just decree, 
 Though armed hosts may menace. The meek prayer
 
 THE JUDGE. 95 
 
 , 490. The extent of his obligations. 
 
 Of injur'd, friendless, solitary Want, 
 
 Hear, as 'twere that of potent Majesty. 
 
 Or should the giant, Power, surcharg'd with gold, 
 
 Or dark with frowns, the despot's eloquence, 
 
 Your sacred seats invade, O, but with scorn, 
 
 Keen flashing from the undissembling eye, 
 
 Repay the insult ; and, in bolder tone, 
 
 Let your firm voice proclaim "Here Law shall rule, 
 
 And mighty kings shall be but subjects here !" 
 
 Ah ! what were holiest laws, if power, or wealth, 
 Might scare the Judge, or purchase ? What the boast 
 Of Freedom, if her legal guardian sell 
 For sordid lucre, or to servile fear 
 Devote, the rights his wisdom should sustain ? 
 Then, then, the heart of Independence dies ; 
 The free-born worth no longer tempts to deeds 
 Of noble name; and man, that lately soar'd, 
 An eagle to the sun, and won renown 
 By many a toil of hardihood sublime,
 
 Q6 THE JUDGE. 
 
 The genuine Patriot. v. 509. 
 
 Tomb'd in the soulless slave, is man no more ! 
 
 O ! congregated guilt, which ne'er shall stain 
 Your tutor'd spirit ! O, diffusive ill, 
 Which ne'er shall issue from your lips of truth ! 
 But, so I deem, fair Honour at your heart, 
 And Justice, ye the majesty of Law 
 Shall reverence and sustain : and, hasting forth, 
 Fearless, at your command, shall Freedom bear 
 To each, and all, her varied blessings sweet; 
 And holy Property, the smile of peace 
 Playing upon her cheek, shall dwell, secure, 
 With simple swains, beside the cottage hearth, 
 As in the guarded halls of state, with kings. 
 
 Or should thy lot, where Senates think and toil 
 For public welfare, lead thee; thither bring, 
 O, thither, sole, the patriot's tongue and heart. 
 And, though around thee pop'lar tribunes scheme 
 To rule the realm or ruin; or to make 
 A market of the throne they dare revile (n) :
 
 THE JUDGE. 97 
 
 . 5S8. His views and obligations. 
 
 Or though the lure of ministerial power 
 Attempt thy pride, and ministerial skill 
 Confer, in promise, Alps of fancy'd gold; 
 Yet, yet, if Virtue aught may crave, or Heav'n, 
 Beware, alike, of factious leagues, impure, 
 And courtly glozes vile. The general weal, 
 The statesman's glory, and the patriot's God, 
 Here thy sole worship claims; and better thou, 
 Beyond all utterance better, for that weal 
 Contending, shalt one struggling peasant snatch 
 From fell Oppression's fangs, than buy the smile, 
 By low servility, of regal cheeks, 
 Or wake, by sweet but factious eloquence, 
 The plaudits of a world. Ah, not in thee, 
 The blustering talker, nor the purchas'd slave, 
 Thy fostering country seeks. Rather she looks 
 For him who best shall clothe her rocks with green; 
 Who rescue, from the wild and cheerless fiend, 
 The rushy marsh, to seat glad Plenty there;
 
 98 THE JUDGE. 
 
 Who wed the hind to hope, and o'er the glebe, 
 Else fruitless, give him, with a merry heart, 
 To guide his patient team. But, if be thine 
 The voice that, by celestial Freedom tun'd, 
 Best vindicates her rights, O ! let that voice, 
 In all its magic potency, be heard, 
 Till Senates, by one patriot soul inspir'd, 
 Adore their country, as the saint his God ! 
 Or should the inebriate insolence of Gaul, 
 Foaming for blood and pillage, madly breathe 
 One menace to the Echoes, be it heard 
 Then, also, and in tones more loud and dread, 
 That Britain, kindling at the sound, again 
 May grasp her angry thunders, and, as once, 
 When, writhing in the dust, sad Cressy bled, 
 Hurl rout and ruin on the foe, and lead 
 Her laurel'd bands to victory and to fame ! 
 
 These be your future virtues. But, behold, 
 Claiming your spring-tide days,staid Wisdom wooes
 
 THE JUDGE. 0$ 
 
 v. 566. Wisdom soliciting Youth. 
 
 To yonder halls your youth, and opes the page 
 With many a philosophic truth enrich'd, 
 Or character'd, in hours of happiest mood, 
 By witching minstrelsy. Nor idly deem, 
 What Pleasure's harlot lips have often told, 
 That ceaseless glooms her studious cell invest, 
 And thorns, which none there treading may escape, 
 Her toilsome paths bestrew. Ah, no ! Her guests 
 Are fairer than the Loves ; her happy home 
 Is blissful as the cherub-haunted bowers 
 That bloom in heavenly regions. Round her seats 
 Were never the wild shouts of Discord heard, 
 Nor the deep groan of self-convicted Guilt, 
 Nor the sad tale which Disappointment pours, 
 Ceaseless, in Mammon's ear, till, all appall'd, 
 He curse his feeble Gods. But there each Grace 
 Of holier temper dwells, and chaster Muse. 
 For are not there Truth, Virtue, Glory, Joy, 
 And wisely-patient Labour ? Are not there
 
 100 THE JUDGE. 
 
 Polite Learning and Morals. v, j8j. 
 
 All that may best assenting Youth instruct 
 So in his Spring to plant, that loveliest blooms 
 May deck his Summer, and his Autumn boast 
 A harvest worth the gathering of a God ? 
 
 But, hark! aserst,when heof Thebes the stringf 
 Smote like a ruling Power, till mighty Greece 
 Glow'd with new fires, and bow'd before the bard ; 
 Or, as when Epic thunders awful roll'd 
 At his command, the human Jove, whose lyre, 
 Instinct with heavenly soul, was fondly wreath'd 
 By all the Muses with Olympian flowers 
 Hark ! even now, celestial strains awake, 
 And, at her touch, the lyre obedient pours 
 Tones of most rapturous cadence. The sweet sound* 
 Enthral the listening skies, and song again 
 Maeonian spirit breathes, that Toil himself 
 Glows into transport while he hears, and Pain, 
 Elija like (o), flings mortal cares aside, 
 And soars aloft to bliss ! Nor Joy, alone,
 
 THE JUDGE. 101 
 
 v. 604. Metaphysical enquiries. 
 
 - : "H : 
 
 Springs, at her will, to life. Her holy lip 
 Proclaims how man should live, aspire, and hope; 
 Her pure, immortalizing maxims form 
 The child of Earth for heav'n. Celestial Truth 
 Hears, and extols ! Hell, horror at his heart, 
 And on his thousand tongues such curses dread 
 As wild fiends frame, averts him from the strain ! 
 
 Nor thus alone, to moralize the heart, 
 The matron wakes symphonious music sweet (p). 
 She, also, in her graver mood, at times 
 Exhibits man to man ; and, in such phraze 
 As charms, O tutor'd Taste, thy classic ear, 
 Of young desires, and opening faculties, 
 And soaring powers, the precious meed of heav'n, 
 Enrapt, and rapturing, tells. Yet what the source 
 She first explains whence bright idea springs, 
 And, in gradation sage, her pupil trains 
 To estimate, abstract, compare, combine (a); 
 To mark the various qualities of things,
 
 102 THE JUDGE. 
 
 Viewi of mind. v. tty. 
 
 Or seeming, or essential (r) ; and to trace 
 Relation through the boundless realms of mind, 
 Connecting thought, howe'er remote, with thought, 
 To Science wedding Science, till the whole 
 Form but one family of kindred souls (s). 
 Nor here her labours close. The varied caust 
 She, next, unfolds, that o'er the world extends 
 The glooms of error (t) ; or, with holy zeal, 
 Informs the reasoning Powers, and, what the paths, 
 Delighted, tells, that, not unflowery, lead 
 Where vestal Truth, a wreath of lambent light 
 Circling her brow, with Peace and Virtue dwells (v). 
 The student hears the while, and lives no more 
 An alien from himself. The clouds that hung, 
 Darkling, o'er all his mind, break and disperse: 
 A new found world, before his eager eye, 
 Expands ; and where, of late, but gathering gloom* 
 He saw, and shadowy forms, at length he views, 
 Not without joy, the prodigies of thought,
 
 THE JUDGE. 103 
 
 v. 642. Physics. 
 
 Unfolded soul, and miracles of heaven! 
 
 Yet, not her step the regions of the mind 
 Always delights to tread (w) . Thence, oft, the scenes 
 Where Grandeur builds, on rocky heights sublime, 
 His temple, fearless of the shrieking storm; 
 Or where celestial Beauty, loitering, plays 
 In sunny meads, or decks the twilight dell 
 In blooms and blossoms sweet, or leads the stream, 
 Gay warbler, in a fairy labyrinth, 
 The sober dame attract. And, now, low plung'd 
 Beneath the world of waters, she enquires 
 What yields the coral bower, or dripping cave, 
 In which, at times, the sea-nymph's song is heard, 
 Wooing descending Fhcebus; or she marks 
 Th' innumerous tribes, peopling the ocean-realm?, 
 That, on the swelling surface, sportive, dance, 
 Coated in gold, or, through the troublous wave, 
 Huge floundering, rush, insatiate, and obscene, 
 Dread tyrants of the deep The blue damps, now,
 
 104 THE JUDGE. 
 
 She braves, of cavern'd mines, whose vaults among, 
 Nature, with subtlest alchymy, transmutes 
 The coarse clod into gold ; and many a spar, 
 Like jewels beaming on the iEthiop's arm, 
 Gilds with soft radiance the surrounding gloom 
 Now, of the plain, or hill, or winding vale, 
 Through which the pure breeze, from his skiey wings, 
 Distils Arabia, she, each bud and bloom, 
 Questions, and ripening fruit, and flavorous herb, 
 Till all reveal their virtues ; and, from some, 
 She force the styptic for the bleeding wound ; 
 From some, the blessed balm that lulls to rest 
 The woe-worn soul of Sorrow} and, from some, 
 The precious drops that calm the restless pulse, 
 And cool the flames that blaze around the couch 
 Where maniac Fever raves Or, is she fir'd 
 By higher fancies, lo! she, also, climbs, 
 Fearless, the steeps of heav'n ; conducts her sons 
 Amid the starry miracles that blaze
 
 THE JUDGE. 105 
 
 The Heavens. 
 
 Around the glowing pole; each burning path 
 
 Explores, the fierce and angry comet treads ; 
 
 And what th' unfailing laws enquires, that guide 
 
 The planetary pilgrim round the sun, 
 
 And on his gorgeous throne the sun himself 
 
 In kingly splendor seats. Then, far beyond 
 
 Each nether orb, her active vision shoots, 
 
 And scans, in bright procession as they pass, 
 
 Unnumber'd systems, each of various worlds 
 
 Immense, and by its central glory each 
 
 Cheer'd and illumin'd. Yet the realms of space 
 
 Still spread before her, coloniz'd alike, 
 
 Amazing pomp, with suns, and satellites, 
 
 And peopled earths untold ! Still her bold thought, 
 
 Aspiring to embrace infinitude, 
 
 Onward proceeds, with more than lightning speed, 
 
 Where scarce the lustres of the milky way 
 
 Diffuse a beam ; and heav'n's eternal power 
 
 And goodness are, with holy awe, beheld,
 
 106 THE JUDGE. 
 
 Concluding admonitions. v. 699. 
 
 , r 
 
 In prodigies, succeeding still, that blaze, 
 Ev'n to the flaming boundary of things, 
 In everlasting radiance ! 
 
 Thus her sons 
 Wisdom amid the works of God conducts, 
 And by pure comments sage, meantime, illumes 
 The seeming dark, and, chief, that law unfolds, 
 Which guides, alike, the dew-drop, in its fall, 
 And, in its orb, the world. Nor ye shall scorn, 
 Dear sons of Alma, ye for whom the Muse 
 Still sings, with Wisdom thus to toil and soar, 
 And from her lips catch precepts, such as raise 
 The human to angelic, and confer, 
 On poor and mortal man, immortal wealth. 
 No ! for, behold, ev'n now, her dome ye seek, 
 Her hallow'd dome, with eager step, and crave, 
 Celestial avarice! the unfailing stores 
 Her matron fondness offers. Yet, beware, 
 Ah, yet, in this your fit and fair pursuit,
 
 THE JUDGE. 107 
 
 v. 7 18. False learning. 
 
 What paths ye tread. The realms of Learning, oft, 
 
 Are procreant but of mischief (x) . Where should spring, 
 
 Solely, the rose and olive, springs and spreads, 
 
 At times, the plant of poison : where the gem, 
 
 Alone, is said to beam, the cares of Toil 
 
 Collect, not rarely, but adulterate ore. 
 
 Yes, yes, beware ! But little boots, at best, 
 
 The scholar's treasure, if his heart be poor. 
 
 Genius, undower'd by worth, is yet, compar'd 
 
 With honest Ignorance, a miteless wretch, 
 
 And she the queen of realms. Knowledge there is, 
 
 For so, alas ! by mortal lips profane, 
 
 Is he miscall'd, who, while he would be thought 
 
 To scatter round him everlasting truths, 
 
 Enwraps himself in clouds of gloom, from whence 
 
 But lightnings flash to kill ! Knowledge there is. 
 
 Of metaphysic note, that seeks a name, 
 
 As Satan sought one, by such impious war 
 
 With every nobler hope, as, spite, of pain,
 
 106 THE JUDGE. 
 
 Perverted knowledge. 
 
 Persuades all Hell to smile ! Knowledge there is, 
 
 That, light, and libertine, and bold, and vain, 
 
 Toils ceaselessly, as if his bliss were found 
 
 In works of woe, each weaker mind infirm 
 
 To win from God, and stigmatize the page, 
 
 By fiends themselves with trembling awe beheld, 
 
 Where Grace, and Mercy, and Redemption breathe, 
 
 And Inspiration, with unerring tongue, 
 
 Speaks to a sinful world ! O ! therefore, hear 
 
 The friendly voice that bids you mark the pest, 
 
 And calls from labours which but plough the sand, 
 
 To such as, sanction'd by approving heav'n, 
 
 Found hope on truth, and cull each brighter bloom 
 
 That Wisdom nurtures in her fair domain, 
 
 To deck the brow of Virtue. So, escap'd 
 
 From the dire snares in Stygian looms prepar'd, 
 
 By sceptic fraud impure, shall ye attain 
 
 Th' immortal meed by genuine Knowledge dealt 
 
 To those that truly seek it. So, enrich'd,
 
 THE JUDGE. 109 
 
 v. 756. Poem closed. 
 
 Made strong, adorn'd, ennobled, blessing, blest, 
 The friends of man and virtue, taught to nd 
 In man and virtue friends, and, more, in God 
 So shall your worth accomplish public hope, 
 And public weal confirm : or if, again, 
 Plebeian Faction shall arise, and wave 
 Her flag, hell-character'd, and moist with gore, 
 So shall your country, in your wisdom wise, 
 And mighty in your strength, o'erwhelm the foe, 
 And proudly bless you, as she bless'd a Clark !
 
 NOTES 
 
 CANTO III. 
 
 (a) At the period to which I here allude, there was 
 scarcely an act of Government, however necessary, or a de- 
 termination of the legislature, however wise, but experi- 
 enced opposition from some eloquent partizan and factious 
 leader. They especially, whose lust of place had been 
 disappointed by the contempt or neglect of administration, 
 declaimed, not merely to palliate the enormities, and, it 
 would be thought, to irritate the passions of the insurgent, 
 but to defame the conduct and principles of the loyalist. 
 Happily, however, the frauds of faction were detected, 
 and punished. Defying, or despising, the vociferations 
 of party, Lord Camden proceeded in his government, with 
 a firmness and vigour not easily to be surpassed ; and by 
 the happy vigilance of that nobleman, associated with the 
 wisdom and activity of such men as Lord Clare, Mr. Pel- 
 ham, and Mr. Foster, the rebellion may be said, not only 
 to have been discovered in its rudiments, and curtailed in 
 its means, but, in fact, to have been disarmed, and subdued, 
 even before it appeared in the field.
 
 112 NOTES TO 
 
 (b) " And Aaron put on incense, and made an atone- 
 ment for the people. And he stood between the living and 
 the dead, and the plague was stayed." Numbkrs, ch. 16. 
 
 (c) A very judicious and manly writer, whose sermon, 
 occasioned by the death of Lord Clare, merits the acknow- 
 ledgments of every friend of that nobleman, has described 
 so well the vigour and intrepidity to which I here advert, 
 that I shall have no occasion to apologize for transferring th 
 passage to this page. 
 
 " On the other occasion to which I allude, we behold him 
 exposing himself to more serious hazard, in the joint defence 
 of the king and the constitution, against the furious onset of 
 rebellion. We all may remember, that, when treason wore 
 the air of triumph, and the friends of loyalty and order 
 hung their heads, he stood prominent and erect : when ma- 
 ny, even of those, whose fidelity was unimpeached, seemed 
 to feel, that prudence required of them a more softened ac- 
 cent of reprobation, and, reserving their tones of boldness 
 until the danger had passed by, did not scruple to shrink 
 from an open avowal of their sentiments : when many, even 
 of unquestionable fortitude, deemed it not inconsistent with 
 that fortitude, to seek a momentary shelter from the storm : 
 when treason and loyalty hung trembling in doubtful scales, 
 and not a few paused to see which would preponderate ; 
 in times, and under circumstances such as these, whilst be 
 was known to be the object eminently selected for ven- 
 geance, by the ferocity of an ensanguined rabble, he remain- 
 ed firm and unmoved : he stepped not, for a moment, from 
 the post of duty and danger, and sought no safety from the 
 perils which assailed him, save what might arise from pre-
 
 CANTO m. 113 
 
 lentirrg to them a bold and manly front." Sermon occa- 
 sioned by the death of Lord Clare. By the Rev. William 
 Maoee, D. D. S. F. T. C. D. 
 
 (d) The character of the Patriot appears to be, of all 
 others, most rarely understood ; and, if we were to form our 
 estimate by that hasty applause which is so often lavished 
 by the crowd, we should confer the honours due only to 
 that character, not so much on the man who is unostentaci- 
 ously solicitous to promote the general welfare, as on him 
 whose virtue is ambition, whose public spirit is hypocrisy, 
 and whose world is himself. But the patriot is no more to 
 be found in Marias nattering the mob, than in Marius sub-r 
 jugaling the people ; in Crcsar declaiming against the tyran- 
 ny of the Senate, than in Cssar at the foot of Pompey's 
 statue ; in Brutus sharpening his dagger for the bosom of 
 bis friend, than in Brutus uniting with the ambitious mur- 
 derer of his father. No ! I recognize the patriot but in th 
 man, whether of public or private life, who, issuing from 
 himself, embraces a country ; and whose plans, less splen- 
 did than useful, and less intended to astonish by their mag- 
 nificence or to captivate by their plausibility, than calmly, 
 and patiently, and gradually, to advance the genuine wel- 
 fare of mankind, are dictated alone by that generous spirit, 
 whose ardour and motive are those of wisdom and of bene- 
 rolence, and whose best recompence is sought and obtained 
 within. If, therefore, I meet a man who, like a Sheffield, 
 however attached to a party, disdains to become a partizan ; 
 who, instead of vapouring away his hours in lordly dissipa* 
 tion, watches, with a zeal tempered by knowledge, over th 
 trade and sustenance of nations; and who toils, generously and 
 I
 
 114 NOTES TO 
 
 happily, to defend and diffuse the grand principles on-which 
 are to be maintained the commerce, the independence, and 
 the glory of the state*; I call him a Patriot! If I meet a 
 man who, like a Clare, sustains what is right in loyalty to an 
 afflicted sovereign, against the selfishness of the great, and 
 the clamours of the vulgar ; and who, in times of alarm and 
 blood, stands firm to his own convictions, with a vigour and 
 virtue that go to the salvation of the state ; him also I de- 
 nominate a Patriot! But, for the rest, let others state their 
 demands and merits. I have no praise for the Colossus 
 whose virtues evaporate in declamation; for those who, 
 boldly pretending to the honours of national respect, art- 
 entitled only to national odium and disgrace. 
 
 (e) The country residence of Lord Clare. 
 
 (?) " Of the various calumnies which have aspersed the 
 character of Lord Clare, not one has accused him of pecuni- 
 ary meanness. He seemed, indeed, to have regarded wealth 
 but as the instrument of liberality ; and exhibited, through 
 his whole life, a temper equally beneficent and just. As a 
 Landlord, especially, bis conduct was peculiarly worthy of 
 praise. The industrious tenant, the ancient occupier of the 
 soil, were viewed as friends, not oppressed as slaves; and 
 lie beheld with abhorrence that avarice, at once so infamous 
 and common, which, regarding the peasant solely as an ob- 
 
 See the various tracts published by Lord Sheffield. Of those tracta 
 the excellence and the utility are not, now, to be asserted. A style 
 equally manly and clear; and a display of commercial and political in* 
 formation, such as is tarely to be found but in the pages of a Smith, 
 have affixed to them the estimation they to abundantly merit.
 
 CANTO m. 115 
 
 ject of gain, surrenders him to the rapacity of an unfeeling 
 steward, or exposes him, helpless and bound, to the extor- 
 tions of those " middle-men," as they are termed in Ireland, 
 " who have, by their oppressions, constituted one of the most 
 perniciously-operating causes of the ignorance and wretch- 
 edness of the lower order of the people." See Sermon alrea- 
 dy quoted. 
 
 (g) " Every bullet has its billet." Such was the heroic 
 and pious exclamation of the illustrious monarch, who called 
 into action that British energy which, dissipating the ambi- 
 lious dreams of Lewis the 14th, preserved, from the rapacity 
 of French pride, the honour and happiness of Europe; 
 and which is now hastening, under the guidance of a so- 
 vereign not less worthy of the veneration of a great people, 
 to humble the insolence and audacity of France, and wrest 
 from the grasp of the haughty and menacing Consul, those 
 thunders with which he has already smitten the shrink- 
 ing Genius of Germany, and with which he also aspires 
 to prostrate the glory and liberty of Britain, and of the 
 world. 
 
 (n) Trinity College, Dublin. 
 
 (i) I again refer to the sermon by Dr. Magee. " Lord 
 Clare," says (hat writer, " entered the College in the year 
 1763 ; and he appears to have prosecuted his studies with 
 unusual diligence and success. The competition between 
 him and the celebrated Mr. Grattauwas unremitting through 
 the entire of their course. Being always of the same divi- 
 sion, they were necessarily engaged in immediate contest
 
 116 NOTES TO 
 
 for those academic rewards, that are bestowed on superiori- 
 ty of answering, at the stated quarterly examinations. It is 
 interesting to trace, through the judgments and tlic prizes 
 allotted at these several examinations, the eagerness of the 
 struggle for pre-eminence, which, at this early day, com- 
 menced between two men so conspicuous, and who have 
 since cafried that struggle into the highest concerns of life." 
 Sermon, p. 40. 
 
 The Earl of Clare was appointed to the office of Vice- 
 Cbancellor of the University of Dublin, by his Royal High- 
 ness the Duke of Gloucester, upon the resignation of Pri- 
 mate Robinson, whose name I cannot mention without re- 
 collecting the virtues by which he was distinguished and 
 adorned. As a mau, as the head of the Irish Church, as the 
 benevolent and princely character, whose life was to evince 
 but one splendid series of salutary munificence, he has been 
 long reverenced by the nation, and his memory shall long 
 continue to be cherished by public gratitude and respect. 
 To none of those, whose names principally illuminate and 
 dignify the British annals, was he inferior, in firmness of 
 mind, in elevation of principle, in generosity of conduct. 
 By slow but regular progression, he advanced from the 
 humbler stations of the Church to its highest dignities ; but, 
 whatever were the duties which he was called to fulfil, whe- 
 ther those that conduct the pastor to the hovel of affliction 
 or the bed of disease; or those which more especially ac- 
 company the responsibility of the mitre, he embraced them 
 with a zeal, and he accomplished them with an integrity, be- 
 yond praise. The monuments of his goodness are every 
 where to be found ; for the wealth, which others would have 
 koarded or dissipatad with equal guiit, was regarded by bun
 
 CANTO III. 117 
 
 but as the instrument of private and public welfare ; and 
 converted, it might be said, into structures, villages, and 
 towns, which arose at his command, and remain the memo- 
 rials of his worth and wisdom. Over a diocese of great po- 
 pulation and extent he exercised authority, not merely with 
 a steadiness which will not be impeded by opposition, but 
 with a benevolence and consideration which induced and 
 conciliated obedience. Did he confer promotion ? Did ht 
 enforce ecclesiastical order and residence ? Did he labour to 
 promote the holy iuiiuence of religion ? He displayed, in the 
 accomplishment of his purpose, a judgment that regulated 
 the views of piety, and a piety that ennobled the views of 
 judgment. " Behold a regular, conscientious, and respect- 
 able clergy, scattered over an extensive district Behold a 
 village spreading into a city, and increasing rapidly in po- 
 pulation and trade* Behold palaces, libraries, observato- 
 ries, and colleges, constructed or enlarged, with a spirit 
 which perpetually looked to public good Behold new tem- 
 ples dedicated to the Almighty, the steeple rise, the spire 
 ascend, the congregation assembled, the Gospel honoured, 
 the Eternal adored, where, before, the unhappy flock wu 
 left too often to ramble without a shepherd, and the voice 
 of genuine religion was rarely heard, or heard but to be de- 
 spised.. Behold all this, and you will -recognize but the 
 works oi his hands, but the marks of his munificence, but the 
 evidences of his philanthropy, but the demonstrations of hi 
 pastoral diligence and zeal ! In a word, lie was praised even 
 by enemies ; he was venerated by friends ; he was respected 
 by the world. He has shown that station may be enjoyed. 
 
 * Armagh.
 
 118 NOTES TO 
 
 without kindling envy, and excellence displayed without 
 provoking malevolence." He added to eminence of rank 
 pre-eminence of virtue ; and lived and died an ornament, 
 not merely to the mitre, but to humanity. 
 
 (k) I advert to the balance of the moral Critolaus. " Quo 
 Joco qusero, quam vim habeat libra ilia Critolai : qui cum in 
 alteram lance m animi bona imponat, in alteram corporis et 
 externa, tantutn propondere illam boni lancem pntet, ut ter- 
 ram et maria deprimat." Tuscul. Visput. lib. 5, sec. 17, ad 
 rtnem. How different is this balance of the good Critolaus 
 from that in which the proud philosophy of Mr. Hume pre- 
 sumes to weigh the Omnipotence of God, and the wonders 
 of his Providence ! I quote not the passage because I would 
 not pollute my page with impiety, nor contribute to the dif- 
 fusion of scepticism by the exhibition of its tenets. The 
 whole argument, indeed, to which I allude, is calculated but 
 to shake our belief in a divine existence and government, 
 and, consequently, to degrade the nature, and impair the 
 happiness of man. Fortunately, it is yet more futile than 
 audacious, and does as little honour to the understanding 
 as to the heart of the philosopher. 
 
 The ideas of Mr. Hume, on this subject, have, neverthe- 
 less, been admitted and adopted, by some writers of a very 
 different temper. An Italian geometrician, with a rage for 
 theory and abstraction that scorns the common sense of 
 mankind, though not with the irreligion that has distinguish- 
 ed his predecessor in the assertion, has also maintained, that 
 the proofs to be dedured of a divine existence from the 
 works of creation, and of a divine government from the oc- 
 currences of life, are inadequate and weak. But, for the
 
 CANTO III. 119 
 
 argument which he renounces, he substitutes another, les 
 liable, as he supposes, to refutation, and which he terms 
 " A Demonstration of the Existence of God from geometri- 
 cal Theorems." The sublime and penetrating evidences of 
 the heavens and the earth, which have been felt and reve- 
 renced bj all times and by all nations, and which may be 
 said to exhibit almost a visible display of the divinity, whose 
 hand has scattered them abroad ; are, now, it seems, to be 
 cast aside as impotent or frail ; and not only is the being 
 of the Almighty to rest upon the testimony of lines and fi- 
 gures ; but his attributes are to be maintained by the powers 
 and results of mathematical proportions ! In this manner 
 does mistaken piety sometimes co-operate with avowed pro- 
 faneness ; and the wan of religion, rejecting, for abstracted 
 novelties which almost provoke a smile, that simple and es- 
 tablished evidence which has its weight with every candid 
 and thinking mind, does scarcely less mischief to the cause 
 of religious truth than l>c who is its declared and decided 
 
 foe. 
 
 See Del I'V.tisttnza di Dio da Teoremi Geomelrici denion- 
 sfjvrttf, tt-c. Adino. 1777. 
 
 (l) Cranmer was man, and he fell ! But the Christian 
 hero, rising from his abasement; bursting the shackles with 
 which fear and frailty had bound his spirit to the earth ; 
 plunging into the flames the guilty hand, till it was no more ; 
 and diffusing from the stake, the detestation of tyrants, and 
 the doctrines of righteousness and salvation, abundantly 
 atoned, we may humbly trust, for the crime of an unhappy 
 and unguarded moment; and exhibited to the world the 
 glorious and instructive example of the man exalted into
 
 120 NOTES TO 
 
 the martyr, and the martyr triumphing over the Powers of 
 Persecution. 
 
 (m) George Alley, Bishop of Exeter, in the reign of 
 Queen Elizabeth. Of this venerable character the talents 
 and virtues acquired him, towards the close of the preceding 
 reign, an honorable but perilous distinction ; and while, with 
 protestant energy, he maintained the doctrines of gospel 
 truth, the hand of the sanguinary Mary held the crown of 
 martyrdom over bis head. He was eminently learned, but 
 without being tainted by the polemic pedantry of the age 
 in which he lived ; and without substituting, in any degree, 
 the fastidious and intemperate pride of the schools, for the 
 calm and dignified humility of the Christian. His life might 
 be considered as one continued oblation offered to the Al- 
 mighty by evangelical benevolence ; and Superstition and 
 Error, though sheltered within the walls of the Vatican, 
 heard and trembled at his voice. If the hostility and viru- 
 lence of sectaries surrounded and opposed him, as a common 
 foe ; he yet went forth to the battle, strong in firmness and 
 truth, " and the Philistines fled from before him." Among 
 those, especially, who toiled to accelerate the progress of 
 the Reformation in England, he acquired respect and vene- 
 ration by the piety and utility of his pastoral labours, by the 
 moral excellence of his life, and by the manly zeal which he 
 displayed for the real interests of his country. Nor from 
 the pulpit only did his eloquence sustain the noble cause of 
 religion. He was diligent, also, to associate the Press in the 
 same service ; and his excellent Pra-lections are existing 
 Monuments of the ability and perseverance with which h*
 
 CANTO TIL 121 
 
 promoted the advancement of Christian truth*. To the ma- 
 lignant misrepresentations of his enemies, what was his re- 
 ply ? " Detrahcbant mihi, sed ego orabam" To the world 
 what was his uniform and resolute declaration? " Qui ve- 
 ritatem occultat, et qui mendacium dicit, uterque reus est: 
 ille, quia prodesse non vult ; iste, quia nocere desideratt" 
 With this temper, and these sentiments, he braved the me- 
 naces and fires of persecution}: ; and the enmity of suspicion, 
 the hatred of detected falsehood, the enthusiasm of a strug- 
 gling and falling church, and the indefatigable bigotry 
 which, still faithful to the Popish cause, was still ardent to 
 defend it, were baffled and subdued by the energy and ta- 
 lents of the Christian Bishop. He, indeed, who had fear- 
 lessly devoted his life to truth and virtue, was little likely to 
 be defeated by the opposition of fallacy and fraud. " Arise, 
 for it is day !" was the warning voice which, bursting from 
 
 * He published some volumes ; but his principal works were a gram- 
 matical treatise on the Greek tongue, and the Prelections to which I 
 have alluded. These last w<rc published in two massy folios, under the 
 title of nT:oX'^83"iov The poor Man's Librarie. Rhapsodise upon the 
 first Epistle of Saint Peter, read publiquely in the Cathedrall Church of 
 
 St. Paul, within the city of London, 1560 The doctrine of indulgence!, 
 
 confession, tradition, ecclesiastical authority, the sacraments, and alms, 
 have especially engaged his attention in this work ; and he discussei 
 them with an ability and freedom which, pcihaps, would not lofe by a 
 comparison even with the talents and zeal of a Tillotson or a Hurd. 
 
 + This passage, and the Latin sentence already quoted, are to be found 
 in the title page of bis Prelections j and there is reason to conclude from 
 the whole tenor of his life and writings, that they were ceaselessly in hit 
 recollection. 
 
 t During the latter part of the reign of Queen Mary. 
 S See Title Page of Prelections.
 
 122 NOTES TO 
 
 the lips of the preacher, or enforced by the reasoning elo- 
 quence of his writings, contributed to awaken the nation 
 from the slumber of centuries, and to hasten the downfal 
 of the Conclave, and of Rome. Of such a man the con- 
 duct and character, which did honour to his country, 
 would not have been unworthy of the notice of the moral 
 and philosophical historian. The conqueror may afford, 
 in his inhuman triumphs, topics, perhaps, more splendid 
 and more diversified; but the Apostolical instructor would 
 have supplied, in his virtues and his toils, subjects more 
 useful, because better calculated to rectify the persuasions 
 of the heart, and the principles of the understanding. 
 
 From some manuscripts in my possession, I might ea- 
 sily add to these observations, a long, and, possibly, an 
 interesting detail of manly efforts and benevolent actions ; 
 and be enabled to exhibit such a portrait of the Christian 
 Bishop, as might warrant the conclusion that the days of 
 Elizabeth enjoyed also their Porteus or their Newcome; 
 and that the reformation was early advanced by virtues 
 not inferior to those which continue to support and ex- 
 tend it. 
 
 But, recollecting that I am restricted within the boun- 
 dary of a i.ote, I shall only at'.d that this good Prelate, as 
 1 have already intimated, was peculiarly distinguished by 
 that charity which is most ardent to instruct aud relieve 
 the ignorant and distressed. He was, in truth, what I have 
 termed him, the poor man's friend. The language of his 
 Prelections every where testifies, by its sober and perspi- 
 cuous simplicity, with what zeal he laboured to difiiise 
 religious truth among the lower orders of mankind; and 
 the unintermitting benevolence of his life, of which, were
 
 CANTO III. 123 
 
 I here permitted to do so, I could produce many beauti- 
 ful and interesting examples, not less forcibly demon- 
 strates that the Bishop was, in the true sense of language, 
 the pastor; and that the means afforded by the mitre 
 were nobly and happily employed by the man. 
 
 On the publication of his Prselections, he was addressed 
 by many celebrated characters, in the language both of 
 poetry and prose; and I venture to subjoin the following 
 lines, because some of them are elegant, and most forci- 
 ble, and berause they may serve, in some degree, to au- 
 thenticate what I have advanced in the preceding part 
 of this note. 
 
 AD ALLEUM, 
 
 Xunc Antistitem, dam beati Petri epistolam priorem 
 evplanaret. 
 
 Alle! quatis triplex latii diadema tyranni, 
 Ardua fulmineae deturbas cornua mitnr, 
 Detegis agnina tectum lanugine monstrum, 
 Detegis immani faedatum sorde lupanar, 
 Impia demonstras puri ludribia cultus, 
 Debellas saevis pulsantem cornibus hydrum. 
 
 Veiovis ingcnti confectus vulnere saevit, 
 Mundum crudeli perstratum caede cruentaf, 
 Corpora consumit diris torrentia flammis, 
 Oppida sanguinco funestat craedula fumo, 
 Excitat immites furiali a sede sorores, 
 Horrida terribilis qua sparg^nt semina belli.
 
 124 NOTES TO 
 
 AD EUNDEM. 
 Obscuros superas sensus, et lumine Petrtfm 
 
 Verborum illustras, difficelesque locos. 
 Exponis magica suffultos fraude susurros, 
 
 Panisci, inclusi pixide sacra, <lei. 
 Pontificem summum, qui plumbea fulmina mittit, 
 
 Tu percussisti fulmine laetifero. 
 Qui se posse putat divos detrudere ccelo, 
 
 Tu detruebas ad Stygis antra nigra?. 
 Nunc ubi conducit gliscenti milite turbas 
 
 Exit turba minax, et scelerata phalanx. 
 Eniergit pluto toto comitatus Averno 
 
 Alecto assurgit, Tisiphoneque furens. 
 Cerberus ille triceps, grassans Bellona flagello 
 
 Strymphalides dirae, pontificumque cohors. 
 
 CHRISTOPHERUS CARLEY 
 
 CHRISTOPHERUS BODLE1 
 
 t hoc opusculum nrcuvof. 
 
 Laudibus hunc ullis tibi commendare lib-Hum 
 
 Non opus est, laudes praedicat iste suas. 
 Quae bona sunt hederam non poscunt vina Vemuta 
 
 Pingitur facies! Non eget nl la phyco. 
 Proniiuunt alii forsan majora libelli, 
 
 Hoc qui plus praester, vix tarnen ullus erit. 
 Quod latet hie intus rutilo praest:\ntius uuro est, 
 
 Quod latct hie geinmis splendidius niveis. 
 Ergo age, regalem thesaururn amplectcrc lector, 
 
 Scdulus assidua, volve, revolve inanu. 
 Doctrjna quam multiplici est liber iste refertui?
 
 CANTO III. 125 
 
 Quam docte et scitu, plurima digna docet ? 
 Omne tulit punctum. Sacra hie docet atque prophana, 
 
 Insuper utilibus, dulcia mixta tenet. 
 Indoctus libro doctus reddetur ab isto, 
 
 Doctus ab hoc etiam, doctior esse queat. 
 Multorum vice sit tibi librorum iste libellus 
 
 Pauperis hie liber est, bibliotheca xafn- 
 
 JOANHES BULSINGHAMUS MAGDALENENSIS 
 in prteclaras G. Allcti lucubrationes. 
 
 Evigiletis apes ; melior vigilantia somno : 
 
 Vernum tempus adest : evigiletis apes. 
 Undique nunc rident rcdimiti floribus agri, 
 
 Tempora labuntur, surgite mellifices. 
 Allcei recta celeres volitetis in hortum, 
 
 Consitus est etenim tioribus omne genus, 
 Jam superest operi pro viribus invigiletis, 
 
 Atque operae pretio copia mellis erit. 
 
 (s) And make a Jewish market of the throne, 
 Pretending public good, to serve their own. 
 
 Absalom and Achitophel. 
 
 (o) And it came to pass, as they still went on and 
 talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and 
 horses of fire, and parted them both asunder, and Elijawent 
 up by a whirlwind into heaven." Kings, c.ii. v. 11. 
 
 (i>) Wisdom, having, as described in the preceding pa- 
 ragraph, attached her pupil to polite learning, and to m-
 
 126 NOTES TO 
 
 rals, here proceeds to instruct him in the doctrines of me- 
 taphysics. With that aim, she enters into the history of 
 his ideas, in their origin, and progress; informs him of 
 the nature and extent of his mental powers ; points out the 
 numerous sources of human error; and, finally, instructs 
 him in what manner he must proceed in his pursuit of truth . 
 
 (q) Ideas are simple in their origin, and derived solely 
 from Sensation and Reflection; but they are gradually 
 rendered more and more complex, according as the im- 
 pressions from external objects become diversified, and as 
 the reflecting Powers learn to compare, abstract, and 
 combine. 
 
 (r) Primary and secondary qualities. The primary fas 
 bulk, figure, motion, rest, &c.) are those which exist in- 
 destructively and essentially in things; the secondary (as 
 light, heat, cold, sweet, bitter, &c.) have no being but 
 as effects, and result wholly from the operations of the 
 primary. 
 
 f s) The most dissociated ideas, it has been maintained, 
 are connected by certain, though distant, relationship ; and 
 it would be easy, indeed, in countless instances, to prove 
 that notions, however apparently in utter discordance with 
 each other, arc yet united by a strict and permanent con- 
 catenation. 
 
 "It would make a volume to go over all sorts of rela- 
 lation. It suffices to our present purpose to shew that 
 relation is so various, and the causes of it so many, (as 
 many as there can be of comparing things with each other)
 
 CANTO III. 127 
 
 that it is not easy to reduce it to rules, or under any just 
 heads." Essay on Human Understanding, c. 28. . 17. 
 
 Cause and Effect, Time ar.d Place, Identy and Diver- 
 sity, Proportion, Kindred, Good, Evil, constitute some of 
 the foundations of the relationship of ideas ; but who shall 
 attempt to say how far even these principles of connection 
 extend ? Essay Chap. 25, 26, 27 28. Book ii. 
 
 1 observe not alone the association of ideas. Science is 
 no less intimately related to Science. By how many bonds 
 of affinity are Music, Painting, and Poetry bound toge- 
 ther ! How closely is the knowledge of visible connected 
 with that of invisible nature ! Are not Ethics and Religion 
 frequently to derive strength and demonstration from con- 
 siderations drawn from the material world ? Must we not 
 ascend to God himself by inferences deduced from the 
 wonders of his works ? And is not the single relationship 
 of the Creation to man, and of both to the Creator, the 
 source of infinite and eternal affinities ? 
 
 " Omnes artes, quae ad humanitatem pertinent, habent 
 quodam commune vinculum, et quasi cognatione quadam 
 inter so contientur." Cic. Oratio pro Arch. Poet. Theelo. 
 quent Pleader might have extended his view much further. 
 
 (t) The progress is here obvious. " An account hav- 
 ing been given of the original, sorts, and extent, of our 
 ideas, with several other considerations about these ma- 
 terials of our knowledge, the enquiry naturally leads to 
 the use the understanding makes of them, and the know- 
 ledge it acquires by them." Locke, chap. S3, b. ii. Of 
 this discussion the great object is to discover the means of 
 acquiring truth ; and those means, also, are unfolded by
 
 128 NOTES TO 
 
 the British Aristotle with admirable clearness and preci- 
 sion. It would lead me, however, too far from my pur- 
 pose to enumerate them in this place. See Essay. Books. 
 3 & 4, passim. 
 
 In the preceding notes I have closely followed the doc- 
 trines of Locke. I recollect, nevertheless, that many late 
 metaphysicians, and especially the acute and patient Reed, 
 and the ingenious author of the " Diversions of Purley," 
 have ventured to controvert several of the opinions of that 
 distinguished man. But the system of the Essay on the 
 Human Understanding still exists in all its original gran- 
 deur ; and, though a pillar or two may have, possibly, gi- 
 ven way, enough yet remains to sustain the pile, and to 
 sustain it for ever. 
 
 (v) To classical and moral learning, and to the know- 
 ledge of the human faculties and powers, the rational stu- 
 dent will proceed to add the Science of Physics. Hence, 
 Wisdom is here described as extending her views to the 
 earth and heavens, and investigating the wonders and laws 
 of material nature. 
 
 (w) Of the monuments of ancient learning, especially, 
 many testify at once the sublimity and perversion of the 
 the human powers ; and the scholar, while he admires, be- 
 comes, frequently, depraved. I allude not, merely, to that 
 grossness and ribaldry which have.descended to us, recom- 
 mended by the energy of a Juvenal or the vivacity of a Mar- 
 tial. But how shall we estimate the acquirements of 
 Petronius, or the purposes to which they were applied ? 
 I know that, when a more perfect copy of the writings of
 
 TO CANTO III. 129 
 
 that author was discovered, a French scholar was found to 
 indulge in all the luxury of exclamation, and to congratu- 
 late the world on the treasure which had been found. 
 " Si je n'apprehendois point de trop dire, je croirois que 
 quand notre campagne sur le Rhin, de l'annee 1 690, n'au- 
 roit point produit d'autre bonheur, il y auroit lieu d'en 
 etre content." Reponse de Mons. Charpentier a M. 
 Nodot, au sujet des Fragmens de Petrone retrouvez a la 
 
 prize de Bellgrade en 1688. For my own part, I think 
 
 that one sentiment of genuine humanity would have infi- 
 nitely outweighed all this affectation of classical delight; 
 and I regard the writings of Petronius as calculated only 
 for the library of the libertine, and as scarcely less infa- 
 mous, than the shameless and abandoned licentiousness 
 which they describe. 
 
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