The Poems of John Byrom :: :: University of Virginia Library

I hope that the Vicar will pardon the Haste,
With which an Occasion once more is embrac'd
Of getting some Knowledge in Points that I seek
From one so well vers'd both in Hebrew and Greek,
In a Question of Fact where a friendly Pursuit
Has the Truth for its Object, and not the Dispute,—
Which, tho' Haste should encroach upon metrical Leisure,
Will be sure, if it rise, to be kept within Measure.

295

II

It would save much voluminous Labour sometimes,
If Disputes were tied down to dispassionate Rimes,
As well as to Reasons.—But, not to digress,
Having weigh'd his Responses both larger and less,
I resume the same Subject, same Freedom of Pen,
To entreat for some small Satisfaction again
In Relation to Points which, appearing absurd,
Have extorted poetical Favour the third.

III

Three Things are laid down in Prose Favour the last,
And Regard to his Thoughts would have none of them pass'd.
To his first it was paid, to his future shall be;
But let “Veritas magis amica” be free!—
First, “manage the Comma,” says he, “how you will;
“Speak or Hear, the same Sense will result from it still.”

296

Yes, the Sense of the Context, “λαλουντων αυτων;”
“While they speak in their Tongue, we all hear in our own.”

IV

“The Hebrew word ‘
,’ or ‘Tongue,’ says he next,
“Whene'er it is us'd by itself in a Text,
Never signifies ‘Fire,’ never signifies ‘Flame;’”
And believing it true, I say also the same.
But in joint “
,” “Tongue of Fire,” or “a Blaze,”
Foreign Languages claim no Symbolical Phrase.
Tho' “Tongue” may occasion Mistake to befall,
It has here no Relation to Language at all.

V

“Short Issue,” he thinks, “the Dispute will admit,”
And desires me to answer this Query, to Wit:
“Were the ‘Tongues,’—the ‘new Tongues,’ which a Promise was made
That Disciples should speak, as St. Mark has display'd,—

297

New Languages such as have never been got
By learning before-hand to speak them, or not?”
To which for the present, till Somebody show
That it must have this Meaning, my Answer is: “No.”

VI

Now, this, if he can, I could wish he would do,
And prove the Construction “new Languages” true
In the Sense that he means; for, when all understood
One Person who spake, it was really as good
As if Numbers had spoken, or Promisèd Grace
Were interpreted “Languages” here in this Place.
The Effect was the same, and may answer the Pith
Of all that his Second has favour'd me with.

VII

Still difficult, then, if we carefully sift,
Is the Vulgar Account of the Pentecost Gift,
Which the Learnèd advance, and establish thereon
What the Vicar has built his Idéas upon,
With Additions thereto which, as far as I see,
Not one of the Learnèd has added but he.
For Example, if some, very few, I presume,
Have describ'd the Disciples as quitting the Room.

VIII

But let them be many;—what Reason, what Trace
Do we find of their leaving the sanctified Place?

298

Of a Wind from above did they fear at the Shake,
And the House, thro' a Doubt of its falling, forsake?
Or did they go forth to the gathering Quire,
Lest the many bright Flames should have set it on Fire?
If a Thought could have enter'd of going away,
What Circumstance was not strong Motive to stay?

IX

Then again: “that the Foreigners, all of them, knew
The Language then us'd at Jerusalem too.”—
For the Miracle's Sake one would here have demurr'd,
Which is render'd so needless, improper, absurd,
That Jerusalem Mockers would really have had
A Pretence to allege that the pious were mad.
For of speaking strange Tongues what accountable Aim,
Or of hearing fifteen, when they all knew the same?

X

Add to this: the Disciples, the Hundred-and-twenty,
Spake amongst one another strange Tongues in like Plenty;—
“One by one,” says the Vicar, who very well saw
What Confusion would rise without some such a Law
As the Text has no Hint of; which says, “they began
To speak by the Spirit,” not “Man after Man.”
Could Time have suffic'd for so doing, yet why
Speak the Tongues of such Men as were none of them by?

XI

The Vicar saw, too, that this could not attract
Any Multitude thither, supposing it Fact;

299

And so he conceiv'd that “a Rumour was spread
By the Men of the House,”—of whom nothing is said.
Now, when Men of his Learning are forc'd to find out
Such unchronicl'd Salvos to dissipate Doubt,
One is apt to infer a well-grounded Suspense,
And the more to look out for more natural Sense.

XII

I wish my old Friend would consider the Case,
And how ill it consists with Effusion of Grace
To speak Parthian, and Median, and so of the Rest,
To none but themselves, being present, address'd!
Unless he can grant, on revolving the Point,
That indeed there is something not rightly in Joint,
Or solve one's Objections, or show one the Way
How to clear up the Matter,—what can a Man say?