University of Virginia Library

The APOLOGY.

When Men of God will do the Devil's Work,
And frame new Prayers for Lewis and the Turk,
In drunken Clubs religiously combine
To make the lost Mack-Ninny's Right Divine,
And the whole Town with Sham Distinctions ring
Of a de Jure and de Facto King,
And prate of Duty till they've lost the Thing:
When those whose Business 'tis to preach up Peace,
Labour to make our Discontents increase;
Foment Divisions, and new Storms create;
Defame the King and undermine the State,
Which wou'd, were they but hang'd, be fortunate:
What Indignation can be thought severe?
How can a true-born English Muse forbear
To lash their Folly, and correct their Vice,
And teach the People whence their Plagues arise?
How innocent and good soe'er they seem,
The Source of all our Mischiefs lies in them.
From them, as from Pandora's Box, they fly:
'Tis their corrupted Breath pollutes our Northern Sky.
Therefore, my Lord, you justly can't accuse
This modest Sally of a backward Muse,
Which had been damn'd to Silence, and forgot,
If you had not reviv'd it with your Plot.
'Twas writ to consolate your Sickness then;
If you had mended this had ne'er been seen.
But since you every Day grow worse and worse,
And still resolve to be the Nation's Curse;
I also am resolv'd to let you know,
Here's one as stubborn and as bold as you.