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

Pythagoras, an ancient Sage, opin'd
That Form, and Shape were Indexes of Mind;
And Minds of Men, when they departed hence,
Would all be form'd according to this Sense;
Some Animal, or human Shape again,
Would shew the Minds of all the former Men.

II.

Let us adopt this Transmigration-plan,
And mark, how Animal exhibits Man.
Tyrants, for instance, (to begin with those
Who make the greatest noise, the greatest woes)
Of their Dominion Lions are the Key,
That Reign in Deserts now, and hunt their Prey.

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Sometimes, dethron'd and brought upon a Stage,
Or coop'd, like Bajazet, within a Cage,
For Six-pence, safe from all tyrannic harms,
One may see Kings, perhaps, at the King's Arms;
See savage Monarchs, who had shown before
The tusky Temper of the wildest Boar,
Vested in proper Shape, when they are dead,
Reviv'd, and caught, and shown at the Boar's Head.

III.

In some tam'd Elephant our Eyes may scan
The once great, rich, o'ergrown, half-reas'ning Man.
My Lord had Sense to wind into his Maw
All within reach, that lay within the Law;
What would have fed a thousand Mouths was sunk,
To fill his own, by hugeous length of Trunk;
He grew to monstrous Grandeur, liv'd a Show,
And Stones high rais'd told where he was laid low:

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By Transmigration it appears, at least,
That such great Man is really a great Beast.

IV.

From Animals that once were Men, to pass
To Men of now almost ambiguous Class:
Players, and Harlequins, and Pantomimes,
Who sell their Shapes to mimick Men and Times,
With all the servile, second-handed Tribe
Of Imitators, endless to describe,—
In their own Figures, when they come to range,
With small Transition into Monkeys change:
For now Men-Monkeys have not in their view
What should be done by Men, but what they do.

V.

Of Tempers, by inferior Forms express'd,
And seen for nothing, something may be guess'd.
When the sly Fox ensnares the silly Geese,
Who does not see that Mind is of a piece
With former Lawyers, who devour'd by far
The sillier Clients, drawn into the Bar?

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VI.

“Why not Physicians?” hear the Lawyer say;
“Are not they too as wily in their way?”
Why, yes, dear Barrister; but then they own
The Shapes in which their cunning Arts are shown:
Serpents confess, around the Rod entwin'd,
Wily or wise the Æsculapian kind.

VII.

“Why not Divines?” the Doctor may object;
“They have Devourers, too, in ev'ry Sect.”
True; but if one devour, there is for him
A Transmigration more upon the grim:
In human Shape when he has spent his Years,
Stript of Sheep's Clothing, real Wolf appears.

VIII.

Plain in four-footed Animals, let's try
Instance that first occurs in such as fly.
The Parrot shews by its unmeaning prate
Full many a Talker's metamorphos'd Fate;
Whose Tongue outstrips the Clapper of a Mill,
And still keeps saying the same nothing still.

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As full the City, and as full the Court,
As India's Woods with Creatures of this sort.
If rightly the gay-feather'd Bird foretells
The future Shape of eloquenter Belles
Or Beaux, transmigrated, the human Dolls
Will talk, and shine caress'd in “pretty Polls.”

IX.

Belles you may see pursue a Butterfly
With painted Wings, that flutter in the Sky
And, sparkling, to the Solar Rays unfold
Red mix'd with purple, green with shining Gold.
Nor wonder at the fond Pursuit; for know
That this same Butterfly was once a Beau
And, dress'd according to the newest Whim,
Ran after them, as they run after him.

X.

Footed or flying, all decipher Men;—
Enough to add one other Instance, then:
One from a Courtier, a creeping Thing;
He takes new Colours, as there comes new King;
Lives upon airy Promises, and dies;
His Transmigration can be no surprise:

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Chameleon-shape by that he comes to share,
Still changes Colours, and still feeds on Air.

XI.

By his ingenious Fiction, in the End,
What could the wise Pythagoras intend?
Too wise a Man not to intend a Clue
To change, hereafter, literally true.
The Solar System of our boasted Age
Was known of old to this enlightned Sage;
So might his Thoughts on Man's immortal Soul,
Howe'er express'd, be right upon the whole:
He meant, one need not scruple to affirm,
This real Truth by Transmigration Term.

XII.

Our Tempers here must point to the degree
In which hereafter we design to be.
From Vice in Minds, undoubtedly, will grow
More ugly Shapes than any here below;
But sacred Virtue, Piety, and Love—
What beauteous Forms will they produce above!