Page:Satire in the Victorian novel (IA satireinvictoria00russrich).pdf/39

 In The Author he asks, "Lives there a man whom Satire cannot reach?" And the author of English Bards and Scotch Reviewers declares that vice and folly will— "More darkly sin, by Satire kept in awe, And shrink from ridicule, though not from law." But Marston and Defoe, already quoted on the other side, have their dubious moments. Says the former, "Now, Satire, cease to rub our galled skins, And to unmask the world's detested sins; Thou shalt as soon draw Nilus river dry As cleanse the world from foul impiety." And the latter would be sanguine if he could:  "If my countrymen would take the hint and grow better-natured from my ill-natured poem, as some call it, I would say this of it, that though it is far from the best satire that ever was written, it would do the most good that ever satire did." Gifford also, though a believer in the mission of satire, admits that "to laugh at fools is superfluous, and at the vicious unwise." Cowper allows minor accomplishments: