Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 17.djvu/20

14 the bathos, should not sacrifice to it all other transitory regards? You shall hear a zealous protestant deacon invoke a saint, and modestly beseech her to do more for us than Providence.

Look down, blest saint, with pity then look down, Shed on this land thy kinder influence, And guide us through the mists of providence, In which we stray. ——

Neither will he, if a goodly simile come in his way, scruple to affirm himself an eye-witness of things never yet beheld by man, or never in existence; as thus,

Thus have I seen in Araby the blest A phœnix couch'd upon her funeral nest.

But to convince you that nothing is so great which a marvellous genius prompted by this laudable zeal is not able to lessen; hear how the most sublime of all beings is represented in the following images.

Sometimes the lord of nature in the air Spreads forth his clouds, his sable canvass, where His pencil, dipt in heavenly colour bright, Paints his fair rainbow, charming to the sight.

Th' almighty chemist does his work prepare, Pours down his waters on the thirsty plain, Digests his lightening, and distils his rain. Now