Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 18.djvu/413

Rh Sin and the plague ever abound In governments too easy, and too fruitful ground; Evils which a too gentle king, Too flourishing a spring, And too warm summers bring: Our British soil is over rank, and breeds Among the noblest flow'rs a thousand pois'nous weeds, And ev'ry stinking weed so lofty grows, As if 'twould overshade the Royal Rose, The Royal Rose the glory of our morn, But, ah, too much without a thorn.

Forgive (original mildness) this ill govern'd zeal, 'Tis all the angry slighted Muse can do In the pollution of these days; No province now is left her but to rail, And poetry has lost the art to praise, Alas, the occasions are so few: None e'er but you, And your Almighty Master, knew With heavenly peace of mind to bear (Free from our tyrant passions, anger, scorn, or fear) The giddy turns of pop'lar rage, And all the contradictions of a poison'd age; The Son of God pronounc'd by the same breath Which straight pronounc'd his death; And though I should but ill be understood In wholly equalling our sin and theirs, And measuring by the scanty thread of wit What we call holy, and great, and just, and good, (Methods in talk whereof our pride and ignorance make use) Rh