Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 7.djvu/76

64 That rod was just a type of Sid's, Which o'er a British senate's lids Could scatter opium full as well, And drive as many souls to Hell. Sid's rod was slender, white, and tall, Which oft he us'd to fish withal; A place was fasten'd to the hook, And many score of gudgeons took; Yet still so happy was his fate, He caught his fish, and sav'd his bait. Sid's brethren of the conjuring tribe, A circle with their rod describe, Which proves a magical redoubt, To keep mischievous spirits out. Sid's rod was of a larger stride, And made a circle thrice as wide, Where spirits throng'd with hideous din, And he stood there to take them in: But, when th' enchanted rod was broke, They vanish'd in a stinking smoke. Achilles' sceptre was of wood, Like Sid's, but nothing near so good; That down from ancestors divine Transmitted to the hero's line; Thence, through a long descent of kings, Came an, as Homer sings. Though this description looks so big, That sceptre was a sapless twig, Which, from the fatal day, when first It left the forest where 'twas nurs'd, As Homer tells us o'er and o'er, Nor leaf, nor fruit, nor blossom, bore. Sid's sceptre, full of juice, did shoot In golden boughs, and golden fruit; And