Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 4.djvu/331

Rh ‘Why really I muſt own, I know no Whig or Tory in vice; the vicious and the virtuous are the only two parties I have to do with; if a vicious, lewd, debauched magiſtrate happened to be a Whig, what then? let him mend his manners, and he may be a Whig ſtill, and if not, the reſt ought to be aſhamed of him.’

We have been induced to make this extract, as it ſeems to ſhew the genius and ſpirit of the author in a more advantageous light, than we could have otherwiſe done. Though he was a reſolute aſſerter of Whig principles, and a champion for the cauſe of liberty, yet was he never blinded by party prejudice, but could diſcern deſigning, and ſelfifh men, and ſtrip them of their diſguiſes, though joined with him in the ſame political conteſts.

In the concluſion of the Hymn to the Pillory, which is written with great ſtrength of expreſſion, he aſſigns the reaſons for his being doomed to that ignominy. Thou Bugbear of the law ſtand up and ſpeak,
 * Thy long miſconſtru’d ſilence break,

Tell us, who ’tis upon thy ridge ſtands there,
 * So full of fault, and yet ſo void of fear;
 * And from the paper in his hat,
 * Let all mankind be told for what.

Tell them it was becauſe he was too bold,
 * And told thoſe truths which ſhould not ha’ been told.


 * Extol the juſtice of the land
 * Who puniſh what they will not underſtand;
 * Tell them that he ſtands there
 * For ſpeaking what we would not hear;
 * And yet he might ha’ been ſecure,

Had he ſaid leſs, or would he ha’ ſaid more.
 * Tell them that it was his reward,
 * And worſe is yet for him prepar’d, Becauſe