The Poetical Works of John Dryden Volume I Part 28

And some wild curs, who from their masters ran, Abhorring the supremacy of man, In woods and caves the rebel race began.

O happy pair, how well have you increased!

What ills in Church and State have you redress'd!

With teeth untried, and rudiments of claws, Your first essay was on your native laws: 200 Those having torn with ease, and trampled down, Your fangs you fasten'd on the mitred crown, And freed from G.o.d and monarchy your town.

What though your native kennel[101] still be small, Bounded betwixt a puddle[102] and a wall; Yet your victorious colonies are sent Where the north ocean girds the continent.

Quicken'd with fire below, your monsters breed In fenny Holland, and in fruitful Tweed: And, like the first, the last affects to be 210 Drawn to the dregs of a democracy.

As, where in fields the fairy rounds are seen, A rank, sour herbage rises on the green; So, springing where those midnight elves advance, Rebellion prints the footsteps of the dance.

Such are their doctrines, such contempt they show To Heaven above and to their prince below, As none but traitors and blasphemers know.

G.o.d, like the tyrant of the skies, is placed, And kings, like slaves, beneath the crowd debased. 220 So fulsome is their food, that flocks refuse To bite, and only dogs for physic use.

As, where the lightning runs along the ground, No husbandry can heal the blasting wound; Nor bladed gra.s.s, nor bearded corn succeeds, But scales of scurf and putrefaction breeds: Such wars, such waste, such fiery tracks of dearth Their zeal has left, and such a teemless earth, But, as the poisons of the deadliest kind Are to their own unhappy coasts confined; 230 As only Indian shades of sight deprive, And magic plants will but in Colchos thrive; So Presbytery and pestilential zeal Can only nourish in a commonweal.

From Celtic woods is chased the wolfish crew; But ah! some pity even to brutes is due: Their native walks methinks they might enjoy, Curb'd of their native malice to destroy.

Of all the tyrannies on human kind, The worst is that which persecutes the mind. 240 Let us but weigh at what offence we strike; 'Tis but because we cannot think alike.

In punishing of this, we overthrow The laws of nations and of nature too.

Beasts are the subjects of tyrannic sway, Where still the stronger on the weaker prey.

Man only of a softer mould is made, Not for his fellows' ruin, but their aid: Created kind, beneficent, and free, The n.o.ble image of the Deity. 250

One portion of informing fire was given To brutes, the inferior family of heaven: The Smith Divine, as with a careless beat, 253 Struck out the mute creation at a heat: But when arrived at last to human race, The G.o.dhead took a deep-considering s.p.a.ce; And to distinguish man from all the rest, Unlock'd the sacred treasures of his breast; And mercy mix'd with reason did impart, One to his head, the other to his heart: 260 Reason to rule, and mercy to forgive; The first is law, the last prerogative.

And like his mind his outward form appear'd, When, issuing naked, to the wondering herd, He charm'd their eyes; and, for they loved, they fear'd: Not arm'd with horns of arbitrary might, Or claws to seize their furry spoils in fight, Or with increase of feet to o'ertake them in their flight: Of easy shape, and pliant every way; Confessing still the softness of his clay, 270 And kind as kings upon their coronation day: With open hands, and with extended s.p.a.ce Of arms, to satisfy a large embrace.

Thus kneaded up with milk, the new-made man His kingdom o'er his kindred world began: Till knowledge misapplied, misunderstood, And pride of empire, sour'd his balmy blood.

Then, first rebelling, his own stamp he coins; The murderer Cain was latent in his loins: And blood began its first and loudest cry, 280 For differing worship of the Deity.

Thus persecution rose, and further s.p.a.ce Produced the mighty hunter of his race[103].

Not so the blessed Pan his flock increased, Content to fold them from the famish'd beast: Mild were his laws; the Sheep and harmless Hind 286 Were never of the persecuting kind.

Such pity now the pious pastor shows, Such mercy from the British Lion flows, That both provide protection from their foes.

O happy regions, Italy and Spain, Which never did those monsters entertain!

The Wolf, the Bear, the Boar, can there advance No native claim of just inheritance.

And self-preserving laws, severe in show, May guard their fences from the invading foe.

Where birth has placed them, let them safely share The common benefit of vital air.

Themselves unharmful, let them live unharm'd; Their jaws disabled, and their claws disarm'd: 300 Here, only in nocturnal howlings bold, They dare not seize the hind, nor leap the fold.

More powerful, and as vigilant as they, The Lion awfully forbids the prey.

Their rage repress'd, though pinch'd with famine sore, They stand aloof, and tremble at his roar: Much is their hunger, but their fear is more.

These are the chief: to number o'er the rest, And stand, like Adam, naming every beast, Were weary work; nor will the muse describe 310 A slimy-born and sun-begotten tribe; Who far from steeples and their sacred sound, In fields their sullen conventicles found.

These gross, half-animated lumps I leave; Nor can I think what thoughts they can conceive.

But if they think at all, 'tis sure no higher Than matter, put in motion, may aspire: Souls that can scarce ferment their ma.s.s of clay; So drossy, so divisible are they, As would but serve pure bodies for allay: 320 Such souls as shards produce, such beetle things As only buzz to heaven with evening wings; Strike in the dark, offending but by chance, Such are the blindfold blows of ignorance.

They know not beings, and but hate a name; To them the Hind and Panther are the same.

The Panther[104] sure the n.o.blest, next the Hind, And fairest creature of the spotted kind; Oh, could her inborn stains be wash'd away, She were too good to be a beast of prey! 330 How can I praise, or blame, and not offend, Or how divide the frailty from the friend?

Her faults and virtues lie so mix'd, that she Nor wholly stands condemn'd, nor wholly free.

Then, like her injured Lion, let me speak; He cannot bend her, and he would not break.

Unkind already, and estranged in part, The Wolf begins to share her wandering heart.

Though unpolluted yet with actual ill, She half commits, who sins but in her will. 340 If, as our dreaming Platonists report, There could be spirits of a middle sort, Too black for heaven, and yet too white for h.e.l.l, Who just dropt half way down, nor lower fell; So poised, so gently she descends from high, It seems a soft dismission from the sky.

Her house not ancient, whatsoe'er pretence Her clergy heralds make in her defence.

A second century not half-way run, Since the new honours of her blood begun. 350 A Lion[105] old, obscene, and furious made By l.u.s.t, compress'd her mother in a shade; Then, by a left-hand marriage, weds the dame, Covering adultery with a specious name: So Schism begot; and Sacrilege and she, A well match'd pair, got graceless Heresy.

G.o.d's and king's rebels have the same good cause, To trample down divine and human laws: Both would be call'd reformers, and their hate Alike destructive both to Church and State: 360 The fruit proclaims the plant; a lawless prince By luxury reform'd incontinence; By ruins, charity; by riots, abstinence.

Confessions, fasts, and penance set aside, Oh, with what ease we follow such a guide, Where souls are starved, and senses gratified!

Where marriage pleasures midnight prayers supply, And matin bells, a melancholy cry, Are tuned to merrier notes, Increase and multiply.

Religion shows a rosy-colour'd face; 370 Not batter'd out with drudging works of grace: A down-hill reformation rolls apace.

What flesh and blood would crowd the narrow gate, Or, till they waste their pamper'd paunches, wait?

All would be happy at the cheapest rate.

Though our lean faith these rigid laws has given, The full-fed Mussulman goes fat to heaven; For his Arabian prophet with delights Of sense allured his eastern proselytes.

The jolly Luther, reading him, began 380 To interpret Scriptures by his Alcoran; To grub the thorns beneath our tender feet, And make the paths of Paradise more sweet; Bethought him of a wife ere half way gone, For 'twas uneasy travelling alone; And, in this masquerade of mirth and love, Mistook the bliss of heaven for Baccha.n.a.ls above.

Sure he presumed of praise, who came to stock The ethereal pastures with so fair a flock, Burnish'd, and battening on their food, to show 390 Their diligence of careful herds below.

Our Panther, though like these she changed her head, Yet, as the mistress of a monarch's bed, Her front erect with majesty she bore, The crosier wielded, and the mitre wore.

Her upper part of decent discipline Show'd affectation of an ancient line; And Fathers, Councils, Church, and Church's head, Were on her reverend phylacteries read.

But what disgraced and disavow'd the rest, 400 Was Calvin's brand, that stigmatized the beast.

Thus, like a creature of a double kind, In her own labyrinth she lives confined.

To foreign lands no sound of her is come, Humbly content to be despised at home.

Such is her faith, where good cannot be had, At least she leaves the refuse of the bad: Nice in her choice of ill, though not of best, And least deform'd, because reform'd the least.

In doubtful points betwixt her differing friends, 410 Where one for substance, one for sign contends, Their contradicting terms she strives to join; Sign shall be substance, substance shall be sign.

A real presence all her sons allow, And yet 'tis flat idolatry to bow, Because the G.o.dhead's there they know not how.

Her novices are taught that bread and wine Are but the visible and outward sign, Received by those who in communion join.

But the inward grace, or the thing signified, 420 His blood and body, who to save us died; The faithful this thing signified receive: What is't those faithful then partake or leave?

For what is signified and understood, Is, by her own confession, flesh and blood.

Then, by the same acknowledgment, we know They take the sign, and take the substance too.

The literal sense is hard to flesh and blood, But nonsense never can be understood.

Her wild belief on every wave is toss'd; 430 But sure no Church can better morals boast: True to her king her principles are found; O that her practice were but half so sound!

Steadfast in various turns of state she stood, And seal'd her vow'd affection with her blood: Nor will I meanly tax her constancy, That interest or obligement made the tie Bound to the fate of murder'd monarchy.

Before the sounding axe so falls the vine, Whose tender branches round the poplar twine. 440 She chose her ruin, and resign'd her life, In death undaunted as an Indian wife: A rare example! but some souls we see Grow hard, and stiffen with adversity: Yet these by fortune's favours are undone; Resolved into a baser form they run, And bore the wind, but cannot bear the sun.

Let this be nature's frailty, or her fate, Or Isgrim's[106] counsel, her new-chosen mate; Still she's the fairest of the fallen crew, 450 No mother more indulgent, but the true.

Fierce to her foes, yet fears her force to try, Because she wants innate authority; For how can she constrain them to obey, Who has herself cast off the lawful sway?

Rebellion equals all, and those who toil In common theft, will share the common spoil.

Let her produce the t.i.tle and the right Against her old superiors first to fight; If she reform by text, even that's as plain 460 For her own rebels to reform again.

As long as words a different sense will bear, And each may be his own interpreter, Our airy faith will no foundation find: The word's a weatherc.o.c.k for every wind: The Bear, the Fox, the Wolf, by turns prevail; The most in power supplies the present gale.

The wretched Panther cries aloud for aid To Church and Councils, whom she first betray'd; No help from Fathers or Tradition's train: 470 Those ancient guides she taught us to disdain, And, by that Scripture, which she once abused To reformation, stands herself accused.

What bills for breach of laws can she prefer, Expounding which she owns herself may err?

And, after all her winding ways are tried, If doubts arise, she slips herself aside, And leaves the private conscience for the guide.

If then that conscience set the offender free, It bars her claim to Church authority. 480 How can she censure, or what crime pretend, But Scripture may be construed to defend?

Even those, whom for rebellion she transmits 483 To civil power, her doctrine first acquits; Because no disobedience can ensue, Where no submission to a judge is due; Each judging for himself, by her consent, Whom thus absolved she sends to punishment.

Suppose the magistrate revenge her cause, 'Tis only for transgressing human laws. 490 How answering to its end a Church is made, Whose power is but to counsel and persuade?

Oh, solid rock, on which secure she stands!

Eternal house, not built with mortal hands!

Oh, sure defence against the infernal gate,-- A patent during pleasure of the state!

Thus is the Panther neither loved nor fear'd, A mere mock queen of a divided herd; Whom soon by lawful power she might control, Herself a part submitted to the whole. 500 Then, as the moon who first receives the light By which she makes our nether regions bright, So might she shine, reflecting from afar The rays she borrow'd from a better star; Big with the beams which from her mother flow, And reigning o'er the rising tides below: Now, mixing with a savage crowd, she goes, And meanly flatters her inveterate foes; Ruled while she rules, and losing every hour Her wretched remnants of precarious power. 510

One evening, while the cooler shade she sought, Revolving many a melancholy thought, Alone she walk'd, and look'd around in vain, With rueful visage, for her vanish'd train: None of her sylvan subjects made their court; Levees and couchees pa.s.s'd without resort.

So hardly can usurpers manage well 517 Those whom they first instructed to rebel.

More liberty begets desire of more; The hunger still increases with the store.

Without respect they brush'd along the wood, Each in his clan, and, fill'd with loathsome food, Ask'd no permission to the neighbouring flood.

The Panther, full of inward discontent, Since they would go, before them wisely went; Supplying want of power by drinking first, As if she gave them leave to quench their thirst.

Among the rest, the Hind, with fearful face, Beheld from far the common watering place, Nor durst approach; till, with an awful roar, 530 The sovereign Lion[107] bade her fear no more.

Encouraged thus she brought her younglings nigh, Watching the motions of her patron's eye, And drank a sober draught; the rest amazed Stood mutely still, and on the stranger gazed; Survey'd her part by part, and sought to find The ten-horn'd monster in the harmless Hind, Such as the Wolf and Panther had design'd.

They thought at first they dream'd; for 'twas offence With them to question cert.i.tude of sense, 540 Their guide in faith: but nearer when they drew, And had the faultless object full in view, Lord, how they all admired her heavenly hue!

Some, who before her fellowship disdain'd, Scarce, and but scarce, from in-born rage restrain'd, Now frisk'd about her, and old kindred feign'd.

Whether for love or interest, every sect Of all the savage nation show'd respect.