Some of their chiefs were princes of the land;
In the first rank of thefe did Zimri ftand:
A man fo various, that he feem'd to be
Not one, but all mankind's epitome:
Stiff in opinions, always in the wrong;
Was every thing by ftarts, and nothing long;
But, in the courfe of one revolving moon,
Was chymift, fidler, ftatefman, and buffoon:
Then all for women, painting, rhiming, drinking,
Befides ten thousand freaks that dy'd in thinking.
Bleft madman, who could every hour employ,
With fomething new to wifh, or to enjoy!
Railing and praifing were his ufual themes;
And both, to fhew his judgment, in extremes:
So over violent, or over civil,
That ev'ry man with him was God or Devil.
In fquand'ring wealth was his peculiar art:
Nothing went unrewarded but defert.
Beggar'd by fools, whom ftill he found too late;
He had his jeft, and they had his estate.
He laugh'd himself from court; then fought relief
By forming parties, but could ne'er be chief:
For fpite of him the weight of business fell
On Abfalom, and wife Achitophel:
Thus, wicked but in will, of means bereft,
He left not faction, but of that was left.
Titles and names 'twere tedious to rehearse
Of lords, below the dignity of verse.
Wits, warriors, commonwealths-men, were the best:
Kind husbands, and mere nobles, all the reft.
And therefore, in the name of dulness, be
The well-hung Balaam and cold Caleb free:
And canting Nadab let oblivion damn,
Who made new porridge for the pafchal lamb.
Let friendship's holy band fome names affure;
Some their own worth, and fome let scorn secure.
Nor fhall the rafcal rabble here have place,
Whom kings no titles gave, and God no grace:
Not bull-fac'd Jonas, who could ftatutes draw
To mean rebellion, and make treafon law.
But he, tho' bad, is follow'd by a worse,
The wretch who heaven's anointed dar'd to curfe;
Shimei, whofe youth did early promife bring
Of zeal to God and hatred to his King;
Did wifely from expensive fins refrain,
And never broke the fabbath but for gain:
Nor ever was he known an oath to vent,
Or curfe, unless against the government.
Thus heaping wealth, by the moft ready way.
Among the Jews, which was to cheat and pray;
The city to reward his pious hate
Against his matter, chofe him magiftrate.
His hand a vase of juftice did uphold;
His neck was loaded with a chain of gold.
During his office treafon was no crime;
The fons of Belial had a glorious time:
For Shimei, tho' not prodigal of pelf,
Yet lov'd his wicked neighbour as himself.
When two or three were gathered to declaim
Against the monarch of Jerufalem,
Shimei was always in the midft of them:
And if they curs'd the King when he was by,
Would rather curfe than break good company.
If any durft his factious friends accufe,
He pack'd a jury of diffenting Jews;
Whofe fellow-feeling in the godly cause
Would free the fuff'ring faint from human laws.
For laws are only made to punish those
Who ferve the King, and to protect his foes.
If any leisure time he had from pow'r,
Because 'tis fin to mifemploy an hour:
His business was, by writing to perfuade,
That kings were useless and a clog to trade:
And that his noble ftyle he might refine,
No Rechabite more fhun'd the fumes of wine.
Chafte were his cellars, and his fhrieval board
The grofsnefs of a city feaft abhorr'd:
His cooks with long difufe their trade forgot;
Cool was his kitchen, tho' his brains were hot.
Such frugal virtue malice may accuse;
But fure 'twas neceffary to the Jews:
For towns, once burnt, fuch magiftrates require
As dare not tempt God's providence by fire.
With fpiritual food he fed his fervants well,
But free from flesh that made the Jews rebel :
And Mofes' laws he held in more account,
For forty days of fasting in the mount.
To speak the rest who better are forgot,
Would tire a well-breath'd witness of the plot.
Yet Corah, thou fhalt from oblivion pass;
Erect thyself, thou monumental brass,
High as the serpent of thy metal made,
While nations ftand fecure beneath thy fhade.
What, tho' his birth were base, yet comets rife
From earthly vapours ere they fhine in skies.
Prodigious actions may as well be done
By weaver's iffue, as by prince's fon.
This arch-atteftor for the publick good
By that one deed ennobles all his blood.
Who ever afk'd the witneffes high race,
Whose oath with martyrdom did Stephen grace?
Ours was a Levite, and as times went then,
His tribe were God Almighty's gentlemen.
Sunk were his eyes, his voice was harsh and loud,
Sure figns he neither cholerick was, nor proud:
His long chin prov'd his wit; his faint-like grace
A church vermillion, and a Mofes' face.
His memory miraculously great,
Could plots, exceeding man's belief, repeat;
Which therefore cannot be accounted lies,
For human wit could never fuch devife.
Some future truths are mingled in his book;
But where the witnefs fail'd the prophet spoke :
Some things like vifionary flight appear;
The spirit caught him up the Lord knows where;
And gave him his rabinical degree,
Unknown to foreign university.
His judgment yet his memory did excel;
Which piec'd his wonderous evidence fo well,
And fuited to the temper of the times,
Then groaning under jebufitick crimes.
Let Ifrael's foes fufpect his heavenly call,
And rafhly judge his writ apocryphal;
Our laws for fuch affronts have forfeits made:
He takes his life who takes away his trade.
Were I myself in witnefs Corah's place,
The wretch who did me fuch a dire disgrace,
Should whet my memory, tho' once forgot,
To make him an appendix of my plot.
His zeal to heav'n made him his prince defpife,
And load his perfon with indignities.
But zeal peculiar privilege affords,
Indulging latitude to deeds and words:
And Corah might for Agag's murder call,
In terms as coarfe as Samuel us'd to Saul.
What others in his evidence did join,
The beft that could be had for love or coin,
In Corah's own predicament will fall:
For witness is a common name to all.
Surrounded thus with friends of ev'ry fort,
Deluded Abfalom forfakes the court:
Impatient of high hopes, urg'd with renown,
And fir'd with near poffeffion of a crown,
Th' admiring croud are dazzled with surprise,
And on his goodly perfon feed their eyes.
His joy conceal'd he fets himself to show;
On each fide bowing popularly low:
His looks, his geftures, and his words he frames,
And with familiar ease repeats their names.
Thus form'd by nature, furnish'd out with arts,
He glides unfelt into their fecret hearts.
Then with a kind compaffionating look,
And fighs, befpeaking pity ere he spoke,
Few words he faid; but eafy those and fit,
More flow than hybla-drops, and far more sweet.
I mourn, my countrymen, your lost estate;
Tho' far unable to prevent your fate:
Behold a banish'd man for your dear caufe
Expos'd a prey to arbitrary laws!
Yet oh! that I alone could be undone,
Cut off from empire, and no more a fon!
Now all your liberties a spoil are made;
Egypt and Tyrus intercept your trade,
And Jebufites your facred rites invade.
My father, whom with rev'rence yet I name,
Charm'd into ease, is careless of his fame;
And brib'd with petty fums of foreign gold,
Is grown in Bathsheba's embraces old;
Exalts his enemies, his friends destroys;
And all his pow'r against himself employs.
He gives, and let him give, my right away:
But why should he his own and yours betray?
He, only he, can make the nation bleed,
And he alone from my revenge is freed.
Take then my tears, with that he wip'd his eyes,
'Tis all the aid my prefent pow'r fupplies:
No court-informer can thefe arms accufe;
These arms may fons against their father's use:
And 'tis my wish, the next fucceffor's reign
May make no other Ifraelite complain.
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