To that unfeathered two-legged thing, a son, 2tà‹170
Got, while his soul did huddled notions try,
And born a shapeless lump, like anarchy.
In friendship false, implacable in hate,
Resolved to ruin or to rule the state;
To compass this the triple bond he broke,
The pillars of the public safety shook,
And fitted Israel for a foreign yoke ;
Then, seized with fear, yet still affecting fame,
Usurped a patriot's all-atoning name.
So easy still it proves in factious times
With public zeal to cancel private crimes.
How safe is treason and how sacred ill,
Where none can sin against the people's will,
Where crowds can wink and no offence be known,
Since in another's guilt they find their own!
Yet fame deserved no enemy can grudge ;
The statesman we abhor, but praise the judge.
In Israel's courts ne'er sat an Abbethdin
With more discerning eyes or hands more clean,
Unbribed, unsought, the wretched to redress,
Swift of despatch and easy of access.
Oh! had he been content to serve the crown
With virtues only proper to the gown,
Or had the rankness of the soil been freed
From cockle that oppressed the noble seed,
David for him his tuneful harp had strung
And Heaven had wanted one immortal song.
But wild ambition loves to slide, not stand,
And Fortune's ice prefers to Virtue's land.
Achitophel, grown weary to possess
A lawful fame and lazy happiness,
Disdained the golden fruit to gather free
And lent the crowd his arm to shake the tree.
Now, manifest of crimes contrived long since,
He stood at bold defiance with his Prince,
Held up the buckler of the people's cause
Against the crown, and skulked behind the laws.
The wished occasion of the Plot he takes ;
Some circumstances finds, but more he makes ;
By buzzing emissaries fills the ears
Of listening crowds with jealousies and fears
Of arbitrary counsels brought to light,
And proves the King himself a Jebusite.
Weak arguments! which yet he knew full well
Were strong with people easy to rebel.
For governed by the moon, the giddy Jews
Tread the same track when she the prime renews :
And once in twenty years their scribes record,
By natural instinct they change their lord.
Achitophel still wants a chief, and none
Was found so fit as warlike Absalon.
Not that he wished his greatness to create,
For politicians neither love nor hate :
But, for he knew his title not allowed
Would keep him still depending on the crowd,
That kingly power, thus ebbing out, might be
Drawn to the dregs of a democracy.
Him he attempts with studied arts to please
And sheds his venom in such words as these:
"Auspicious prince, at whose nativity "Some royal planet ruled the southern sky, "Thy longing country's darling and desire, "Their cloudy pillar and their guardian fire, "Their second Moses, whose extended wand "Divides the seas and shows the promised land, "Whose dawning day in every distant age "Has exercised the sacred prophet's rage, "The people's prayer, the glad diviner's theme,
"The young men's vision, and the old men's dream, “Thee Saviour, thee the nation's vows confess,
"And never satisfied with seeing bless :
"Swift unbespoken pomps thy steps proclaim,
“And stammering babes are taught to lisp thy name.
"How long wilt thou the general joy detain,
"Starve and defraud the people of thy reign?
"Content ingloriously to pass thy days,
"Like one of virtue's fools that feeds on praise;
"Till thy fresh glories, which now shine so bright,
"Grow stale and tarnish with our daily sight.
"Believe me, royal youth, thy fruit must be
"Or gathered ripe, or rot upon the tree.
"Heaven has to all allotted, soon or late,
"Some lucky revolution of their fate :
"Whose motions if we watch and guide with skill,
(For human good depends on human will,)
"Our fortune rolls as from a smooth descent
“And from the first impression takes the bent ;
"But, if unseized, she glides away like wind
“And leaves repenting folly far behind.
'Now, now she meets you with a glorious prize
“And spreads her locks before her as she flies.
"Had thus old David, from whose loins you spring,
"Not dared, when Fortune called him to be King,
"At Gath an exile he might still remain, Grussels.
"And Heaven's anointing oil had been in vain.
"Let his successful youth your hopes engage,
"But shun the example of declining age.
"Behold him setting in his western skies,
"The shadows lengthening as the vapours rise
He is not now, as when, on Jordan's sand,
"The joyful people thronged to see him land,
"Covering the beach and blackening all the strand,
But like the Prince of Angels, from his height
"Comes tumbling downward with diminished light :
"Betrayed by one poor Plot to public scorn,
'(Our only blessing since his curst return,)
"Those heaps of people, which one sheaf did bind,
"Blown off and scattered by a puff of wind.
"What strength can he to your designs oppose,
"Naked of friends, and round beset with foes?
✓ “If Pharaoh's doubtful succour he should use,
“A foreign aid would more incense the Jews;
"Proud Egypt would dissembled friendship bring,
"Foment the war, but not support the King :
"Nor would the royal party e'er unite
"With Pharaoh's arms to assist the Jebusite;
"Or, if they should, their interest soon would break
'And with such odious aid make David weak.
"All sorts of men, by my successful arts
Abhorring kings, estrange their altered hearts "From David's rule: and 'tis the general cry,
Religion, commonwealth, and liberty.
"If you, as champion of the public good, "Add to their arms a chief of royal blood,
"What may not Israel hope, and what applause
Might such a general gain by such a cause?
“Not barren praise alone, that gaudy flower,
"Fair only to the sight, but solid power;
"Given by the love of all your native land, "Than a successive title, long and dark,
"Drawn from the mouldy rolls of Noah's ark."
What cannot praise effect in mighty minds,
When flattery soothes and when ambition blinds?
Desire of power, on earth a vicious weed,
Yet sprung from high is of celestial seed;
In God 'tis glory, and when men aspire,
'Tis but a spark too much of heavenly fire.
The ambitious youth, too covetous of fame,
Too full of angel's metal in his frame,
Unwarily was led from virtue's ways,
Made drunk with honour and debauched with praise. Half loth and half consenting to the ill,
For loyal blood within him struggled still,
He thus replied: "And what pretence have I
"To take up arms for public liberty?
"My father governs with unquestioned right,
"The faith's defender and mankind's delight,
Good, gracious, just, observant of the laws;
"And Heaven by wonders has espoused his cause.
"Whom has he wronged in all his peaceful reign?
"Who sues for justice to his throne in vain?
"What millions has he pardoned of his foes
"Whom just revenge did to his wrath expose.
"Mild, easy, humble, studious of our good,
"Inclined to mercy and averse from blood.
"If mildness ill with stubborn Israel suit,
"His crime is God's beloved attribute.
"What could he gain his people to betray
"Or change his right for arbitrary sway?
"Let haughty Pharaoh curse with such a reign
"His fruitful Nile, and yoke a servile train.
"If David's rule Jerusalem displease,
"The dog-star heats their brains to this disease.
"Why then should I, encouraging the bad,
"Turn rebel and run popularly mad?
"Were he a tyrant, who by lawless might
"Oppressed the Jews and raised the Jebusite,
"Well might I mourn; but nature's holy bands
"Would curb my spirits and restrain my hands;
"The people might assert their liberty,
"But what was right in them were crime in me.
"His favour leaves me nothing to require,
wishes and outruns desire;
"What more can I expect while David lives?
"All but his kingly diadem he gives :
"And that”—But there he paused, then sighing said,
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