CHARACTER OF ACHITOPHEL. Some had in courts been great, and thrown from
thence,
Like fiends, were harden'd in impenitence:
Some, by their monarch's fatal mercy, grown
From pardon'd rebels kinsmen to the throne,
Were raised in power and public office high ;
Strong bands, if bands ungrateful men could tie.
Of these the false Achitophel was first,
A name to all succeeding ages cursed;
For close designs and crooked counsels fit,
Sagacious, bold, and turbulent of wit;
Restless, unfix'd in principles and place,
In power unpleased, impatient of disgrace;
A fiery soul which, working out its way,
Fretted the pigmy body to decay,
And o'er-inform'd the tenement of clay.
A daring pilot in extremity;
[high, Pleased with the danger, when the waves went