Te videt in somnis; tua sacra et major imago
Humana turbat pavidum, cogitque fateri.
JUVENAL, Satire xiii.
------------------------
THE PARISH-CLERK.
The Parish-Clerk began his Duties with the late Vicar, a grave and austere Man; one fully orthodox; a Detecter and Opposer of the Wiles of Satan - His opinion of his own Fortitude - The more frail offended by these Professions - His good advice gives further Provocation - They invent stratagems to overcome his Virtue - His Triumph - He is yet not invulnerable: is assaulted by fear of Want, and Avarice - He gradually yields to the Seduction - He reasons with himself, and is persuaded - He offends, but with Terror; repeats his Offence; grows familiar with Crime: is detected - His Sufferings and Death.
WITH our late Vicar, and his age the same,
His clerk, hight Jachin, to his office came;
The like slow speech was his, the like tall slender frame:
But Jachin was the gravest man on ground,