[463]Slingsby Bethel.
[464]Mac Flecknoe.
[465]Mac Flecknoe.
[466] "Strong were our sires, and as they fought they writ,
Conquering with force of arms and dint of wit:
Theirs was the giant race before the flood,
And thus, when Charles return'd, our empire stood.
Like Janus, he the stubborn soil manured,
With rules of husbandry the rankness cured;
Tamed us to manners, when the stage was rude,
And boisterous English wit with art endured....
But what we gain'd in skill we lost in strength,
Our builders were with want of genius curst;
The second temple was not like the first."
—"Epistle 12 to Congreve," XI. 59.
[467] "Held up the buckler of the people's cause
Against the crown, and skulk'd against the laws....
Desire of power, on earth a vicious weed,
Yet, sprung from high, is of celestial seed!"
—"Absalom and Achitophel," Part I.
[468] "Why then should I, encouraging the bad,
Turn rebel, and run popularly mad?"
—Ibid.
[469] "Though Huguenots contemn our
ordination.
Succession, ministerial vocation,"
etc.
("The Hind and the Panther," Part. II. 10. 166). Such are the harsh words we often find in his books.
[470]Preface to the "Religio Laid," X. 32.
[471]What Augustus says about Horace is charming, but cannot be quoted, even in Latin.