In Israel's courts ne'er sat an Abethdin[242]

With more discerning eyes, or hands more clean,

Unbribed, unsought, the wretched to redress;

Swift of dispatch, and easy of access.

Oh! had he been content to serve the crown,

With virtue 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.