Hurrah! hurrah! Hail, glorious Muddiduck!"

And now the crowd to north, east, west, and

south,

In shoals departing, vent their curses dire
'Gainst law and Noah, order and good rule!
Nor far advance they ere another wing
Of the same army full appears in view.

Less philosophic these, less learn'd, less prone 540. To argue points conflicting and abstruse,

Sworn friends of Bacchus, lovers of the cup,
Fond of the grape's dark purple blood,

and dy'd

British islands and British dependencies, it is at the same time, and in a corresponding ratio, to be lamented, that the most popular systems are the most pernicious, the most pestilential, and the most hostile to sound theology. The basis, the body, and the top-stone, of education, must be nothing less or more than the oracles of God, as enshrined in the formularies of his church. "Mere talent," says a divine of our own day (the Rev. Henry Budd), "is the grand engine whereby the devil is deceiving the nations." Solomon saith, "wisdom is better than weapons of war: but one sinner destroyeth much good."-Eccles. ix. 18; and David saith, "I am wiser than my teachers,"--not by reason of any superior mental endowment, or intellectual qualification, -but simply, "because I keep thy commandments."

As with vermillion, eyes, nose, cheeks, and all! O where's the pencil competent to paint A scene so chaste, so beautiful, so fair? Apelles! Raphael! Rubens!-where were ye? Why liv'd ye not in ante-deluge days To sketch or paint a portraiture like this? Lewdness, debauch, and riot, seem to pave 550. The very streets and public thoroughfares! Tumbling at random ev'ry where, behold Creation's lords! ah! and its ladies too! Fly, fly, ye virtuous, to the mountain-tops, For direful lewdness holds its court at foot! Where is the female's refuge? where the home Of wounded innocence?-of stricken youth?

555. Where is the female's refuge, &c.-There are now, we gratefully confess, institutions for the reception of erring women; and for those especially upon whom the self-righteous have turned their backs. For the consolation of male seducers, I beg leave to quote the great theologian already referred to (the Rev. H. Melvill.) "Of all the miserable beings on the face of the earth, we suppose not that any can be compared to these victims of vice at some stage or other of their career. Seduced away, it may village and cottage of

be, by false representations, from the affectionate parents, they have been made the prey of artful villains, who, quickly abandoning what they had eagerly sought, have driven them, as blighted flowers, on a rude, inhospitable

And where the thunderbolt to strike with death The prowling monsters, plund'rers of the poor?—

Foes of the fair, and murd'rers of the weak? 560. O awful world beyond this world afar,

Above yon sun, from moon and stars remote,
Thy wing'd ambassadors are vex'd, and
mov'd

E'en to the soul by such a sight as this!—
Wait, awful world! until they tell the tale
In their own heav'nly language in thy realms:
And then, O say, when time is ripe and red,
Shall not God's arm be bar'd? shall not his hand
Deal vengeance sevenfold on these deeds of
blood?

The deeds which, nam'd, are bloodier e'en
than blood?

570. Say, awful world?

world." A little further on, the same truly Christian orator says, "yet we have high authority for saying, that these foolish women are not of all sinners the most incapable of penitence-not the least likely to be touched with a sense of their guilt. Sinners such as these, by John the Baptist's first preaching, found their way into the kingdom of heaven before the Pharisees!"

ARGUMENT

ΤΟ

BOOK THE FOURTH.

THE evils of monotony, and the benefits arising from occasional changes, demonstrated. The approach of the deluge published by six of the partizans of Odin, and afterwards by trumpeters commissioned by Noah.-The rabble proceed to the dwelling of Odin, who stimulates them to fresh exertions, and suggests the propriety of killing the Patriarch.-Odin dismisses his rude audience; and then, in a soliloquy, confesses that thirst for kingly power excites him to stir up other men to acts of fury which his own judgment condemns. He retires to rest.-Morning appears, and a dialogue takes place between Odin and his wife, which terminates fatally to the latter, who is cast by her monstrous husband into a dark cell, and there left to die.-Reflections succeed, as naturally arising out of the subject.-Odin, disguised, goes, with his adherents, to the place where the ark is being constructed. -Noah's sermon and invitation to his auditory to enter the ark. -The mob become exceedingly violent; and having, as they suppose, slain Noah, depart to a spacious plain, and hold high festival in commemoration of the deed;―riot and drunkenness mark the day :-they elect one, Quackum, to be chairman, who, in his first speech, urges the necessity of finding Odin, and of bringing into the midst of the assembly the corpse of the slain Patriarch-a detachment go out for this double object; and, while searching for the missing Odin, are accosted by a subterranean

112

ARGUMENT TO BOOK FOURTH.

voice, proceeding from the cell of the imprisoned and dying Mirandah. The frightened messengers return, and while communicating to Quackum the reason of their alarm, the dead body of Odin (who it is now discovered had been killed by mistake instead of Noah, the intended victim,) is borne in.-The Inquest. -Muddiduck shows the cause of Odin's death, and Noddle takes casts of his head.-A public funeral is agreed upon.-The spirit of storms, at midnight, summons men to repentance, and forewarns them that "the hour is nigh."-A minute description of the funeral.-Infidel objections to the burial service, which the priest insists upon reading despite the interruption of the hostile mourners.-The funeral over, the vast throng resort to a field, and a scuffle ensues as to who is to be king or ruling man-some vote for Quackum, some for Noddle, some for Muddiduck.Passion and violent blows prepare the way to an (amicable?) adjustment of the question, which is ultimately effected by uniting the three distinguished families of the Quackums, the Noddles, and the Muddiducks, in the bands of wedlock.-Projects of buying and selling, riot, drunkenness, and disorder, continue to characterize the vast faction, until the flood sets in, and destroys them "from off the face of the earth."-Mirandah is seen floating upon the waters, asks forgiveness of her injured foster-father, obtains it, and expires.—An angel is heard carolling amid the flood the righteous acts of the Omnipotent-the angel's song.-The rainbow is seen, and the voice of God is heard speaking from heaven. —Myriads of angels sing aloud to the praise of the Most High. —Noah and his family join the anthem, and the perpetuity of the throne and the unity of the church are declared to be unchangeable.