SONG. THO' Fortune may boast at her shrine No devotion I owe the blind jade: For tell me what boon so divine Has a world of luxuriance to give The glitt'ring distinctions of state With Fate let them quarrel that choose, Then a truce with thy counsels, old Care, A CRUST FOR A CONVEYANCER. HEAR, with patient attention, a tragical tale, For our Bishops so learn'd, and our Deans orthodox, The gods-Epicurus averr'd long ago— With indiff'rence beheld revolutions below; They drank nectar and feasted, nor cared half-a-crown Though mankind, like the French, turn'd the globe upside down: Thus our gossips aver that their lordships in lawn Have from things of this world their attention withdrawn, And, intent on the next, of each church leave the care To Curates no better than him of Q****'s square. And in truth to this Curate old Nick ow'd a grudge; That, besides, he'd imbib'd an heretical notion, That "a Parson may laugh-till he's rais'd to promotion:" Some, who held themselves censors of no little note, Though they own'd, to atone for the last mention'd crime, Yet as if these high crimes were but slight pec cadilloes The parishioners rested at ease on their pillows, Their pastors they follow'd, their puddings they ate 'em; And so they may still-would John H******y let 'em. A Conveyancer he is-employ him who list: With more coin in his pocket than brains in his head, Yet a book he has written that nobody read:' * *The Life of Lord Mansfield. "Sooner shall "Great Mansfield fall by an attorney's hand. "See a long law-life, in 4to. of the great Earl Mansfield, Lord Chief "Justice of the King's Bench, by Mr. Holliday, in a very peculiar "style indeed. For the greater part, it is a bundle of reports and law pleadings strung together. It is astonishing to me that conveyancers "and attorneys, who really appear not to know how to construct a "single sentence without provoking a smile at some error in gram66 mar, language, or metaphor, will think themselves qualified to "deliver down to posterity the lives of great men. Luckily Mr. 66 Holliday's zeal does not offend us in rhyme. The friendship and "the verse of Pope, as well as the splendour of his own abilities, "and the dignity of their high exertions, have secured an eternity of "reputation to Lord Chief Justice Mansfield, which can never fall, even by Mr. Holliday's attempt."-Pursuits of Literature, 7th edit. page 322. |