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SECTION LXIV.

OF THE REWARD OF WISDOM.*

The wise shall inherit glory; but shame shall be the promotion of fools.

WISDOM looks calmly on the shafts of fate,
Truly enthron'd in its own mental state;
Arm'd against vice, its empire it destroys,
And tastes hereafter everlasting joys.t

* Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding.

The poet having so well described in one stanza, the reward of wisdom, here and hereafter, it would be needless to add any thing further by way of note upon the subject: his only hope, therefore is, that more individuals may deserve the recompense, than have come within the pale of his cognizance; for the words of Solomon have been too universally verified, who saith,

"Wisdom crieth out in the streets; but no one regardeth

her."

THE POET'S EXCLAMATION TO FOOLS.

How strange that godlike man will persevere, And spurn the good, rejecting wisdom here; Since 'tis as easy this reward to win,

As stain the body and the soul with sin!

SECTION LXV.

OF BACKBITERS AND SUCH AS SHALL DESPISE THIS

WORK.

O ye simple, understand wisdom, and ye fools, be an understanding heart.

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Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets:

How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning; and fools hate knowledge?

MANY there are, who on my page shall look,
That doubtless will revile this little book;
The reason's plain-for there are few indeed,
Who will not trace their portraits,* as they read;

* That this will prove the case, there needs no ghost from the grave to tell us; but that there will be found any possessed of sufficient candour to allow it, is quite a different matter; for the cry will be on all sides-" God bless me! how much that reminds me of so and so!" "Well, one would really suppose, that the poet had had Lord this, or the other in his eye, when he committed his ideas to paper;"

And naught in folly's brain creates such terror,
As to proclaim aloud its favourite error.

Yet tho' condemn'd by most part of mankind,
As censor public-Critic most unkind;

I shall not shrink, nor from the truth abstain,
For wounds when prob'd must give the patient pain:
Therefore I'll publish-naught the clamour heed-
ing,*

Lavish'd by fools,† while they my theme are reading

yet, while those wondrous discoveries are making, the fools will carefully withhold from the mention of their own fooleries, howsoever well their heads may be adapted for the cap which has been made for them.

*This is certainly very contemptuous of the poet, who might have used the words of our bard, to convey his idea of the effect produced upon his labours by the slander of fools.

For haply slander,

Whose whisper o'er the world's diameter,

As level as the cannon to his blank

Transports his poison'd shot, may miss our name,
And hit the woundless air.

I make no doubt, but that numerous fools, on the pe

Some minds, there are, not so much zany's* tools,

As with deaf ears to greet my Ship of Fools;
To such, tho' few,† I dedicate my lays,

My muse well recompens'd by their just praise;

rusal of this little book, would be heartily glad to realize the Italian proverb, which saith,

Se la lingua fosse una lancia farebbe più male, che dieci altra.

* The poet has ventured a great deal in this line; grant that his affirmation may be verified by experience. I must certainly say, that if there are any such, who refuse the meed of approbation, I shall at once pronounce, that they were not possessed of a single grain of gratitude, which is the worst that can be said of human nature, for,

Ingratum si dixeris omnia dicis,

Or, to use the words of Young:

He that's ungrateful has no crime but one,

All other vices may pass for virtues in him.

In this third line, the bard has checked himself with the word few, a very lucky circumstance truly, for to find him tripping in judgment, after censuring all the world, (his few excepted) would indeed have subjected him even to the ridicule of folly, which would have been warranted in its full extent, while the scoffers, in arraying him in their own bells, cap, and ladle, and calling him fool, would have said with Horace,

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