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"What," cries the Deist, with a sneer, "Redemption!-Priests may gain their ends;"

"But would a parent pay so dear

"As give a son to save his friends?"

"A great First Cause," the Atheists cry, "Consummate nonsense to advance ;" "That boundless space which men call sky" "Contains a God-there's none but Chance."

And canst thou jeer at mercy's theme,
Nor think upon thy soul's dread loss?
Canst thou deride, for impious dream,
Thy bleeding Saviour on the Cross;

throughout with men who had laid down such principles as the basis of their conduct through life, every human institution would be at an end, and a general scene of devastation characterise the face of nature; but in order to validate this position beyond a doubt, the train of events which disgraced revolutionary France, bid defiance to all contradiction, proving, that those children of Reason were every thing but rational, being even debased by enormity that enhorrors human nature. Such then being the case, farewel to Reason, which is not sanctioned by religion, for, Ludere cum sacris never yet was found to constitute a part of the creed of any wise and rational being; but, on the contrary, has been tolerated only by madmen, knaves, and fools.

·

For shame, for shame, no longer yield,
Thy dormant faith arouse from sleep;
Drive irreligion from the field,

Nor laugh at what made angels weep.

L'ENVOY OF THE POET.

If doubts assail thee, bid thy reason speak:
This truth must ev'ry wav'ring thought disarm:
That faith whose attribute is mild and meek,
Can only tend to good-not lead to harm.

THE POET'S CHORUS TO FOOLS.

Come, trim the boat, row on each Rara Avis,
Crowds flock to man my Stultifera Navis.

SECTION IX.

OF FOOLISH GLUTTONS AND DRUNKARDS.

Be not among wine-bibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh.

For the Drunkard and the Glutton shall come to poverty; and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.

To city feast my prying gaze I turn,
Profusion on the board I there discern,

SOLOMON.

Repasts of this nature have long been proverbial; nor does the appearance of the leading men east of Temple Bar, bely the general opinion of their capability and prowess at the knife and fork exercise: in vain doth moderation cry out, Lucisti satis, edisti satis atque bibisti; tempus abire tibi est; deaf to all such warnings, they continue the attack; and instances have been known, that, on the arrival of an unexpected dish, the already gorged alderman, thrown into an ecstacy at the luscious view, has waddled from the table, and having, by the assistance of potent libations of salt and water, eased in some degree the over-burdened stomach, he has forthwith returned to charge the object of his gluttony, and satiated his vengeance by a glorious indigestion. Plures crapula quam gladius. O despicable glut

While goggle eyest stare eager to begin:
With smack of lips the pil'd up ladle see
Reeking with callipash and callipee,

For forc'd meat balls they dash thro' thick
and thin.

The ven'son next, then turkeys, geese and chine, Wash'd down with oceans of Maderia wine;

ton, think but on the tortures which thou inflictest on the poor skate, ere it is crimped, to satiate thine appetite, and blush to own thyself a human being.

† At all periods has the inordinate gratification of this sense been considered by its votaries. The famed Anacreon, greedily indulging his appetite, was choked with a grape stone. Heliogabalus delighted in feasting on the tongues of nightingales and the brains of peacocks; while the followers of Epicurus ransacked the culinary art, in order to invent dishes that were calculated to pamper this bestial propensity. Nay, and among the tribe of guttling fools of more modern date may rank Worlidge the famous engraver of gems, who was so fond of good living as to exexpend one guinea on a pint of peas, although he had not at the time a shoe to his foot, and was literally repairing to a disciple of Crispin's, in order to procure a pair, when in Covent Garden Market, this fascinating object presented itself to his greedy eyes.

Fricandoes, fricassees, veal, mutton, beef;
Tarts, custards, jellies, blanc mange, and ice

creams:

Such are the joys ally'd to city dreams;
For gold they labour, guttling'st their relief.

Hogarth's celebrated print of the election feast, affords an inimitable picture of excess in gluttony, displayed in the representation of one of the party at the electioneering feast, who being overgorged, is just expiring of a fit of apoplexy, while at the end of the fork, still grasped in his hand, appears an oyster, which had been intended for the next mouthful. But although many instances in real life have been related of the inordinate love of guttling which has characterised the natives of this island, it is nevertheless conceived, that the reader must allow, from the following statement, that the natives of other countries may out-eat us. During the last war, a Prussian soldier at Liverpool literally devoured at one meal-a live cat-two pounds of bullock's liver, and two pounds of candles: with respect to rats and mice, they were regarded as such choice dainties in his estimation, that he would voraciously despatch all that came in his way, and it is absolutely a fact, that this ravenous propensity created such an acute feeling, that the drummer and fifer boys were afraid of appearing before this cormorant, lest he should be led to take a fancy to an arm or a shoulder, and suddenly place his grinders in contact with human flesh.

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