And unmolested Kine rechew the Cud;

35 When Curlews cry beneath the Village-walls,
And to her straggling Brood the Partridge calls;
Their short-lived Jubilee the Creatures keep,
Which but endures, whilst Tyrant-Man do's sleep;
When a sedate Content the Spirit feels,

40 And no fierce Light disturb, whilst it reveals;
But silent Musings urge the Mind to seek
Something, too high for Syllables to speak;
Till the free Soul to a composedness charmed,
Finding the Elements of Rage disarmed,

45 O'er all below a solemn Quiet grown,

Joys in th' inferior World, and thinks it like her Own: In such a Night let Me abroad remain,

Till Morning breaks, and All's confused again; Our Cares, our Toils, our Clamours are renewed, 50 Or Pleasures, seldom reached, again pursued.

DANIEL DEFOE

FROM THE TRUE BORN ENGLISHMAN

WHEREVER GOD erects a House of Prayer,
The Devil always builds a Chapel there;
And 'twill be found, upon examination,
The latter has the largest congregation.

For ever since he first debauched the mind,
He made a perfect conquest of mankind.
With Uniformity of Service, he
Reigns with a general aristocracy.

No Nonconforming Sects disturb his reign;
For of his yoke, there's very few complain!
He knows the Genius and the inclination,
And matches proper sins for every nation.
He needs no Standing Army Government,
He always rules us by our own consent !
His laws are easy, and his gentle sway
Makes it exceeding pleasant to obey.
The list of his Vicegerents and Commanders
Outdoes your CÆSARS or your ALEXANDERS:
They never fail of his infernal aid,

And he's as certain ne'er to be betrayed.

Through all the world, they spread his vast command,

5

ΤΟ

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20

And Death's eternal empire is maintained.
They rule so politicly and so well,

As if there were Lords Justices of Hell! 25 Duly divided, to debauch mankind,

And plant infernal dictates in their mind.

PRIDE, the first Peer, and President of Hell;
To his share, Spain, the largest province, fell.
The subtle Prince thought fittest to bestow
30 On these, the golden mines of Mexico,

With all the silver mountains of Peru;

Wealth which, in wise hands, would the World undo! Because he knew their Genius to be such,

Too lazy and too haughty to be rich.

35 So proud a people, so above their fate,

That if reduced to beg, they'll beg in State!

Lavish of money, to be counted brave;
And proudly starve, because they scorn to save.
Never was nation in the World before,

40 So very rich, and yet so very poor.

75

[Defoe goes on (11. 41–74) to ascribe different dominating vices to various countries: Lust to Italy, Drunkenness to Germany, Passion to France; the Pagan World is personally ruled by Satan himself.]

The rest, by Deputies, he rules as well, And plants the distant colonies of hell:

By them, his secret power, he well maintains,
And binds the World in his infernal chains.

By zeal, the Irish; and the Rush by folly:
Fury, the Dane; the Swede, by melancholy.
By stupid ignorance, the Muscovite :

The Chinese, by a child of hell called Wit.
Wealth makes the Persian too effeminate;
And Poverty, the Tartars desperate.

The Turks and Moors, by MAHOMET he subdues;
And GOD has given him leave to rule the Jews.
Rage rules the Portuguese; and fraud, the Scotch;
Revenge, the Pole; and avarice, the Dutch.

Satyr, be kind! and draw a silent veil!
Thy native England's vices to conceal.
Or if that task's impossible to do,

At least be just, and shew her virtues too!
Too great, the first! alas, the last too few!

England unknown as yet, unpeopled lay.
Happy had she remained so to this day,
And not to every nation been a prey!
Her open harbours and her fertile plains

(The merchants' glory these, and those, the swains'),
To every barbarous nation had betrayed her!
Who conquer her as oft as they invade her.
So Beauty, guarded but by Innocence !

That ruins her, which should be her defence.

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INGRATITUDE, a devil of black renown,
Possessed her very early for his own:
105 An ugly, surly, sullen, selfish spirit,
Who SATAN'S worst perfections does inherit.
Second to him in malice and in force,
All Devil without, and all within him worse.

He made her first-born race to be so rude, 110 And suffered her to be so oft subdued.

By several crowds of wandering thieves o'errun,
Often unpeopled, and as oft undone :

While every nation, that her powers reduced,
Their language and manners soon infused.
115 From whose mixed relics our compounded Breed
By spurious generation does succeed:

Making a Race uncertain and uneven,

Derived from all the nations under heaven!

The Romans first, with JULIUS CÆSAR came, 120 Including all the nations of that name,

Gauls, Greeks, and Lombards, and by computation, Auxiliaries or slaves, of every nation.

With HENGIST, Saxons; Danes with SUENO came; In search of plunder, not in search of fame. 125 Scots, Picts, and Irish from the Hibernian shore; And conquering WILLIAM brought the Normans o'er.

All these, their barbarous offspring left behind; The dregs of armies, they, of all mankind: