Knowlege in Law care only can attain,
Where honour's purchas'd at the price of pain.
If, loit'ring, up th' afcent you cease to climb,
No ftarts of labour can redeem the time.
Industrious study wins by flow degrees,
True fons of Coke can ne'er be fons of eafe.
There are, whom Love of Poetry has smit,
Who, blind to intereft, arrant dupes to wit,
Have wander'd devious in the pleafing road,
With Attic flowers and Claffic wreaths beftrew'd:
Wedded to verfe, embrac'd the Muse for life,
And ta'en, like modern bucks, their whores to wife.
Where'er the Mufe ufurps defpotic fway,
All other studies muft of force give way.
Int'rest in vain puts in her prudent claim,
Nonfuited by the pow'rful plea of fame.
As well you might weigh lead against a feather,
As ever jumble wit and law together.
On Littleton Coke gravely thus remarks,
(Remember this, ye rhyming Temple Sparks !)
"In all our author's tenures, be it noted, "This is the fourth time any verfe is quoted." Which, 'gainst the Muse and verse, may well imply What lawyers call a noli profequi.
Quit then, dear George, O quit the barren field,
Which neither profit nor reward can yield !
What tho' the sprightly scene, well-acted, draws
From unpack'd Englishmen unbrib'd applause,
Some Monthly Grub, fome Dennis of the age,
In print cries fhame on the degen'rate stage *.
If haply Churchill strive, with generous aim,
To fan the sparks of genius to a flame;
If all UNASK'D, UNKNOWING, AND UNKNOWN,
By noting thy desert, he prove his own;
Envy shall strait to Hamilton's repair,
And vent her fpleen, and gall, and venom there,
* See the very curious and very fimilar criticisms on the comedy of the Jealous Wife, in the two Reviews, together with the most malicious and infolent attack on that writer, and the author of this Collection in the Critical Review for March; an injury poorly repaired by a lame apology in the Review for the fucceeding Month, containing fresh infults on one of the injured parties.
Thee, and thy works, and all thy friends decry,
And boldly print and publish a rank lie,
Swear your own hand the flatt'ring likeness drew,
Swear your own breath fame's partial trumpet blew.
Well I remember oft your friends have said,
(Friends, whom the fureft maxims ever led)
Turn parfon, Colman, that's the way to thrive ;
Your parfons are the happiest men alive.
Judges, there are but twelve, and never more,
But Stalls untold, and Bishops, twenty-four.
Of pride and claret, floth and ven'fon full,
Yon prelate mark, right reverend and dull!
He ne'er, good man, need penfive vigils keep
To preach his audience once a week to fleep;
On rich preferments battens at his ease,
Nor fweats for tithes, as lawyers toil for fees.
Thus they advis'd. I know thee better far ; And cry, ftick clofe, dear Colman, to the Bar! If genius warm thee, where can genius call
For nobler action than in yonder hall?
'Tis not enough each morn, on Term's approach,
To club your legal threepence for a coach;
Then at the Hall to take your filent stand,
With ink-horn and long note-book in your hand,
Marking grave serjeants cite each wise report,
And noting down fage dictums from the court,
With overwhelming brow, and law-learn'd face,
The index of your book of common-place.
These are mere drudges, that can only plod,
And tread the path their dull forefathers trod,
Doom'd thro' law's maze, without a clue, to range,
From Second Vernon down to fecond Strange.
Do Thou uplift thine eyes to happier wits!
Dulness no longer on the woolpack fits;
No longer on the drawling dronish herd
Are the first honours of the law confer'd ;
But they, whose fame reward's due tribute draws,
Whose active merit challenges applause,
Like glorious beacons, are fet high to view,
To mark the paths which genius fhou'd perfue.
O for thy fpirit, MANSFIELD! at thy name
What bofom glows not with an active flame?
Alone from Jargon born to rescue Law,
From precedent, grave hum, and formal faw!
To ftrip chican'ry of its vain pretence,
And marry Common Law to Common Senfe!
PRAT! on thy lips persuasion ever hung! English falls, pure as Manna, from thy tongue : On thy voice truth may reft, and on thy plea Unerring HENLEY found the just decree.
HENLEY! than whom, to HARDWICK's well-rais'd
fame,
No worthier fecond Royal GEORGE cou'd name:
No lawyer of prerogative; no tool
Fashion'd in black corruption's pliant school;
Form'd 'twixt the People and the Crown to stand,
And hold the scales of right with even hand!
True to our hopes, and equal to his birth, See, fee in YORKE the force of lineal worth!
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