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PDFAnd, disencumber’d of his load,
No danger dreads upon the road;
Despises rapparees,[2] and rides
Safe through the Newry mountains’ sides.
Lindsay, ’tis you have set me on,
To state this question pro and con.
My satire may offend, ’tis true;
However, it concerns not you.
I own, there may, in every clan,
Perhaps, be found one honest man;
Yet link them close, in this they jump,
To be but rascals in the lump.
Imagine Lindsay at the bar,
He’s much the same his brethren are;
Well taught by practice to imbibe
The fundamentals of his tribe:
And in his client’s just defence,
Must deviate oft from common sense;
And make his ignorance discern’d,
To get the name of counsel-learn’d,
(As lucus comes a non lucendo,)
And wisely do as other men do:
But shift him to a better scene,
Among his crew of rogues in grain;
Surrounded with companions fit,
To taste his humour, sense, and wit;
You’d swear he never took a fee,
Nor knew in law his A, B, C.
’Tis hard, where dulness overrules,
To keep good sense in crowds of fools.
And we admire the man, who saves
His honesty in crowds of knaves;
Nor yields up virtue at discretion,
To villains of his own profession.
Lindsay, you know what pains you take
In both, yet hardly save your stake;
And will you venture both anew,
To sit among that venal crew,
That pack of mimic legislators,
Abandon’d, stupid, slavish praters?
For as the rabble daub and rifle
The fool who scrambles for a trifle;
Who for his pains is cuff’d and kick’d,
Drawn through the dirt, his pockets pick’d;
You must expect the like disgrace,
Scrambling with rogues to get a place;
Must lose the honour you have gain’d,
Your numerous virtues foully stain’d:
Disclaim for ever all pretence
To common honesty and sense;
And join in friendship with a strict tie,
To M—l, C—y, and Dick Tighe.[3]
No danger dreads upon the road;
Despises rapparees,[2] and rides
Safe through the Newry mountains’ sides.
Lindsay, ’tis you have set me on,
To state this question pro and con.
My satire may offend, ’tis true;
However, it concerns not you.
I own, there may, in every clan,
Perhaps, be found one honest man;
Yet link them close, in this they jump,
To be but rascals in the lump.
Imagine Lindsay at the bar,
He’s much the same his brethren are;
Well taught by practice to imbibe
The fundamentals of his tribe:
And in his client’s just defence,
Must deviate oft from common sense;
And make his ignorance discern’d,
To get the name of counsel-learn’d,
(As lucus comes a non lucendo,)
And wisely do as other men do:
But shift him to a better scene,
Among his crew of rogues in grain;
Surrounded with companions fit,
To taste his humour, sense, and wit;
You’d swear he never took a fee,
Nor knew in law his A, B, C.
’Tis hard, where dulness overrules,
To keep good sense in crowds of fools.
And we admire the man, who saves
His honesty in crowds of knaves;
Nor yields up virtue at discretion,
To villains of his own profession.
Lindsay, you know what pains you take
In both, yet hardly save your stake;
And will you venture both anew,
To sit among that venal crew,
That pack of mimic legislators,
Abandon’d, stupid, slavish praters?
For as the rabble daub and rifle
The fool who scrambles for a trifle;
Who for his pains is cuff’d and kick’d,
Drawn through the dirt, his pockets pick’d;
You must expect the like disgrace,
Scrambling with rogues to get a place;
Must lose the honour you have gain’d,
Your numerous virtues foully stain’d:
Disclaim for ever all pretence
To common honesty and sense;
And join in friendship with a strict tie,
To M—l, C—y, and Dick Tighe.[3]
[Footnote 1: The Goddess of Justice, the last of the celestials to leave the earth. “Ultima caelestum terras Astraea reliquit,” Ovid, “Met.,” i, 150.—W. E .B.]
[Footnote 2: Highwaymen of that time were so called.—W. E. B.]
[Footnote 3: Richard Tighe, Esq. He was a member of the Irish Parliament, and held by Dean Swift in utter abomination. He is several times mentioned in the Journal to Stella: how he used to beat his wife, and how she deserved it. “Prose Works,” vol. ii, pp. 229, 242, etc.—W. E. B.]
A DIALOGUE
BETWEEN AN EMINENT LAWYER[1] AND DR. JONATHAN
SWIFT, D.S.P.D. IN ALLUSION TO HORACE,
BOOK II, SATIRE I
“Sunt quibus in Satira,” etc.
WRITTEN BY MR. LINDSAY, IN 1729
DR. SWIFT
