Selected quad for the lemma: blood_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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ID |
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Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
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A36627
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The hind and the panther a poem, in three parts.
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Dryden, John, 1631-1700.
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1687
(1687)
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Wing D2281; ESTC R179
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43,423
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154
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mighty hunter of his race Not so the blessed Pan his flock encreas'd Content to sold 'em from the farnish'd beast Mild were his laws the Sheep and harmless Hind Were never of the persecuting kind Such pity now the pious Pastor shows Such mercy from the British Lyon flows That both provide protection for their foes Oh happy Regions Italy and Spain Which never did those monsters entertain The Wolfe the Bear the Boar can there advance No native claim of just inheritance And self-preserving laws severe in show May guard their fences from th' invading foe Where birth has plac'd 'em let 'em safely share The common benefit of vital air Themselves unharmfull let them live unharm'd Their jaws disabl'd and their claws disarm'd Here onely in nocturnal howlings bold They dare not seize the Hind nor leap the fold More pow'rfull and as vigilant as they The Lyon awfully forbids the prey Their rage repress'd though pinch'd with famine sore They stand aloof and tremble at his roar Much is their hunger but their fear is more These are the chief to number o'er the rest And stand like Adam naming ev'ry beast Were weary work nor will the Muse describe A slimy-born and sun-begotten Tribe Who far from steeples and their sacred sound In fields their sullen conventicles found These gross half-animated lumps I leave Nor can I think what thoughts they can conceive But if they think at all 't is sure no high'r Than matter put in motion may aspire Souls that can scarce ferment their mass of clay So drossy so divisible are They As wou'd but serve pure bodies for allay Such souls as Shards produce such beetle things As onely buz to heav'n with ev'ning wings Strike in the dark offending but by chance Such are the blind-fold blows of ignorance They know not beings and but hate a name To them the Hind and Panther are the same The Panther sure the noblest next the Hind And fairest creature of the spotted kind Oh could her in-born stains be wash'd away She were too good to be a beast of Prey How can I praise or blame and not offend Or how divide the frailty from the friend Her faults and vertues lye so mix'd that she Nor wholly stands condemn'd nor wholly free Then like her injur'd Lyon let me speak He can not bend her and he would not break Unkind already and estrang'd in part The Wolfe begins to share her wandring heart Though unpolluted yet with actual ill She half commits who sins but in Her will. If as our dreaming Platonists report There could be spirits of a middle sort Too black for heav'n and yet too white for hell Who just dropt half way down nor lower fell So pois'd so gently she descends from high It seems a soft dismission from the sky Her house not ancient whatsoe'er pretence Her clergy Heraulds make in her defence A second century not half-way run Since the new honours of her bloud begun A Lyon old obscene and furious made By lust compress'd her mother in a shade Then by a left-hand marr'age weds the Dame Cov'ring adult'ry with a specious name So schism begot and sacrilege and she A well-match'd pair got graceless heresie God's and kings rebels have the same good cause To trample down divine and humane laws Both wou'd be call'd Reformers and their hate Alike destructive both to church and state The fruit proclaims the plant a lawless Prince By luxury reform'd incontinence By ruins charity by riots abstinence Confessions fasts and penance set aside Oh with what ease we follow such a guide Where souls are starv'd and senses gratify'd Where marr'age pleasures midnight pray'r supply And mattin bells a melancholy cry Are tun'd to merrier notes encrease and multiply Religion shows a Rosie colour'd face Not hatter'd out with drudging works of grace A down-hill Reformation rolls apace What flesh and bloud wou'd croud the narrow gate` Or till they waste their pamper'd paunches wait All wou'd be happy at the cheapest rate Though our lean faith these rigid laws has giv'n The full fed Musulman goes fat to heav'n For his Arabian Prophet with delights Of sense allur'd his eastern Proselytes The jolly Luther reading him began T' interpret Scriptures by his Alcoran To grub the thorns beneath our tender feet And make the paths of Paradise more sweet Bethought him of a wife e'er half way gone For 't was uneasy travailing alone And in this masquerade of mirth and love Mistook the bliss of heav'n for Bacchanals above Sure he presum'd of praise who came to stock Th' etherial pastures with so fair a flock Burnish'd and bat'ning on their food to show The diligence of carefull herds below Our Panther though like these she chang'd her head Yet as the mistress of a monarch's bed Her front erect with majesty she bore The Crozier weilded and the Miter wore Her upper part of decent discipline Shew'd affectation of an ancient line And fathers councils church and churches head Were on her reverend Phylacteries read But what disgrac'd and disavow'd the rest Was Calvin's brand that stigmatiz'd the beast Thus like a creature of a double kind In her own labyrinth she lives confin'd To foreign lands no sound of Her is come Humbly content to be despis'd at home Such is her faith where good cannot be had At least she leaves the refuse of the bad Nice in her choice of ill though not of best And least deform'd because reform'd the least In doubtfull points betwixt her diff'ring friends Where one for substance one for sign contends Their contradicting terms she strives to join Sign shall be substance substance shall be sign A real presence all her sons allow And yet 't is flat Idolatry to bow Because the god-head's there they know not how Her Novices are taught that bread and wine Are but the visible and outward sign Receiv'd by those who in communion join But th' inward grace or the thing signify'd His bloud and body who to save us dy'd The faithfull this thing signify'd receive What is 't those faithfull then partake or leave For what is signify'd and understood Is by her own confession flesh and blood Then by the same acknowledgement we know They take the sign and take the substance too The lit'ral sense is hard to flesh and blood But nonsense never can be understood Her wild belief on ev'ry wave is tost But sure no church can better morals boast True to her king her principles are found Oh that her practice were but half so sound Stedfast in various turns of state she stood And seal'd her vow'd affection with her bloud Nor will I meanly tax her constancy That int'rest or obligement made the tye Bound to the fate of murdr'd Monarchy Before the â—ounding Ax so falls the Vine Whose tender branches round the Poplar twine She chose her ruin and resign'd her life In death undaunted as an Indian wife A rare example but some souls we see Grow hard and stiffen with adversity