Selected quad for the lemma: judgement_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
judgement_n	body_n	soul_n	think_v	1,483	5	4.5805	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36581	Absalom and Achitophel a poem.; Absalom and Achitophel	Dryden, John, 1631-1700.	1681 (1681)	Wing D2214; ESTC R1552	18,435	34

ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL A POEM Si Propius stes Te Capiet Magis The Second Editon Augmented and Revised TO THE READER 'T is not my intention to make an apology for my Poem Some will think it needs no excuse and others will receive none The design I am sure is honest but he who draws his Pen for one party must expect to make enemies of the other 〈◊〉 Wit and Fool are consequents of Whig and Tory and every man is a Knave or an Ass to the contrary side There 's a treasury of Merits in the ●hanatick Church as well as in the Papist and a Pennyworth to be had of Saintship Honesty and Poetry for the Loud the Factious and the Blockheads But the longest Chapter in Deuteronomy has 〈◊〉 Curses enow for an Anti Bromingham My comfort is their manifest prejudice to my Cause will render their judgement of less Authority against me Yet if a Poem have a Genius it will force its own reception in the World For there 's a sweetness in good Verse which tickles even while it hurts And no man can be heartily angry with him who pleases him against his will The commendation of Adverversaries is the greatest triumph of a Writer because it never comes unless extorted But I can be satisfied on more easy terms If I happen to please the more moderate sort I shall be sure of an honest party and in all probability of the best Judges for the least concerned are commonly the least corrupt And I confess I have laid in for those by rebating the Satyre where Justice would allow it from carrying too sharp an edge They who can criticize so weakly as to imagine I have done my worst may be convinc'd at their own cost that I can write severely with more ease than I can gently I have but 〈◊〉 at 〈◊〉 mens Follies when I coud have declaim'd against their 〈◊〉 and other mens Vertues I have commended as freely as I have 〈◊〉 their 〈◊〉 And now if you are a malicious Reader I expect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 return upon me that I affect to be thought more impartial than I am But if men are not to be judg'd by their Professions God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Common-wealths-men for professing so plausibly for the Government 〈◊〉 cannot be so unconscionable as to charge me for not 〈◊〉 of my name for that would reflect too grossly upon your own party who never dare though they have the advantage of a Jury to secure them If you like not my Poem the fault may possibly be in my writing though 't is hard for an Author to judge against himself But more probably 't is in your Morals which cannot bear the truth of it The violent on both sides will condemn the character of Absalom as either too favourably or too hardly drawn But they are not the violent whom I desire to please The fault on the right hand is to Extenuate Palliate and Indulge and to confess freely I have endeavoured to commit it Besides the respect which I owe his Birth I have a greater for his Heroick Vertues and David himself could not be more tender of the Young man's Life than I would be of his Reputation But since the most excellent Natures are always the most easy and as being such are the soonest perverted by ill Counsels especially when baited with Fame and Glory 't is no more a wonder that he withstood not the temptation of Achitophel than it was for Adam not to have resisted the two Devils the Serpent and the Woman The conclusion of the Story I purposely forbore to prosecute because I could not obtain from my self to shew Absalom unfortunate The Frame of it was cut out but for a Picture to the wast and if the Draught be so far true 't is as much as I design'd Were I the Inventer who am only the Historian I should certainly conclude the Piece with the reconcilement of Absalom to David And who knows but this may come to pass Things were not brought to an extremity where I left the Story there seems yet to be room left for a Composure hereafter there may only be for Pity I have not so much as an uncharitable wish against Achitophel but am content to be acc●s'd of a good natur'd Error and to hope with Origen that the Devil himself may at last be saved For which reason in this Poem he is neither brought to set his House in order nor to dispose of his Person afterwards as he in wisdom shall think sit God is infinitely merciful and his Vicegerent is only not so because he is not Infinite The true end of Satyre is the amendment of Vices by correction And he who writes honestly is no more an enemy to the Offender than the Physitian to the Patient when he prescribes harsh Remedies to an inveterate Disease for those are only in order to prevent the Chirurgeon's work of an Ense Rescindendum which I wish not to my very enemies To conclude all If the Body Politick have any Analogy to the Natural in my weak judgment an Act of Oblivion were as necessary in a Hot distemper'd State as an Opiate would be in a raging Fever To the unknown Author of this Admirable Poem I Thought forgive my sin the boasted fire Of Poets Souls did long ago expire Of Folly or of Madness did accuse The Wretch that thought himself possest with Muse Laugh't at the God within that did inspire With more than humane thoughts the tuneful Quire But sure 't is more than Fancy or the Dream Of Rhimers slumbring by the Muses stream Some livelier spark of Heav'n and more refin'd From earthly dross fills the great Poet's mind Witness these mighty and immortal lines Thro each of which th' informing Genius shines Scarce a Diviner flame inspir'd the King Of whom thy Muse does so sublimely sing Not David's Self could in a Nobler Verse His gloriously offending Son rehearse Tho in his Brest the Prophet's fury met The Father's Fondness and the Poet 's Wit Here all consent in Wonder and in Praise And to the unknown Poet Altars raise Which thou must needs accept with equal joy As when Aeoenas heard the Wars of Troy Wrapt up himself in darkness and unseen Extoll'd with Wonder by the Tyrian Queen Sure thou already art secure of Fame Nor want'st new Glories to exalt thy Name What Father else woud have refus'd to own So great a Son as God-like Absalon To the unknown Author of this Excellent Poem TAke it as earnest of a Faith renew'd Your Theme is vast your Verse divinely good Where tho the Nine their beauteous strokes repeat And the turn'd lines on golden Anvils beat It looks as if they strook 'em at a heat So all serenely great so just refin'd Like Angels love to humane seed enclin'd It starts a Giant and exalts the kind 'T is spirit seen whose fiery Atomes roul So brightly fierce each syllable's a Soul T is minature of man but he 's all heart T is what