By Cleland[179] tutor'd, and with Blacow[180] bred,
(Blacow, whom, by a brave resentment led,
Oxford, if Oxford had not sunk in fame,
Ere this, had damn'd to everlasting shame)
Their steps he follows, and their crimes partakes;
To virtue lost, to vice alone he wakes,
Most lusciously declaims 'gainst luscious themes,
And whilst he rails at blasphemy, blasphemes. 390
Are these the arts which policy supplies?
Are these the steps by which grave churchmen rise?
Forbid it, Heaven; or, should it turn out so,
Let me and mine continue mean and low.
Such be their arts whom interest controls;
Kidgell[181] and I have free and modest souls:
We scorn preferment which is gain'd by sin,
And will, though poor without, have peace within.
* * * * *
Footnotes:
[171] 'The Author:' published in 1763. For this poem and 'The
Duellist,' Churchill received L450.
[172] 'Publius:' Smollett.
[173] 'Shebbeare:' Dr John Shebbeare, a physician and notorious
jacobitical writer, who, after having been pilloried for a seditious
production, was pensioned by George the Third.
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