"
FABLE V.
CHURCH AND STATE.
PROEM
"The moment any religion becomes national, or established, its purity
must certainly be lost, because it is then impossible to keep it
unconnected with men's interests; and, if connected, it must
inevitably be perverted by them."
--SOAME JENYNS
Thus did SOAME JENYNS--tho' a Tory,
A Lord of Trade and the Plantations;
Feel how Religion's simple glory
Is stained by State associations.
When CATHARINE, ere she crusht the Poles,
Appealed to the benign Divinity;
Then cut them up in protocols,
Made fractions of their very souls--
All in the name of the blest Trinity;
Or when her grandson, ALEXANDER,
That mighty Northern salamander,[1]
Whose icy touch, felt all about,
Puts every fire of Freedom out--
When he, too, winds up his Ukases
With God and the Panagia's praises--
When he, of royal Saints the type,
In holy water dips the sponge,
With which, at one imperial wipe,
He would all human rights expunge;
When LOUIS (whom as King, and eater,
Some name _Dix-huit_, and some _Deshuitres_.)
Calls down "St. Louis's God" to witness
The right, humanity, and fitness
Of sending eighty thousand Solons,
Sages with muskets and laced coats,
To cram instruction, _nolens volens_,
Down the poor struggling Spaniards' throats--
I can't help thinking, (tho' to Kings
I must, of course, like other men, bow,)
That when a Christian monarch brings
Religion's name to gloss these things--
Such blasphemy out-Benbows Benbow![2]
Or--not so far for facts to roam,
Having a few much nearer home-
When we see Churchmen, who, if askt,
"Must Ireland's slaves be tithed, and taskt,
"And driven, like Negroes or Croats,
"That _you_ may roll in wealth and bliss?"
Look from beneath their shovel hats
With all due pomp and answer "Yes!"
But then, if questioned, "Shall the brand
"Intolerance flings throughout that land,--
"Shall the fierce strife now taught to grow
'Betwixt her palaces and hovels,
"Be ever quenched?"--from the same shovels
Look grandly forth and answer "No.
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