GIBBS.
But still to learn and to obey
The law of God is his delight,
In that employ himself all day,
And reads and thinks thereon at [1] night.
For as a tree, whose spreading root
By some prolifick stream is fed
Produces [2] fair and lively fruit,
And numerous boughs adorn its head;
Whose very [3] leaves, tho' storms descend,
In lively verdure still appear:
Such blessings always shall attend
The man that does the Lord revere.
DR. SWIFT.
[1] A man must have some time to sleep: so that I will change this verse thus:
"And thinks and dreams thereon all night."
[2] Look ye, you must thin the boughs at the top, or your fruit will be neither fair nor timely.
[3] Why, what other part of a tree appears in a lively verdure, beside the leaves? Read,
These very leaves on which you spend
Your woeful stuff, may serve for squibs:
Such blessings always shall attend
The madrigals of Dr. Gibbs.
The above may serve for a tolerable specimen of Swift's remarks. The whole should be given, if it were possible to make them intelligible without copying the version which is ridiculed; a labour for which our readers would scarcely thank us. A few detached stanzas, however, with the dean's notes on them, shall be transcribed.
DR. GIBBS.
Why do the heathen nations rise,
And in mad tumults join!
Confederate kings vain plots [1] devise
Against the Almighty's reign!
But those that do thy laws refuse,
In pieces thou shalt break;
[2] And with an iron sceptre bruise
The disobedient [3] neck.
Ye earthly kings, the caution hear,
Ye rules, learn the fame [4];
Serve God with reverence, and with fear [5]
His joyful praise proclaim.
DR. SWIFT.
[1] I don't believe that ever kings entered into plots and confederacies against the reign of God Almighty.
[2] After a man is broken in pieces, it is no great matter to have his neck bruised.
[3] Neak.
[4] Rulers must learn it, but kings may only hear it.
[5] Very proper, to make a joyful proclamation with fear.
