Page:The Hind and the Panther - Dryden (1687).djvu/122

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The Hind and the Panther.
Oh let their crime in long oblivion sleep,
'Twas theirs indeed to make, 'tis yours to keep.
Unjust, or just, is all the question now,
'Tis plain, that not repealing you allow.

To name the Test wou'd put you in a rage,
You charge not that on any former age,
But smile to think how innocent you stand
Arm'd by a weapon put into your hand.
Yet still remember that you weild a sword
Forg'd by your foes against your Sovereign Lord.
Design'd to hew th' imperial Cedar down,
Defraud Succession, and dis-heir the Crown.
T' abhor the makers, and their laws approve,
Is to hate Traytors, and the treason love.
What means it else, which now your children say,
We made it not, nor will we take away.

Suppose