SCENE XVIII.-The Quadrangle of the New Royal Exchange. The Lord Mayor, Sheriffs, Aldermen, and Enter Democritus as Motley. Democritus. HE Pageant o'er, the Banquet sped, 94 In the present troubled times of the Church, assailed as she is by faction from without, and by contumacy from within, the position of this great ornament of the Christian Hierarchy has been, and continues to be, a most painful and trying one. To preach discipline to a slipshod clergy who wear their gowns loosely, to enjoin the due observance of sacred rites that by culpable negligence have become obsolete, is neither prelatical tyranny nor papistical innovation. An insolent and refractory priest who beards his Bishop is received with open arms by Infidels who hate all Religion, and Sectaries whose hatred is especially aimed at the Established Church. If the Zeal of God's House hath not eaten up these sanctimonious revilers it hath devoured (as Dryden said of Collier and his canting crew) some part of their good-manners and civility.... If not out of time and place, 93 The neutral character boasts that if he does no good, he does no harm. No harm? All the sins mentioned by Our Saviour in his description of the Last Judgment, are sins of Omission. Long the ground encumbering Thou might'st have been (thus slumbering) A block of stone or wood! Is this man's only mission, When one day thy petition For pardon pleads on high.-Uncle Timothy. 96 66 Man, alas! was only born To tread a path of brier and thorn! "Helpless man is not his own, From his first to his last sigh Do your riches overflow? Turn their stream to human woe! Emulate that glorious river, Type of every Good the Giver ! 96 One who does benignly shed Grandeur, in the skies that glow- As they on Alpine heights who dwell That seers foretold, but never knew, Still blindly creeps, when he might climb Yon Cross-crown'd mountain's brow sublime! Say not in this transient scene Rays of light and spots of green Blessing, by its rich redundance, Barren deserts with abundance ! The Scene closes. SCENE the Last.-Windsor Forest. Enter Democritus in his ancient costume, A and Puck. Democritus. GAIN in this embowering wood For thy sympathetic art When sorrow play'd the scenic part, Do not sometimes intervene ! Inward light does most abound." Uncle Timothy. 97 Humility is not humiliation-the one descends from greatness, the other crouches to it-the one is the attribute of kings, the other the penalty of slaves! "Who were below him He used as creatures of another place; And bow'd his eminent top to their low ranks, In their poor praise he humbled.".. And when rose the vision higher, To find a Pylades in Puck. 98 Kneel not to me: The power that I have on you is to spare you; The malice towards you, to forgive you. Live, And deal with others better.".. Shakespeare. To Let the Grave be neutral ground, I forgive thee all thy wrong, |