382
HUDIBRAS.
[PART III.
Erect them into separate
New Jewish tribes in church and state:[1]
To join in marriage and commerce,[2]
And only 'mong themselves converse,
And all that are not of their mind, 1385
Make enemies to all mankind:[3]
Take all religions in, and stickle
From conclave down to conventicle;[4]
Agreeing still or disagreeing,
According to the light in being, 1390
Sometimes for liberty of conscience,
And spiritual misrule in one sense;
But in another quite contrary,
As dispensations chance to vary;
And stand for, as the times will bear it, 1395
All contradictions of the spirit:
Protect their emissar', empower'd
To preach sedition, and the word;
And when they 're hamper'd by the laws,
Release the lab'rers for the cause, 1400
And turn the persecution back
On those that made the first attack,
To keep them equally in awe
From breaking or maintaining law:
And when they have their fits too soon, 1405
Before the full-tides of the moon,
Put off their zeal t' a fitter season
For sowing faction in and treason;
And keep them hooded, and their churches,
Like hawks, from bating on their perches;[5] 1410
That when the blessed time shall come
Of quitting Babylon and Rome,
New Jewish tribes in church and state:[1]
To join in marriage and commerce,[2]
And only 'mong themselves converse,
And all that are not of their mind, 1385
Make enemies to all mankind:[3]
Take all religions in, and stickle
From conclave down to conventicle;[4]
Agreeing still or disagreeing,
According to the light in being, 1390
Sometimes for liberty of conscience,
And spiritual misrule in one sense;
But in another quite contrary,
As dispensations chance to vary;
And stand for, as the times will bear it, 1395
All contradictions of the spirit:
Protect their emissar', empower'd
To preach sedition, and the word;
And when they 're hamper'd by the laws,
Release the lab'rers for the cause, 1400
And turn the persecution back
On those that made the first attack,
To keep them equally in awe
From breaking or maintaining law:
And when they have their fits too soon, 1405
Before the full-tides of the moon,
Put off their zeal t' a fitter season
For sowing faction in and treason;
And keep them hooded, and their churches,
Like hawks, from bating on their perches;[5] 1410
That when the blessed time shall come
Of quitting Babylon and Rome,
- ↑ The Jews were not allowed to intermarry or mix familiarly with the nations around them.
- ↑ The accent is here laid upon the last syllable of commerce.
- ↑ This was the title given by the Jacobins of France to our William Pitt, whom they suspected of traversing their revolutionary schemes.
- ↑ That is, from the conclave of cardinals, or papists, down to the meeting house of nonconformists.
- ↑ From being too forward, or ready to take flight
