Page:The Hind and the Panther - Dryden (1687).djvu/131

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The Hind and the Panther.
121
For shame let Conscience be your Plea no more,
To will hereafter, proves she might before;
But she's a Bawd to gain, and holds the Door.

Your care about your Banks, infers a fear
Of threatning Floods, and Inundations near;
If so, a just Reprise would only be
Of what the Land usurp'd upon the Sea;
And all your Jealousies but serve to show
Your Ground is, like your Neighbour-Nation, low.
T' intrench in what you grant unrighteous Laws,
Is to distrust the justice of your Cause;
And argues that the true Religion lyes
In those weak Adversaries you despise.

Tyrannick force is that which least you fear,
The sound is frightfull in a Christian's ear;
Avert it, Heav'n; nor let that Plague be sent
To us from the dispeopled Continent.

But