Page:The venture; an annual of art and literature.djvu/60

 This labour passed, by Bridewell all descend,
(As morning prayer and flagellation end)
To where Fleet-ditch with disemboguing streams
Rolls the large tribute of dead dogs to Thames,
The king of dykes! than whom no sluice of mud
With deeper sable blots the silver flood.
"Here strip, my children! here at once leap in,
Here prove who best can dash through thick and thin,
And who the most in love of dirt excel,
Or dark dexterity of groping well."

But the mere technical mastery in expressing unworthy hatred gives no man a long lease of posterity's ear. Pope survives as a satirist by those Moral Essays (couched in the form of Epistles to persons of distinction) which deal with particular examples of general themes. Here is a part of the passage in which he illustrates the persistence of a ruling passion:

 "Odious! in woollen! 'twould a saint provoke,"
(Were the last words that poor Narcissa spoke)
"No, let a charming chintz, and Brussels lace
Wrap my cold limbs and shade my lifeless face:
One would not, sure, be frightful when one's dead—
And—Betty—give this cheek a little red."

Here again from the essay on the characters of women, is a sketch of what many take to be a type known only to-day:

 Flavia's a wit, has too much sense to pray;
To toast our wants and wishes, is her way;
Nor asks of God, but of her stars, to give
The mighty blessing, "while we live to live."
Then all for death, that opiate of the soul!