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IN OPPOSITION.
151
ruling powers, eminently provocative of the émeute or insurrection which was to follow:—
"Such is our state! in a tempestuous sea,
With all the crew raging in mutiny!
No duty followed, none to reef a sail,
To work the vessel, or to pump or bale:
All is abandoned, and without a check
The mighty sea comes sweeping o'er the deck.
Our steersman, hitherto so bold and steady,
Active and able, is deposed already.
No discipline, no sense of order felt,
The daily messes are unduly dealt.
The goods are plundered, those that ought to keep
Strict watch are idly skulking, or asleep;
All that is left of order or command
Committed wholly to the basest hand.
In such a case, my friend, I needs must think
It were no marvel though the vessel sink.
This riddle to my worthy friends I tell,
But a shrewd knave will understand it well!"—(F.)
With all the crew raging in mutiny!
No duty followed, none to reef a sail,
To work the vessel, or to pump or bale:
All is abandoned, and without a check
The mighty sea comes sweeping o'er the deck.
Our steersman, hitherto so bold and steady,
Active and able, is deposed already.
No discipline, no sense of order felt,
The daily messes are unduly dealt.
The goods are plundered, those that ought to keep
Strict watch are idly skulking, or asleep;
All that is left of order or command
Committed wholly to the basest hand.
In such a case, my friend, I needs must think
It were no marvel though the vessel sink.
This riddle to my worthy friends I tell,
But a shrewd knave will understand it well!"—(F.)
It is easy to discern in the last couplet a hint to his partisans to take advantage of this posture of affairs, and the fragments which serve as a context revert to the drowning state, discuss who is staunch and what is rotten in it, and imply generally that the sole reason for not striking is distrust of the number and fitness of the tools:—
"The largest company you could enroll,
A single vessel could embark the whole!
So few there are: the noble manly minds,
Faithful and firm, the men that honour binds;
Impregnable to danger and to pain
And low seduction in the shape of gain."—(F.)
A single vessel could embark the whole!
So few there are: the noble manly minds,
Faithful and firm, the men that honour binds;
Impregnable to danger and to pain
And low seduction in the shape of gain."—(F.)
