Page:Poems upon Several Occasions.djvu/108

Dismiss that Plea, and what shall Blood avail?
If Beauty is deny'd, shall Birth prevail?
Blood, and high Deeds in distant Ages done,
Are our Fore-fathers Merit, not our own.
Might none a just Possession be allow'd,
But who cou'd bring Desert, or boast of Blood,
What Numbers, even here, might be condemn'd?
Strip'd and despoil'd of all, revil'd, contemn'd?
Take a just View, how many may remark
Who's now a Lord, his Grandsire was a Clerk:
Then O beware, nor do these Robes despise,
But honour that, from whence your Honours rise.
How dear to Britain are her darling Laws!
What Blood has she not lavish'd in their Cause?
Kings are like common Slaves to Slaughter led,
Or wander thro' the World to beg their Bread.
Such fatal Precedents might awe the Throne
From lawless Grants: Who give what's not their own,
The Gift is void: 'Twere a cheap way to clear
The Crown Accounts, by robbing from the Bar!
That Power which takes from me, may force from you:
To your own Interests—You were ever true:
Consider that: I plead but your own Cause:
Give Sentence then, protect, maintain the Laws.
He spoke. The Princes differ and divide,
Some follow Law, and some with Beauty side.
So once th' Apostate Angels brav'd the Pow'r
Whom they were wont to worship and implore:

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