“My son, my son, if e’er a parent’s voice
Has power to warn, let this direct thy choice;
Take reason’s path, and mad opinions leave,—
Reason is truth that never can deceive.”
Declaiming against superstition and bigotry, and, perhaps, shooting a
shaft against the boy’s uncles,—the two Wesleys,—the profligate poet
writes:—
“Inspired with frantic, false, fanatic zeal,
See, with what rage, they threat damnation,—hell,
To all who fair expose the wretched lies,
The frauds, the follies, falsehood, forgeries,
Of Romish fathers, councils, canons, schools,
Impostors’ orders, monks’ and madmen’s rules.”