The Lawyer and Justice (Fable VIII)

LOVE! thou divinest good below,
Thy pure delights few mortals know;
Our rebel hearts thy sway disown,
While tyrant Lust usurps thy throne.

The bounteous God of Nature made
The sexes for each other's aid,
Their mutual talents to employ
To lessen ills and heighten joy.
To weaker woman he assign'd
That soft'ning gentleness of mind
That can by sympathy impart
Its likeness to the roughest heart,
Her eyes with magick pow'r endu'd,
To fire the dull and awe the rude;
His rosy fingers on her face
Shed lavish ev'ry blooming grace,
And stamp'd (perfection to display)
His mildest image on her clay.

Man, active, resolute, and bold,
He fashion'd in a diff'rent mould,
With useful arts his mind inform'd,
His breast with nobler passions warm'd;
He gave him knowledge, taste, and sense,
And courage for the fair's defence:
Her frame, resistless to each wrong,
Demands protection from the strong;
To man she flies when fear alarms
And claims the temple of his arms.

By Nature's author thus declar'd
The woman's sov'reign and her guard,
Shall man by treach'rous wiles invade
The weakness he was meant to aid?
While beauty, given to inspire
Protecting love and soft desire,
Lights up a wildfire in the heart,
And to its own breast points the dart,
Becomes the spoiler's base pretence
To triumph over innocence?

The wolf that tears the tim'rous sheep
Was never set the fold to keep,
Nor was the tiger or the pard
Meant the benighted trav'ller's guard;
But man, the wildest beast of prey,
Wears friendship's semblance to betray,
His strength against the weak employs,
And where he should protect destroys.

Past twelve o'clock the Watchman cry'd,
His brief the studious Lawyer ply'd,
The all-prevailing fee lay nigh,
The earnest of to-morrow's lie;
Sudden the furious winds arise,
The jarring casement shatter'd flies,
The doors admit a hollow sound,
And rattling from their hinges bound,
When Justice in a blaze of light
Reveal'd her radiant form to sight.

The wretch with thrilling horrour shook,
Loose ev'ry joint and pale his look.
Not having seen her in the courts,
Or found her mention'd in Reports,
He ask'd with falt'ring tongue her name,
Her errand there, and whence she came?

Sternly the white-rob'd Shade reply'd,
(A crimson glow her visage dy'd)
"Canst thou be doubtful who I am?
"Is Justice grown so strange a name?
"Were not your courts for Justice rais'd?
"'Twas there of old my altars blaz'd.
"My guardian thee did I elect
"My sacred temple to protect,
"That thou and all thy venal tribe
"Should spurn the goddess for the bribe?
"Aloud the ruin'd client cries
"Justice has neither ears nor eyes;
"In soul alliance with the bar
"'Gainst me the judge denounces war,
"And rarely issues his decree
"But with intent to baffle me."

She paus'd; her breast with fury burn'd;
The trembling Lawyer thus return'd:

"I own the charge is justly laid,
"And weak th' excuse that can be made;
"Yet search the spacious globe, and see
"If all mankind are not like me.

"The Gownman skill'd in Romish lies
"By faith's false glass deludes our eyes,
"O'er conscience rides without control,
"And robs the man to save his soul.

"The Doctor with important face
"By sly design mistakes the case,
"Prescribes, and spins out the disease
"To trick the patient of his fees.

"The Soldier, rough with many a scar,
"And red with slaughter, leads the war;
"If he a nation's trust betray
"The foe has offer'd double pay.

"When vice o'er all mankind prevails,
"And weighty int'rest turns the scales,
"Must I be better than the rest,
"And harbour Justice in my breast,
"On one side only take the fee,
"Content with poverty and thee?"

"Thou blind to sense and vile of mind!"
Th' exasperated Shade rejoin'd,
"If virtue from the world is flown
"Will others' frauds excuse thy own?
"For sickly souls the Priest was made,
"Physicians for the body's aid,
"The Soldier guarded liberty,
"Man woman, and the Lawyer me;
"If all are faithless to their trust
"They leave nor thee the less unjust.
"Henceforth your pleadings I disclaim,
"And bar the sanction of my name;
"Within your courts it shall be read
"That Justice from the Law is fled."

She spoke, and hid in shades her face
Till Hardwicke sooth'd her into grace.