o welcome at their simple feast,
He bless'd the bread, but vanish'd at the word,
And left them both exclaiming, 'Twas the Lord!
Did not our hearts feel all he deign'd to say,
Did they not burn within us by the way?

The prude going to morning church in _Truth_ is a good rendering of
Hogarth's picture:--

Yon ancient prude, whose wither'd features show
She might, be young some forty years ago,
Her elbows pinion'd close upon her hips,
Her head erect, her fan upon her lips,
Her eyebrows arch'd, her eyes both gone astray
To watch yon amorous couple in their play,
With bony and unkerchief'd neck defies
The rude inclemency of wintry skies,
And sails with lappet-head and mincing airs
Daily at clink of hell, to morning prayers.
To thrift and parsimony much inclined,
She yet allows herself that boy behind;
The shivering urchin, bending as he goes,
With slipshod heels, and dew-drop at his nose,
His predecessor's coat advanced to wear,
Which future pages are yet doom'd to share,
Carries her Bible tuck'd beneath his arm,
And hides his hands to keep his fingers warm.

Of personal allusions there are a few; if the satirist had not been
prevented from indulging in them by his taste, he would have been
debarred by his ignorance. Lord Chesterfield, as the incarnation of
the world and the most brilliant servant of the arch-enemy, comes in
for a lashing under the name of Petronius.

Petronius! all the muses weep for thee,
But every tear shall scald thy memory.
The graces too, while virtue at their shrine
Lay bleeding under that soft hand of thine,
Felt each a mortal stab in her own breast,
Abhorr'd the sacrifice, and cursed the priest.
Thou polish'd and high-finish'd foe to truth,
Gray-beard corruptor of our listening youth,
To purge and skim away the filth of vice,
That so refined it might the more entice,
Then pour it on the morals of thy son
To taint _his_ heart, was worthy of _thine own_.

This is about the nearest approach to Juvenal that the Evangelical
satirist ever makes. In _Hope_ there is a vehement vindication of the
memory of Whitefield. It is rather remarkable that there is no mention
of Wesley. But Cowper belonged to the Evangelical rather than to the
Methodist section. It may be doubted whether the living Whitefield
would have been much to his taste.

In the versification of the moral satires there are frequent faults,
especially in t