to _the D----l_ too I doubt, _says Graceless_, for I am almost as
wicked as my _Lord Duke_.
_D._ Thou ar't a silly empty Dog, says the D--, and if there is such a
place as _a Hell_, tho' I believe nothing of it, 'tis a place for fools,
such as thou art.
_Gr._ I wonder then, what Heaven the great wits go to, such as my _Lord
Duke_; I don't care to go there, let it be where it will; they are a
tiresome kind of people, there's no bearing them, they'll make _a Hell_
wherever they come.
_D._ Prithee hold thy fool's tongue, I tell thee, if there is any such
place as we call NO WHERE; that's all the Heaven or Hell that I know of,
or believe any thing about.
_Gr._ Very good, my Lord--; so that _Heaven_ is _no where_, and
_Hell_ is _no where_, and the _Devil_ is _nobody_, according to my _Lord
Duke_!
_D._ Yes Sir, and what then?
_Gr._ And you are to go _no where_ when you die, are you?
_D._ Yes, you Dog, don't you know what that incomparable noble genius my
Lord _Rochester_ sings upon the subject, I believe it unfeignedly,
After death nothing is,
And nothing death.
_Gr._ You believe it, my Lord, you mean, you would fain believe it if
you could; but since you put that great genius my Lord _Rochester_ upon
me, let me play him back upon _your Grace_; I am sure you have read his
fine poem upon _nothing_, in one of the stanzas of which is this
beautiful thought,
And to be part of [2] thee
The wicked wisely pray.
_D._ You are a foolish Dog.
_Gr._ And my _Lord Duke_ is a wise Infidel.
_D._ Why? is it not wiser to believe _no Devil_, than to be always
terrify'd at him?
_Gr._ But shall I toss another Poet upon you, my Lord?
If it should so fall out, as who can tell
But there may be a GOD, a _Heaven_ and _Hell_?
Mankind had best consider well, for fear
'T should be too late when their mistakes appear.
_D._ D--m your foolish Poet, that's not my Lord _Rochester_.
_Gr._ But how must I be damn'd, if there's _no Devil_? Is not _your
Grace_ a little inconsistent there? My Lord _Rochester_ would not have
said that, and't please your Grace.
_D._ No, _you Dog_, I am not inconsistent at all, and if I had the
ordering of you, I'd make you sensible of it; I'd make you think your
self damn'd for want of _a Devil_.
_Gr._ That's like one of _your Grace_'s paradoxes, such as when you
swore _by God_ that you did not believe there was any such thing as _a
God_, or _Devil_; so you swear by _
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