rudence in commanding, their
fidelity in obeying, their moderation in all their dealings, their progress
and increase, &c. &c. "_Mores inculpatos, bonas artes, magna in vulgum
auctoritas ob vitae sanctimoniam_.--_Sapienter imperant, fideliter
parent.--Novissimi omnium, sectas priores fama vicere, hoc ipso caeteris
invisi.--Medii foedum inter obsequium et tristem arrogantiam, nec fugiunt
hominum vitia, nec sequuntur_, &c."

You may hear once more from

CLERICUS.

* * * * *

{304}

LETTER IV.

_Ecce iterum Crispinus, et est mihi saepe vocandus_
_In partes._
JUV. Sat. 4.

What! Laicus once more! And is he not then prostrate on the ground, gagged
and muzzled beyond the possibility of barking? His ignorance, his
falsehoods, his sophistry, have been sufficiently branded; yet,
spider-like,

Destroy his slander and his fibs--in vain,
The creature's at its dirty work again.
POPE.

Undoubtedly he never deserved, and never would have received even a first
answer, if it had not been apparent, that his venal pen was guided and paid
by mischief-makers of deeper views: and hence arises the necessity of
noticing this fourth effusion, to disable the retailers of {305} his
falsehoods from vainly boasting, that slander unanswered is acknowledged
truth. I write not to Laicus, but to his prompters, and to his readers, if
there be any left.

They may observe, that the imputations in this fourth Letter are
two--king-killing continually practised, and immoral doctrines continually
taught by Jesuits: and to this is added a short summary of authorities, by
which all this trash is upheld. It would be an easy, but now uninteresting
task, to disprove these several imputations; and this has long since been
victoriously done. It may suffice to know, that they were all advanced by
party men, maddened by civil and religious rage: they are registered only
in the murky pages of antiquated libels, and they are here reproduced for
the dishonest purpose of blackening virtue, which triumphed over them, when
they were fresh. Pamphlets of Hugonots, libels of loose catholics,
declamations of rival teachers, who apprehended their own humiliation in
the success of the Jesuits, _Plaidoyers_, {306} _Requisitoires_, and
harangues of _Pasquiers_ and _Harlays_, sworn enemies of the society,
_Arrets_ of their courts of parliament, ever inten