, with respect to Religion and the Holy
Scriptures_.

Secondly, _The Abuse of the Clergy_.

Thirdly, _The want of Modesty, and Regard to the Audience_.

Well, to prove the Prophaneness, he first instances a bold Song of mine,
as he calls it, against Providence; four of the last lines of which he
is only pleas'd to shew ye.

But Providence, that form'd the fair
In such a charming skin,
Their outside made its only care,
And never look'd within.

[Footnote: D. Quix. p. 1. p. 20.]

_Here_, says he, _the Poet tells ye Providence makes Mankind by halves,
huddles up the Soul, and takes the least care of the better Moyety; this
is direct blaspheming the Creation, and a Satyr upon God Almighty_.
[Footnote: Collier p. 97.] Why, now this, I confess, is enough to
provoke some heat in a fellow of my Constitution, to hear this Religious
Raving; but yet it looks so like _Oliver's Porter's in Bedlam_, that I
will be calm, and patiently holding up my hand, plead _Not Guilty_--to
all of these objections. But first, pray why does he foyst in the word
Mankind here to express the Female Sex, when t'other word is so much
more proper. I did intend indeed a small Satyr upon _Womankind_,
pursuant to _Marcella_'s Character, and he has vary'd from that word,
I suppose, to amuse the Reader--I'll give ye the whole Stanza.

Did coy _Marcella_ own a Soul
As beauteous as her Eyes,
Her Judgment wou'd her Sence controul,
And teach her how to prize.
But Providence, that form'd the fair
In such a charming Skin,
Their outside made its only care,
And never look'd within.

I only rally a pretty coy wench here for her sullen ill nature, without
any Satyr on the Deity, or any thing like it; for as to the _Blasphemy_,
as he calls it, by naming the word _Providence_, 'tis generally intended
in Lyrical Poetry for _Goddess Nature_, or _Fortune_, as Mr _Vanbrooke_
notes; but never apply'd seriously to the true Deity, but only by Dr
_Crambo_. How often have we this phrase in Poetry, _Nature has made her
Body charming; see her bright Eyes, the charming gifts of Nature_, &c.
making use still of the second cause instead of the first, which we yet
know to be the original of all. And 'tis no more Blasphemy to say that
Providence took more care of a perverse beautiful Womans Body than her
Soul, than 'tis to say that the Sun made a gay Tulip flourish in a
Garden to delight the Eye, not caring three-pence tho it never smel