to the editor of the athen?um.

my dear sir— the following ode was written anticipating the tone of some strictures on my writings by the gentleman to whom it is addressed. i have not seen his book; but i know by hearsay that some of my verses are characterized as “profaneness and ribaldry”— citing, in proof, the description of a certain sow, from whose jaw a cabbage sprout

“protruded, as the dove so staunch

for peace supports an olive branch.”

if the printed works of my censor had not prepared me for any misapplication of types, i should have been surprised by this misapprehension of one of the commonest emblems. in some cases the dove unquestionably stands for the divine spirit; but the same bird is also a lay representative of the peace of this world, and, as such, has figured time out of mind in allegorical pictures. the sense in which it was used by me is plain from the context; at least, it would be plain to any one but a fisher for faults, predisposed to carp at some things, to dab at others, and to flounder in all. but i am possibly in error. it is the female swine, perhaps, that is profaned in the eyes of the oriental tourist. men find strange ways of marking their intolerance; and the spirit is certainly strong enough, in mr. w.‘s works, to set up a creature as sacred, in sheer opposition to the mussulman, with whom she is a beast of abomination. it would only be going the whole sow. — i am, dear sir, yours very truly, thos. hood.

“close, close your eyes with holy dread,

and weave a circle round him thrice,

for he on honey-dew hath fed

and drunk the milk of paradise.”— coleridge.

“it’s very hard them kind of men

won’t let a body be.”—old ballad.

a wanderer, wilson, from my native land,

remote, o rae, from godliness and thee,

where rolls between us the eternal sea,

besides some furlongs of a foreign sand —

beyond the broadest scotch of london wall;

beyond the loudest saint that has a call;

across the wavy waste between us stretch’d,

a friendly missive warns me of a stricture,

wherein my likeness you have darkly etch’d,

and though i have not seen the shadow sketch’d,

thus i remark prophetic on the picture.

i guess the features:— in a line to paint

their moral ugliness, i’m not a saint.

not one of those self-constituted saints,

quacks — not physicians — in the cure of souls,

censors who sniff out mortal taints,

and call the devil over his own coals —

those pseudo privy councillors of god,

who write down judgments with a pen hard-nibb’d;

ushers of beelzebub’s black rod,

commending sinners, not to ice thick-ribb’d,

but endless flames, to scorch them up like flax —

yet sure of heav’n themselves, as if they’d cribb’d

th’ impression of st. peter’s keys in wax!

of such a character no single trace

exists, i know, in my fictitious face;

there wants a certain cast about the eye;

a certain lifting of the nose’s tip;

a certain curling of the nether lip,

in scorn of all that is, beneath the sky;

in brief it is an aspect deleterious,

a face decidedly not serious,

a face profane, that would not do at all

to make a face at exeter hall —

that hall where bigots rant, and cant, and pray,

and laud each other face to face,

till ev’ry farthing-candle ray

conceives itself a great gas-light of grace.

well! — be the graceless lineaments confest!

i do enjoy this bounteous beauteous earth;

and dote upon a jest

“within the limits of becoming mirth”; —

no solemn sanctimonious face i pull,

nor think i’m pious when i’m only bilious —

nor study in my sanctum supercilious

to frame a sabbath bill or forge a bull.

i pray for grace — repent each sinful act —

peruse, but underneath the rose, my bible;

and love my neighbor far too well, in fact,

to call and twit him with a godly tract

that’s turn’d by application to a libel.

my heart ferments not with the bigot’s leaven,

all creeds i view with toleration thorough,

and have a horror of regarding heaven

as anybody’s rotten borough.

what else? no part i take in party fray,

with troops from billingsgate’s slang-whanging tartars,

i fear no pope — and let great ernest play

at fox and goose with foxs’ martyrs!

i own i laugh at over-righteous men,

i own i shake my sides at ranters,

and treat sham-abr’am saints with wicked banters,

i even own, that there are times — but then

it’s when i’ve got my wine — i say d —— canters!

i’ve no ambition to enact the spy

on fellow souls, a spiritual pry —

’tis said that people ought to guard their noses,

who thrust them into matters none of theirs;

and tho’ no delicacy discomposes

your saint, yet i consider faith and pray’rs

amongst the privatest of men’s affairs.

i do not hash the gospel in my books,

and thus upon the public mind intrude it,

as if i thought, like otaheitan cooks,

no food was fit to eat till i had chewed it.

on bible stilts i don’t affect to stalk;

nor lard with scripture my familiar talk —

for man may pious texts repeat,

and yet religion have no inward seat;

’tis not so plain as the old hill of howth,

a man has got his belly full of meat

because he talks with victuals in his mouth!

mere verbiage — it is not worth a carrot!

why, socrates — or plato — where’s the odds? —

once taught a jay to supplicate the gods,

and made a polly-theist of a parrot!

a mere professor, spite of all his cant, is

not a whit better than a mantis —

an insect, of what clime i can’t determine,

that lifts its paws most parson-like, and thence,

by simple savages — thro’ sheer pretence —

is reckon’d quite a saint amongst the vermin.

but where’s the reverence, or where the nous,

to ride on one’s religion thro’ the lobby,

whether a stalking-horse or hobby,

to show its pious paces to “the house”?

i honestly confess that i would hinder

the scottish member’s legislative rigs,

that spiritual pinder,

who looks on erring souls as straying pigs,

that must be lash’d by law, wherever found,

and driv’n to church, as to the parish pound.

i do confess, without reserve or wheedle,

i view that grovelling idea as one

worthy some parish clerk’s ambitious son,

a charity-boy, who longs to be a beadle.

on such a vital topic sure ’tis odd

how much a man can differ from his neighbor:

one wishes worship freely giv’n to god,

another wants to make it statute-labor —

the broad distinction in a line to draw,

as means to lead us to the skies above,

you say — sir andrew and his love of law,

and i— the saviour with his law of love.

spontaneously to god should tend the soul,

like the magnetic needle to the pole;

but what were that intrinsic virtue worth,

suppose some fellow, with more zeal than knowledge,

fresh from st. andrew’s college,

should nail the conscious needle to the north?

i do confess that i abhor and shrink

from schemes, with a religious willy-nilly,

that frown upon st. giles’s sins, but blink

the peccadilloes of all piccadilly —

my soul revolts at such a bare hypocrisy,

and will not, dare not, fancy in accord

the lord of hosts with an exclusive lord

of this world’s aristocracy.

it will not own a notion so unholy,

as thinking that the rich by easy trips

may go to heav’n, whereas the poor and lowly

must work their passage, as they do in ships.

one place there is — beneath the burial sod,

where all mankind are equalized by death;

another place there is — the fane of god,

where all are equal, who draw living breath; —

juggle who will elsewhere with his own soul,

playing the judas with a temporal dole —

he who can come beneath that awful cope,

in the dread presence of a maker just,

who metes to ev’ry pinch of human dust

one even measure of immortal hope —

he who can stand within that holy door,

with soul unbow’d by that pure spirit-level,

and frame unequal laws for rich and poor —

might sit for hell and represent the devil!

such are the solemn sentiments, o rae,

in your last journey-work, perchance you ravage,

seeming, but in more courtly terms, to say

i’m but a heedless, creedless, godless savage;

a very guy, deserving fire and faggots —

a scoffer, always on the grin,

and sadly given to the mortal sin

of liking maw-worms less than merry maggots!

the humble records of my life to search,

i have not herded with mere pagan beasts;

but sometimes i have “sat at good men’s feasts,”

and i have been “where bells have knoll’d to church.”

dear bells! how sweet the sounds of village bells

when on the undulating air they swim!

now loud as welcomes! faint, now, as farewells!

and trembling all about the breezy dells

as flutter’d by the wings of cherubim.

meanwhile the bees are chanting a low hymn;

and lost to sight th’ ecstatic lark above

sings, like a soul beatified, of love —

with, now and then, the coo of the wild pigeon; —

o pagans, heathens, infidels and doubters!

if such sweet sounds can’t woo you to religion,

will the harsh voices of church cads and touters?

a man may cry “church! church!” at ev’ry word,

with no more piety than other people —

a daw’s not reckon’d a religious bird

because it keeps a-cawing from a steeple.

the temple is a good, a holy place,

but quacking only gives it an ill savor;

while saintly mountebanks the porch disgrace,

and bring religion’s self into disfavor!

behold yon servitor of god and mammon,

who, binding up his bible with his ledger,

blends gospel texts with trading gammon,

a black-leg saint, a spiritual hedger,

who backs his rigid sabbath, so to speak,

against the wicked remnant of the week,

a saving bet against his sinful bias —

“rogue that i am,” he whispers to himself,

“i lie — i cheat — do anything for pelf,

but who on earth can say i am not pious?”

in proof how over-righteousness re-acts,

accept an anecdote well based on facts.

one sunday morning —(at the day don’t fret)—

in riding with a friend to ponder’s end

outside the stage, we happened to commend

a certain mansion that we saw to let.

“ay,” cried our coachman, with our talk to grapple

“you’re right! no house along the road comes nigh it!

’twas built by the same man as built yon chapel

and master wanted once to buy it —

but t’other driv the bargain much too hard —

he ax’d sure-ly a sum purdigious!

but being so particular religious,

why, that, you see, put master on his guard!”

church is “a little heav’n below,

i have been there and still would go,”—

yet i am none of those, who think it odd

a man can pray unbidden from the cassock,

and, passing by the customary hassock,

kneel down remote upon the simple sod,

and sue in forma pauperis to god.

as for the rest — intolerant to none,

whatever shape the pious rite may bear,

ev’n the poor pagan’s homage to the sun

i would not harshly scorn, lest even there

i spurn’d some elements of christian pray’r —

an aim, tho’ erring, at a “world ayont,”

acknowledgment of good — of man’s futility,

a sense of need, and weakness, and indeed

that very thing so many christians want —

humility.

such, unto papists, jews or turban’d turks,

such is my spirit —(i don’t mean my wraith!)

such, may it please you, is my humble faith;

i know, full well, you do not like my works!

i have not sought, ’tis true, the holy land,

as full of texts as cuddie headrigg’s mother,

the bible in one hand,

and my own commonplace-book in the other —

but you have been to palestine — alas!

some minds improve by travel, others, rather,

resemble copper wire, or brass,

which gets the narrower by going farther!

worthless are all such pilgrimages — very!

if palmers at the holy tomb contrive

the human heats and rancor to revive

that at the sepulchre they ought to bury.

a sorry sight it is to rest the eye on,

to see a christian creature graze at sion,

then homeward, of the saintly pasture full,

rush bellowing, and breathing fire and smoke,

at crippled papistry to butt and poke,

exactly as a skittish scottish bull

hunts an old woman in a scarlet cloak!

why leave a serious, moral, pious home,

scotland, renown’d for sanctity of old,

far distant catholics to rate and scold

for — doing as the romans do at rome?

with such a bristling spirit wherefore quit

the land of cakes for any land of wafers,

about the graceless images to flit,

and buzz and chafe importunate as chafers,

longing to carve the carvers to scotch collops? —

people who hold such absolute opinions

should stay at home, in protestant dominions,

not travel like male mrs. trollopes.

gifted with noble tendency to climb,

yet weak at the same time,

faith is a kind of parasitic plant,

that grasps the nearest stem with tendril-rings;

and as the climate and the soil may grant,

so is the sort of tree to which it clings.

consider then, before, like hurlothrumbo

you aim your club at any creed on earth,

that, by the simple accident of birth,

you might have been high priest to mumbo jumbo.

for me — thro’ heathen ignorance perchance,

not having knelt in palestine — i feel

none of that griffinish excess of zeal,

some travellers would blaze with here in france.

dolls i can see in virgin-like array,

nor for a scuffle with the idols hanker

like crazy quixote at the puppet’s play,

if their “offence be rank,” should mine be rancor?

mild light, and by degrees, should be the plan

to cure the dark and erring mind;

but who would rush at a benighted man,

and give him two black eyes for being blind?

suppose the tender but luxuriant hop

around a canker’d stem should twine,

what kentish boor would tear away the prop

so roughly as to wound, nay, kill the bine?

the images, ’tis true, are strangely dress’d,

with gauds and toys extremely out of season;

the carving nothing of the very best,

the whole repugnant to the eye of reason,

shocking to taste, and to fine arts a treason —

yet ne’er o’erlook in bigotry of sect

one truly catholic, one common form,

at which uncheck’d

all christian hearts may kindle or keep warm.

say, was it to my spirit’s gain or loss,

one bright and balmy morning, as i went

from liege’s lovely environs to ghent,

if hard by the wayside i found a cross,

that made me breathe a pray’r upon the spot —

while nature of herself, as if to trace

the emblem’s use, had trail’d around its base

the blue significant forget-me-not?

methought, the claims of charity to urge

more forcibly, along with faith and hope,

the pious choice had pitched upon the verge

of a delicious slope

giving the eye much variegated scope; —

“look round,” it whisper’d, “on that prospect rare,

those vales so verdant, and those hills so blue;

enjoy the sunny world, so fresh, and fair,

but”—(how the simple legend pierced me thro’!)

“priez pour les malheureux.”

with sweet kind natures, as in honey’d cells,

religion lives, and feels herself at home;

but only on a formal visit dwells

where wasps instead of bees have formed the comb.

shun pride, o rae! — whatever sort beside

you take in lieu, shun spiritual pride!

a pride there is of rank — a pride of birth,

a pride of learning, and a pride of purse,

a london pride — in short, there be on earth

a host of prides, some better and some worse;

but of all prides, since lucifer’s attaint,

the proudest swells a self-elected saint.

to picture that cold pride so harsh and hard,

fancy a peacock in a poultry yard.

behold him in conceited circles sail,

strutting and dancing, and now planted stiff,

in all his pomp of pageantry, as if

he felt “the eyes of europe” on his tail!

as for the humble breed retain’d by man,

he scorns the whole domestic clan —

he bows, he bridles,

he wheels, he sidles,

at last, with stately dodgings, in a corner

he pens a simple russet hen, to scorn her

full in the blaze of his resplendent fan!

“look here,” he cries (to give him words),

“thou feather’d clay — thou scum of birds!”

flirting the rustling plumage in her eyes —

“look here, thou vile predestined sinner,

doom’d to be roasted for a dinner,

behold those lovely variegated dyes!

these are the rainbow colors of the skies,

that heav’n has shed upon me con amore—

a bird of paradise? — a pretty story!

i am that saintly fowl, thou paltry chick!

look at my crown of glory!

thou dingy, dirty, drabbled, draggled jill!”

and off goes partlet, wriggling from a kick,

with bleeding scalp laid open by his bill!

that little simile exactly paints

how sinners are despised by saints.

by saints! — the hypocrites that ope heav’n’s door

obsequious to the sinful man of riches —

but put the wicked, naked, barelegg’d poor

in parish stocks instead of breeches.

the saints! — the bigots that in public spout,

spread phosphorus of zeal on scraps of fustian,

and go like walking “lucifers” about

mere living bundles of combustion.

the saints! — the aping fanatics that talk

all cant and rant, and rhapsodies high-flown —

that bid you baulk

a sunday walk,

and shun god’s work as you should shun your own.

the saints! — the formalists, the extra pious,

who think the mortal husk can save the soul,

by trundling with a mere mechanic bias,

to church, just like a lignum-vit? bowl!

the saints! — the pharisees, whose beadle stands

beside a stern coercive kirk.

a piece of human mason-work,

calling all sermons contrabands,

in that great temple that’s not made with hands!

thrice blessed, rather, is the man, with whom

the gracious prodigality of nature,

the balm, the bliss, the beauty, and the bloom,

the bounteous providence in ev’ry feature,

recall the good creator to his creature,

making all earth a fane, all heav’n its dome!

to his tuned spirit the wild heather-bells

ring sabbath knells;

the jubilate of the soaring lark

is chant of clerk;

for choir, the thrush and the gregarious linnet;

the sod’s a cushion for his pious want;

and, consecrated by the heav’n within it,

the sky-blue pool, a font.

each cloud-capped mountain is a holy altar;

an organ breathes in every grove;

and the full heart’s a psalter,

rich in deep hymns of gratitude and love!

sufficiently by stern necessitarians

poor nature, with her face begrimed by dust,

is stoked, coked, smoked, and almost choked; but must

religion have its own utilitarians,

labell’d with evangelical phylacteries,

to make the road to heav’n a railway trust,

and churches — that’s the naked fact — mere factories?

oh! simply open wide the temple door,

and let the solemn, swelling, organ greet,

with voluntaries meet,

the willing advent of the rich and poor!

and while to god the loud hosannas soar,

with rich vibrations from the vocal throng —

from quiet shades that to the woods belong,

and brooks with music of their own,

voices may come to swell the choral song

with notes of praise they learned in musings lone.

how strange it is while on all vital questions,

that occupy the house and public mind,

we always meet with some humane suggestions

of gentle measures of a healing kind,

instead of harsh severity and vigor,

the saint alone his preference retains

for bills of penalties and pains,

and marks his narrow code with legal rigor!

why shun, as worthless of affiliation,

what men of all political persuasion

extol — and even use upon occasion —

that christian principle, conciliation?

but possibly the men who make such fuss

with sunday pippins and old trots infirm,

attach some other meaning to the term,

as thus:

one market morning, in my usual rambles,

passing along whitechapel’s ancient shambles,

where meat was hung in many a joint and quarter,

i had to halt awhile, like other folks,

to let a killing butcher coax

a score of lambs and fatted sheep to slaughter.

a sturdy man he looke’d to fell an ox,

bull-fronted, ruddy, with a formal streak

of well-greased hair down either cheek,

as if he dee-dash-dee’d some other flocks

beside those woolly-headed stubborn blocks

that stood before him, in vexatious huddle —

poor little lambs, with bleating wethers group’d,

while, now and then, a thirsty creature stoop’d

and meekly snuff’d, but did not taste the puddle.

fierce bark’d the dog, and many a blow was dealt,

that loin, and chump, and scrag and saddle felt,

yet still, that fatal step they all declined it —

and shunn’d the tainted door as if they smelt

onions, mint sauce, and lemon juice behind it.

at last there came a pause of brutal force,

the cur was silent, for his jaws were full

of tangled locks of tarry wool,

the man had whoop’d and holloed till dead hoarse.

the time was ripe for mild expostulation,

and thus it stammer’d from a stander-by —

“zounds! — my good fellow — it quite makes me — why,

it really — my dear fellow — do just try conciliation!”

stringing his nerves like flint,

the sturdy butcher seized upon the hint —

at least he seized upon the foremost wether —

and hugg’d and lugg’d and tugg’d him neck and crop

just nolens volens thro’ the open shop —

if tails come off he didn’t care a feather —

then walking to the door and smiling grim,

he rubb’d his forehead and his sleeve together —

“there! — i have conciliated him!”

again — good-humoredly to end our quarrel —

(good humor should prevail!)

i’ll fit you with a tale,

whereto is tied a moral.

once on a time a certain english lass

was seized with symptoms of such deep decline,

cough, hectic flushes, ev’ry evil sign,

that, as their wont is at such desperate pass,

the doctors gave her over — to an ass.

accordingly, the grisly shade to bilk,

each morn the patient quaff’d a frothy bowl

of asinine new milk,

robbing a shaggy suckling of a foal

which got proportionably spare and skinny —

meanwhile the neighbors cried “poor mary ann!

she can’t get over it! she never can!”

when lo! to prove each prophet was a ninny

the one that died was the poor wet-nurse jenny.

to aggravate the case,

there were but two grown donkeys in the place;

and most unluckily for eve’s sick daughter,

the other long ear’d creature was a male,

who never in his life had given a pail

of milk, or even chalk and water.

no matter: at the usual hour of eight

down trots a donkey to the wicket-gate,

with mister simon gubbins on his back —

“your sarvant, miss” — a worry spring-like day —

bad time for hasses tho’! good lack! good lack!

jenny be dead, miss — but i’ve brought ye jack,

he doesn’t give no milk — but he can bray.

so runs the story,

and, in vain self-glory,

some saints would sneer at gubbins for his blindness —

but what the better are their pious saws

to ailing souls, than dry hee-haws,

without the milk of human kindness?