To An Angry Zealot[61]

[In Answer to Sundry Virulent Charges]

If of Religion I have made a sport, Then why not cite me to the Bishop's Court? Fair to the world let every page be set, And prove your charge from all I've said and writ:-- What if this heart no narrow notions bind, Its pure good-will extends to all mankind: Suppose I ask no portion from your feast, Nor heaven-ward ride behind your parish priest, Because I wear not Shylock's Sunday face Must I, for that, be loaded with disgrace? The time has been,--the time, I fear, is now, When holy phrenzy would erect her brow, Round some poor wight with painted devils meet, And worse than Smithfield blaze through every street; But wholesome laws prevent such horrid scenes, No more afraid of deacons and of deans, In this new world our joyful Psalm we sing That Even a Bishop is a Harmless Thing!

Text from the edition of 1795. First published in the National Gazette, Sept. 26, 1792, with the following introduction: "It is asserted in Mr. Russel's (Boston) Columbian Centinel of Sept. 12 (and copied into Mr. Fenno's Gazette of the United States of last Saturday) that 'the Clergy of this country are constantly vilified, and religion ridiculed through the medium of the National Gazette.' The author of the assertion is requested to produce one or more passages from the National Gazette to support his charge, otherwise, we shall conclude it only a dirty attempt to prevent the circulation of the National Gazette in the Eastern States:--But further," here follows the poem. Not