Chancellors of the Exchequer. In "Night Eight" the politician
plainly betrays himself:--

"Think no post needful that demands a knave:
When late our civil helm was shifting hands,
So P--- thought: think better if you can."

Yet it must be confessed that at the conclusion of "Night Nine,"
weary perhaps of courting earthly patrons, he tells his soul--

"Henceforth
Thy PATRON he, whose diadem has dropped
You gems of Heaven; Eternity thy prize;
And leave the racers of the world their own."

The "Fourth Night" was addressed by "a much-indebted Muse" to the
Honourable Mr. Yorke, now Lord Hardwicke, who meant to have laid the
Muse under still greater obligation, by the living of Shenfield, in
Essex, if it had become vacant. The "First Night" concludes with
this passage:--

"Dark, though not blind, like thee, Meonides;
Or, Milton, thee. Ah! could I reach your strain;
Or his who made Meonides our own!
Man too he sung. Immortal man I sing.
Oh had he pressed his theme, pursued the track
Which opens out of darkness into day!
Oh, had he mounted on his wing of fire,
Soared, where I sink, and sung immortal man--
How had it blest mankind, and rescued me!"