CHAPITRE U. DRYÛEN

Ainsi, pervers de volonté, impuissant d'action, — il suivait les factions, qui ne le suivaient pas *.

Shimei*, de qui la jeunesse avait été fertile en promesses de zèle pour son Dieu et de haine pour son roi, — qui sagement s'abstenait des péchés coûteux — et ne rompait jamais le sabbat, excepté pour un profit, — qu'on ne vit jamais lâcher une malédiction — ou un juron, si ce n'est contre le gouvernement*....

Contre ces malédictions, leur chef, Shaftesbury, se roidissait; accusé de haute trahison, il était absous par le grand jury, malgré tous les efforts de la cour,

1. In the first rank of thèse did Zimri stand; A man so varions that be seem'd to be Not one, but ail mankind's epitome :

Stiff in opinions, always in the wrong, Was ev'ry thing by starts, and nothing long But, in the course of one revolving moo'n, Was chemist, fiddler, statesman, and buffoon: Then ail for womeu, painting, rhyming, drinking, Besides ten thousand freaks ihat died in thinking. Blest madman! wlio could ev'ry hour employ Wilh something new to wish, or toenjoy.

Railing and praisinj? were his usual thèmes;

And bûih, to show his judgment, in extrêmes;

So over-violent, or over-civii,

That ev'ry man with him was God or devil.

In squanuering wealth was his pecuUar art;

Nothin^r went unrewarded but aesert ;

Beggar'd by fools, whom slill he found too late,

He had his jest, and they had his estate;

He laugh'd himself from court, then sought relief

By forming parties, but could ne'er be chief ;

For, spite of him, the weight of business fell

On Absalom and wise Achitophel :

Thus, wicked but in wiil, of means bereft,

He léft not faction, but of that was left.