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THE

PROGRESS OF ERROR.

Si quid loquar audiendum. HOR. LIB. 4. OD. 2.

SING

ING muse, (if such a theme, fo dark, fo long, May find a mufe to grace it with a song)

By what unfeen and unfuspected arts,

The ferpent error twines round human hearts;
Tell where the lurks, beneath what flow'ry fhades,
That not a glimpse of genuine light pervades;
The pois'nous, black, infinuating worm,
Successfully conceals her loathsome form.
Take, if ye can, ye careless and supine!
Counsel and caution from a voice like mine;
Truths that the theorift could never reach,
And obfervation taught me, I would teach.

C 5

Not

Not all, whofe eloquence the fancy fills,
Musical as the chime of tinkling rills,
Weak to perform, though mighty to pretend,
Can trace her mazy windings to their end;
Difcern the fraud beneath the fpecious lure,
Prevent the danger, or prescribe the cure.
The clear harangue, and cold as it is clear,
Falls foporific on the liftlefs ear;
Like quickfilver, the rhet'ric they display
Shines as it runs, but, grasp'd at, flips away.
Plac'd for his trial on this bustling stage,
From thoughtlefs youth to ruminating age,
Free in his will to chufe or to refuse,
Man may improve the crifis, or abuse;
Elfe, on the fatalifts unrighteous plan,
Say, to what bar amenable were man?
With nought in charge, he could betray no trust,
And if he fell, would fall because he muft;
If love reward him, or if vengeance ftrike,
His recompence in both, unjuft alike.
Divine authority within his breast

Brings ev'ry thought, word, action to the test,
Warns him or prompts, approves him or restrains,
As reafon, or as paffion, takes the reins.
Heav'n from above, and confcience from within,

Cry in his ftartled ear, abftain from fin.

The

The world around folicits his defire,

And kindles in his foul a treach'rous fire,
While, all his purposes and steps to guard,
Peace follows virtue as its fure reward;
And pleasure brings as furely in her train,
Remorfe and forrow and vindictive pain.

Man thus endued with an elective voice,
Must be supplied with objects of his choice.
Where'er he turns, enjoyment and delight,
Or present, or in prospect, meet his fight;
Thefe open on the spot their honey'd store,
Those call him loudly to purfuit of more.
His unexhaufted mine, the fordid vice
Avarice shows, and virtue is the price..
Here, various motives his ambition raife,
Pow'r, pomp, and fplendor, and the thirst of praise;
There beauty wooes him with expanded arms,
E'en Bacchanalian madness has its charms.

Nor thefe alone, whofe pleasures lefs refin'd,
Might well alarm the most unguarded mind,
Seek to fupplant his unexperienc'd youth,
Or lead him devious from the path of truth;
Hourly allurements on his paffions press,
Safe in themselves, but dang'rous in th' excefs.
Hark! how it floats upon the dewy air,

O what a dying, dying clofe was there!

'Tis

'Tis harmony from yon fequefter'd bow'r,

Sweet harmony that fooths the midnight hour;
Long ere the charioteer of day had run

His morning course, th' enchantment was begun,
And he shall gild yon mountain's height again,
Ere yet the pleafing toil becomes a pain.

Is this the rugged path, the fteep ascent That virtue points to? Can a life thus spent Lead to the blifs fhe promises the wife,

Detach the foul from earth, and speed her to the skies? Ye devotees to your ador'd employ,

Enthusiasts, drunk with an unreal joy,

Love makes the mufic of the bleft above,
Heav'n's harmony is univerfal love ;

And earthly founds, tho' sweet and well combin'd,
And lenient as fit opiates to the mind,
Leave vice and folly un'ubdu'd behind.

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Grey dawn appears, the sportsman and his train Speckle the bofom of the diftant plain, "Tis he, the Nimrod of the neighb'ring lairs, Save that his fcent is lefs acute than their's; For perfevering chace, and headlong leaps, True beagle as the ftaunchest hound he keeps. Charg'd with the folly of his life's mad scene, He takes offence, and wonders what you mean;. The joy, the danger and the toil o'erpays, 'Tis exercife, and health and length of days;

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