The course of human things from good to ill, From ill to worse, is fatal, never fails. Increase of pow'r begets increase of wealth; Wealth luxury, and luxury excefs; Excefs, the fcrophulous and itchy plague That seizes first the opulent, defcends To the next rank contagious, and in time Taints downward all the graduated scale Of order, from the chariot to the plough. The rich, and they that have an arm to check The license of the loweft in degree,
Defert their office; and themselves, intent On pleasure, haunt the capital, and thus To all the violence of lawless hands
Refign the scenes their prefence might protect. Authority herself not seldom 'fleeps, Though refident, and witnefs of the wrong. The plump convivial parfon often bears The magisterial sword in vain, and lays His rev'rence and his worship both to rest On the fame cushion of habitual floth. Perhaps timidity restrains his arm;
When he should strike he trembles, and sets free, Himself enflav'd by, terror of the band,
Th' audacious convict, whom he dares not bind. Perhaps, though by profeffion, ghoftly pure, He too may have his vice, and fometimes prove Lefs dainty than becomes his grave outfide
In lucrative concerns. Examine well
His milk-white hand; the palm is hardly clean- But here and there an ugly fmutch appears.
Foh! 'twas a bribe that left it: he has touch'd Corruption. Whofo feeks an audit here Propitious, pays his tribute, game or fish, Wildfowl or ven'son, and his errand speeds. But fafter far, and more than all the reft, A noble cause, which none who bears a spark Of public virtue ever with'd remov❜d, Works the deplor'd and mischievous effect. 'Tis univerfal foldiership has stabb'd The heart of merit in the meaner clafs. Arms, through the vanity and brainless rage Of those that bear them, in whatever cause, Seem most at variance with all moral good, And incompatible with ferious thought. The clown, the child of nature, without guile, Bleft with an infant's ignorance of all But his own fimple pleasures, now and then A wrestling match, a foot-race, or a fair; Is balloted, and trembles at the news: Sheepish he doffs his hat, and, mumbling, swears A Bible-oath to be whate'er they please, To do he knows not what. The task perform'd, That inftant he becomes the ferjeant's care, His pupil, and his torment, and his jest. His awkward gait, his introverted toes,
Bent knees, round shoulders, and dejected looks, Procure him many a curfe. By flow degrees, Unapt to learn, and form'd of stubborn stuff, He yet by flow degrees puts off himself, Grows conscious of a change, and likes it well: He stands erect; his flouch becomes a walk; He steps right onward, martial in his air, His form, and movement; is as fmart above As meal and larded locks can make him; wears His hat, or his plum'd helmet, with a grace; And his three years of herofhip expir'd, Returns indignant to the flighted plough. He hates the field, in which no fife or drum Attends him, drives his cattle to a march, And fighs for the finart comrades he has left. Twent well if his exterior change were all→→→ But with his clumfy port the wretch has lost His ignorance and harmless manners too. To fwear, to game, to drink; to fhew at home, By lewdness, idleriefs, and fabbath-breach, The great proficiency he made abroad; T'aftonish and to grieve his gazing friends; To break fome maiden's and his mother's heart 3 To be a pest where he was useful once; Are his fole aim, and all his glory now.
Man in fociety is like a flow'r
Blown in its native bed: 'tis there alone
His faculties, expanded in full bloom,
Shine out; there only reach their proper use. But man, affociated and leagu'd with man By regal warrant, or felf-join'd by bond For interest-fake, or fwarming into clans Beneath one head for purposes of war, Like flow'rs felected from the reft, and bound And bundled close to fill some crowded vafe, Fades rapidly, and, by compreffion marr'd, Contracts defilement not to be endur'd.
Hence charter'd boroughs are such public plagues; And burghers, men immaculate perhaps In all their private functions, once combin❜d, Become a loathsome body, only fit
For diffolution, hurtful to the main. Hence merchants, unimpeachable of fin Against the charities of domestic life, Incorporated, feem at once to lofe
Their nature, and, disclaiming all regard For mercy and the common rights of man, Build factories with blood, conducting trade At the fword's point, and dying the white robe Of innocent commercial juftice red. Hence too the field of glory, as the world Mifdeems it, dazzled by its bright array, With all its majesty of thund'ring pomp, Enchanting mufic and immortal wreaths,. Is but a school where thoughtleffness is taught
On principle, where foppery atones For folly, gallantry for ev'ry vice.
But flighted as it is, and by the great Abandon'd, and, which ftill I more regret Infected with the manners and the modes
It knew not once, the country wins me ftill. I never fram'd a wifh, or form'd a plan, That flatter'd me with hopes of earthly bliss, But there I laid the fcene. There early stray'd My fancy, ere yet liberty of choice
Had found me, or the hope of being free.. My very dreams were rural, rural too The first-born efforts of my youthful mufe, Sportive, and jingling her poetic bells Ere yet her ear was mistress of their pow'rs. No:bard could please me but whofe lyre was tun'd To Nature's praises. Heroes and their feats Fatigu'd me, never weary of the pipe
Of Tityrus, affembling, as he fang, The ruftic throng beneath his fav'rite beech. Then Milton had indeed a poet's charms : New to my taste, his Paradise furpafs'd The struggling efforts of my boyifh tongue To speak its excellence; I danc'd for joy. I marvel'd much that at fo ripe an age As twice fev'n years, his beauties had then firft Engag'd my wonder, and admiring still,
« AnteriorContinuar » |