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Where then, ah! where, fhall poverty refide, To fcape the preffure of contiguous pride? If, to fome common's fenceless limits stray'd, He drives his flock to pick the fcanty blade, Those fencelefs fields the fons of wealth divide, And even the bare worn common is deny'd

If to the city fped what waits him there? To fee profufion that he must not share; To fee ten thousand baneful arts combin'd To pamper luxury, and thin mankind; To fee each joy the fons of pleasure know Extorted from his fellow creature's woe. Here while the courtier glitters in brocade, There the pale artist plies the fickly trade; Here, while the proud their long- drawn pomps display,

There the black gibbet glooms befide the way. The dome where pleasure holds her midnight reign,

Here, richly deckt, admits the gorgeous train;
Tumultuous grandeur crouds the blazing fquare,
The rattling chariots clash, the torches glare.
Sure fcenes like thefe no troubles e'er annoy!
Sure these denote one universal joy!
Are these thy ferious thoughts? Ah, turn thine
eyes

Where the poor houfelels fhiv'ring female lies.
She, once, perhaps, in village plenty bleft,
Has wept at tales of innocence diftreft;
Her modeft looks the cottage might adorn,
Sweet as the primrose peeps beneeth the thorn:
Now loft to all; her friends, her virtue fled,
Near her betrayer's door fhe lays her head;
And pinch'd with cold, and fhrinking from
the shower,

With heavy heart deplores that luckless hour,
When idly firft, ambitious of the town,

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She left her wheel, and robes of country brown.
Do thine, fweet Auburn, thine, the lovelieft train,
Do thy fair tribes participate her pain?
Even now, perhaps, by cold and hunger led,
At proud mens doors they afk a little bread!

Ah, no, To distant climes, a dreary scene, Where half the convex world intrudes between, Through torrid tracts with fainting steps they go, Where wild Altama murmurs to their woe. Far different there from all that charm'd before, The various terrors of that horrid shore;

Those blazing funs that dart a downward ray,
And fiercely fhed intolerable day;

Thofe matted woods where birds forget to fing,
But filent bats in drowly clusters cling;
Those pois'nous fields with rank luxuriance
crown'd

Where the dark scorpion gathers death around;
Where at each step the stranger fears to wake
The rattling terrors of the vengeful snake;
Where crouching tigers wait their hapless prey;
And favage men, more murd'rous ftill than they:
While oft in whirls the mad tornado flies,
Mingling the ravag'd landfcape with the fkies.
Far different these from every former scene,
The cooling brook, the graffy - vefted green,
The breezy covert of the warpling grove,
That only fhelter'd thefts of harmless love.
Good Heeven! what forrows gloom'd that part-
ing day,

That call'd them from their native walks away;
When the poor exiles, every pleasure paft,
Hung round the bowers, and fondly look'd
their last,

And took a long farewell, and wish'd in vain For feats like thefe beyond the western main; And fhuddring ftill to face the diftant deep,

Return'd and wept, and still return'd to weep.
The good old five the first prepar'd to go
To new-found worlds, and wept for other's woe;
But for himself, in confcious virtue brave,
He only wifh'd for worlds beyond the grave.
His lovely daughter, lovelier in her tears,
The fond companion of his helpless years,
Silent went next, neglectful of her charms,
And left a lover's for her fathers arms.
With louder plaints the mother fpoke her woes,
And bleft the cot where every pleasure rofe;
And kift her thoughtless babes with many a tear,
And clafpt them clofe, in forrow doubly dear;
Whilft her fond husband ftrove to lend relief
In all the filent manlinefs of grief.

O, luxury! thou curft by Heaven's decree,
How ill exchang'd are things like thefe for thee!
How do thy potions, with infidious joy,
Diffuse their pleasures only to destroy
Kingdoms by thee, to fickly greatnefs grown,
Boaft of a florid vigour not their own.
At every draught more large and large they

grow,

A bloated mass of rank unwieldy woe; Till fapp'd their strength, and every part unfound,

Down, down they fink, and fpread a ruin round.

Even now the devaftation is begun,

And half the business of deftruction done;
Ev'n now, methinks, as pond'ring here I ftand,
I fee the, rural virtues leave the land.

Down where yon anchoring effel Spreads the faik

*

That idly waiting "flaps with every gale, Downward they move, a melancholy band, Pass from the fhore, and darken all the ftrand.

Contented toil, and hofpitable care,
And kind connubial tenderness, are there;
And piety with wifhes plac'd above,
And Iteady loyalty, and faithful love.
And thou, fweet poetry, lovelieft maid,
Still first to fly where fenfual joys invade;
Unfit, in thefe degen'rate times of fhame
To catch the heart, or ftrike for honeft fame;
Dear charming nymph, neglected and decry'd
My fhame in crowds, my folitary pride.
Thou fource of all my blifs, and all my woe,
That found'st me poor at firft, and keep'ft me fo;
Thou guide, by which the nobler arts excel,
Thou fource of every virtue, fare thee well!
Farewell! and, O! where'er thy voice be try'd,
On Torno's cliffs, or Pambamarca's fide,
Whether where equinoctial fervours glow,
Or winter wraps the polar world in fnow,
Still let hy voice, prevailing over time,
Redr the rigours of th' inclement clime;
Aid flighted truth with thy perfuafive strain,
Teech erring man to fpurn the rage of gain;
Teach him that states, of native ftrength poffeft,
Though very poor, may ftill be very bleft;
That trade's proud empire haftes to fwift decay,
As ocean fweeps the labour'd mole away,
While felf-dependent power can time defy,
As rocks refift the billows and the sky.

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Y) Der Verfaffer der vier letzten Verfe ift, wie bereits in der Biographie Goldfinith's bemerkt worden, Samuel Johnson.

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Inhalt.

Vorbericht zur erften Auflage

S.

111

Vorbericht zur dritten Auflage

Erläuterung der accentuirten Sylben oder
·Buchstaben und der Verfchiedenheit ihrer
Ausfprache.

Memoirs of the Life and Writings of
Oliver Goldsmith, by Anderfon

The Vicar of Wakefield

The Traveller and the deferted Village

IV

VII

XV

1

265

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