Which with our very dawn begun, The fairest flow'rs, and choke the soil?'Tis Slander-and, with shame I own, The vice of human kind alone. Be Slander, then, my leading dream, Though you're a stranger to the theme; Thy softer breast, and honest heart, Scorn the defamatory art; Thy soul asserts her native skies, Nor asks detraction's wings to rise : In foreign spoils let others shine, Intrinsic excellence is thine. The bird in peacock's plumes who shone The silly theft betray'd her pride, And spoke her poverty beside. Th' insidious sland'ring thief is worse Than the poor rogue who steals your purse. Say, he purloins your glitt'ring store; Who takes your gold, takes trash-no more; Perhaps he pilfers-to be fed Ah! guiltless wretch, who steals for bread! But the dark villain who shall aim To blast, my fair, thy spotless name, No gold to glut th' insatiate knave! Improve the hint of Shakespeare's tongue; 'Twas thus immortal Shakespeare sung: And trust the bard's unerring rule, For nature was that poet's school. As I was nodding in my chair, I saw a rueful wild appear: * Othello. No verdure met my aching sight, Two very pois'nous plants, 'tis true, The dreary prospect spread around; Deep snow had whiten'd all the ground: A bleak and barren mountain nigh, Expos'd to ev'ry friendless sky! Here foul-mouth'd Slander lay reclin❜d, Her snaky tresses hiss'd behind; A bloated toad-stool rais'd her head, The plumes of ravens were her bed;'* She fed upon the viper's brood, And slak'd her impious thirst with blood. The rising sun, and western ray, Were witness to her distant sway. The tyrant claim'd a mightier host 'Than the proud Persian e'er could boast. Garth's Dispensatory. * No conquest grac'd Darius' son,* No plea diverts the fury's rage, The fury spares nor sex nor age. E'en Merit, with destructive charms, Provokes the vengeance of her arms. Whene'er the tyrant sounds to war, * Xerxes, King of Persia, and son of Darius. He invaded Greece with an army consisting of more than a million of men (some say more than two millions); who, together with their cattle, perished, in a great measure through the inability of the countries to supply such a vast He stalks with vast gigantic stride, And scatters fear and ruin wide: So the impetuous torrents sweep Revenge, that base Hesperian,* known Envy commands a sacred band, With sword and poison in her hand. * Hesperia includes Italy as well as Spain; and the inhabitants of both are remarkable for their revengeful dispositions, |