As one, who long in thickets and in brakes Entangled winds now this way and now that His devious course uncertain, seeking home; Or, having long in miry ways been foiled And fore discomfited, from flough to flough Plunging and half defpairing of escape;
If chance at length he find a greensward smooth And faithful to the foot, his fpirits rife,
He chirrups brifk his ear-erecting steed,
And winds his way with pleasure and with ease;
So I, defigning other themes, and called
To adorn the Sofa with eulogium due,
To tell its flumbers, and to paint its dreams,
Have rambled wide. In country, city, feat
Of academic fame (howe'er deserved),
Long held, and scarcely difengaged at last.
But now with pleasant pace a cleanlier road
I mean to tread. I feel myself at large,
Courageous and refreshed for future toil,
If toil await me, or if dangers new.
Since pulpits fail, and founding boards reflect
Moft part an empty ineffectual found,
What chance that I to fame fo little known,
Nor converfant with men or manners much,
Should speak to purpose, or with better hope
Crack the fatiric thong? 'Twere wiser far
For me, enamoured of sequestered scenes,
And charmed with rural beauty, to repose,
Where chance may throw me, beneath elm or vine,
My languid limbs, when fummer fears the plains;
Or, when rough winter rages, on the soft
And sheltered Sofa, while the nitrous air
Feeds a blue flame, and makes a cheerful hearth;
There, undisturbed by folly, and apprized
How great the danger of difturbing her,
'To mufe in filence, or at least confine
Remarks, that gall fo many, to the few
My partners in retreat. Difguft concealed
Is oft-times proof of wisdom, when the fault
Is obftinate, and cure beyond our reach.
Domeftic happiness, thou only blifs Of Paradise, that hast survived the fall! Though few now tafte thee unimpaired and pure, Or tafting long enjoy thee! too infirm, Or too incautious, to preserve thy sweets Unmixt with drops of bitter, which neglect Or temper sheds into thy cryftal cup; Thou art the nurse of virtue, in thine arms She smiles, appearing, as in truth fhe is, Heaven-born, and destined to the skies again. Thou art not known where pleasure is adored, That reeling goddess with the zoneless waist And wandering eyes, ftill leaning on the arm Of novelty, her fickle frail support; For thou art meek and conftant, hating change, And finding in the calm of truth-tried love Joys, that her stormy raptures never yield. Forfaking thee what shipwreck have we made
Of honour, dignity, and fair renown!
Till prostitution elbows us afide
In all our crowded streets; and senates seem
Convened for purposes of empire less,
Than to release the adultress from her bond.
The adultrefs! what a theme for angry verfe!
What provocation to the indignant heart,
That feels for injured love! but I difdain
The nauseous task to paint her as fhe is,
Cruel, abandoned, glorying in her shame!
No:-let her pass, and chariotted along
In guilty splendour shake the public ways;
The frequency of crimes has washed them white,
And verse of mine fhall never brand the wretch,
Whom matrons now of character unsmirched,
And chafte themselves, are not ashamed to own.
Virtue and vice had boundaries in old time
Not to be paffed: and the, that had renounced
Her fex's honour, was renounced herself
By all that prized it; not for prudery's fake,
But dignity's, refentful of the wrong.
'Twas hard perhaps on here and there a waif,
Defirous to return, and not received:
But was an wholesome rigour in the main,
And taught the unblemished to preserve with care
That purity, whose lofs was loss of all.
Men too were nice in honour in those days,
And judged offenders well. Then he that sharped,
And pocketted a prize by fraud obtained,
Was marked and fhunned as odious. He that fold
His country, or was flack when she required
His every nerve in action and at stretch,
Paid with the blood, that he had bafely spared,
The price of his default. But now-yes, now,
We are become fo candid and fo fair,
So liberal in conftruction, and fo rich
In christian charity, (good-natured age!)
That they are safe, finners of either sex,
Tranfgrefs what laws they may. Well dreffed, well
bred,
Well equipaged, is ticket good enough
To país us readily through every door.
Hypocrify, deteft her as we may,
(And no man's hatred ever wronged her yet)
May claim this merit ftill-that she admits
The worth of what the mimics with fuch care,
And thus gives virtue indirect applause;
But fhe has burnt her mask not needed here,
Where vice has fuch allowance, that her shifts
And specious semblances have loft their use.
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