Page images
PDF
EPUB

The footsteps of Simplicity, impress'd

Upon the yielding herbage, (so they sing)
Then were not all effac'd: then speech profane,
And manners profligate, were rarely found,
Observ'd as prodigies, and soon reclaim'd.
Vain wish! those days were never: airy dreams
Sat for the picture: and the poet's hand,
Imparting substance to an empty shade,
Impos'd a gay delirium for a truth.

Grant it: I still must envy them an age,

520

That favour'd such a dream; in days like these 530
Impossible, when Virtue is so scarce,

That to suppose a scene where she presides,
Is tramontane, and stumbles all belief.

No: we are polish'd now. The rural lass,
Whom once her virgin modesty and grace,
Her artless manners, and her neat attire,
So dignified, that she was hardly less
Than the fair shepherdess of old romance,
Is seen no more. The character is lost!

540

Her head, adorn'd with lappets pinn'd aloft,
And ribbands streaming gay, superbly rais'd,
And magnified beyond all human size,
Indebted to some smart wig-weaver's hand
For more than half the tresses it sustains;
Her elbows ruffled, and her tott'ring form
Ill propp'd upon French heels; she might be deem'd
(But that the basket dangling on her arm
Interprets her more truly) of a rank

Too proud for dairy work, or sale of eggs.
Expect her soon with footboy at her heels,
No longer blushing for her awkward load,
Her train and her umbrella all her care!

550

The town has ting'd the country; and the stain Appears a spot upon a vestal's robe,

The worse for what it soils. The fashion runs

Down into scenes still rural; but alas,

Scenes rarely grac'd with rural manners now!

Time was when in the pastoral retreat

Th' unguarded door was safe; men did not watch
T' invade another's right, or guard their own. 560
Then sleep was undisturb'd by fear, unscar'd
By drunken howlings; and the chilling tale
Of midnight murder was a wonder heard
With doubtful credit, told to frighten babes.
But farewell now to unsuspicious nights,
And slumbers unalarm'd! Now, ere you sleep,
See that your polish'd arms be prim'd with care,
And drop the nightbolt;-ruffians are abroad;
And the first larum of the cock's shrill throat
May prove a trumpet, summoning your ear
To horrid sounds of hostile feet within.

570

Ev'n daylight has it's dangers; and the walk Through pathless wastes and woods, unconscious

once

Of other tenants than melodious birds,

Or harmless flocks, is hazardous and bold.

Lamented change! to which full many a cause

Invet'rate, hopeless of a cure, conspires.

The course of human things from good to ill,

From ill to worse, is fatal, never fails.

Increase of power begets increase of wealth;

580

Wealth luxury, and luxury excess ;
Excess, the scrofulous and itchy plague,
That seizes first the opulent, descends
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 licence of the lowest in degree,

Desert their office; and themselves, intent

On pleasure, haunt the capital, and thus

To all the violence of lawless hands

Resign the scenes, their presence might protect. Authority herself not seldom sleeps,

Though resident, and witness of the wrong.

The plump convivial parson often bears
The magisterial sword in vain, and lays
His rev'rence and his worship both to rest

590

On the same cushion of habitual sloth.

Perhaps timidity restrains his arm;

When he should strike he trembles, and sets free, 600
Himself enslav'd by terrour of the band,

Th' audacious convict, whom he dares not bind.
Perhaps, though by profession ghostly pure,
He too may have his vice, and sometimes prove
Less dainty than becomes his grave outside
In lucrative concerns.
Examine well

His milkwhite hand; the palm is hardly clean-
But here and there an ugly smutch appears.
Foh! 'twas a bribe that left it: he has touch'd
Corruption. Whoso seeks an audit here

Propitious, pays his tribute, game or fish,
Wildfowl or ven'son; and his errand speeds.

610

But faster far, and more than all the rest,
A noble cause, which none, who bears a spark
Of public virtue, ever wish'd remov'd,

Works the deplor'd and mischievous effect.

« PreviousContinue »