The shelves are full, all other themes are sped; By flowing numbers and a flowery style, Stamp'd on the well bound quarto, grace the shelf, How are the powers of Genius misapplied! A. Hail, Sternhold, then; and, Hopkins, If flattery, folly, lust employ the pen; Give it a charge to blacken and traduce; ease, With all that fancy can invent to please, A. "Twould thin the ranks of the poetic tribe, To dash the pen through all that you proscribe. B. No matter we could shift when they were not; And should, no doubt, if they were all forgot, THE PROGRESS OF ERROR. Si quid loquar audiendum. HOR. Lib. 4. Od. 2. SING, Muse (if such a theme, so dark, so long, Take, if ye can, ye careless and supine, Like quicksilver, the rhetoric they display Divine authority within his breast Brings every thought, word, action to the test; Warns him or prompts, approves him or restrains, As reason, or as passion takes the reins, Heaven from above, and Conscience from within, The world around solicits his desire, And Pleasure brings as surely in her train Man, thus endued with an elective voice, There Beauty woos him with expanded arms; E'en bacchanalian madness has its charms. Nor these alone, whose pleasures less refined Might well alarm the most unguarded mind, Seek to supplant his inexperienced youth, Or lead him devious from the path of truth; Hourly allurements on his passions press, Safe in themselves, but dangerous in the'excess. Hark! how it floats upon the dewy air! O what a dying, dying close was there! "Tis harmony from yon sequester'd bower, Sweet harmony, that sooths the midnight hour! Long ere the charioteer of day had run His morning course, the' enchantment was begun; And he shall gild yon mountain's height again, Ere yet the pleasing toil becomes a pain. Is this the rugged path, the steep ascent, That Virtue points to? Can a life thus spent Lead to the bliss she promises the wise, Detach the soul from earth, and speed her to the Ye devotees to your adored employ, Enthusiasts, drunk with an unreal joy, [skies? Love makes the music of the bless'd above, And earthly sounds, though sweet and well comAnd lenient as soft opiates to the mind, [bined, Leave vice and folly unsubdued behind. Gray dawn appears; the sportsman and his train Speckle the bosom of the distant plain; 'Tis he, the Nimrod of the neighbouring lairs; Save that his scent is less acute than theirs, For persevering chase, and headlong leaps, True beagle as the stanchest hound he keeps. Charged with the folly of his life's mad scene, He takes offence, and wonders what you mean; The joy the danger and the toil o'erpays'Tis exercise, and health, and length of days. Again impetuous to the field he flies; Leaps every fence but one, there falls and dies; Like a slain deer, the tumbril brings him home, Unmiss'd but by his dogs and by his groom. Ye clergy, while your orbit is your place, Lights of the world and stars of human race: But if, eccentric, ye forsake your sphere, Prodigies ominous, and view'd with fear; The comet's baneful influence is a dream; Yours real and pernicious in the' extreme. What then!—are appetites and lusts laid down With the same ease that man puts on his gown? Will avarice and concupiscence give place, Charm'd by the sounds-Your Reverence, or Your Grace? No, but his own engagement binds him fast; Or, if it does not, brands him to the last What atheists call him-a designing knave, A mere church juggler, hypocrite, and slave. |