THE PROGRESS OF ERROR. Si quid loquar audiendum. HOR. Lib. 4. Od. 2. SING, mufe, (if fuch a theme, so dark, so long, The ferpent error twines round human hearts; Take, if ye can, ye careless and fupine, Counfel and caution from a voice like mine! And obfervation taught me, I would teach. Like quickfilver, the rhet'ric they difplay With nought in charge, he could betray no truft; And, if he fell, would fall because he must; If love reward him, or if vengeance strike, His recompenfe in both unjust alike. Divine authority within his breast Brings ev'ry thought, word, action, to the test; Warns him or prompts, approves him or restrains, As reafon, or as paffion, takes the reins. Heav'n from above, and conscience from within, Cries in his ftartled ear-Abstain from fin! The world around folicits his defire, And kindles in his foul a treach'rous fire; Man, thus endued with an elective voice, Must be fupplied with objects of his choice. Those open on the fpot their honey'd store; His unexhaufted mine the fordid vice Avarice shows, and virtue is the price. Here various motives his ambition raife Pow'r, pomp, and splendour, and the thirst of praife; Nor these alone, whose pleasures, lefs refin'd, Or lead him devious from the path of truth; O what a dying, dying close was there! Sweet harmony, that fooths the midnight hour! His morning courfe, th' enchantment was begun; And he fhall 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 fpent Lead to the blifs fhe promifes the wife, Detach the foul from earth, and speed her to the skies? Ye devotees to your ador'd employ, Enthusiasts, drunk with an unreal joy, Love makes the mufic of the bleft above, Heav'n's harmony is univerfal love; And earthly founds, though sweet and well combin'd, And lenient as foft opiates to the mind, Leave vice and folly unfubdu'd behind. Gray dawn appears; the sportsman and his train 'Tis he, the Nimrod of the neighb'ring lairs; |