Would you, thro' all your days, difpenfe The joys of reafon, and of fense? Or give to life the most you can, Let focial virtue shape the plan. For does not to the virtuous deed A train of pleasing fweets fucceed? Or, like the sweets of wild defire, Did focial pleasures ever tire?
Yet midft the groupe be fome preferr'd, Be fome abhorr'd-for DAMON err'd: And fuch there are-of fair address- As 'twere unfocial to carefs.
O learn by reason's equal rule To fhun the praise of knave, or fool! Then, tho' you deem it better ftill To gain fome ruftic 'fquire's good will And fouls, however mean or vile, Like features, brighten by a fmile; Yet reafon holds it for a crime,
The trivial breaft fhou'd share thy time: And virtue, with reluctant eyes,
Beholds this human facrifice!
Thro' deep referve, and air erect, Mistaken DAMON won respect; But cou'd the fpecious homage país, With any creature, but an afs?
If conscious, they who fear'd the skin, Wou'd fcorn the fluggish brute within.
What awe-ftruck flaves the tow'rs enclose, Where Perfian monarchs eat, and doze? What proftrate rev'rence all agree, To pay a prince they never fee! Mere vaffals of a royal throne !
The fophi's virtues must be fhewn, To make the reverence his own.
As for THALIA-wouldft thou make her Thy bride without a portion ?-take her. She will with duteous care attend, And all thy penfive hours befriend; Will fwell thy joys, will share thy pain; With thee rejoice, with thee complain; Will smooth thy pillow, pleat thy bow'rs; And bind thine aching head with flow'rs. But be this previous maxim known, If thou canft feed on love alone: If bleft with her, thou canst sustain Contempt, and poverty, and pain : If fo-then rifle all her graces- And fruitful be your fond embraces. Too foon, by caitiff-fpleen infpir'd, Sage DAMON to his groves retir❜d : The path disclaim'd by fober reason; Retirement claims a later season;
Ere active youth and warm defires Have quite withdrawn their ling'ring fires. With the warm bofom, ill agree,
Or limpid ftream, or fhady tree.
Love lurks within the rofy bow'r, And claims the fpeculative hour; Ambition finds his calm retreat, And bids his pulfe too fiercely beat; Ev'n focial friendship duns his ear, And cites him to the public sphere. Does he refift their genuine force? His temper takes fome froward courfe; Till paffion, mifdirected, fighs
For weeds, or fhells, or grubs, or flies!
Far happiest he, whofe early days Spent in the focial paths of praise, Leave, fairly printed on his mind, A train of virtuous deeds behind: From this rich fund, the mem❜ry draws The lafting meed of felf-applaufe.
Such fair ideas lend their aid
To people the fequefter'd fhade.
Such are the naiads, nymphs, and fawns, That haunt his floods, or chear his lawns, If where his devious ramble ftrays, He virtue's radiant form furveys; She feems no longer now to wear The rigid mien, the frown fevere;* To fhew him her remote abode; To point the rocky arduous road: But from each flower, his fields allow, She twines a garland for his brow.
Alluding to-the allegory in CERES's tablet.
A RHAPSODY, addreffed to young POETS.
Infanis; omnes gelidis quicunque lacernis Sunt tibi, Nafones Virgiliofque vides.
O you, ye bards! whose lavish breaft requires This monitory lay, the ftrains belong;
Nor think fome mifer vents his fapient faw,
Or fome dull cit unfeeling of the charms That tempt profufion, fings; while friendly zeal, To guard from fatal ills the tribe he loves, Infpires the meaneft of the mufe's train! Like you I loath the groveling progeny, Whofe wily arts, by creeping time matur'd, Advance them high on pow'r's tyrannic throne : To lord it there in gorgeous uselessnefs,
And fpurn fuccefsless worth that pines below! See the rich churl, amid the focial fons Of wine and wit, regaling! hark he joins In the free jeft delighted! feems to shew A meliorated heart! he laughs! he fings! Songs of gay import, madrigals of glee,
And drunken anthems fet agape the board. Like *DEMEA, in the play, benign and mild, And pouring forth benevolence of foul,
Till MICIO wonders: or, in SHAKESPEAR'S line, Obftrep❜rous filence; drowning SHALLOW's voice, And startling FALSTAFF, and his mad compeers. He owns 'tis prudence, ever and anon,
To smooth his careful brow; to let his purfe Ope to a fix-pence's diameter !
He likes our ways; he owns the ways of wit Are ways of pleafaunce, and deferve regard. True, we are dainty good fociety,
But what art thou? alas! consider well, Thou bane of focial pleasure, know thyself. Thy fell approach, like some invasive damp Breath'd thro' the pores of earth from Stygian caves, Deftroys the lamp of mirth; the lamp which we Its flamens boaft to guard, we know not how : But at thy fight the fading flame affumes
A ghaftly blue, and in a stench expires.
True, thou seem'ft chang'd; all fainted, all ensky'd; The trembling tears that charge thy melting eyes Say thou art honeft; and of gentle kind, But all is falfe! an intermitting figh
Condemns each hour, each moment giv'n to fmiles, And deems those only loft, thou doft not lofe. Ev'n for a demi-groat, this open'd foul,
This boon companion, this elastic breast
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