A moment's space, where ev'ry breeze is death?
Death to thy future peace! Away, collect
Thy diffipated mind; contract thy train
Of wild ideas o'er the flow'ry fields
Of fhew diffus'd, and speed to fafer climes.
Economy prefents her glafs, accept
The faithful mirror; powerful to disclose
A thousand forms, unfeen by careless eyes,
That plot thy fate. Temptation in a robe
Of Tyrian dye, with every fweet perfum'd,
Befets thy fenfe; extortion follows close
Her wanton step; and ruin brings the rear.
These and the rest shall her mysterious glass
Embody to thy view; like VENUS, kind,
When to her lab'ring son, the vengeful pow'rs
That urg'd the fall of ILIUM, fhe display'd.
He, not imprudent, at the fight declin'd
Th' inequal conflict, and decreed to raise
The Trojan welfare on some happier shore.
For here to drain thy fwelling purse await
A thousand arts, a thousand frauds attend,
"The cloud-wrought canes, the gorgeous snuff-boxes,
The twinkling jewels, and the gold etwee,
With all its bright inhabitants, shall waste
Its melting stores, and in the dreary void
Leave not a doit behind." Ere yet exhaust
Its flimfy folds offend thy penfive eye,
Away! embosom'd deep in distant shades,
Nor feen nor feeing, thou may'ft vent thy fcorn
Of lace, embroidery, purple, gems, and gold!
There of the farded fop, and effenc'd beau,
Ferocious with a ftoic's frown, disclose
Thy manly scorn, averse to tinfel pomp;
And fluent thine harangue. But can thy foul
Deny thy limbs the radiant grace of dress,
Where dress is merit! where thy graver friend
Shall wish thee burnish'd! where the sprightly fair
Demand embellishment! ev'n DELIA's eye,
As in a garden, roves, of hues alone
Inquirent, curious? Fly the curst domain;
These are the realms of luxury and fhew;
No claffic foil, away! the bloomy fpring
Attracts thee hence; the waning autumn warns ;
Fly to thy native shades, and dread ev❜n there,
Left bufy fancy tempt thy narrow state
Beyond its bounds. Obferve FLORELIO'S mien.
Why treads my friend with melancholy step
That beauteous lawn? why penfive strays his eye
O'er ftatues, grottos, urns by critic art
Proportion'd fair? or from his lofty dome
Bright glittering thro' the grove, returns his
Unpleas'd, difconfolate? And is it love,
Difaftrous love, that robs the finish'd scenes
Of all their beauty? cent'ring all in her
His foul adores? or from a blacker caufe
Springs this remorfeful gloom? is conscious guilt
The latent fource of more than love's despair?
It cannot be within that polish'd breast
Where science dwells, that guilt shou'd harbour there.
No! 'tis the fad furvey of present want,
And paft profufion! Loft to him the sweets
Of
yon pavilion, fraught with ev'ry charm
For other eyes; or, if remaining, proofs
Of criminal expence! Sweet interchange
Of river, valley, mountain, woods, and plains!
How gladsome once he rang'd your native turf,
Your fimple scenes, how raptur'd! ere expence
Had lavish'd thoufand ornaments, and taught
Convenience to perplex him, art to pall,
Pomp to deject, and beauty to displease.
Oh! for a foul to all the glare of wealth,
To fortune's wide exhaustless treasury,
Nobly fuperior! but let caution guide
The coy difpofal of the wealth we scorn,
And prudence be our almoner! Alas!
The pilgrim wand'ring o'er fome diftant clime,
Sworn foe of av'rice! not difdains to learn
Its coin's imputed worth; the deftin'd means
To smoothe his paffage to the favour'd shrine.
Ah let not us, who tread this stranger-world,
Let none, who fojourn on the realms of life,
Forget the land is merc'nary; nor waste
His fare, ere landed on no venal shore.
Let never bard confult PALLADIO's rules;
Let never bard, O BURLINGTON ! furvey
Thy learned art, in CHISWICK's dome display'd;
Dang'rous incentive! nor with ling'ring eye
Survey the window VENICE calls her own.
Better for him, with no ingrateful muse,
To fing a requiem to that gentle foul
Who plan'd the fky-light; which to lavish bards
Conveys alone the pure etherial ray.
For garrets him, and fqualid walls await,
Unless, prefageful, from this friendly strain,
He glean advice, and fhun the fcribler's doom.
ET once again, and to thy doubtful fate
The trembling mufe configns thee. Ere contempt,
Or want's empoifon'd arrow, ridicule,
Transfix thy weak unguarded breast, behold!
The poet's roofs, the careless poet's, his
Who fcorns advice, fhall clofe my ferious lay.
When GULLIVER, now great, now little deem'd,
The play-thing of comparison, arriv'd
Where learned bofoms their aerial schemes
Projected, ftudious of the public weal;
Mid these, one fubtler artist he defcry'd,
Who cherish'd in his dufty tenement
The spider's web, injurious, to fupplant
Fair ALBION's fleeces! Never, never may
Our monarch on fuch fatal purpose smile,
And irritate MINERVA's beggar'd fons
The MELKSHAM weavers! Here in ev'ry nook
Their wefts they fpun; here revell'd uncontroul'd,
And, like the flags from WESTMINSTER's high roof
Dependent, here their fluttering textures wav'd.
Such, fo adorn'd, the cell I mean to fing!
Cell ever fqualid! where the fneerful maid
Will not fatigue her hand! broom never comes,
That comes to all! o'er whofe quiefcent walls
ARACHNE'S unmolested care has drawn
Curtains fubfufk, and fave th' expence of art.
Survey those walls, in fady texture clad,
Where wand'ring fnails in many a flimy path,
Free, unrestrain'd, their various journeys crawl;
Peregrinations ftrange, and labyrinths
Confus'd inextricable! fuch the clue
Of Cretan ARIADNE ne'er explain'd!
Hooks! angles! crooks! and involutions wild!
Mean time, thus filver'd with meanders
In mimic pride the fnail-wrought tiffue fhines,
Perchance of tabby, or of aretine,
Not ill expreffive! fuch the pow'r of fnails!
Behold his chair, whose fractur'd feat infirm
An aged cushion hides! replete with duft
The foliag'd velvet; pleafing to the eye
Of great ELIZA's reign, but now the fnare
Of weary gueft that on the fpecious bed
Sits down confiding. Ah! difaftrous wight!
In evil hour and rafhly doft thou trust
The fraudful couch! for tho' in velvet cas'd,
Thy fated thigh fhall kifs the dusty floor.
The trav❜ler thus, that o'er Hibernian plains
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