Like his to shed illuminating rays On ev'ry scene and subject it surveys: Thus grac'd, the man asserts a poet's name, And the world cheerfully admits the claim. 715 Pity Religion has so seldom found A skilful guide into poetick ground! The flow'rs would spring where'er she deign'd to stray And ev'ry muse attend her in her way. Virtue indeed, meets many a rhyming friend, 720 And many a compliment politely penn'd; But, unattir'd in that becoming vest. The shelves are full, all other themes are sped; Am is the sad complaint, and almost true, Whate'er we write, we bring forth nothing new. 725 730 Touch'd with a coal from Heav'n, assume the lyre, 735 For, after all, if merely to beguile, By flowing numbers, and a flow'ry style, Which now and then sweet poetry may cure Or, if to see the name of idle self, 740 Stamp'd on the well-bound quarto, grace the shelf, 745 To float a bubble on the breath of Fame, Prompt his endeavour and engage his aim, Debas'd to servile purposes of pride, The gift whose office is the Giver's praise, To trace him in his word, his works, his ways! Then spread the rich discov'ry, and invito 750 75 Proof of a trifling and a worthless mind. 759 A. Hail, Sternhold, then; and, Hopkins, hail !—B. If flatt'ry, folly, lust, employ the pen ; [Amen. If acrimony, slander, and abuse, Give it a charge to blacken and traduce ; Though Butler's wit, Pope's numbers, Prior's case, 4. "Twould thin the ranks of the poetick tribe, To dash the pen through all that you proscribe. 765 B. No matter we could shift when they were not; And should, no doubt, if they were all forgot. 771 THE PROGRESS OF ERROUR. Si quid loquar audiendum....Hor. Lib. iv. Od. 2. SING, muse, (if such a theme, so dark, so long, May find a muse to grace it with a song,) By what unseen and unsuspected arts, The serpent Errour twines round human hearts; Tell where she lurks, beneath what flow'ry shades, 5 The pois'nous, black, insinuating worm Not all, whose eloquence the fancy fills, 10 15 20 Like quicksilver, the rhet'rick they display 25 Man may improve the crisis or abuse; Else on the fatalist's unrighteous plan, Say to what bar amenable were man? With nought in charge he could betray no trust; And, if he fell, would fall because he must: 30 If Love reward him, or if Vengeance strike, His recompense is 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, 35 As Reason, or as Passion takes the reins. Heav'n from above, and Conscience from within, -Abstain from sin! Cries in his startled ear The world around solicits his desire, Man, thus endu'd with an elective voice, His unexhausted mine the sordid vice Avarice shows, and virtue is the price. Here various motives his ambition raise Pow'r, pomp, and splendour, and the thirst of praise. There Beauty woos him with expanded arms; E'en Bacchanalian madness has its charms. O, what a dying, dying close was there! 'Tis harmony from yon sequester'd bow'r, 70 "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 skic«> Ye devotees to your ador'd employ, 75 Enthusiasts, drunk with an unreal joy, Love makes the musick of the blest above, Heav'n's harmony is universal love; And earthly sounds, tho' sweet and well combin'd, And lenient as soft opiates to the mind, 80 Leave Vice and Folly unsubdu'd behind. Gray dawn appears; the sportsman and his train Speckle the bosom of the distant plain; 'Tis he, the Nimrod of the neighb'ring lairs; Ye clergy, while your orbit is your place, 100 |