As one, who long in thickets and in brakes
Entangled winds now this way and now that
His devious courfe uncertain, feeking home;
Or, having long in miry ways been foiled
And fore difcomfited, from flough to flough
Plunging and half despairing of escape;
If chance at length he find a greenfward smooth
And faithful to the foot, his fpirits rise,
He chirrups brifk his ear-erecting steed,
And winds his way with pleasure and with ease;
So I, defigning other themes, and called
To adorn the Sofa with eulogium due,
To tell its flumbers, and to paint its dreams,
Have rambled wide. In country, city, feat
Of academic fame (howe'er deferved),
Long held, and scarcely difengaged at last.
But now with pleasant pace a cleanlier road
I mean to tread. I feel myself at large,
'Courageous and refreshed for future toil,
If toil await me, or if dangers new.
Since pulpits fail, and founding boards reflect Moft part an empty ineffectual found, What chance that I to fame fo little known, Nor converfant with men or manners much, Should speak to purpose, or with better hope Crack the fatiric thong? 'Twere wiser far For me, enamoured of fequeftered fcenes, And charmed with rural beauty, to repofe, Where chance may throw me, beneath elm or vine, My languid limbs, when fummer fears the plains; Or, when rough winter rages, on the foft
And sheltered Sofa, while the nitrous air
Feeds a blue flame, and makes a cheerful hearth;
There, undisturbed by folly, and apprized
How great the danger of difturbing her,
To mufe in filence, or at least confine
Remarks, that gall fo many, to the few
My partners in retreat. Difguft concealed
Is oft-times proof of wisdom, when the fault
Is obftinate, and cure beyond our reach.
Domeftic happiness, thou only blifs
Of Paradise, that haft furvived the fall!
Though few now tafte thee unimpaired and pure,
Or tafting long enjoy thee! too infirm,
Or too incautious, to preferve thy fweets
Unmixt with drops of bitter, which neglect
Or temper fheds into thy crystal cup;
Thou art the nurse of virtue, in thine arms
She smiles, appearing, as in truth she is,
Heaven-born, and destined to the fkies again.
Thou art not known where pleasure is adored,
That reeling goddefs with the zoneless waist
And wandering eyes, ftill leaning on the arm
Of novelty, her fickle frail support;
For thou art meek and conftant, hating change,
And finding in the calm of truth-tried love
Joys, that her ftormy raptures never yield.
Forfaking thee what shipwreck have we made
Of honour, dignity, and fair renown!
Till prostitution elbows us afide
In all our crowded streets; and fenates feem
Convened for purposes of empire lefs,
Than to release the adultress from her bond.
The adultress! what a theme for angry verse!
What provocation to the indignant heart,
That feels for injured love! but I difdain
The nauseous task to paint her as she is,
Cruel, abandoned, glorying in her shame!
No:-let her pass, and chariotted along
In guilty fplendour shake the public ways;
The frequency of crimes has washed them white,
And verfe of mine fhall never brand the wretch,
Whom matrons now of character unfmirched,
And chafte themselves, are not ashamed to own.
Virtue and vice had boundaries in old time
Not to be paffed: and she, that had renounced
Her fex's honour, was renounced herself
By all that prized it; not for prudery's fake,
But dignity's, resentful of the wrong.
'Twas hard perhaps on here and there a waif,
Defirous to return, and not received:
But was an wholesome rigour in the main,
And taught the unblemished to preserve with care
That purity, whose lofs was loss of all.
Men too were nice in honour in those days,
And judged offenders well. Then he that sharped,
And pocketted a prize by fraud obtained,
Was marked and shunned as odious. He that fold
His country, or was flack when the required
His every nerve in action and at stretch,
Paid with the blood, that he had bafely fpared,
The price of his default. But now-yes, now,
We are become so candid and so fair,
So liberal in conftruction, and fo rich
In chriftian charity, (good-natured age!)
That they are safe, finners of either sex,
Tranfgrefs what laws they may. Well dressed, well
bred,
Well equipaged, is ticket good enough
To pass us readily through every door.
Hypocrify, deteft her as we may,
(And no man's hatred ever wronged her yet)
May claim this merit ftill-that she admits
The worth of what the mimics with fuch care,
And thus gives virtue indirect applaufe;
But fhe has burnt her mafk not needed here,
Where vice has fuch allowance, that her fhifts
And specious semblances have loft their use.
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