If happy their wife P hefts mote them engage
To climb through knowledge to more noble praise,
And as they mount, enlighten every age
With the bright influence of fair Virtue's rays,
Which from the aweful heights of Grandeur brighter blaze.
LIX.
They, O perverfe and base ingratitude!
Defpifing the great ends of Providence,
For which above their mates they were endued
With wealth, authority, and eminence,
To the low fervices of brutal sense
Abused the means of pleasures more refined,
Of knowledge, virtue, and beneficence;
And, fettering on her throne th' immortal mind,
The guidance of her realm to paffions wild refigned.
Hence thoughtlefs, fhameless, reckless, fpiritlefs,
Nought worthy of their kind did they aflay;
But, or benumb'd with palfied Idleness
In meerly living loiter'd life away;
Or by false taste of pleasure led astray,
For-ever wand'ring in the fenfual bow'rs
Of feverish Debauch, and luftful Play,
Spent on ignoble toils their active pow'rs,
And with untimely blasts diseas'd their vernal hours.
P Hefts, behefts, precepts, commands.
Ev'n they, to whom kind Nature did accord
A frame more delicate, and purer mind,
Though the foul brothel and the wine-ftain'd board
Of beastly Comus loathing they declin’d,
Yet their foft hearts to idle joys refign'd;
Like painted infects, through the fummer-air
With random fight aye ranging unconfin'd;
And tafting every flower and bloffom fair,
Withouten any choice, withouten any care.
LXII.
For choice them needed none, who only fought
With vain amufements to beguile the day;
And wherefore fhould they take or care or thought,
Whom Nature prompts, and Fortune calls to play?
"Lords of the earth, be happy as ye may!"
So learn'd, fo taught the leaders of mankind;
Th' unreasoning vulgar willingly obey,
And, leaving toil and poverty behind,
Ran forth by different ways the blissful boon to find.
LXIII. L
Nor tedious was the fearch; for every where,
As nigh great CUSTOM's royal tow'rs the KNIGHT
Pafs'd through th' adjoining hamlets, mote he hear
The merry voice of festival Delight
Saluting the return of morning bright
With matin-revels, by the mid-day hours
Scarce ended; and again with dewy night,
In cover'd theatres, or leafy bow'rs,
Offering her evening-vows to Pleafure's joyous pow'rs.
LXIV.
And ever on the way mote he efpy
Men, women, children, a promifcuous throng
Of rich, poor, wife and fimple, low and high,
By land, by water, paffing aye along
With mummers, antics, mufic, dance and fong,
To Pleafure's numerous temples, that befide
The glistening streams, or tufted groves among,
To every idle foot stood open wide,
And every gay defire with various joys fupplied.
For there each heart with divers charms to move
The fly inchantress fummoned all her train:
Alluring Venus, queen of vagrant love,
The boon companion Bacchus loud and vain,
And tricking Hermes, god of fraudful gain,
Who, when blind Fortune throws, directs the die,
And Phebus tuning his foft Lydian strain
To wanton motions, and the lover's figh,
And thought-beguiling fhew, and making revelry.
Unmeet affociates there for noble youth,
Who to true honour meaneth to afpire:
And for the works of virtue, faith, and truth
Would keep his manly faculties entire.
The which avizing well, the cautious fire
From that foft firen land of Pleafaunce vain,
With timely hafte was minded to retire,"
¶Or ere the sweet contagion mote attain
His fon's unpractis'd heart, yet free from vicious ftain.
LXVII.
So turning from the beaten road afide,
Through many a devious path at length he paced, As that experienc'd Palmer did him guide,
'Till to a mountain hoare they come at last ;
Whose high-rais'd brows, with filvan honours graced,
Majeftically frown'd upon the plain,
And over all an aweful horrour caft ;
Seem'd as thofe villas gay it did disdain,
Which spangled all the vale like Flora's painted train.
The hill afcended strait, ere-while they came
To a tall grove, whofe thick-embow'ring fhade,
Impervious to the fun's meridian flame,
Ev'n at midnoon a dubious twilight made ;
Like to that fober light, which difarray'd
Of all its gorgeous robe, with blunted beams,
Through windows dim with holy acts pourtray'd,
Along fome cloister'd abby faintly gleams,
Abstracting the rapt thought from vain earth-mufing themes.
Beneath this high o'er-arching canopy
Of clust'ring oaks, a filvan colonnade,
Aye lift'ning to the native melody
Of birds fweet-echoing through the lonely fhade,
On to the centre of the grove they stray'd;
Which, in a spacious circle opening round,
Within its fhelt'ring arms fecurely laid,
Disclos'd to fudden view a vale profound,
With Nature's artless smiles and tranquil beauties crown'd.
LXX.
There, on the bafis of an ancient pile,
Whofe cross furmounted fpire o'erlook'd the wood,
A venerable MATRON they ere-while
Discover'd have, befide a murmʼring flood
Reclining in right fad and penfive mood.
Retir'd within her own abstracted breast,
She feem'd o'er various woes by turns to brood,
The which her changing chear by turns expreft,
Now glowing with difdain, with grief now over-keft.
r Over-keft, for over-caft.
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