Which youthful minds with freedom mend,
And with the Father mix the Friend?
Uncircumfcrib'd by prudent rules,
Or precepts of expenfive fchools;
Abus'd at home, abroad defpis'd,
Unbred, unletter'd, unadvis'd;
The headstrong courfe of youth begun,
What comfort from this darling fon?
PLATE II. The rake's levee.
PROSPERITY (with harlot's fmiles,
Moft pleafing when the most beguiles,)
How foon, fweet foe, can all thy train
Of falfe, gay, frantic, loud, and vain,
Enter the unprovided mind,
And memory in fetters bind;
Load Faith and Love with golden chain,
And fprinkle Lethe o'er the brain !
PLEASURE, in her filver throne,
Smiling comes, nor comes alone;
Venus comes with her along,
And fmooth Lycus ever young ;
And in their train, to fill the prefs,
Come apish Dance, and swoll'n Excess,
Mechanic Honour, vicious Tafic,
And Fashion in her changing veft.
O vanity of youthful blood,
So by mifufe to poison Good!
Woman, fram'd for focial love,
Faireft gift of pow'rs above;
Source of ev'ry houshold blessing,
All charms in innocence poffeffing-
But turn'd to Vice all plagues above,
Foe to thy being, foe to Love!
Gueft divine to outward viewing,
Abler minifter of ruin!
And thou no lefs of gift divine,
Sweet Poifon of misused WINE!
With freedom led to ev'ry part,
And fecret chamber of the heart;
Doft thou thy friendly hot betray,
And shew thy riotous gang the way
To enter in with covert treason,
O'erthrow the drowsy guard of reason,
To ranfack the abandon'd place,
And revel there with wild excefs?
PLATE IV. St. James's freet where the rake is arrested.
O vanity of youthful blood,
So by mifufe to poison Good!
Reafon awakes, and views unbar'd
The facred gates he watch'd to guard;
Approaching fees the harpy, Law,
And Poverty, with icy paw
Ready to feize the poor remains
That Vice hath left of all his gains.
Cold Penitence, lame After-thought,
With fears, despair, and horrors fraught,
Call back his guilty pleasures dead,
Whom he hath wrong'd and whom betray'd.
PLATE V. Marybone church, where he marries a rich old woman.
New to the school of hard Mishap,
Driv'n from the ease of Fortune's lap,
What shames will Nature not embrace
T' avoid lefs fhame of drear distress!
GOLD can the charms of youth beftow,
And mask deformity with fhew:
GOLD can avert the fting of Shame,
In Winter's arms create a flame;
Can couple youth with hoary age,
And make antipathies engage.
PLATE VI. A gaming houfe.
GOLD, thou bright fon of Phoebus, fource
Of univerfal intercourse;
Of weeping Virtue foft redress,
And bleffing those who live to bless!
Yet oft behold this facred trust,
The tool of avaritious luft:
No longer bond of humankind,
But bane of ev'ry virtuous mind.
What Chaos fuch mifufe attends!
Friendship stoops to prey on friends;
Health, that gives relish to delight,
Is wafted with the wasting night;
Doubt and mistrust is thrown on HEAVEN,
And all its power to Chance is given.
Sad purchase of repentant tears,
Of needlefs quarrels, endless fears,
Of hopes of moments, pangs of years!
Sad purchase of a tortur'd mind
To an imprison'd body join'd!
PLATE VII. A prison.
Happy the man, whofe conftant thought
(Though in the school of hardship taught,).
Can fend Remembrance back, to fetch
Treasures from life's earliest stretch;
Who, felf-approving, can review
Scenes of paft virtues, which shine through
The gloom of age, and caft a ray
To gild the evening of his day!
Not fo the guilty wretch confin'd;
No pleasures meet his confcious mind;
No bleffings brought from early youth,
But broken faith, and wrested truth,
Talents idle and unus'd,
And ev'ry truft of heav'n abus'd.
In feas of fad reflection loft, From horrors ftill to horrors tofs'd, Reafon the veffel leaves to fteer,
And gives the helm to mad DESPAIR.
PLATE VIII. Bethle'm.
MADNESS! thou Chaos of the brain;
What art, that pleasure giv'ft and pain?
Tyranny of Fancy's reign!
Mechanic Fancy! that can build
Vaft labyrinths and mazes wild,
With rule disjointed, fhapeless measure,
Fill'd with Horror, fill'd with Pleasure!
Shapes of Horror, that wou'd even
Caft doubt of mercy upon heaven!
Shapes of Pleasure, that but feen
Wou'd split the shaking fides of Spleen!
Of vanity of AGE! here fee
The stamp of heav'n effac'd by thee!
The headstrong courfe of youth thus run,
What comfort from this darling fon?
His rattling chains with terror hear
Behold death grappling with defpair;
See him by thee to ruin fold,
And curfe thyself, and curse thy GOLD.
|