If happy their wife 1 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 health, authority, and eminence,
To the low fervices of brutal fenfe
Abused the means of pleasures more refin'd,
Of knowledge, virtue, and beneficence;
And fettering on her throne th' immortal mind,
The guidance of her realm to paffions wild refign'd.
Hence thoughtlefs, fhameless, reckless, spiritlefs,
Nought worthy of their kind did they affay;
But or benumb'd with palfied Idlenefs
In meerly living loiter'd life away.
Or by falfe taste of pleasure led aftray,
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.
1 Hefts, behefts, precepts, commands.
Ev'n they to whom kind Nature did accord
A frame more delicate, and purer mind,
Through the foul brothel and the wine-ftain'd board
Of beaftly Comus loathing they declin'd,
Yet their foft hearts to idle joys refign'd;
Like painted infects, through the summer-air
With random flight aye ranging unconfin'd;
And tasting every flower and blossom fair,
Withouten any choice, withouten any care.
For choice them needed none, who only fought
With vain amusements to beguile the day;
And wherefore should 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.
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 feftival 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 espy
Men, women, children, a promiscuous throng
Of rich, poor, wife and fimple, low and high,
By land, by water, paffing aye along
With mummers, anticks, mufick, dance and fong,
To Pleasure's numerous temples, that befide
The glistening ftreams, or tufted groves among,
To every idle foot flood open wide,
And every gay defire with various joys supplied.
For there each heart with diverfe charms to move,
The fly inchantrefs fummoned all her train :
Alluring Venus, queen of fragrant love,
The boon companion Bacchus loud and vain,
And tricking Hermes, god of fraudful gain,
Who, when blind Fortune throws, directs the die,
And Phœbus tuning his foft Lydian strain
To wanton motions, and the lover's figh,
And thought-beguiling fhew, and masking 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,
m Or ere the sweet contagion mote attain His fon's unpractic'd heart, yet free from vicious stain. LXVII.
So turning from that 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 laft;
Whofe high-rais'd brows with filvan honours graced, Majestically 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.
LXVIII.
The hill afcended ftrait, ere-while they came
To a tall grove, whofe thick-embow'ring fhade,
Impervious to the fun's meridian flame
Ev'n at mid-noon a dubious twilight made;
Like to that sober light, which disarray'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 cluft'ring oaks, a filvan colonnade,
Aye lift'ning to the native melody
Of birds sweet-echoing through the lonely fhade,
On to the centre of the grove they ftray'd;
Which, in a fpacious circle opening round,
Within it's fhelt'ring arms fecurely laid,
Difclos'd to fudden view a vale profound,
With Nature's artlefs fmiles and tranquil beauties crown'd.
LXX.
There, on the bafis of an ancient pile,
Whose cross furmounted spire o'erlook'd the wood,
A venerable MATRON they ere-while
Discover'd have, befide a murm'ring flood
Reclining in right fad and penfive mood.
Retir'd within her own abstracted breaft
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-kest.
"Over-keft, for over-cast.
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