Convenience to perplex him, art to pall, Pomp to deject, and beauty to displease.
Oh! for a foul to all the glare of wealth, To fortune's wide exhauftlefs treasury, Nobly fuperior! but let caution guide The coy difpofal of the wealth we fcorn, And prudence be our almoner! Alas! The pilgrim wand'ring o'er fome diftant clime, Sworn foe of av'rice! not difdains to learn Its coin's imputed worth; the deftin'd means To smooth his paffage to the favour'd shrine. Ah let not us, who tread this stranger-world, Let none, who fojourn on the realms of life, Forget the land is merc'nary; nor wafte His fare, ere landed on no venal shore.
Let never bard confult PALLADIO's rules; Let never bard, O BURLINGTON! furvey Thy learned art, in CHISWICK's dome difplay'd ; Dang'rous incentive! nor with ling'ring eye Survey the window VENICE calls her own. Better for him, with no ingrateful mufe, To fing a requiem to that gentle foul
Who plan'd the sky-light; which to lavish bards Conveys alone the pure etherial ray.
For garrets him, and squalid walls await, Unless, prefageful, from this friendly strain, He glean advice, and fhun the fcribler's doom.
ET once again, and to thy doubtful fate
The trembling mufe configns thee. Ere contempt,
Or want's empoifon'd arrow, ridicule,
Transfix thy weak unguarded breast, behold!
The poet's roofs, the careless poet's, his Who fcorns advice, shall close my serious lay,
When GULLIVER, now great, now little deem'd, The play-thing of comparifon, arriv'd Where learned bofoms their aerial schemes Projected, ftudious of the public weal; 'Mid these, one subtler artist he defcry'd, Who cherish'd in his dusty tenement The spider's web, injurious, to fupplant Fair ALBION's fleeces! Never, never may Our monarch on fuch fatal purpose smile, And irritate MINERVA's beggar'd fons The MELKSHAM weavers! Here in ev'ry nook Their wefts they fpun; here revell'd uncontroul'd, And, like the flags from WESTMINSTER's high roof Dependent, here their fluttering textures wav'd. Such, fo adorn'd, the cell I mean to fing! Cell ever fqualid! where the fneerful maid Will not fatigue her hand! broom never comes, That comes to all! o'er whofe quiescent walls ARACHNE'S unmolefted care has drawn Curtains fubfufk, and fave th' expence of art. Survey those walls, in fady texture clad,
Where wand'ring fnails in many a flimy path, Free, unreftrain'd, their various journeys crawl; Peregrinations ftrange, and labyrinths Confus'd inextricable! fuch the clue Of Cretan ARIADNE ne'er explain'd! Hooks! angles! crooks! and involutions wild ! Mean time, thus filver'd with meanders gay In mimic pride the fnail-wrought tiffue fhines, Perchance of tabby, or of aretine,
Not ill expreffive! fuch the pow'r of fnails! Behold his chair, whose fractur'd seat infirm... MA An aged cushion hides! replete with duft The foliag'd velvet; pleafing to the eye
Of great ELIZA's reign, but now the fnare
Of weary gueft that on the fpecious bed Sits down confiding. Ah! difaftrous wight! In evil hour and rafhly doft thou truft The fraudful couch! for tho' in velvet cas'd, Thy fated thigh fhall kifs the dufty floor. The trav'ler thus, that o'er Hibernian plains Hath fhap'd his way; on beds profufe of flow'rs, Cowflip, or primrose, or the circ❜lar eye Of daifie fair, decrees to bafk fupine.
And fee! delighted, down he drops, fecure Of fweet refreshment, ease without annoy,
Or luscious noon-day nap. Ah much deceiv'd, .. Much fuff'ring pilgrim! thou nor noon-day nap, Nor sweet repofe fhalt find; the false morass vag 102 In quiv'ring undulations yields beneath
Thy burden, in the miry gulph enclos'd!
And who would truft appearance? caft thine eye Where 'mid machines of het❜rogeneous form His coat depends; alas! his only coat, Eldeft of things! and naplefs, as an heath Of small extent by fleecy myriads graz'd. Not diff'rent have I seen in dreary vault Display'd, a coffin; on each fable fide The texture unmolested seems entire. Fraudful, when touch'd it glides to duft away! And leaves the wond'ring fwain to gape, to ftare, And with expreffive fhrug, and piteous figh, Declare the fatal force of rolling years,
Or dire extent of frail mortality.
This aged vefture, fcorn of gazing beaux, And formal cits, (themselves too haply scorn'd) Both on its fleeve and on its skirt, retains Full many a pin wide-fparkling: for, if e’er Their well-known creft met his delighted eye, Tho' wrapt in thought, commercing with the fky, He, gently stooping, fcorn'd not to upraise, And on each fleeve, as conscious of their use, Indenting fix them; nor, when arm'd with thefe, The cure of rents and feparations dire, And chaẩms enormous, did he view dismay'd Hedge, bramble, thicket, bush, portending fate To breeches, coat and hofe! had any wight Of vulgar skill, the tender texture own'd; But gave his mind to form a fonnet quaint Of SILVIA's fhoe-ftring, or of CLOE's fan, Or fweetly-fashion'd tip of CELIA's ear. T 2
Alas! by frequent ufe decays the force Of mortal art! the refractory robe Eludes the taylor's art, eludes his own; How potent once, in union quaint conjoin'd!. See near his bed (his bed too falfely call'd The place of reft, while it a bard fuftains; Pale, meagre, mufe-rid wight! who reads in vain Narcotic volumes o'er) his candlestick, Radiant machine, when from the plastic hand Of MULCIBER, the may'r of BIRMINGHAM, The engine iffu'd; now alas difguis'd
By many an unctuous tide, that wand'ring down Its fides congeal; what he, perhaps, essays With humour forc'd, and ill-diffembled fmile, Idly to liken to the poplar's trunk
When o'er its bark the lucid amber, wound In many a pleafing fold, incrufts the tree. Or fuits him more the winter's candy'd thorn, When from each branch, anneal'd, the works of froft Pervafive, radiant ificles depend ?
How fhall I fing the various ill that waits The careful fonneteer? or who can paint The shifts enormous, that in vain he forms To patch his panelefs window; to cement His batter'd tea pot, ill-retentive vase? To war with ruin ? anxious to conceal Want's fell appearance, of the real ill Nor foe, nor fearful. Ruin unforeseen. Invades his chattles; ruin will invade ; Will claim his whole invention to repair,
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