Then fleep was undisturb'd by fear, unscared
By drunken howlings; and the chilling tale
Of midnight murther was a wonder heard
With doubtful credit, told to frighten babes.
But farewell now to unfufpicious nights
And flumbers unalarm'd. Now 'ere you sleep
See that your polish'd arms be prim'd with care,
And drop the night-bolt, Ruffians are abroad,
And the first larum of the cock's fhrill throat
May prove a trumpet, fummoning your ear
To horrid founds of hoftile feet within.
Ev'n day-light has its dangers, And the walk
Through pathlefs waftes and woods, unconscious once
Of other tenants than melodious birds
Or harmless flocks, is hazardous and bold.
Lamented change! to which full many a caufe
Invet'rate, hopeless of a cure, confpires.
The courfe of human things from good to ill,
From ill to worse, is fatal, never fails,
Increase of pow'r begets increase of wealth,
Wealth luxury, and luxury excess ;
Excefs, the fcrophulous and itchy plague
That feizes first the opulent, defcends
To the next rank contagious, and in time
Taints downward all the graduated scale,
Of order, from the chariot to the plough.
The rich, and they that have an arm to check
The license of the lowest in degree,
Defert their office; and themselves intent
On pleasure, haunt the capital, and thus,
To all the violence of lawless hands
Resign the scenes their presence might protect.
Authority herself not seldom fleeps,
Though refident, and witnefs of the wrong.
The plump convivial parfon often bears
The magisterial fword in vain, and lays
His rev'rence and his worship both to rest
On the fame cushion of habitual sloth.
Perhaps timidity reftrains his arm,
When he should strike, he trembles, and fets free,
Himself enslaved by terror of the band,
Th' audacious convict whom he dares not bind.
Perhaps, though by profeffion ghoftly pure,
→ He too may have his vice, and fometimes prove
Lefs dainty than becomes his grave outside,
His milk-white hand. The palm is hardly clean-
But here and there an ugly fmutch appears.
Foh! 'twas a bribe that left it. He has touched
Corruption. Whofo feeks an audit here
Propitious, pays his tribute, game or fish,
Wildfowl or ven'son, and his errand speeds.
But fafter far and more than all the rest
A noble cause, which none who bears a spark
Of public virtue, ever wifh'd removed,
Works the deplor'd and mischievous effect,
'Tis universal foldiership has stabb'd
The heart of merit in the meaner clafs.
Arms through the vanity and brainless rage
Of those that bear them in whatever cause,
Seem most at variance with all moral good,
And incompatible with serious thought.
The clown, the child of nature, without guile, Recrute.
Bleft with an infant's ignorance of all
But his own fimple pleasures, now and then
A wrestling match, a foot-race, or a fair,
Is ballotted, and trembles at the news.
Sheepish he doffs his hat, and mumbling fwears
A Bible-oath to be whate'er they please,
To do he knows not what. The task perform'd,
That inftant he becomes the ferjeant's care,
His pupil, and his torment, and his jest.
His aukward gait, his introverted toes,
Bent knees, round fhoulders, and dejected looks,
Procure him many a curfe. By flow degrees,
Unapt to learn and formed of ftubborn stuff,
He yet by flow degrees puts off himself,
Grows conscious of a change, and likes it well,
He ftands erect, his flouch becomes a walk,
He fteps right onward, martial in his air
His form and movement; is as smart above
As meal and larded locks can make him; wears
His hat or his plumed helmet with a grace,
And his three years of herofhip expired,
Returns indignant to the flighted plough.
He hates the field in which no fife or drum"
Attends him, drives his cattle to a march,
And fighs for the fmart comrades he has left.
'Twere well if his exterior change were all-
But with his clumfy port the wretch has loft
His ignorance and harmless manners too.
To fwear, to game, to drink, to fhew at home
By lewdness, idlenefs, and fabbath-breach,
The great proficiency he made abroad,
T' aftonish and to grieve his gazing friends,
To break fome maiden's and his mother's heart,
To be a peft where he was useful once,
Are his fole aim, and all his glory now.
|