Who could from these, in some unhappy day, Who could bear this and live?-Oh! many a year All this is borne, and miseries more severe; Far as I might the inward man perceive, Thus might we class the Debtors here confined, The more deceived, the more deceitful kind; Here are the guilty race, who mean to live On credit, that credulity will give ; Who purchase, conscious they can never pay; Who know their fate, and traffic to betray; On whom no pity, fear, remorse, prevail, Their aim a statute, their resource a jail ; These as the public spoilers we regard, A second kind are they, who truly strive There is a Debtor, who his trifling all Spreads in a shop; it would not fill a stall: There at one window his temptation lays, And in new modes disposes and displays : Above the door you shall his name behold, And what he vends in ample letters told, The words 'Repository,' 'Warehouse,' all He uses to enlarge concerns so small : He to his goods assigns some beauty's name, Then in her reign, and hopes they'll share her fame, And talks of credit, commerce, traffic, trade, As one important by their profit made; Of one day's herring and the morrow's steak: Is to display his stock and vend his ware. Long waiting hopeless, then he tries to meet A kinder fortune in a distant street; There he again displays, increasing yet Corroding sorrow and consuming debt: Alas! he wants the requisites to riseThe true connections, the availing ties They who proceed on certainties advance, These are not times when men prevail by chance : But still he tries, till, after years of pain, He finds, with anguish, he has tried in vain. Debtors are these on whom 'tis hard to press, 'Tis base, impolitic, and merciless. To these we add a miscellaneous kind, By pleasure, pride, and indolence confined; Those whom no calls, no warnings could divert, The unexperienced and the inexpert ; The builder, idler, schemer, gamester, sot, The follies different, but the same their lot; Victims of horses, lasses, drinking, dice, Of every passion, humour, whim, and vice. See! that sad Merchant, who but yesterday Had a vast household in command and pay; He now entreats permission to employ A boy he needs, and then entreats the boy. And there sits one, improvident but kind, Bound for a friend, whom honour could not bind; Sighing, he speaks to any who appear, "A treach'rous friend-'t was that which sent me here: "I was too kind,-I thought I could depend "On his bare word—he was a treach'rous friend." A Female too!-it is to her a home, Plan after plan ;-but fortune would not mend, While thus observing, I began to trace (Still unresisted) of that easy heart; But he at length beholds me- "Ah! my friend! "And have thy pleasures this unlucky end? "Too sure," he said, and smiling as he sigh'd; "I went astray, though Prudence seem'd my guide; "All she proposed I in my heart approved, "And she was honour'd, but my pleasure loved"Pleasure, the mistress to whose arms I fled, "From wife-like lectures angry Prudence read. 66 Why speak the madness of a life like mine, "The powers of beauty, novelty, and wine? "Why paint the wanton smile, the venal vow, "Or friends whose worth I can appreciate now; "Oft I perceived my fate, and then could say, "I'll think to-morrow, I must live to-day : "So am I here-I own the laws are just"And here, where thought is painful, think I must: "But speech is pleasant; this discourse with thee "Brings to my mind the sweets of liberty, "Breaks on the sameness of the place, and gives "The doubtful heart conviction that it lives. "Let me describe my anguish in the hour "When law detain'd me and I felt its power. "When, in that shipwreck, this I found my shore, "And join'd the wretched, who were wreck'd before; "When I perceived each feature in the face, "Pinch'd through neglect or turbid by disgrace; "When in these wasting forms affliction stood "In afflicted view, it chill'd my blood ; my "And forth I rush'd, a quick retreat to make, "Till a loud laugh proclaim'd the dire mistake: "But when the groan had settled to a sigh, "When gloom became familiar to the eye, "When I perceive how others seem to rest, "With every evil rankling in my breast,"Led by example, I put on the man, Sing off my sighs, and trifle as I can. |