To catch the wand'ring notice of mankind, By good vouchsaf'd makes known superiour good, 140 145 That bliss, reveal'd in Scripture, with a glow 150 Of sensual evil, and thus hope is born. Hope sets the stamp of vanity on all That men have deem'd substantial since the fall; 155 From emptiness itself a real use; And while she takes, as at a father's hand, From fading good derives, with chemick art, 160 Pants for the place of her ethereal birth, On steady wings sails through the immense abyss, Plucks amaranthine joys from bowers of bliss, And crowns the soul, while yet a mourner here 165 170 Had he the gems, the spices, and the land, 175 180 Were light, when weigh'd against one smile of thine. To frown, and roar, and shake his feeble form. Or, more provoking still, of nobler name, 185 190 The little Greeks look trembling at the scales, 195 Now see him launch'd into the world at large; If priest, supinely droning o'er his charge, Their fleece his pillow, and his weekly drawl, Though short, too long, the price he pays for all. 200 If lawyer, loud whatever cause he plead, But proudest of the worst, if that succeed. Perhaps a grave physician, gath'ring fees, Punctually paid for length'ning out disease; No Cotton, whose humanity sheds rays That make superiour skill his second praise. If arms engage him, he devotes to sport His date of life, so likely to be short; A soldier may be any thing, if brave, So may a tradesman, if not quite a knave. 205 210 Such stuff the world is made of: and mankind Insist on, as if each were his own pope, 215 220 Mark these, she says; these summon'd from afar, 225 Begin their march to meet thee at the bar; There find a judge inexorably just, And perish there, as all presumption must. Peace be to those, (such peace as earth can give,) A right to the meek honours of her name,) 230 235 To any throne, except the throne of Grace. Let cottagers and unenlighten'd swains Revere the laws they dream'd that Heav'n ordains; 240 245 Judging, in charity, no doubt, the town 230 255 They die-Death lends them, pleas'd, and as in sport, All the grim honours of his ghastly court. Far other paintings grace the chamber now, 260 Where late we saw the mimick landscape glow: The busy heralds rang the sable scene With mournful scutcheons, and dim lamps between ; Proclaim their titles to the crowd around, 266 But they that wore them move not at the sound; The coronet plac'd highly at their head, Adds nothing now to the degraded dead; And e'en the star, that glitters on the bier, 270 Can only say-Nobility lies here. Peace to all such-'twere pity to offend, By useless censure, whom we cannot mend; 'Twas there we found them, and must leave them there. As when two pilgrims in a forest stray, Both may be lost, yet each in his own way; 275 In vain Opinion's waste and dang’rous wild; Ten thousand rove the brakes and thorns among, 280 Some eastward, and some westward, and all wrong. But here, alas! the fatal diff'rence lies, And he that blames what they have blindly chose, 235 Say, botanist, within whose province fali The cedar and the hyssop on the wall, Of all that deck the lanes, the fields, the bow'rs, What parts the kindred tribes of weeds and flow'rs? Sweet scent, or lovely form, or both combin'd, Distinguish ev'ry cultivated kind; The want of both denotes a meaner breed, 290 And Chloe from her garland picks the weed. Thus hopes of ev'ry sort, whatever sect Esteem them, sow them, rear them, and protect. 295 Gethsemane! in thy dear hallow'd ground, 300 (Oh cast them from thee!) are weeds, arrant weeds. Ethelred's house, the centre of six ways, Diverging each from each, like equal rays, Lord paramount of the surrounding plains, 305 E'en till his spacious hall would hold no more. He sent a servant forth, by ev'ry road, 310 To sound his horn, and publish it abroad. That all might mark—knight, menial, high, and low, An ord'nance it concern'd them much to know. 315 If after all some headstrong hardy lout 320 |