Part, like fond pilgrims on a journey unknown, !! Sits Fancy, deep enchantrefs! and to eách
With kind maternal looks presents her bowl,
A potent bev tage. Heedlef's they comply,
Till the whole foul from that mysterious draught
Is ting'd, and every tranfient thought imbibes
Of gladness of disguft, defire or fear, ra
One homebred colour, which not all the lights
Of science e'er thall change, not all the storms 455
Of adverse fortune wath away, nor yet
The robe of pureft virtue quite conceal.
Thence on they pafs, where meeting frequent shapes "
Of good and evil, cunning phantoms apt
To fire or freeze the breaft, with them they join 460
In dang'rous parley, lining oft, and oft'
Gazing with reckless paffion, while its garb
The spectre heightens, and its pompous tale
Repeats with Tome new circumftance to fuit
That early tincture of the hearer's foul.
And thould the guardian Reafon but for one
Short moment yield to this illufive seene
His ear and eye, th' intoxicating charm
Involves him, till no longer he discerns,
Or only guides to err. Then revel forth
A furious band that purn him from the throne,"
And all his uproar : hence Ambition climbs
With fliding feet and hands impure to grafp
Thofe folemn toys which glitter in his view
On Fortune's rugged neep; hence pale Revenge 475
Unsheathes her murd'rous dagger: Rapine hence,
And envious Luft, by venal Fraud upborne,
Surmount the rev'rend barrier of the laws,
Which kept them from their prey: hence all the crimes
That e'er defil'd the earth, and all the plagues
That follow them for vengeance, in the guise
Of honour, fafety, pleafure, cafe, or pomp,
Stole first into the fond believing mind.
Yet not by Fancy's witchcraft on the brain
Are always the tuinult'ous paffions driv'n
To guilty deeds, nor Reafon bound in chains
That Vice alone may lord it: oft' adorn'd
With motley pageants Folly mounts his throne,
Ard plays her idiot anticks like a queen.
A thousand garbs the wears, a thousand ways
She whirls her giddy empire-Lo! thus far
With bold adventure to the Mantuan lyre
I fing for contemplation link'd with love
A penfive theme: now haply should my fo
Unbend that serious coun enance, and learn
Thalia's tripping gast, her thrill-ton'd voice,
Her wiles familiar, whether fcorn fhe darts
In wanton ambush from her lip or eye,
Or whether with a fad difguife of care
O'ermantling her gay brow the acts in sport
The deeds of Folly, and from all fides round
Calls forth impetuous Laughter's gay rebuke.
Her province. But thro' ev'ry comick scene
To lead my Mufe with her light pencil arm'd,
Thro' ev'ry fwift occafion which the hand
Of Laughter points at when the mirthful sting
Diftends her lab'ring fides and chokes her tongue,
Were endless as to found each grating note
With which the rooks and chatt'ring daws, and grave Unwieldly inmates of the village pond,
The changing feafons of the sky proclaim
Sun, cloud, or thow'r. Suffice it to have faid
Where'er the pow'r of Ridicule difplays
Her quaint-ey'd vifage fome incongr'ous form,
Some Atubborn diffonance of things combin'd,
Sarikes on her quick perception, whether Pomp,
Gr Praife, or Beauty, be dragg'd in and fhewn
Where fordid fashions, where ignoble deeds,
Where foul Deformity, is wont to dwell,
Or whether thefe with fhrewd and wayward spite 520
Invade refplendent Pomp's imperious mien,
The charms of Beauty or the boast of Praife,
Alk we for what fair end th' Almighty Sire
In mortal bofoms stirs this gay contempt,
Thefe grateful pangs of laughter, from disgust - 525
Educing pleafure? Wherefore but to aid
The tardy fteps of Reason, and at once
By this prompt impulfe urge us to depress
Wild Folly's aims? for tho' the faber light
Of Truth flow dawning on the watchful mind
At length unfoids thro' many a subtle tie
How these uncouth disorders end at last
In publick evil, yet benignant Heav'n,
Confcious how dim the dawn of truth appears
To thousands, confcious what a fcanty paule.
From labour and from care the wider lot
Of bumble life affords for ftudious thought
To fean the maze of Nature, therefore stamp'd
Thefe glaring fcenes with characters of feorn.
As broad as obvious, to the paffing clown,
As to the letter'd fage's curious eye.
Eut other evils o'er the steps of man..
Thro' all his walks impend, against whofe might,
The Qender darts of laughter, nought avail;
A trivial warfare. Some like cruel guards
On Nature's ever-moving throne attend,
With mischief arm'd for him whoe'er fhall thwart, The path of her inexorable wheels,
While the purfucs the work that must be done.
'Thro' ocean, earth, and air: hence frequent forms Of wo, the merchant with his wealthy bark
Bury'd by dahing waves, the travelier
Pierc'd by the pointed lightning in his hate,
And the poorthufbandman with felded arms,.
Surveying his left labours and a heap
Of blafted chaff, the product of the field,..
Whence he expected bread. But warfe than thefe
Ideem, far worse, that other race of ills
Which humankind tear up among themselves,
That horrid offspring which mifgoverned Will 56
Bears to fantastick Error; Vices, Crimes,
Furies that curfe the earth, and make the blows,
The heaviest blows, of Nature's innocent hand
Seem fport; which are indeed but as the care
Of a wife parent, who fol cits good
To all her houfe, tho haply at the price
Of tears, and froward waiting, and reproach,
From fome unthinking child, whom not the ler's
Its mother deftines to be happy ftill.
Thefe fources then of pain, this double lot
Of evil in the inheritance of man,
Requir❜d for his protection no flight force,
No carelefs watch, and therefore was his breaft
Fenc'd round with paffions quick to be alarm'd,
Or ftubborn to oppofe; with fear more fwift'
Than beacons catching fame from hill to hill
Where armies land, with anger uncontroll'd
As the young fien bounding on his prey,
With forrow that locks up the ftruggling heart,
And shame that overcafts the drooping eye
As with a cloud of lightning. Thefe the part
Perform of eager monitors, and goa
The foul more
The foul more sharply than with points of fteel
And as thofe paffions that converfe with go
Are good themfelves, as hope, and love, and joy,
Among the fairest and the fweetest boons
Of life we rightly count, fo thefe which guard
Against invading evil, ftill excite
Some pain, fome tumult; these within the mind.590
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