The sober widow, and the young green virgin,
Cropp'd like a rose before 'tis fully blown,
Or half its worth disclos'd. Strange medley here!
Here garrulous old age winds up his tale; And jovial youth, of lightsome vacant heart, Whose ev'ry day was made of melody,
[shrew, Hears not the voice of mirth, The shrill-tongu'd Meek as the turtle-dove, forgets her chiding. Here are the wise, the generous, and the brave; The just, the good, the worthless, the profane, The downright clown, and perfectly well-bred; The fool, the churl, the scoundrel, and the mean. The supple statesman, and the patriot stern; The wrecks of nations, and the spoils of time, With all the lumber of six thousand years.
Poor man! how happy once in thy first state! When yet but warm from thy great Maker's hand, He stamp'd thee with his image, and, well pleas'd, Smil'd on his last fair work. Then all was well. Sound was the body, and the soul serene; Like two sweet instruments, ne'er out of tune, That play'd their several parts. Nor head, nor heart, Offer'd to ache: nor was there cause they should, For all was pure within, no fell remorse, Nor anxious castings up of what might be,
Alarm'd his peaceful bosom. Summer seas
Shew not more smooth, when kiss'd by southern
Just ready to expire. Scarce importun'd,
The generous soil, with a luxurious hand,
Offer'd the various produce of the year,
And ev'ry thing most perfect in its kind.
Blessed! thrice blessed days! But, ah! how short!
Blest as the pleasing dreams of holy men;
But fugitive like those, and quickly gone.
Oh! slippery state of things! What sudden turns! What strange vicissitudes in the first leaf Of man's sad history! To-day most happy, And ere to-morrow's sun has set, most abject. How scant the space between these vast extremes! Thus far'd it with our sire: Not long enjoy'd His paradise. Scarce had the happy tenant Of the fair spot due time to prove its sweets, Or sum them up, when strait he must be gone, Ne'er to return again. And must he go? Can nought compound for the first dire offence Of erring man? Like one that is condemn'd, Fain would he trifle time with idle talk, And parley with his fate. But 'tis in vainNot all the lavish odours of the place, Offer'd in incense can procure his pardon,
Or mitigate his doom. A mighty Angel
With flaming sword forbids his longer stay,
And drives the loiterer forth; nor must he take
One last and farewel round. At once he lost
His glory and his GOD. If mortal now,
And sorely maim'd, no wonder. Man has sinn'd.
Sick of his bliss, and bent on new adventures,
Evil he needs would try; nor try'd in vain.
(Dreadful experiment! destructive measure!
Where the worst thing can happen, is success.)
Alas! too well he sped: the good he scorn'd,
Stalk'd off reluciant, like an ill-us'd ghost,
Not to return: or if it did, its visits,
Like those of angels, short and far between :
Whilst the black dæmon, with his hell-scap'd train
Admitted once into its better room,
Grew loud and mutinous, nor would be gone;
Lording it o'er the man: who now too late
Saw the rash error, which he could not mend;
An error fatal not to him alone,
But to his future sons, his fortune's heirs.
Inglorious bondage! Human nature groans
Beneath a vassalage so vile and cruel,
And its vast body bleeds thro' ev'ry vein.
What havock hast thou made, foul monster, Sin!
Greatest and first of ills. The fruitful parent
Of woes of all dimensions! But for thee
Sorrow had never been. All-noxious thing,
Of vilest nature! Other sorts of evils
Are kindly circumscrib'd, and have their bounds.
The fierce volcano, from his burning entrails,
That belches molten stone and globes of fire,
Involv'd in pitchy clouds of smoke and stench,
Mars the adjacent fields for some leagues round,
And there it stops. The big-swoln inundation,
Of mischief more diffusive, raving loud,
Buries whole tracks of country, threat'ning more;
But that too has its shore it cannot pass.
More dreadful far than these! Sin has laid waste,
Not here and there a country, but a world:
Dispatching at a wide-extended blow
Entire mankind; and for their sakes defacing
A whole creation's beauty with rude hands;
Blasting the foodful grain, the loaded branches,
And marking all along its way with ruin.
Accursed thing! Oh! where shall fancy find
A proper name to call thee by, expressive
Of all thy horrors? Pregnant womb of ills!
Of temper so transcendently malign,
That toads and serpents of most deadly kind,
Compar'd to thee, are harmless. Sicknesses
Of ev'ry size and symptom, racking pains,
And bluest plagues, are thine. See how the fiend
Profusely scatters the contagion round! Whilst deep-mouth'd slaughter, bellowing at her heels,
Wades deep in blood new spilt: yet for to-morrow Shapes out new work of great uncommon daring, And inly pines till the dread blow is struck.
But hold! I've gone too far; too much discover'd
My father's nakedness, and nature's shame.
Here let me pause, and drop an honest tear,
One burst of filial duty and condolence,
O'er all those ample deserts Death has spread;
This chaos of mankind. O great man-eater!
Whose ev'ry day is carnival, nor sated yet!
Unheard-of epicure! without a fellow!
The veriest gluttons do not always cram;
Some intervals of abstinence are sought
To edge the appetite: thou seekest none.
Methinks the countless swarms thou hast devour'd,
And thousands that each hour thou gobblest up,
This, less than this, might gorge thee to the full;
But, ah! rapacious still, thou gap'st for more:
Like one, whole days defrauded of his meals,
On whom lank hunger lays her skinny hand,
And whets to keenest eagerness his cravings;
As if diseases, massacres, and poison,
Famine, and war, were not thy caterers.
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