His hungry acres, ftinks, and is of ufe.
Th' excife is fatten'd with the rich refult
Of all this riot; and ten thousand cafks,
For ever dribbling out their base contents,
Touch'd by the Midas finger of the ftate,
Bleed gold for Minifters to fport away.
Drink and be mad then; 'tis your country bids;
Gloriously drunk, obey th' important call ;
Her caufe demands th' affiftance of your throats;
Ye all can swallow, and she asks no more.
Would I had fall'n upon thofe happier days
That poets celebrate; those golden times
And those Arcadian scenes that Maro fings,
And Sidney, warbler of poetic profe.
Nymphs were Dianas then, and fwains had hearts
That felt their virtues: innocence, it seems,
From courts difmifs'd, found fhelter in the groves.
The footsteps of fimplicity, imprefs'd
Upon the yielding herbage (fo they fing)
Then were not all effac'd: then speech profane,
And manners profligate, were rarely found,
Obferv'd as prodigies, and foon reclaim'd.
Vain wish! those days were never airy dreams
Sat for the picture; and the poet's hand,
Imparting fubstance to an empty fhade,
Impos'd a gay delirium for a truth.
Grant it: I still must envy them an age
That favor'd fuch a dream; in days like these
Impoffible, when virtue is so scarce,
That to suppose a scene where she presides,
Is tramontane, and ftumbles all belief.
No: we are polish'd now. The rural lass,
Whom once her virgin modesty and grace,
Her artless manners, and her neat attire,
So dignified, that fhe was hardly lefs
Than the fair fhepherdefs of old romance,
Is feen no more. The character is loft.
Her head, adorn'd with lappets pinn'd aloft,
And ribbands streaming gay, fuperbly rais'd,
And magnified beyond all human fize;
Indebted to some smart wig-weaver's hand
For more than half the treffes it fuftains;
Her elbows ruffled, and her tott'ring form
Ill propp'd upon French heels; fhe might be deem'd
(But that the basket dangling on her arm
Interprets her more truly) of a rank
Too proud for dairy-work or fale of eggs.
Expect her foon with foot-boy at her heels,
No longer blushing for her awkward load,
Her train and her umbrella all her care.
The town has ting'd the country; and the ftain Appears a spot upon a vestal's robe,
The worfe for what it foils. The fashion runs
Down into scenes ftill rural; but, alas!
Scenes rarely grac'd with rural manners now.
Time was when, in the pastoral retreat,
Th' unguarded door was fafe; men did not watch
T' invade another's right, or guard their own.
Then fleep was undifturb'd by fear, unfcar'd
By drunken howlings; and the chilling tale
Of midnight murther, was a wonder heard
With doubtful credit, told to frighten babes.
But farewel now to unfufpicious nights,
And flumbers unalarm'd: now, ere you fleep,
See that your polifh'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 cause
Invet'rate, hopeless of a cure, conspires.
The course 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 excefs;
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 lawlefs hands
Refign the fcenes their prefence 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 reft
On the fame cufhion of habitual floth.
Perhaps timidity reftrains his arm;
When he should strike he trembles, and fets free,
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