Such squalid sloth to honourable toil!
Yet even these, though feigning sickness oft They swathe the forehead, drag the limping limb, And vex their flesh with artificial sores,
Can change their whine into a mirthful note,
When safe occasion offers; and with dance,
And musick of the bladder and the bag,
Beguile their woes, and make the woods resound.
Such health and gayety of heart enjoy
The houseless rovers of the sylvan world;
And, breathing wholesome air, and wand'ring much, Need other physick none to heal th' effects
Of loathsome diet, penury, and cold.
Blest he, though undistinguish'd from the crowd By wealth or dignity, who dwells secure,
Where man by nature fierce, has laid aside
His fierceness, having learnt, though slow to learn,
The manners and the arts of civil life. His wants indeed are many; but supply Is obvious, plac'd within the easy reach Of temp'rate wishes and industrious hands. Here virtue thrives as in her proper soil; Not rude and surly, and beset with thorns, And terrible to sight, as when she springs, (If e'er she spring spontaneous,) in remote And barb rous climes, where violence prevails, And strength is lord of all; but gentle, kind, By culture tam'd, by liberty refresh'd, And all her fruits by radiant truth matur'd. War and the chase engross the savage whole; War follow'd for revenge or to supplant The envied tenants of some happier spot:
The chase for sustenance, precarious trust Ilis hard condition with severe constraint Binds all his faculties, forbids all growth
Of wisdom, proves a school, in which he learns Sly circumvention, unrelenting hate,
Mean self-attachment, and scarce aught beside.
Thus fare the shiv'ring natives of the north, And thus the rangers of the western world, Where it advances far into the deep,
Tow'rds the antarctick. Een the favour'd isics
So lately found, although the constant sun Cheer all their seasons with a grateful smile, Can boast but little virtue; and inert
Through plenty, lose in morals what they gain. In manners-victims of luxurious ease.
These therefore I can pity, plac'd remote From all that science traces, art invents, Or inspiration teaches; and enclos'd In boundless oceans never to be pass'd
By navigators uninform'd as they,
Or plough'd perhaps by British bark again.
But far beyond the rest, and with most cause,
Thee, gentle savage!* whom no love of thec Or thine, but curiosity perhaps,
Or else vain glory, prompted us to draw
Forth from thy native bow'rs, to show thee here
With what superiour skill we can abuse
The gifts of Providence, and squander life.
The dream is past; and thou hast found again
Thy cocoas and bananas, palms and yams,
And homestall thatch'd with leaves. But hast thou
Their former charms? And, having seen our state,
Our palaces, our ladies, and our pomp
Of equipage, our gardens, and our sports,
And card our musick; are thy simple friends,
Thy simple fare, and all thy plain delights, As dear to theo as once? And have thy joys Lost nothing by comparison with ours? Rude as thou art, (for we return'd thee rudo And ignorant, except of outward show,) I cannot think theo yet so dull of heart And spiritless, as never to regret
Sweets tasted herc, and left as soon as known. Methinks I see thee straying on the beach, And asking of the surge, that bathes thy foot, If ever it has wash'd our distant shore. I see thee weep, and thine are honest tears, A patriot's for his country: thou art sad At thought of her forlorn and abject state, From which no pow'r of thine can raise her up. Thus fancy paints thee, and, though apt to err, Perhaps errs little, when she paints thee thus. She tells me too, that duly ev'ry morn Thou climb'st the mountain top, with eager cye Exploring far and wide the wat'ry waste For sight of ship from England. Ev'ry speck Scen in the dim horizon turns thee pale With conflict of contending hopes and fears. But comes at last the dull and dusky eve, And sends thee to thy cabin, well prepar'd To dream all night of what the day denied. Alas! expect it not. We found no bait To tempt us in thy country. Doing good, Disinterested good, is not our trade. We travel far, 'tis true, but not for nought; And must be brib'd to compass Earth again By other hopes and richer fruits than yours.
But though true worth and virtue in the mild And genial soil of cultivated life
Thrive most, and may perhaps thrive only there, 620 Yet not in cities oft: in proud, and gay, And gain-devoted cities. Thither flow, As to a common and most noisome sewer, The dregs and feculence of every land. In cities, foul example on most minds Begets its likeness. Rank abundance breeds, In gross and pamper'd cities, sloth, and lust, And wantonness, and gluttonous excess.
In cities, vice is hidden with most ease,
Dr seen with least reproach; and virtue, taught 690 Vol. II.
By frequent lapse, can hope no triumph there Beyond th' achievement of successful flight. I do confess them nurseries of the arts,
In which they flourish most; where in the beams Of warm encouragement, and in the eye
Of publick note, they reach their perfect size. Such London is, by taste and wealth proclaim'd
The fairest capital of all the world,
By riot and incontinence the worst.
There touch'd by Reynolds, a dull blank becomes 700
A lucid mirror, in which Nature sees
All her reflected features. Bacon there
Gives more than female beauty to a stone,
And Chatham's eloquence to marble lips.
Nor does the chisel occupy alone
The pow'rs of sculpture, but the style as much;
Each province of her art her equal care.
With nice incision of her guided steel
She ploughs a brazen field, and clothes a soil So sterile with what charms soe'er she will, The richest scenery and the loveliest forms. Where finds Philosophy her eagle eye, With which she gazes at yon burning disk Undazzled, and detects and counts his spots ? In London. Where her implements exact, With which she calculates, computes, and scans,
All distance, motion, magnitude, and now Measures an atom, and now girds a world ›
In London. Where has commerce such a mart,
So rich, so throng`d, so drain'd, and so supplied, 720 As London-opulent, enlarg`d, and still
Increasing London Babylon of old
Not more the glory of the Earth, than she,
A more accomplish'd world's chief glory now.
She has her praise. Now mark a spot or two, 725
That so much beauty would do well to purge; And show this queen of cities, that so fair,
May yet be foul; so witty, yet not wise
It is not seemly, nor of good report,
That she is slack in discipline; more prompt T'avenge than to prevent the breach of law: That she is rigid in denouncing death
On petty robbers, and indulges life,
And liberty, and ofttimes honour too,
To peculators of the public gold:
That thieves at home must hang; but he that puts
Into his overgorg'd and bloated purse
The wealth of Indian provinces, escapes. Nor is it well, nor can it come to good, That, through profane and infidel contempt Of holy writ, she has presum'd t' annul And abrogate, as roundly as she may, The total ordinance and will of God; Advancing Fashion to the post of Truth, And centring all authority in modes
And customs of her own, till sabbath rites Have dwindled into unrespected forms,
And knees and hassocks are well-nigh divorc'd.
God made the country, and man made the town.
What wonder then that health and virtue, gifts
That can alone make sweet the bitter draught That life holds out to all, should most abound And least be threaten'd in the fields and groves? Possess ye, therefore, ye who, borne about In chariots and sedans, know no fatigue But that of idleness, and taste no scenes. But such as art contrives, possess ye still Your element, there only can ye shine; There only minds like yours can do no harm. Our groves were planted to console at noon The pensive wand'rer in their shades. At eve The moon-beam, sliding softly in between The sleeping leaves, is all the light they wish, Birds warbling all the musick. We can spare The splendour of your lamps; they but eclipse Our softer satellite. Your songs confound
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