Childhood and youth engage my pen, 'Tis labour loft to talk to men:

Youth may, perhaps, reform, when wrong;
Age will not listen to my song.
He who at fifty is a fool,

Is far too stubborn grown for fchool.
What is that vice which ftill prevails,
When almost ev'ry paffion fails ;
Which with our very dawn begun,
Nor ends, but with our fetting fun;
Which like a noxious weed, can spoil
The fairest flow'rs, and choak the foil?
'Tis Slander-and, with fhamre I own,
The vice of human-kind alone.

Be Slander, then, my leading dream,
Tho' you're a stranger to the theme;
Thy fofter breaft, and honest heart,
Scorn the defamatory art;

Thy foul afferts her native fkies,
Nor afks Detraction's wings to rife:
In foreign fpoils let others fhine,
Intrinfick excellence is thine.

The bird, in peacock's plumes who fhone,

Could plead no merit of her own:

The filly theft betray'd her pride,

And spoke her poverty befide.

Th' infidious fland'ring thief is worfe Than the poor rogue who fteals your purfe.

Say, he purloins your glitt'ring ftore:

Who takes your gold, takes traf-no more;

Perhaps he pilfers to be fed

Ah! guiltlefs wretch, who fteals for bread!
But the dark villain, who fhall aim
To blaft, my fair, thy fpotlefs name,
He'd steal a precious gem away,
Steal what both Indies can't repay!

Here

Here the ftrong pleas of want are vain,
Or the more impious pleas of gain.
No finking family to fave!

No gold to glut th' infatiate knave!

Improve the hint of Shakespeare's tongue;
'Twas thus immortal Shakespeare fung*:
And truft the bard's unerring rule,
For Nature was that poet's school,
As I was nodding in my chair,
I faw a rueful wild appear;
No verdure met my aching fight,
But hemlock and cold aconite;
Two very pois'nous plants, 'tis true,
But not fo bad as vice to you.

The dreary profpe&t fpread around!
Deep fnow had whiten'd all the ground!
A black and barren mountain nigh,
Expos'd to ev'ry friendless sky!

Here foul-mouth'd Slander lay reclin'd,
Her fnaky treffes hifs'd behind :

A bloated toad-stool rais'd her head,
The plumes of ravens were her bed † ;'

She fed upon the viper's brood,

And flak'd her impious thirst with blood.

The rifing fun, and western ray,

Were witness to her distant fway.

The tyrant claim'd a mightier hoft

Than the proud Perfian e'er could boaf.

No conqueft grac'd Darius' fon ;

By his own numbers half undone;

* Othello.

+ Garth's Difpenfatory.

Xerxes, King of Perfia and fon of Darius. He invaded Greece with an army confifting of more than a million of men, (fome fay more than two millions) who, together with their cattle, perished in great meafure through the inability of the countries to fupply fuch a vast host with provision.

Succefs attended Slander's pow'r,
She reap'd fresh laurels ev'ry hour.
Her troops a deeper scarlet wore

Than ever armies knew before.

No plea diverts the fury's rage,
The fury spares nor fex nor age.
E'en Merit, with deftructive charms,
Provokes the vengeance of her arms.
Whene'er the tyrant founds to war,
Her canker'd trump is heard afar.
Pride, with a heart unknown to yield,
Commands in chief, and guides the field,
He stalks with vaft gigantick ftride,
And scatters fear and ruin wide :
So the impetuous torrents fweep,
At once, whole nations to the deep.
Revenge, that base Hefperian*, known
A chief fupport of Slander's throne,
Amidst the bloody crowd is feen,
And treachery brooding in his mien;
The monster often chang'd his gait,
But march'd refolv'd and fix'd as fate:
Thus the fell kite, whom hunger ftings,
Now flowly moves his out-stretch'd wings;
Now swift as lightning bears away,
And darts upon his trembling prey.
Envy commands a fecret band,
With fword and poifon in her hand.
Around her haggard eye-ball's roll,
A thousand fiends poffefs her foul.
The artful unfufpected fprite,"
With fatal aim attacks by night.
Her troops advance with filent tread,

And ftab the hero in his bed;

* Hefperia includes Italy as well as Spain, and the inhabitants of both are remarkable for their revengeful dispositions.

Or

Or fhoot the wing'd malignant lye,
And female honours pine and die:

So prowling wolves, when darkness reigns,
Intent on murder fcour the plains;
Approach the folds, where lambs repofe,
Whofe guileless breafts fufpect no foes;
The favage gluts his fierce defires,
And bleating innocence expires.
Slander fmil'd horribly, to view
How wide her conqueft's daily grew
Around the crouded levees wait,
Like oriental flaves of ftate;
Of either fex whole armies prefs'd,
But chiefly of the fair and beft.

Is it a breach of friendship's law, To fay what female friends I saw? Slander affumes the idol's part,

And claims the tribute of the heart;

The beft, in fome unguarded hour,

Have bow'd the knee, and own'd her pow'r ;

Then let the poet not reveal

What candour wishes to conceal.

If I beheld fome faulty fair,"

Much worfe delinquents crouded there:
Prelates in facred lawn I faw,

Grave Phyfick, and loquacious Law;

Courtiers, like fummer flies, abound;
And hungry poets Twarm around.
But now my partial story ends,
And makes my females full amends.

If Albion's ifle fuch dreams fulfils,
'Tis Albion's ifle which cures these ills:
Fertile of ev'ry worth and grace,

Which warm the heart, and flush the face.

Fancy difclos'd a smiling train

Of British nymphs, that tripp'd the plain.

Good

Good-nature firft, a fylvan queen,
Attir'd in robes of chearful green :
A fair and fmiling virgin fhe!
With ev'ry charm that fhines in thee.
Prudence affum'd the chief command,
And bore a mirror in her hand;
Grey was the matron's head by age,
Her mind by long experience fage;
Of ev'ry diftant ill afraid,

And anxious for the fimp'ring maid,
The Graces danc'd before the fair;
And white-rob'd Innocence was there.
The trees with golden fruits were crown'd,
And rifing flow'rs adorn'd the ground;
The fun difplay'd each brighter ray,
And fhone in all the pride of day.
When Slander ficken'd at the fight,
And skulk'd away to fhun the light.

PLEASURE.

VISION II.

HEAR, ye fair mothers of our isle,

Nor fcorn your Poet's homely ftyle.

What tho' my thoughts be quaint or new,
I'll warrant that my doctrine's true:
Or if my fentiments be old,
Remember, truth is fterling gold.

You judge it of important weight,
To keep your rifing offspring ftraight:
For this fuch anxious moments feel,
And ask the friendly aids of fteel;
For this import the distant cane,
Or flay the monarch of the main,

And