XVI. "Have you no friends?"—" I had-but, by God's blessing, Have not been troubled with them lately. Now I have answer'd all your questions without pressing, And you an equal courtesy should show." "Alas!" said Juan, "'twere a tale distressing, And long besides.". "Oh! if 'tis really so, You're right on both accounts to hold your tongue; A sad tale saddens doubly, when 'tis long. XVII. "But droop not: Fortune at your time of life, XVIII. "'Tis not," said Juan, " for my present doom I mourn, but for the past;-I loved a maid: He paused, and his dark eye grew full of gloom ; A single tear upon his eyelash staid A moment, and then dropp'd; "but to resume, 'Tis not my present lot, as I have said, Which I deplore so much; for I have borne Hardships which have the hardiest overworn, (1) (1) [MS. -" for I have known Hardships which hardy men have overthrown."] XIX. 66 "On the rough deep. But this last blow" and I cried upon my first wife's dying day, And also when my second ran away: "You scarcely can be thirty: have you three?" "No-only two at present above ground: Surely 'tis nothing wonderful to see One person thrice in holy wedlock bound!" [she? Well, then, your third," said Juan; what did She did not run away, too,-did she, sir?" [her." "No, faith.". “What then?”—" I ran away from XXI. "You take things coolly, sir," said Juan. Replied the other, "what can a man do? There still are many rainbows in your sky, "Why," But mine have vanish'd. All, when life is new, Commence with feelings warm, and prospects high; But time strips our illusions of their hue, And one by one in turn, some grand mistake Casts off its bright skin yearly like the snake. (2) [MS. "And these are things that oft demand a tear."] XXII. "'Tis true, it gets another bright and fresh, Or fresher, brighter; but the year gone through, This skin must go the way, too, of all flesh, Or sometimes only wear a week or two;Love's the first net which spreads its deadly mesh; Ambition, Avarice, Vengeance, Glory, glue The glittering lime-twigs of our latter days, Where still we flutter on for pence or praise." XXIII. "All this is very fine, and may be true," Said Juan; "but I really don't see how It betters present times with me or you." "No?" quoth the other; "yet you will allow By setting things in their right point of view, Knowledge, at least, is gain'd; for instance, now, We know what slavery is, and our disasters May teach us better to behave when masters." XXIV. "Would we were masters now, if but to try Their present lessons on our Pagan friends here," Said Juan-swallowing a heart-burning sigh:(1) 66 "Heaven help the scholar whom his fortune sends here !" Perhaps we shall be one day, by and by," [here; Rejoin'd the other, "when our bad luck mends Meantime (yon old black eunuch seems to eye us) I wish to G-d that somebody would buy us!(2) (1) [MS.. "Said Juan, swallowing down a rising sigh."] 1 as well (2) [MS. -" "Twould be a worse } if somebody would buy us."] XXV. "But after all, what is our present state? 'Tis bad, and may be better-all men's lot: Most men are slaves, none more so than the great, To their own whims and passions, and what not; Society itself, which should create Kindness, destroys what little we had got: To feel for none is the true social art Of the world's stoics-men without a heart." XXVI. Just now a black old neutral personage Of the third sex stept up, and peering over The captives seem'd to mark their looks and age, And capabilities, as to discover If they were fitted for the purposed cage : Horse by a blackleg, broadcloth by a tailor, XXVII. As is a slave by his intended bidder. (2) 'Tis pleasant purchasing our fellow-creatures; And all are to be sold, if you consider Their passions, and are dext'rous; some by features (1) [MS. "broad cloth by a tailor, Fee by physician, felon by a jailor."] (2) "The intended bidders minutely examine the poor creatures merely to ascertain their qualities as animals, select the sleekest and best-conditioned from the different groups; and, besides handling and examining their make and size, subject their mouths, their teeth, and whatever chiefly engages attention, to a scrutiny of the most critical description." -DE POUQUEVILLE.] Are bought up, others by a warlike leader, Some by a place-as tend their years or natures; The most by ready cash-but all have prices, (1) From crowns to kicks, according to their vices. XXVIII. The eunuch having eyed them o'er with care, They haggled, wrangled, swore, too-so they did! XXIX. At last they settled into simple grumbling, (1) ["Sir Robert Walpole is justly blamed for a want of political decorum, and for deriding public spirit, to which Pope alludes: 'Seen him, I have, but in his happier hour Although it is not possible to justify him, yet this part of his conduct has been greatly exaggerated. The political axiom generally attributed to him, that all men have their price, was perverted by leaving out the word those. Flowery oratory he despised; he ascribed it to the interested views of themselves or their relatives, the declarations of pretended patriots, of whom he said, 'All those men have their price,' and in the event many of them justified his observation." - COXE.] |