Flings and refumes, and plunders and bestows,
Caprice divides the bleffings and the woes.
Her grace unstable as her tott'ring ball,
Whene'er the fmiles, fhe meditates our fall.
When most we trust her, we are cheated moft,
In difolating lofs we mourn our boast:

Her cruel blaft invades our hafty fruit,

And withers all our glory at the root.

What mean thofe multitudes around her? Why
Such motley attitudes perplex our eye?

Some, in the act of wildeft raptures, leap i
In agony fome wring their hands, and weep,
Th' unreas'ning crowd; to paffion's fequel blind,
By paffion fir'd, and impotent of mind;
Competitors in clamorous fuit, to share
The toys the toffes with regardless air;
Trifles, for folid worth by most purfu'd,
Bright-colour'd vapours and fantastic good:
The pageantry of wealth, the blaze of fame,

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Titles, an offspring to extend the name,

Huge strength, or beauty which the strong obey,
The victor's laurel, and defpotic fway.

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Thefe, humour'd in their vows, with lavish praise

The glory of the gracious goddess raise:

Those other, lofers in her chance-full game,

Shorn of their all, or fruftrate in their aim,
In murmurs of their hard mishap complain,
And curfe her partial and malignant reign.
H 4

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Now,

Now, further still in this low sensual ground, Traverse yon flowery mount's fequefter'd bound. In the green center of those citron fhades,

'Mong gardens, fountains, flowery walks, and glades, 140 Voluptuous Sin her powerful spells employs,

Souls to feduce, feducing the deftroys.

See! Lewdness, loosely zon'd, her bofom bares,
See! Riot her luxurious bowl prepares;

There stands Avidity, with ardent eye,
There dimpling Adulation smooths her lye.
There ftation'd to what end?

In watch for prey,
Fortune's infatuate favourites of a day.
These they carefs, they flatter, they entreat
To try the pleasures of their soft retreat,
Life difencumber'd, frolickfome, and free,
All ease, all mirth, and high felicity.
Whome'er by their inveigling arts they win,
To tread that magic paradife of Sin,
In airy dance his jocund hours skim round,
Sparkles the bowl, the feftal fongs refound:
His blood ferments, fir'd by the wanton glance,
And his loose foul diffolves in am'rous trance.
While circulating joys to joys fucceed,
While new delights the fweet delirium feed;
The prodigal, in raptur'd fancy, roves
O'er fairy fields, and through Elyfian groves;

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A

Sees

Sees glittering vifions in fucceffion rife,
And laughs at Socrates the chaste and wife.
'Till, fober'd by distress, awake, confus'd,
Amaz'd, he knows himself a wretch abus'd;
A fhort illufion his imagin'd feast,

Himself the game, himself the flaughter'd beast,
Now, raving for his fquander'd wealth in vain,
Slave to those tyrant jilts he drags their chain:
Compell'd to fuffer hard and hungry need,
Compell'd to dare each foul and defp'rate deed.
Villain, or knave, he joins the sharping tribe,
Robs altars, or is perjur'd for a bribe:
Stabs for a purse, his country pawns for gold,
Το every crime of blackeft horror fold.
Shiftlefs at length, of all refource bereft,
In the dire gripe of Punishment he's left.

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Obferve this strait-mouth'd cave: th' unwilling light Juft fhews the dismal deep descent to night.

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In centry see these haggard crones, whofe brows
Rude locks o'erhang, a frown their forehead plows:
Swarthy and foul their fhrivell'd skin behold,
And flutt'ring fhreds their vile defence from cold.
High-brandishing her lash, with ftern regard,
Stands Punishment, an ever-waking ward;

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While fullen Melancholy mopes behind,

Fix'd, with her head upon her knees reclin'd:

And, frantic, with remorfeful fury, there

Fierce Anguifh ftamps, and rends her fhaggy hair,

190 Whe

Who that ill-featur'd speltre of a man,
Shiv'ring in nakedness, fo fpure and wan?
And he, whofe eye aghaft with horror ftares,
Whofe meagre form a fifter's likeness bears?
Loud Lamentation, wild Despair. All these,
Fell vultures, the devoted caitiff seize.

Ah dreadful durance! with thefe fiends to dwell!
What tongue the terrors of his foul can tell!
Worry'd by these fould fiends, the wretch begins
Sharp penance, wages of remember'd fins:
Then deeper finks, plung'd in the pit of Woe,
Worfe fuff'rings in worse hell to undergo:
Unless, rare gueft, Repentance o'er the gloom
Diffuse her radiance, and repeal his doom.
She comes! meek-ey'd, array'd in grave attire,
See Right Opinion, join'd with Good Defire,
Handmaids of Truth: with thofe, an adverse pair
(Falfe Wisdom's minions, that deceiving fair)
Attend her folemn step: the furies flee.

Come forth, the calls, come forth to liberty,
Guilt-harrafs'd thrall: thy future lot decide,
And, pondering well, elect thy future guide.
Momentous option! choosing right, he'll find
A fov❜reign med'cine for his ulcer'd mind;
Led to True Wisdom, whose cathartic bowl
Recovers and beatifies the foul.

Mifguided elfe, a counterfeit he'll gain,
Whose art is only to amufe the brain:

From vice to ftudious folly now he flies,
From blifs ftill erring, still betray'd by lyes.

O heavens! where end the risks we mortals run?
How dreadful this, and yet how hard to fhun!
Say, father, what diftin&tive marks declare
That counterfeit of Wisdom?

View her there,

At yonder gate, with decent port, the stands,
Her fpotlefs form that fecond court commands:
Styl'd Wisdom by the crowd, the thinking few
Know her disguise, the phantom of the true;
Skill'd in all learning, skill'd in every art
Το grace the head, not meliorate the heart,
The fav'd, who meditate their noble flight
From a bad world, to Wisdom's lofty height,
Juft touching at this inn, for fhort repast,
Then speed their journey forward to its last,
This the fole path?

Another path there lies,

The plain man's path, without proud Science wife.

Who they, which traverse this deluder's bound?

A bufy fcene, all thought or action round.

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Her lovers, whom her fpecious beauty warms,

Who grafp, in vifion, Truth's immortal charms,
Vain of the glory of a falfe embrace:

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Fierce fyllogiftic tribes, a wrangling race,

■ The fecond court, or the ftudious life.

Bards