[ 21 ]
Wades deep in blood new ſpilt ——yet, for to-morrow
Shares out new work of great uncommon daring,
And july pines till the dread blow is struck.
But hold! ——I've gone too far, too much discover'd
My father's nakedneſs, and nature's ſhame!
Here let me pauſe, and drop an honeſt tear,
One burſt of filial duty and condolence,
O'er all those ample deſarts death hath ſpread,
This chaos of mankind ——O great man-eater!
Whose every day is carnival, not fated yet!
Unheard-of epicure, without a fellow!
The verieſt gluttons do not always cram,
Some intervals of abstinence are fought
To edge the appetite ——Thou ſeekeſt none.
Methinks the countleſs ſwarms thou left devour'd,
And thousands that each hour thou gobbleſt up;
This, leſs than this, might gorge thee the full
But ah! rapacious ſtill, thou gap'n for more:
Like one, whole days defrauded of his meals,
On whom lank hunger lays her ſkinny hand,
And whets to keeneſt eagerneſs his cravings,
(As if diſeases, maſſacres, and poiſon,
Famine and war, were not thy caterers.)
But know, that thou must render up thy dead,
And with high intereſt too. They are not thine,
But only in thy keeping for a season,
Till the great promis'd day of reſtitution,
When loud diffuſive found from brazen trump
Of ſtrong-lung'd cherub, ſhall alarm thy captives,
And rouſe the long, long ſleepers into life,
Day, light, and liberty——
Then muſt thy gates fly open, and reveal
The mines that lay long forming under ground,
In their dark cells immur'd; but now full ripe,
And pure as ſilver from the crucible,
That twice has ſtood the torture of the fire,
