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The myſtic cone with hieroglyphics cruſted,
At once gives way. ——O! lamentable ſight:
The labour of whole ages lumbers down
A hideous and miſhapen length of ruins!
Sepulchral columns wreſtle but in vain
With all-ſubduing time; her cank'ring hand
With calm deliberate malice waſteth them:
Worn on the edge of days, the braſs conſumes
The buſto moulders, and the deep cut marble,
Unſteady to the feel, gives up its charge.
Ambition, half convicted of her folly,
Hangs down the head, and reddens at the tale.
Here all the mighty troublers of the earth,
Who ſwam to ſou'reign rule thro' seas of blood!
Th' oppreſſive ſturdy, man-deſtroying Villains,
Who ravag'd kingdom, and laid empires waſtes
And in a cruel wantonneſs of power,
Thinn'd ſtates of half their people, and gave up
To want, the reſt; now, like a form that's ſpent,
Lie huſh'd, and meanly freak behind the covert.
Vain thought to hide them from the general ſcorn
That haunts and dogs them like an injur'd ghoſt
Implacable, ——Here too the petty Tyrant
Whole ſcant domains Geographer ne'er notic'd,
And, well for neighbouring grounds, of arm as ſhort;
who fix'd his iron talons on the poor,
And grip'd them, like ſome lordly beaſt of prey;
Deaf to the forceful cries of gnawing Hunger,
And piteous plaintive voice of Miſery!
(As if a Slave was not a ſhred of nature
Of the ſame common nature with his Lord):
Now tame and humble, like a child that's whipp'd
Shakes hands with duſt & calls the worth his kinſman
Nor pleads his rank and bit-right. Under-ground
Precedency's a jeſt ——Vaſſal and Lord,
Groſsly familiar, side by ide conſume.
