16
ODE III.
Then come the hours of shame and fear
The hints of horror seize your ear;
While gleams of lost delight
Raise the deep discord of the brain,
As light'ning shines along the main
Thro' whirlwinds and thro' night.
No more can faith or candor move;
But each ingenuous deed of love
Which once you would applaud,
Now, smiling o'er her dark distress,
Malignant fancy longs to dress
Like injury and fraud.
Farewel to virtue's peaceful times!
For soon you'll stoop to act the crimes
You thus can stoop to fear:
When vice begins her ugly train
With wrongs of such unmanly stain,
What horrors form the rear!
'Tis
