64
The PLEASURES
The big distress? or would'st thou then exchange
Those heart-ennobling sorrows for the lot
Of him who sits amid the gaudy herd760
Of mute barbarians bending to his nod,
And bears aloft his gold-invested front,
And says within himself, "I am a king,
And wherefore should the clam'rous voice of woe
Intrude upon mine ear?–The baleful dreggs765
Of these late ages, this inglorious draught
Of servitude and folly, have not yet,
Blest be th' eternal ruler of the world!
Defil'd to such a depth of sordid shame
The native honours of the human soul,770
Nor so effac'd the image of its sire.
End of the SECOND BOOK
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ARGU-
