Epistles.
131
That knave to gain a title lost his fame;
That rais'd his credit by a daughter's shame:
This coxcomb's riband cost him half his land,
And oaks unnumber'd bought that fool a wand.
Fond man, as all his sorrows were too few, 65
Acquires strange wants that Nature never knew,
By midnight lamps he emulates the day,
And sleeps perverse the cheerful suns away;
From goblets high-embost his wine must glide,
Round his clos'd sight the gorgeous curtain slide, 70
Fruits ere their time to grace his pomp must rise,
And three untasted courses glut his eyes:
For this are Nature's gentle calls withstood,
The voice of conscience and the bonds of blood;
This wisdom thy reward for ev'ry pain, 75
And this gay glory all thy mighty gain:
Fair phantoms woo'd and scorn'd from age to age
Since bards began to laugh or priests to rage,
And yet, just curse on man's aspiring kind!
Prone to ambition, to example blind, 80
Our children's children shall our steps pursue,
And the same errours be for ever new.
Mean-while in hope a guiltless country swain,
My reed with warblings cheers th' imagin'd plain.
Hail, humble Shades! where truth and silence dwell;
Thou noisy Town and faithless Court! farewell; 86
Farewell ambition, once my darling flame,
The thirst of lucre and the charm of fame;
That rais'd his credit by a daughter's shame:
This coxcomb's riband cost him half his land,
And oaks unnumber'd bought that fool a wand.
Fond man, as all his sorrows were too few, 65
Acquires strange wants that Nature never knew,
By midnight lamps he emulates the day,
And sleeps perverse the cheerful suns away;
From goblets high-embost his wine must glide,
Round his clos'd sight the gorgeous curtain slide, 70
Fruits ere their time to grace his pomp must rise,
And three untasted courses glut his eyes:
For this are Nature's gentle calls withstood,
The voice of conscience and the bonds of blood;
This wisdom thy reward for ev'ry pain, 75
And this gay glory all thy mighty gain:
Fair phantoms woo'd and scorn'd from age to age
Since bards began to laugh or priests to rage,
And yet, just curse on man's aspiring kind!
Prone to ambition, to example blind, 80
Our children's children shall our steps pursue,
And the same errours be for ever new.
Mean-while in hope a guiltless country swain,
My reed with warblings cheers th' imagin'd plain.
Hail, humble Shades! where truth and silence dwell;
Thou noisy Town and faithless Court! farewell; 86
Farewell ambition, once my darling flame,
The thirst of lucre and the charm of fame;
