Page:Trivia (John Gay) to which is added London (Samuel Johnson) (1809).djvu/75

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'Since worth,' he cries, 'in these degen'rate days,
Wants e'en the cheap reward of empty praise;
In those curs'd walls, devote to vice and gain,
Since unrewarded Science toils in vain;
Since hope but soothes to double my distress,
And ev'ry moment leaves my little less:—
While yet my steady steps no staff sustains,
And life, still vig'rous, revels in my veins;
Grant me, kind Heaven, to find some happier place,
Where honesty and sense are no disgrace;
Some pleasing bank where verdant osiers play,
Some peaceful vale with Nature's paintings gay,
Where once the harass'd Briton found repose,
And safe in poverty defied his foes:
Some secret cell, ye pow'rs, indulgent give,
Let ——— live here, for ——— has learned to live.
Here let those reign whom pensions can incite
To vote a patriot black, a courtier white;
Explain their country's dear-bought rights away,
And plead for pirates in the face of day;
With slavish tenets taint our poison'd youth,
And lend a lie the confidence of truth.