Himself enflav'd by terror of the band,
Th' audacious convict, whom he dares not bind.
Perhaps, though by profeffion ghostly pure,
He too may have his vice, and fometimes prove
Lefs dainty than becomes his grave outside
His milk-white hand; the palm is hardly clean-
But here and there an ugly fmutch appears.
Foh! 'twas a bribe that left it: he has touch'd
Corruption. Whofo feeks an audit here
his tribute, game or fish,
Wild-fowl or ven'son, and his errand speeds.
But fafter far, and more than all the rest,
A noble caufe, which none who bears a spark
Of public virtue ever wifh'd remov'd,
Works the deplor'd and mischievous effect.
'Tis univerfal foldiership has stabb'd
The heart of merit in the meaner clafs.
Arms, through the vanity and brainless rage
Of thofe that bear them, in whatever cause,
Seem most at variance with all moral good,
And incompatible with serious thought.
The clown, the child of nature, without guile,
Bleft with an infant's ignorance of all
But his own fimple pleasures, now and then
A wrestling match, a foot-race, or a fair;
Is ballotted, and trembles at the news:
Sheepish he doffs his hat, and, mumbling, fwears
A Bible-oath to be whate'er they please,
To do he knows not what. The task perform'd,
That inftant he becomes the ferjeant's care,
His pupil, and his torment, and his jest.
His awkward gait, his introverted toes,
Bent knees, round shoulders, and dejected looks,
Procure him many a curfe. By flow degrees,
Unapt to learn, and form'd of stubborn stuff,
He yet by flow degrees puts off himself,
Grows conscious of a change, and likes it well :
He stands erect; his flouch becomes a walk;
He steps right onward, martial in his air,
His form, and movement; is as smart abové
As meal and larded locks can make him; wears
His hat, or his plum'd helmet, with a grace;
And his three years of herofhip expir'd,
Returns indignant to the flighted plough.
He hates the field, in which no fife or drum
Attends him, drives his cattle to a march,
And fighs for the fmart comrades he has left,
'Twere well if his exterior change were all→→→→
But with his clumsy port the wretch has lost
His ignorance and harmless manners too.
To fwear, to game, to drink; to fhew at home,
By lewdnefs, idleness, and fabbath-breach,
The great proficiency he made abroad,
T'aftonish and to grieve his gazing friends;
To break fome maiden's and his mother's heart;
To be a pest where he was useful oncé ;
Are his fole aim, and all his glory now.
Man in fociety is like a flow'r
Blown in its native bed: 'tis there alone
His faculties, expanded in full bloom,
Shine out; there only reach their proper use,
But man, affociated and leagu'd with man
By regal warrant, or felf-join'd by bond
For interest-fake, or fwarming into clans
Beneath one head for purposes of war,
Like flow'rs felected from the reft, and bound
And bundled close to fill fome crowded vase,
Fades rapidly, and, by compreffion marr'd
Contracts defilement not to be endur'd.
Hence charter'd boroughs are fuch public plagues;
And burghers, men immaculate perhaps
In all their private functions, once combin❜d,
Become a loathsome body, only fit
For diffolution, hurtful to the main.
Hence merchants, unimpeachable of fin
Against the charities of domeftic life,
Incorporated, feem at once to lofe
Their nature, and, disclaiming all regard
For mercy and the common rights of man,
Build factories with blood, conducting trade
At the fword's point, and dying the white robe
Of innocent commercial justice red.
Hence too the field of glory, as the world
Misdeems it, dazzled by its bright array,
With all its majefty of thund'ring pomp,
Enchanting mufic and immortal wreaths,
Is but a fchool where thoughtleffness is taught
On principle, where foppery atones
For folly, gallantry for ev'ry vice.
But, flighted as it is, and by the great-
Abandon'd, and, which still I more regret,
Infected with the manners and the modes
It knew not once, the country wins me ftill.
I never fram'd a wifh, or form'd a plan,
That flatter'd me with hopes of earthly blifs,
But there I laid the fcene. There early stray'd
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