Shakes her incumbered lap, and cafts them out.
But cenfure profits little: vain the attempt
To advertise in verfe a public peft,

That like the filth, with which the peafant feeds
His hungry acres, ftinks, and is of use.
The excife is fattened with the rich refult
Of all this riot; and ten thousand casks,
For ever dribbling out their base contents,
Touched by the Midas finger of the ftate,
Bleed gold for minifters to sport away.

Drink, and be mad then; 'tis your country bids!
Gloriously drunk obey the important call!

Her caufe demands the affiftance of your throats;Ye all can fwallow, and fhe asks no more.

Would I had fallen upon thofe happier days,
That poets celebrate; thofe golden times,
And thofe Arcadian fcenes, that Maro fings,
And Sidney, warbler of poetic profe.

Nymphs were Dianas then, and fwains had hearts,
That felt their virtues: innocence, it feems,

From courts difmiffed, found fhelter in the groves; The footsteps of fimplicity, impreffed

Upon the yielding herbage, (fo they fing)

Then were not all effaced: then speech profane,
And manners profligate, were rarely found;

Obferved as prodigies, and foon reclaimed.

Vain wifh! thofe days were never: airy dreams
Sat for the picture: and the poet's hand,
Imparting fubftance to an empty fhade,
Impofed a gay delirium for a truth.

Grant it: I ftill muft envy them an age,
That favoured fuch a dream; in days like thefe
Impoffible, when virtue is fo fearce,

That to fuppofe a fcene where the prefides,
Is tramontane, and ftumbles all belief.
No: we are polifhed now. The rural lafs,
Whom once her virgin modefty and grace,
Her artlefs manners, and her neat attire,
So dignified, that he was hardly lefs
Than the fair fhepherdefs of old romance,
Is feen no more. The character is loft!
Her head, adorned with lappets pinned aloft,
And ribbands ftreaming gay, fuperbly raised,
And magnified beyond all human fize,
Indebted to fome fmart wig-weaver's hand
For more than half the treffes it fuftains;
Her elbows ruffled, and her tottering form

Il propped upon French heels; fhe might be deemed (But that the basket dangling on her arm

Interprets her more truly) of a rank

Too proud for dairy work, or fale of eggs.

Expect her foon with foot-boy at her heels,
No longer blushing for her awkward load,
Her train and her umbrella all her care!

The town has tinged the country; and the ftain
Appears a fpot upon a veftal's robe,

The worse for what it foils. The fafh on runs
Down into scenes ftill rural; but alas,

Scenes rarely graced with rural manners now!
Time was when in the paftoral retreat

The unguarded door was fafe; men did not watch
To invade another's right, or guard their own.
Then fleep was undisturbed by fear, unfcared
By drunken howlings; and the chilling tale
Of midnight murder was a wonder heard
With doubtful credit, told to frighten babes.
But farewell now to unfufpicious nights,
And flumbers unalarmed! Now, ere you fleep,
See that your polished arms be primed with care,
And drop the night-bolt ;-ruffians are abroad;'
And the first larum of the cock's fhrill throat
May prove a trumpet, fummoning your ear
To horrid founds of hoftile feet within.
Ev'n daylight has its dangers; and the walk

Through pathlefs waftes and woods, unconfcious once
Of other tenants than melodious birds,

Or harmless flocks, is hazardous and bold.

Lamented change! to which full many a caufe
Inveterate, hopeless of a cure, conspires.

The courfe of human things from good to ill,
From ill to worfe, is fatal, never fails.
Increase of power begets increase of wealth;
Wealth luxury, and luxury excefs;
Excefs, the ferofulous and itchy plague,
That feizes firft the opulent, defcends
To the next rank contagious, and in time
Taints downward all the graduated scale
Of order, from the chariot to the plough.
The rich, and they, that have an arm to check
The licence of the loweft in degree,

Defert their office; and themfelves, intent
On pleasure, haunt the capital, and thus
To all the violence of lawless hands

Refign the fcenes, their prefence might prote&.
Authority herself not feldom fleeps,
Though refident, and witnefs of the wrong..
The plump convivial parfon.often bears

The magifterial fword in vain, and lays
His reverence and his worship both to reft
On the fame cufhion of habitual floth.

Perhaps timidity reftrains his arm;

When he should frike he trembles, and fets free,

Himself enslaved by terror of the band,

The audacious convict, whom he dares not bind.
Perhaps, though by profeffion ghoftly pure,

He too may have his vice, and sometimes prove
Lefs dainty than becomes his grave outfide
In lucrative concerns. Examine well

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 touched
Corruption. Whofo feeks an audit here

Propitious, pays his tribute, game or fish,
Wild fowl or venison; and his errand speeds.

But fafter far, and more than all the reft, A noble caufe, which none, who bears a spark Of public virtue, ever wifhed removed, Works the deplored and mischievous effect. 'Tis univerfal foldiership has ftabbed The heart of merit in, the meaner class. Arms, through the vanity and brainless rage Of thofe that bear them, in whatever caufe, Seem moft at variance with all moral good, And incompatible with ferious thought. The clown, the child of nature, without guile, Bleft with an infant's ignorance of all