Judging, in charity, no doubt, the town 250 255 They die-Death lends them, pleas'd, and as in With mournful scutcheons, and dim lamps between ; Proclaim their titles to the crowd around, 266 But they that wore them move not at the sound; The coronet plac'd highly at their head, Adds nothing now to the degraded dead; And e'en the star, that glitters on the bier, 270 Can only say-Nobility lies here. Peace to all such-'twere pity to offend, By useless censure, whom we cannot mend; 'Twas there we found them, and must leave them there. As when two pilgrims in a forest stray, Both may be lost, yet each in his own way; So fares it with the multitudes beguil'd In vain Opinion's waste and dang❜rous wild; 275 Ten thousand rove the brakes and thorns among, 280 Some eastward, and some westward, and all wrong. But here, alas! the fatal diff'rence lies, Each man's belief is right in his own eyes; And he that blames what they have blindly chose, 285 Say, botanist, within whose province fall The cedar and the hyssop on the wall, Of all that deck the lanes, the fields, the bow'rs, What parts the kindred tribes of weeds and flow'rs? Sweet scent, or lovely form, or both combin'd, 290 Distinguish ev'ry cultivated kind; The want of both denotes a meaner breed, And Chloe from her garland picks the weed, Thus hopes of ev'ry sort, whatever sect Esteem them, sow them, rear them, and protect. 295 If wild in nature, and not duly found, Gethsemane! in thy dear hallow'd ground, That cannot bear the blaze of Scripture light, Nor animate the soul to Christian deeds, 300 (Oh cast them from thee!) are weeds, arrant weeds. Lord paramount of the surrounding plains, 305 Would give relief of bed and board to none, But guests that sought it in th' appointed One; And they might enter at his open door, E'en till his spacious hall would hold no more. He sent a servant forth, by ev'ry road, 310 To sound his horn, and publish it abroad. That all might mark-knight, menial, high, and low, An ord'nance it concern'd them much to know. 315 If after all some headstrong hardy lout 320 Because the deed, by which his love confirms $25 As with a frown to say, Do this, and live. Love is not pedler's trump'ry, bought and sold ⚫ 330 He will give freely, or he will withhold; His soul abhors a mercenary thought, And him as deeply who abhors it not; That man will freely take an unbought bliss, 335 Of all the ways that seem to promise fair, To place you where his saints his presence share. 340 345 From stucco'd walls smart arguments rebound; And beaux, adepts in ev'ry thing profound, Die of disdain, or whistle off the sound. Such is the clamour of rooks, daws, and kites, Th' explosion of the levell'd tube excites, 350 355 Adieu, Vinosa cries, ere yet he sips The purple bumper trembling at his lips-- Make works a vain ingredient in the case. 360 The Christian hope is-Waiter, draw the cork- My firm persuasion is, at least sometimes, 365 That Heav'n will weigh man's virtues and his crimes And save or damn as these or those prevail. I glide and steal along with Heav'n in view, 370 375 380 A being of less equity than man. If appetite, or what divines call lust, 385 Which men comply with, e'en because they must, Be punish'd with perdition, who is pure? Then theirs, no doubt, as well as mine, is sure. If sentence of eternal pain belong To ev'ry sudden slip and transient wrong, 390 Then Heav'n enjoins the fallible and frail A hopeless task, and damns them if they fail. My creed, (whatever some creed-makers mean 395 Right, says an ensign; and for aught I see Your faith and mine substantially agree; Tho best of ev'ry man's performance here 400 405 A hand as lib'ral as the light of day. The soldier thus endow'd who never shrinks, Nor closets up his thoughts, whate'er he thinks 410 Must go to Heav'n-and I must drink his health Just made fifth chaplain of his patron lord, 415 420 Fallible man, the church-bred youth replies, Is still found fallible, however wise; And diff'ring judgments serve but to declare, That truth lies somewhere, if we knew but where 125 Of criticks now alive, or long since dead, The book of all the world that charm'd me most Was-well-a-day-the title page was lost; To take with gratitude what Heav'n bestows, 430 With prudence always ready at our call, To guide our use of it, is all in all. Doubtless it is-To which, of my own store, I wave just now, 435 |