Still raise for good the supplicating voice,

But leave to Heav'n the measure and the choice.

Safe in his pow'r, whose eyes discern afar
The secret ambush of a specious pray'r,
Implore his aid, in his decisions rést,
Secure, whate'er he gives, he gives the best.
Yet when the sense of sacred presence fires,
And strong devotion to the skies aspires,
Pour forth thy fervors for a healthful mind,
Obedient passions, and a will resign'd;
For love, which scarce collective man can fill;
For patience, sov'reign o'er transmuted ill;
For faith, that panting for a happier seat,
Counts death kind Nature's signal of retreat :
These goods for man the laws of heaven ordain,
These goods he grants, who grants the pow'r to gain;
With these celestial Wisdom calms the mind,

And makes the happiness she does not find.

When injur'd THALES bids the town farewell,

Yet still my calmer thoughts his choice commend,
I praise the hermit, but regret the friend;
Who now resolves, from vice and LONDON far,
To breathe in distant fields a purer air,
And fix'd on Cambria's solitary shore,
Give to St. David one true Briton more.

For who would leave, unbrib'd, Hibernia's land, Or change the rocks of Scotland for the Strand? There none are swept by sudden fate away, But all whom hunger spares, with age decay; Here malice, rapine, accident, conspire,

And now a rabble rages, now a fire;

Their ambush here relentless ruffians lay,
And here the fell attorney prowls for prey;
Here falling houses thunder on your head,
And here a female atheist talks you dead.

While THALES waits the wherry that contains Of dissipated wealth the small remains, On Thames's bank in silent thought we stood, Where Greenwich smiles upon the silver flood. Struck with the seat that gave Eliza birth, We kneel and kiss the consecrated earth; In pleasing dreams the blissful age renew, And call Britannia's glories back to view : Behold her cross triumphant on the main, The guard of commerce, and the dread of Spain. Ere masquerades debauch'd, excise oppress'd, Or English honor grew a standing jest.

A transient calm the happy scenes bestow,
And for a moment lull the sense of woe.
At length awaking with contemptuous frown,
Indignant THALES eyes the neighb'ring town.

Since worth, he cries, in these degen❜rate days Wants ev'n 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 sooths to double my distress, And every moment leaves my little less;

While yet my steady steps no staff sustains,

And life still vigʼrous 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 painting gay;
Where once the harrass'd Briton found repose,
And safe in poverty defy'd his foes;

Some secret cell, ye powers, indulgent give.
Let * live here, for * has learn'd 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.

Let such raise palaces, and manors buy,
Collect a tax, or farm a lottery,

With warbling eunuchs fill a licens'd stage,
And lull to servitude a thoughtless age.

Heroes, proceed! what bounds your pride shall hold?

What check restrain your thirst of pow'r and gold? ́
Behold rebellious virtue quite o'erthrown,

Behold our fame, our wealth, our lives your own.
To such, a groaning nation's spoils are giv'n,
When public crimes inflame the wrath of heav'n:

But what, my Friend, what hope remains for me, Who start at theft, and blush at perjury?

Who scarce forbear, though BRITAIN'S court he sing,
To pluck a titled poet's borrow'd wing;
A statesman's logic unconvinc'd can hear,
And dare to slumber o'er the Gazetteer;
Despise a fool in half his pension dress'd,
And strive in vain to laugh at H ** y's jest.

Others with softer smiles, and subtler art,
Can sap the principles, or taint the heart;
With more address a lover's note convey,
Or bribe a virgin's innocence away.

Well may they rise, while I, whose rustic tongue
Ne'er new to puzzle right, or varnish wrong,
Spurn'd as a beggar, dreaded as a spy,
Live unregarded, unlamented die.

For what but social guilt the friend endears?
Who shares Orgilio's crimes, his fortune shares :
But thou, should tempting villany present,
All Marlb'rough hoarded, or all Villiers spent,
Turn from the glitt'ring bribe thy scornful eye,
Nor sell for gold, what gold could never buy,
The peaceful slumber, self-approving day,
Unsullied fame, and conscience ever gay.

The cheated nation's happy fav'rites see; Mark whom the great caress, who frown on me.