Or wish to make a rival's bosom bleed;
But the tenth instance will be a Tornado,
For there's no saying what they will or
may do.

The reason's obvious: if there's an éclat,

A king in constitutional possession
Of such a throne as is the proudest station,
Though despots know it not-till the pro-
gression

Of freedom shall complete their education.
'Tis not mere splendour makes the show
august

They lose their caste at once, as do the Parias; | To eye or heart-it is the people's trust.
And when the delicacies of the law
Have fill'd their papers with their comments
various,

Society, that china without flaw,
(The hypocrite!) will banish them like
Marius,

To sit amidst the ruins of their guilt:
For Fame's a Carthage not so soon rebuilt.

Perhaps this is as it should be;-it is
A comment on the Gospel's "Sin no more,
And be thy sins forgiven:"-but upon this
I leave the saints to settle their own score.
Abroad, though doubtless they do much
amiss,

An erring woman finds an open door
For her return to Virtue-as they call
That Lady who should be at home to all.

For me, I leave the matter where I find it,
Knowing that such uneasy Virtue leads
People some ten times less in fact to mind it,
And care but for discoveries and not deeds.
And as for Chastity, you'll never bind it
By all the laws the strictest lawyer pleads,
But aggravate the crime you have not
prevented,

By rendering desperate those who had else
repented.

But Juan was no casuist, nor had ponder'd
Upon the moral lessons of mankind:
Besides, he had not seen, of several hundred,
A lady altogether to his mind.

A little "blasé"-'tis not to be wonder'd
At, that his heart had got a tougher rind:
And though not vainer from his past success,
No doubt his sensibilities were less.

He also had been busy seeing sights-
The Parliament and all the other houses;
Had sate beneath the gallery at nights,
To hear debates whose thunder roused
(not rouses)
The world to gaze upon those northern lights
Which flash'd as far as where the musk-
bull browses;
He had also stood at times behindthe throne,
But Grey was not arrived,andChatham gone.

He saw, however, at the closing session,
That noble sight, when really free the nation,

There too he saw (whate'er he may be now)
A Prince, the prince of princes, at the time
With fascination in his very bow,
And full of promise, as the spring of prime.
Though royalty was written on his brow,
He had then the grace too, rare in every
clime,

Of being, without alloy of fop or beau,
A finish'd gentleman from top to toe.

And Juan was received, as hath been said,
Into the best society: and there
Occurr'd what often happens, I'm afraid,
However disciplined and debonnaire:
The talent and good humour he display'd,
Besides the mark'd distinction of his air,
Exposed him, as was natural, to temptation,
Even though himself avoided the occasion.

But what, and where, with whom, and
when, and why,

Is not to be put hastily together;
And as my object is morality
(Whatever people say) I don't know whether
I'll leave a single reader's eyelid dry,
But harrow up his feelings till they wither,
And hew out a huge monument of pathos,
As Philip's son proposed to do with Athos.

Here the twelfth Canto of our introduction
Ends. When the body of the book's begun,
You'll find it of a different construction
From what some people say 'twill be when
done:

The plan at present's simply in concoction.
I can't oblige you, reader! to read on;
That's your affair, not mine: a real spirit
Should neither court neglect, nor dread
to bear it.

And if my thunderbolt not always rattles,
Remember, reader! you have had before
The worst of tempests and the best of
battles

That e'er were brew'd from elements or
gore,
Besides the most sublime of Heaven knows
what else:-

An usurer could scarce expect much more—
But my best Canto, save one on Astronomy,
Will turn upon “Political Economy.”

That is your present theme for popularity: | Their post; but theirs is merely a chimera, Now that the Public Hedge hath scarce a

Of his own country ;-seldom since that day Determined, right or wrong, on friend or foe,
Has Spain had heroes. While Romance Had all the pertinacity pride has,
could charm, Which knows no ebb to its imperious flow,
And loves or hates,disdaining to be guided,
Because its own good pleasure hath decided.

The world gave ground before her bright
array:
And therefore have his volumes done such
harm,

That all their glory, as a composition,
Was dearly purchased by his land's per-
dition.

I'm "at my old Lunes” — digression, and And Medes, would ne'er revoke what went before.

forget

Court mysteries, having been himself a mi- | Which doth not shake some very splendid nister:

house

He liked to teach that which he had been | With some slight heart-quake of domestic treason

taught, And greatly shone whenever there had been a stir; And reconciled all qualities which grace

man,

Always a patriot,and sometimes a placeman.

He liked the gentle Spaniard for his gravity;
He almost honour'd him for his docility,
Because, though young, he acquiesced with
suavity,

Or contradicted but with proud humility.
He knew the world, and would not see

A topic Scandal doth delight to rouse :
Such I might stumble over unawares,
Unless I knew the very chastest Squares.

'Tis true, I might have chosen Piccadilly, A place where peccadillos are unknown; But I have motives, whether wise or silly, For letting that pure sanctuary alone. Therefore I name not square, street, place, until I

Find one where nothing naughty can be shown,

A vestal shrine of innocence of heart:

In faults which sometimes show the soil's Such are-but I have lost the London Chart.

depravity
fertility,

If that the weeds o'erlive not the first crop,-
For then they are very difficult to stop.

Square,

At Henry's mansion then in Blank-Blank-
Was Juan a recherché, welcome guest,

And then he talk'd with him about Madrid, | As many other noble Scions were ;
Constantinople, and such distant places;
Where people always did as they were bid,
Or did what they should not with foreign
graces.

And some who had but talent for their

Of coursers also spake they: Henry rid
Well, like most Englishmen, and loved the
races;

And Juan, like a true-born Andalusian,
Could back a horse,as despots ride a Russian.

crest;

Or wealth, which is a passport every where;
Or even mere fashion, which indeed's the
best
Recommendation; - and to be well drest
Will very often supersede the rest.

And since "there's safety in a multitude
Of counsellors," as Solomon has said,
Or some one for him, in some sage, grave
mood;-

Indeed we see the daily proof display'd
In senates, at the bar, in wordy feud,
Where'er collective wisdom can parade,
Which is the only cause that we can guess,
Of Britain's present wealth and happiness;—

Which judged mankind at their due esti- | Yet in the very centre, past all price,