Weak to perform, though mighty to pretend,
Can trace her mazy windings to their end;
Difcern the fraud beneath the fpecious lure,
Prevent the danger, or prescribe the cure.
The clear harangue, and cold as it is clear,
Falls foporific on the liftless ear;

Like quickfilver, the rhetoric they display
Shines as it runs, but grasped at flips away.
Placed for his trial on this bustling stage,
From thoughtless youth to ruminating age,
Free in his will to choose or to refuse,
Man may improve the crifis, or abuse ;
Elfe, on the fatalifts unrighteous plan,
Say to what bar amenable were man ?

With nought in charge he could betray no truft;
And, if he fell, would fall because he muft;
If love reward him, or if vengeance strike,
His recompenfe in both unjust alike.
Divine authority within his breaft

Brings every thought, word, action, to the teft; Warns him or prompts, approves him or reftrains, As reafon, or as paffion, takes the reins.

Heaven from above, and conscience from within, Cries in his ftartled ear-Abftain from fin!

The world around folicits his defire,

And kindles in his foul a treacherous fire;

While, all his purposes and steps to guard,
Peace follows virtue as its fure reward;
And pleasure brings us furely in her train
Remorse, and forrow, and vindictive pain.

Man, thus endued with an elective voice,
Must be supplied with objects of his choice,
Wherever he turns, enjoyment and delight,
Or prefent, or in profpect, meet his fight;
Those open on the spot their honeyed ftore;
Thefe call him loudly to pursuit of more.
His unexhaufted mine the fordid vice
Avarice shows, and virtue is the price.

Her various motives his ambition raise-
Power, pomp, and splendour, and the thirft of praife;
There beauty wooes him with expanded arms;

Even Bacchanalian madnefs has its charms

Nor thefe alone, whofe pleasures lefs rehned
Might well alarm the most unguarded mind,
Seek to fupplant his inexperienced youth,
Or lead him devious from the path of truth;
Hourly allurements on his paffions prefs,
Safe in themfelves, but dangerous in the excefs.
Hark! how it floats upon the dewy air!
O what a dying, dying clofe was there!
'Tis harmony from yon fequeftered bower,
Sweet harmony, that fooths the midnight hour!

Long ere the charioteer of day had run

His morning course, the enchantment was begun ;
And he fhall gild yon mountain's height again,
Ere yet the pleafing toil becomes a pain.

Is this the rugged path, the fteep afcent,
That virtue points to ? Can a life thus spent
Lead to the blifs fhe promises the wife,

Detach the foul from earth, and speed her to the skies Ye devotees to your adored employ,

Enthufiafts, drunk with an unreal joy,

Love makes the mufic of the blest above,
Heaven's harmony is univerfal love;

And earthly founds, though sweet and well combined,
And lenient as foft opiates to the mind,
Leave vice and folly unfubdued behind.

Gray dawn appears; the sportsman and his train
Speckle the bofom of the diftant plain;
"Tis he, the Nimrod of the neighbouring lairs,
Save that his fcent is lefs acute than their's ;
For perfevering chase, and headlong leaps,
True beagle as the ftaunchest hound he keeps.
Charged with the folly of his life's mad scene,
He takes offence, and wonders what you mean ;
The joy the danger and the toil overpays-
'Tis exercife, and health, and length of days.

Again impetuous to the field he flies;

Leaps, every fence but one, there falls and dies;
Like a flain deer, the tumbrel brings him home,
Unmiffed but by his dogs and by his groom.

Ye clergy, while your orbit is your place,
Lights of the world, and ftars of human race;
But if eccentric ye forfake your sphere,
Prodigies ominous, and viewed with fear.
The comet's baneful influence is a dream;
Your's real and pernicious in the extreme.
What then!—are appetites and lufts laid down
With the fame eafe that man puts on his gown?
Will avarice and concupifcence give place,

Charmed by the founds-Your Reverence, or Your
Grace?

No. But his own engagement binds him fast;
Or, if it does not, brands him to the last
What atheists call him-a defigning knave,
A mere church juggler, hypocrite, and flave.
Oh, laugh or mourn with me the rueful jeft,
A caffocked huntsman, and a fiddling prieft!
He from Italian fongfters takes his cue:
Set Paul to mufic, he fhall quote him too.
He takes the field, the mafter of the pack
Cries-Well done faint! and claps him on the back.
Is this the path of fanctity? Is this

To ftand a way-mark in the road to blifs?

Himself a wanderer from the narrow way,
His filly fheep what wonder if they ftray?
Go, caft your orders at your Bishop's feet,
Send your dishonoured gown to Monmouth-street!
The facred function in your hands is made-
Sad facrilege! no function, but a trade!

Occiduus is a paftor of renown,

When he has prayed and preached the fabbath down, With wire and catgut he concludes the day, Quavering and femiquavering care away.

The full concerto fwells upon your ear;

All elbows shake. Look in, and you would swear
The Babylonian tyrant with a nod,

Had fummoned them to serve his golden God.
So well that thought the employment seems to fuit,
Pfaltery and fackbut, dulcimer and flute.

Oh fie! 'tis evangelical and pure:

Obferve each face, how fober and demure!
Ecftafy fets her stamp on every mien ;

Chins fallen, and not an eye-ball to be seen.
Still I infift, though mufic heretofore

Has charmed me much, (not even Occiduus more)

Love, joy, and peace make harmony more meet
For fabbath evenings, and perhaps as sweet.
Will not the ficklieft sheep of every flock
Refort to this example as a rock;