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Run bustling to and fro with foolish haste,
In search of pleasures vain that from them fly,
Or which obtain'd the caitiffs dare not taste:
When nothingis enjoy'd, can there be greater waste?

L.

Of Vanity the Mirrour this was call'd.
Here you a muckworm of the town might fee,
At his dull desk, amid his legers stall'd,
Ate up with carking care and penurie,
Most like to carcase parch'd on gallow-tree.
"A penny faved is a penny got;"
Firm to this scoundrel-maxim keepeth he,
Ne of its rigour will he bate a jot,

Till it has quench'd his fire and banished his pot.

LI.

Strait from the filth of this low grub, behold!
Comes fluttering forth a gaudy spendthrift heir,
All glofssy gay, enamell'd all with gold,
The filly tenant of the fummer-air,
In folly loft, of nothing takes he care ;
Pimps, lawyers, stewards, harlots, flatterers vile,
And thieving tradesmen, him among them share;
His father's ghost from Limbo-lake, the while,
Sees this, which more damnation doth upon him pile.

LII.

This globe pourtray'd the race of learned men
Still at their books, and turning o'er the page
Backwards and forwards: oft' they snatch the pen,
As if inspir'd, and in a Thespian rage,
Then write, and blot, as would your ruth engage.
Why, Authors! all this scrawl and scribbling fore?

To lose the present, gain the future age,

Praised to be when you can hear no more,

And much enrich'd with fame when useless worldly

store?

LIII.

Then would a splendid city rise to view,
With carts, and cars, and coaches, roaring all;
Wide pour'd abroad behold the giddy crew,

See how they dash along from wall to wall;
At every door, hark how they thundering call!
Good Lord! what can this giddy rout excite?
Why, on each other with fell tooth to fall,
A neighbour's fortune, fame, or peace, to blight,
And make new tiresome parties for the coming night.

LIV.

The puzzling fons of Party next appear'd,
In dark cabals and nightly juntos met,

And now they whisper'd close, now shrugging rear'd
Th' important shoulder; then, as if to get
New light, their twinkling eyes were inward set.
No fooner Lucifer * recalls affairs,

Than forth they various rush in mighty fret;
When, lo!push'd up to power, and crown'd theircares,
In comes another fett, and kicketh them down stairs.

The morning star.

LV.

But what most shew'd the vanity of life,
Was to behold the nations all on fire,
In cruel broils engag'd, and deadly strife,
Moft Christian kings, inflam'd by black defire,
With honourable ruffians in their hire,
Cause war to rage, and blood around to pour :
Of this fad work when each begins to tire,
They fit them down just where they were before,
Till for new scenes of woe peace shall their force re-
[store.

LVI.

To number up the thousands dwelling here,
An useless were, and, eke, an enldess task,
From kings, and those who at the helm appear,
To gipsies brown in summer-glades who bask,
Yea many a man, perdie, I could unmask,
Whose desk and table make a folemn show,
With tape-ty'd trash, and suits of fools that afk
For place or pension laid in decent row;

But these I passen by, with nameless numbers moe.
LVII.

Of all the gentle tenants of the place,
There was a man of special grave remark;
A certain tender gloom o'erspread his face,
Penfive, not fad, in thought involv'd not dark;
As scot this man could fing as morning lark,
And teach the noblest morals of the heart;
But these his talents were yburied stark;

Of the fine stores he nothing would impart Which or boon Nature gave, or nature-painting Art.

LVIII.

To noontide shades incontinent he ran,
Where purls the brooks with sleep-inviting found,
Or when Dan Sol to slope his wheels began,
Amid the broom he bask'd him on the ground,
Where the wild thyme and camomoil are found
There would he linger, till the latest ray
Of light fate trembling on the welkin's bound,
Then homewards thro' the twilight shadows stray,
Sauntering and flow: so had he passed many a day.

LIX,

Yet not in thoughtless slumber were they past;
For oft' the heavenly fire, that lay conceal'd
Beneath the fleeping embers, mounted fast,
And all its native light anew reveal'd;
Oft' as he travers'd the cerulean field,

And markt the clouds that drove before the wind,
Ten thousand glorious systems would he build,
Ten thousand great ideas fill'd his mind;

But with the clouds they fled, and left no trace be

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With him was sometimes join'd, in filent walk,
(Profoundly filent, for they never spoke)
One shyer still, who quite detested talk;

Oft' stung by spleen, at once away he broke,
To groves of pine and broad o'ershadowing oak;

2

There inly thrill'd, he wander'd all alone,
And on himself his pensive fury wroke,
Ne ever utter'd word, save when first shone

The glittering star of eve "Thank Heaven! the day

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Here lurk'd a wretch who had not crept abroad
For forty years, ne face of mortal feen;
In chamber brooding like a loathly toad,
And fure his linen was not very clean.
Through fecret loop-holes, that had practis'd been
Near to his bed, his dinner vile he took;
Unkempt, and rough, of squalid face and mien,
Our Castle's shame! whence, from his filthy nook,
We drove the villain out for fitter lair to look.
LXII.

One day there chanc'd into these halls to rove
A joyous youth, who took you at first sight;
Him the wild wave of pleasure hither drove,
Before the sprightly tempest tossing light:
Certes, he was a most engaging wight,
Of focial glee, and wit humane tho' keen,
Turning the night to day and day to night:
For him the merry bells had rung, I ween,
If in this nook of quiet bells had ever been.
LXIII.

But not even pleasure to excess is good:
What most elates then finks the foul as low,
When spring-tide joy pours in with copious flood,
The higher still th' exulting billows flow,

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