THE PROGRESS OF ERROR. Si quid loquar audiendum.-HOR. Lib. 4. Od. 2. SING, muse (if such a theme, so dark, so long, May find a muse to grace it with a song) By what unseen and unsuspected arts The serpent error twines round human hearts; Tell where she lurks, beneath what flowery shades, Not all, whose eloquence the fancy fills, Musical as the chime of tinkling rills, Weak to perform, though mighty to pretend, Like quicksilver, the rhetoric they display Placed for his trial on this bustling stage, Man may improve the crisis, or abuse; Else, on the fatalist's unrighteous plan, Say to what bar amenable were man? And, if he fell, would fall because he must; His recompense in both unjust alike. Divine authority within his breast Brings every thought, word, action, to the test; Warns him or prompts, approves him or restrains, As reason, or as passion, takes the reins. Heaven from above, and conscience from within, Cries in his startled ear-Abstain from sin! The world around solicits his desire, And kindles in his soul a treacherous fire; And pleasure brings as surely in her train Man, thus endued with an elective voice, Avarice shows, and virtue is the price. Here various motives his ambition raise Power,pomp,and splendour, and the thirst of praise; There beauty wooes him with expanded arms; Even bacchanalian madness has its charms. Nor these alone, whose pleasures less refined Might well alarm the most unguarded mind, Seek to supplant his inexperienced youth, Or lead him devious from the path of truth; Hourly allurements on his passions press, Safe in themselves, but dangerous in the excess. Hark! how it floats upon the dewy air! O what a dying, dying close was there! 'Tis harmony from yon sequestered bower, Sweet harmony, that sooths the midnight hour! His morning course, the enchantment was begun; |