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 neighbouring town. 
  Since worth, he cries, in these degenerate days,
  Wants e’en the cheap reward of empty praise;
  In those cursed walls, devote to vice and gain,
  Since unrewarded science toils in vain;
  Since hope but soothes to double my distress,
  And every moment leaves my little less; 40
  While yet my steady steps no staff sustains,
  And life, still vigorous, 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 paintings gay,
  Where once the harass’d Briton found repose,
  And, safe in poverty, defied his foes: 
  Some secret cell, ye Powers indulgent! give;
  Let—­live here, for—­has learn’d to live. 50
  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[3] 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 our silenced stage,
  And lull to servitude a thoughtless age. 60
  Heroes, proceed! what bounds your pride shall hold? 
  What check restrain your thirst of power and gold? 
  Behold rebellious virtue quite o’erthrown;
  Behold our fame, our wealth, our lives your own!

   To such the plunder of a land is given,
  When public crimes inflame the wrath of Heaven. 
  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; 70
  A statesman’s logic unconvinced can hear,
  And dare to slumber o’er the Gazetteer;[4]
  Despise a fool in half his pension dress’d,
  And strive in vain to laugh at Clodio’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 knew to puzzle right, or varnish wrong, 80
  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 Marlborough hoarded, or all Villiers spent,
  Turn from the glittering 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. 90