. Night thoughts. d; Nature pushd him back;Supported by a doctor of renown,His point he gaind. Then artfully dismistThe sage; for Death designd to be conceald. 850He gave an old vivacious usurerHis meagre aspect, and his naked bones;In gratitude for plumping up his prey,A pamperd spendthrift; whose fantastic air,Well-fashiond figure, and cockaded brow, 855 He took in change, and underneath the prideOf costly linen, tuckd his filthy crooked bow he straitend to a cane;And hid his deadly shafts in Myras eye. The dreadful masquerader, thus equipt, 860 Out-sallies on adventures. Ask you
. Night thoughts. d; Nature pushd him back;Supported by a doctor of renown,His point he gaind. Then artfully dismistThe sage; for Death designd to be conceald. 850He gave an old vivacious usurerHis meagre aspect, and his naked bones;In gratitude for plumping up his prey,A pamperd spendthrift; whose fantastic air,Well-fashiond figure, and cockaded brow, 855 He took in change, and underneath the prideOf costly linen, tuckd his filthy crooked bow he straitend to a cane;And hid his deadly shafts in Myras eye. The dreadful masquerader, thus equipt, 860 Out-sallies on adventures. Ask you where?Where is he not? For his peculiar haunts,Let this suffice; sure as night follows day,Death treads in Pleasures footsteps round the world,When Pleasure treads the paths which Reason , against Reason, Riot shuts the door, 866 And Gaiety supplies the place of Sense,Then, foremost at the banquet, and the ball,Death leads the dance, or stamps the deadly die;Nor ever fails the midnight bowl to crown. 870. ZonJvn. Pu&Uffat^laou,!.!-:/-,,-, A TJTeptinstaU^I?#o4 //;,//>Bolboi THE RELAPSE. 115 Gaily carousing to his gay compeers,Inly he laughs, to see them laugh at him,As absent far: And when the revel burns,When fear is banishd, and triumphant thought,Calling for all the joys beneath the moon, 875 Against him turns the key, and bids him supWith their progenitors—he drops his mask;Frowns out at full; they start, despair, expire! Scarce with more sudden terror and surprise,From his black masque of nitre, touchd by fire, 880He bursts, expands, roars, blazes, and is not this triumphant treachery,And more than simple conquest, in the fiend? And now, Lorenzo, dost thou wrap thy soulIn soft security, because unknown 885 Which moment is commissiond to destroy?In Deaths uncertainty thy danger Death uncertain? Therefore thou be fixt;Fixt as a centinel, all eye, all ear,All expectation of the coming foe. 890 Rouse, stand in arms, nor lean against thy spear;
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Keywords: ., bookidnightthoughts0, booksubjectdeath, booksubjectenglishpoetry
