NIGHT.

NIGHT . WHEN foes insult , and prudent friends dispense , In pity's strains , the worst of insolence , Oft with thee , LLOYD , I steal an hour from grief , And in thy social converse find relief . The mind , of solitude , impatient grown , Loves any sorrows rather than her own . LET slaves to business , bodies without soul , Important blanks in Nature's mighty roll , Solemnize nonsense in the day's broad glare , We NIGHT prefer , which heals or hides our care . ROGUES justified and by success made bold , Dull fools and coxcombs sanctified by Gold , Freely may bask in fortune's partial ray , And spread their feathers op'ning to the day ; But thread-bare Merit dares not shew the head 'Till vain Prosperity retires to bed . Misfortunes , like the Owl , avoid the light ; The sons of CARE are always sons of NIGHT . THE Wretch bred up in Method's drowsy school , Whose only merit is to err by rule , Who ne'er thro' heat of blood was tripping caught , Nor guilty deem'd of one eccentric thought , Whose soul directed to no use is seen Unless to move the body's dull Machine ; Which , clock-work like , with the same equal pace , Still travels on thro' life's insipid space , Turns up his eyes to think that there should be Among God's creatures too such things as we . Then for his night-cap calls , and thanks the pow'rs Which kindly give him grace to keep good hours . Good hours — Fine words — but was it ever seen That all men could agree in what they mean ? FLORIO , who many years a course hath run In downright opposition to the sun , Expatiates on good hours , their cause defends With as much vigour as our PRUDENT FRIENDS . Th' uncertain term no settled notion brings , But still in diff'rent mouths mean diff'rent things . Each takes the phrase in his own private view , With PRUDENCE it is ten , with FLORIO two . Go on , ye fools , who talk for talking sake , Without distinguishing distinctions make ; Shine forth in native folly , native pride , Make yourselves rules to all the world beside ; Reason , collected in herself disdains The slavish yoke of arbitrary chains , Steady and true each circumstance she weighs , Nor to bare words inglorious tribute pays . Men of sense live exempt from vulgar awe , And Reason to herself alone is law . That freedom she enjoys with lib'ral mind Which she as freely grants to all mankind . No idol titled name her rev'rence stirs , No hour she blindly to the rest prefers , All are alike , if they're alike employ'd , And all are good if virtuously enjoy'd . LET the sage DOCTOR ( think him one we know ) With scraps of antient learning overflow , In all the dignity of wig declare The fatal consequence of midnight air , How damps and vapours as it were by stealth , Undermine life , and sap the walls of health . For me let GALEN moulder on the shelf , I'll live , and be physician to myself . Whilst soul is join'd to body , whether fate Allot a longer or a shorter date ; I'll make them live , as brother should with brother , And keep them in good humour with each other . THE surest road to health , say what they will , Is never to suppose we shall be ill . Most of those evils we poor mortals know From doctors and imagination flow . Hence to old women with your boasted rules , Stale traps , and only sacred now to fools ; As well may sons of physic hope to find One medicine , as one hour , for all mankind . IF RUPERT after ten is out of bed The fool next morning can't hold up his head , What reason this which me to bed must call Whose head ( thank heaven ) never aches at all ? In diff'rent courses diff'rent tempers run , He hates the Moon , I sicken at the sun . Wound up at twelve , at noon his clock goes right , Mine better goes , wound up at twelve at night . THEN in Oblivion's grateful cup I drown The galling sneer , the supercilious frown , The strange reserve , the proud affected state Of upstart knaves grown rich and fools grown great . No more that abject wretch disturbs my rest Who meanly overlooks a friend distrest . Purblind to poverty the Worldling goes , And scarce sees rags an inch beyond his nose . But from a croud can single out his grace And cringe and creep to fools who strut in lace . WHETHER those classic regions are survey'd Where we in earliest youth together stray'd , Where hand in hand we trod the flow'ry shore , Tho' now thy happier genius runs before , When we conspir'd a thankless wretch to raise , And taught a stump to shoot with pilser'd praise , Who once for Rev'rend merit famous grown Gratefully strove to kick his MAKER down , Or if more gen'ral arguments engage , The court or camp , the pulpit , bar , or stage , If half-bred surgeons , whom men doctors call , And lawyers , who were never bred at all , Those mighty-letter'd monsters of the earth , Our pity move , or exercise our mirth , Or if in tittle-tattle tooth-pick way Our rambling thoughts with easy freedom stray , A gainer still thy friend himself must find , His grief suspended , and improv'd his mind . WHILST peaceful slumbers bless the homely bed , Where virtue , self-approv'd , reclines her head ; Whilst vice beneath imagin'd horrors mourns , And conscience plants the villains couch with thorns , Impatient of restraint , the active mind , No more by servile prejudice confin'd , Leaps from her seat , as wak'ned from a trance , And darts through Nature at a single glance . Then we our friends , our foes , ourselves , survey , And see by NIGHT what fools we are by DAY . STRIPT of her gaudy plumes and vain disguise See where Ambition mean and loathsome lies ! Reflexion with relentless hand pulls down The tyrant's bloody wreath and ravish'd crown . In vain he tells of battles bravely won , Of nations conquer'd , and of Worlds undone ; Triumphs like these but ill with Manhood suit , And sink the conqueror beneath the brute . But if in searching round the world we find Some gen'rous youth , the Friend of all mankind , Whose anger , like the bolt of JOVE , is sped In terrors only at the guilty head , Whose mercies , like Heav'n's dew , refreshing fall In gen'ral love and charity to all , Pleas'd we behold such worth on any throne , And doubly pleas'd we find it on our own . THROUGH a false medium things are shewn by day , Pomp , wealth , and titles judgment lead astray . How many from appearance borrow state Whom NIGHT disdains to number with the Great ! Must not we laugh to see you lordling proud Snuff up vile incense from a fawning croud ? Whilst in his beam surrounding clients play , Like insects in the sun's enliv'ning ray , Whilst , JEHU like , he drives at furious rate , And seems the only charioteer of state , Talking himself into a little God , And ruling empires with a single nod , Who would not think , to hear him law dispense , That he had Int'rest , and that they had sense ? Injurious thought ! beneath NIGHT's honest shade When pomp is buried and false colours fade , Plainly we see at that impartial hour Them dupes to pride , and him the tool of pow'r . GOD help the man , condemn'd by cruel fate To court the seeming , or the real great . Much sorrow shall he feel , and suffer more Than any slave who labours at the oar . By slavish methods must he learn to please , By smooth-tongu'd flatt'ry , that curst court-disease , Supple to ev'ry wayward mood strike sail , And shift with shifting humour's peevish gale . To Nature dead he must adopt vile art , And wear a smile , with anguish in his heart . A sense of honour would destroy his schemes , And conscience ne'er must speak unless in dreams . When he hath tamely borne for many years Cold looks , forbidding frowns , contemptuous sneers , When he at last expects , good easy man , To reap the profits of his labour'd plan , Some cringing LACQUEY , or rapacious WHORE , To favours of the great the surest door , Some CATAMITE , or PIMP , in credit grown , Who tempts another's wife , or sells his own , Steps cross his hopes , the promis'd boon denies , And for some MINION'S MINION claims the prize . FOE to restraint , unpractis'd in deceir , Too resolute , from Nature's active heat , To brook affronts , and tamely pass them by ; Too proud to flatter , too sincere to lie , Too plain to please , too honest to be great ; Give me , kind Heaven , an humbler , happier state : Far from the place where men with pride deceive , Where rascals promise , and where fools believe ; Far from the walk of folly , vice and strife , Calm , independent , let me steal thro life , Nor one vain wish my steady thoughts beguile To fear his lordship's frown , or court his smile . Unfit for greatness , I her snares defy , And look on riches with untainted eye . To others let the glitt'ring bawbles fall , Content shall place us far above them all . SPECTATORS only on this bustling stage . We see what vain designs mankind engage . Vice after vice with ardour they pursue , And one old folly brings forth twenty new . Perplex'd with trifles thro' the vale of life , Man strives 'gainst man , without a cause for strife ; Armies embattled meet , and thousands bleed , For some vile spot which cannot fifty feed . Squirrels for nuts contend , and , wrong or right , For the world's empire kings ambitious fight , What odds ? — to us 'tis all the self-same thing , A NUT , a WORLD , a SQUIRREL , and a KING . BRITONS , like Roman spirits fam'd of old , Are cast by Nature in a PATRIOT mould ; No private joy , no private grief they know , Their soul's engross'd by public weal or woe . Inglorious ease like ours , they greatly scorn : Let care with nobler wreaths their brows adorn . Gladly they toil beneath the statesman's pains , Give them but credit for a statesman's brains . All would be deem'd e'en from the cradle fit To rule in politics as well as wit . The grave , the gay , the fopling , and the dunce , Start up ( God bless us ! ) statesmen all at once . HIS mighty charge of souls the priest forgets , The court-bred lord his promises and debts , Soldiers their same , misers forget their pelf , The rake his mistress , and the fop himself , Whilst thoughts of higher moment claim their care , And their wife heads the weight of kingdoms bear . FEMALES themselves the glorious ardour feel , And boast an equal , or a greater zeal . From nymph to nymph the state infection flies , Swells in her breast , and sparkles in her eyes . O'er whelm'd by politics lye malice , pride , Envy and twenty other faults beside . No more their little flutt'ring hearts confess A passion for applause , or rage for dress ; No more they pant for PUBLIC RAREE-SHOWS , Or lose one thought on monkeys or on beaux . Coquettes no more pursue the jilting plan , And lustful prudes forget to rail at man . The darling theme CAECILIA's self will chuse , Nor thinks of scandal whilst she talks of news . The CIT , a COMMON-COUNCIL-MAN by place , Ten thousand mighty nothings in his face , By situation as by nature great , With nice precision parcels out the state , Proves and disproves , affirms and then denies , Objects himself , and to himself replies , Wielding aloft the Politician rod , Makes P— by turns a devil and a god , Maintains e'en to the very teeth of pow'r The same thing right and wrong in half an hour , Now all is well , now he suspects a plot , And plainly proves , WHATEVER IS , IS NOT . Fearfully wise , he shakes his empty head , And deals out empires as he deals out thread . His useless scales are in a corner flung , And Europe's balance hangs upon his tongue . PEACE to such triflers , be our happier plan To pass thro' life as easy as we can . Who's in or out , who moves this grand machine , Nor stirs my curiosity nor spleen . Secrets of state no more I wish to know Than secret movements of a PUPPET-SHEW ; Let but the puppets move , I've my desire , Unseen the hand which guides the MASTER-WIRE . WHAT is't to us , if taxes rise or fall , Thanks to our fortune we pay none at all . Let muckworms , who in dirty acres deal , Lament those hardships which we cannot feel . His GRACE , who smarts , may bellow if he please , But must I bellow too , who sit at ease ? By custom safe the poet's numbers flow , Free as the light and air some years ago . No statesman e'er will find it worth his pains To tax our labours , and excise our brains . Burthens like these vile earthly buildings bear , No tribute's laid on Castles in the Air . LET then the flames of war destructive reign , And ENGLAND's terrors awe imperious SPAIN ; Let ev'ry venal clan and neutral tribe Learn to receive conditions , not prescribe ; Let each new-year call loud for new supplies , And tax on tax with doubled burthen rise ; Exempt we sit , by no rude cares opprest , And , having little , are with little blest . All real ills in dark oblivion lye , And joys , by fancy form'd , their place supply . NIGHT's laughing hours unheeded slip away , Nor one dull thought foretells approach of DAY . THUS have we liv'd , and whilst the fates afford Plain Plenty to supply the frugal board , Whilst MIRTH , with DECENCY his lovely bride , And Wine's gay GOD , with TEMP'RANCE by his side , Their welcome visit pay ; whilst HEALTH attends The narrow circle of our chosen Friends , Whilst frank GOOD-HUMOUR consecrates the treat , And — makes society complete , Thus WILL we live , tho' in our teeth are hurl'd Those Hackney Strumpets , PRUDENCE and the WORLD . PRUDENCE , of old a sacred term , imply'd Virtue with godlike wisdom for her guide , But now in gen'ral use is known to mean The stalking-horse of vice , and folly's screen . The sense perverted we retain the name , Hypocrisy and Prudence are the same . A TUTOR once , more read in men than books , A kind of crafty knowledge in his looks , Demurely sly , with high preferment blest , His fav'rite Pupil in these words addrest : WOULD'ST thou , my son , be wise and virtuous deem'd , By all mankind a prodigy esteem'd ? Be this thy rule ; be what men prudent call ; PRUDENCE , almighty PRUDENCE gives thee all . Keep up appearances ; there lies the test , The world will give thee credit for the rest . Outward be fair , however foul within ; Sin if thou wilt , but then in secret sin . This maxim's into common favour grown , Vice is no longer vice unless 'tis known . Virtue indeed may barefac'd take the field , But vice is virtue , when 'tis well conceal'd . Should raging passions drive thee to a whore , Let PRUDENCE lead thee to a postern door ; Stay out all night , but take especial care That PRUDENCE bring thee back to early prayer . As one with watching and with study faint , Reel in a drunkard , and reel out a saint . WITH joy the youth this useful lesson heard , And in his mem'ry stor'd each precious word , Successfully pursued the plan , and now , " Room for my LORD — VIRTUE , stand by and bow . " And is this all — is this the worldlings art , To mask , but not amend a vicious heart ? Shall lukewarm caution and demeanour grave , For wise and good stamp ev'ry supple knave ? Shall wretches whom no real virtue warms , Gild fair their names and states with empty forms , Whilst VIRTUE seeks in vain the wish'd-for prize , Because , disdaining ill , she hates disguise ; Because she frankly pours forth all her store , Seems what she is , and scorns to pass for more ? Well — be it so — let vile dissemblers hold Unenvy'd pow'r , and boast their dear-bought gold , Me neither pow'r shall tempt , nor thirst of pelf , To flatter others , or deny myself , Might the whole world be plac'd within my span , I would not be that THING , that PRUDENT MAN . WHAT , cries Sir PLIANT , would you then oppose Yourself , alone , against an host of foes ? Let not conceit , and peevish lust to rail , Above all sense of interest prevail . Throw off for shame this petulance of wit , Be wise , be modest , and for once submit : Too hard the task 'gainst multitudes to fight , You must be wrong , the WORLD is in the right . WHAT is this WORLD ? a term which men have got To signify , not one in ten knows what ; A term , which with no more precision passes To point out herds of men than herds of asses ; In common use no more it means we find , Than many fools in same opinions join'd . CAN numbers then change Nature's stated laws ? Can numbers make the worse the better cause ? Vice must be vice , virtue be virtue still , Tho' thousands rail at good and practise ill . Wouldst thou defend the Gaul's destructive rage Because vast nations on his part engage ? Tho' to support the rebel CAESAR's cause Tumultuous legions arm against the laws , Tho' Scandal would OUR PATRIOT's name impeach , And rails at virtues which she cannot reach , What honest man but would with joy submit To bleed with CATO , and retire with PITT ? STEDFAST and true to virtue's sacred laws , Unmov'd by vulgar censure or applause , Let the WORLD talk , my Friend ; that WORLD we know Which calls us guilty , cannot make us so . Unaw'd by numbers , follow Nature's plan , Assert the rights , or quit the name of man . Consider well , weigh strictly right and wrong ; Resolve not quick , but once resolv'd be strong . In spite of Dullness , and in spite of Wit , If to thyself thou canst thyself acquit , Rather stand up assur'd with conscious pride Alone , than err with millions on thy side .