[Page 255]

TO-MORROW.

By the Same.

Pereunt et Imputantur.

1 TO-morrow, didst thou say!
2 Methought I heard Horatio say, To-morrow.
3 Go to — I will not hear of it — To-morrow!
4 'Tis a sharper, who stakes his penury
5 Against thy plenty — who takes thy ready cash,
6 And pays thee nought but wishes, hopes, and promises,
7 The currency of ideots. — Injurious bankrupt,
8 That gulls the easy creditor! — To-morrow!
9 It is a period no where to be found
10 In all the hoary registers of Time,
11 Unless perchance in the fool's calendar.
12 Wisdom disclaims the word, nor holds society
13 With those who own it. No, my Horatio,
14 'Tis Fancy's child, and Folly is its father;
15 Wrought of such stuff as dreams are; and baseless
16 As the fantastic visions of the evening.
17 But soft, my friend — arrest the present moments;
18 For be assur'd, they all are arrant tell-tales;
19 And tho' their flight be silent, and their path
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20 Trackless, as the wing'd couriers of the air,
21 They post to heav'n, and there record thy folly.
22 Because, tho' station'd on th' important watch,
23 Thou, like a sleeping, faithless centinel,
24 Didst let them pass unnotic'd, unimprov'd.
25 And know, for that thou slumber'dst on the guard,
26 Thou shalt be made to answer at the bar
27 For ev'ry fugitive: and when thou thus
28 Shalt stand impleaded at the high tribunal
29 Of hood-wink'd Justice, who shall tell thy audit!
30 Then stay the present instant, dear Horatio;
31 Imprint the marks of wisdom on its wings.
32 'Tis of more worth than kingdoms! far more precious
33 Than all the crimson treasures of life's fortune.
34 Oh! let it not elude thy grasp, but like
35 The good old patriarch upon record,
36 Hold the fleet angel-fast, until he bless thee.

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About this text

Title (in Source Edition): TO-MORROW. Pereunt et Imputantur.
Author: Nathaniel Cotton
Themes: time
Genres: blank verse
References: DMI 25825

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Source edition

Dodsley, Robert, 1703-1764. A Collection of Poems in Six Volumes. By Several Hands. Vol. IV. London: printed by J. Hughs, for R. and J. Dodsley, 1763 [1st ed. 1758], pp. 255-256. 6v.: music; 8⁰. (ESTC T131163; OTA K104099.004) (Page images digitized by the Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive from a copy in the archive's library.)

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The text has been typographically modernized, but without any silent modernization of spelling, capitalization, or punctuation. The source of the text is given and all editorial interventions have been recorded in textual notes. Based on the electronic text originally produced by the TCP project, this ECPA text has been edited to conform to the recommendations found in Level 5 of the Best Practices for TEI in Libraries version 4.0.0.