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With all that Habit of familiar Fame,
Doom'd to exhaust the Dregs of Life in Shame!
The sole sad Refuge of thy baffled Art,
To act a Statesman's dull, exploded Part,
Renounce the Praise no longer in thy Pow'r,175
Display thy Virtue tho' without a Dow'r,
Contemn the giddy Crowd, the vulgar Wind,
And shut thy Eyes that others may be blind.
Forgive me, Romans, that I bear to smile
When shameless Mouths your Majesty defile,180
Paint you a thoughtless, frantic, headlong Crew,
And cast their own Impieties on you.
For witness, Freedom, to whose sacred Pow'r
My Soul was vow'd from Reason's earliest Hour,
How have I stood exulting to survey185
My Country's Virtues opening in thy Ray!
How, with the Sons of every foreign Shore
The more I match'd them, honour'd hers the more!
