When ev'n the offspring of one blood shall cease
To dwell together in the bonds of peace.
The awe and reverence once inspired by age
Shall not then shield it from insult and rage.
Parental care, that once did o'er them brood,
Shall be repaid by black ingratitude.
Then shall they gloat on pillage and bloodshed,
While blushing Peace shall hide her lovely head,
And honest Truth shall seek for praise in vain,
For then alone the slanderer shall reign.
Then croaking Envy, with malignant pride,
Shall haunt her haggard victims, side by side.
Then Modesty, that maid of heavenly birth,
And Nemesis, shall quit the scenes of earth,
And clad in shining robes once more arise
To grace the mansions of their native skies.
Still further woes must wretched man endure,
Ere from affliction he shall rest secure.
In such a fate all present signs portend
Our impious race shall ultimately end.
But in whose day or age we can't divine:
God grant that it may never come in mine!
Beasts, birds, and men are all by nature prone
To make each other's rights yield to their own.
No odds if fraud or force be used—the might
To do a wrong of course implies the right!
A hawk, the fable goes, caught up one day
A twittering swallow, doomed to be his prey,
Who, though she shrieked, as well she might, for aid,
Against her foe but slight resistance made.
"How now?" quoth he, "why don't you act the brave?
Such piteous shrieks cannot your carcass save.
