Page:Horace's Art of Poetry made English - Roscommon (1680).djvu/21

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

( 13 )

And changes every hour his wavering mind.
A Youth that first casts off his Tutors yoke,
Loves Horses, Hounds, and Sports, and Exercise,
Prone to all Vice, impatient of Reproof,
Proud, careless, fond, inconstant, and profuse.
Gain and Ambition rule our riper years,
And make us Slaves to interest and power:
Old Men are only walking Hospitals,
Where all defects, and all diseases croud
With restless pain, and more tormenting fear,
Lazy, morose, full of delays and hopes,
Opprest with Riches which they dare not use;
Ill-natur'd censors of the present Age,
And fond of all the follies of the past:
Thus all the treasure of our flowing Years,
Our ebb of life for ever takes away.
Boys must not have the ambitious cares of Men,

Nor