The Poetical Works of the Right Hon. George Granville, Lord Lansdowne/46
ODE
ON THE PRESENT CORRUPTION OF MANKIND.
Inſcribed to the Lord Falkland.
I.
O Falkland! offspring of a gen’rous race,
Renown’d for arms and arts in war and peace:
My kinſman, and my friend! from whence this curſe
Entail’d on man, ſtill to grow worſe and worſe?
II.
Each age, induſtrious to invent new crimes,5
Strives to outdo in guilt preceding times;
But now we ’re ſo improv’d in all that ’s bad,
We ſhall leave nothing for our ſons to add.
III.
That idol, gold, poſſeſſes ev’ry heart;
To cheat, defraud, and undermine, is art:10
Virtue is folly; conſcience is a jeſt;
Religion gain, or prieſtcraft at the beſt.
IV.
Friendſhip ’s a cloak to hide ſome treach’rous end;
Your greateſt foe is your profeſſing friend;
The ſoul reſign’d, unguarded, and ſecure,15
The wound is deepeſt, and the ſtroke most ſure.
V.
Juſtice is bought and ſold; the bench, the bar,
Plead and decide, but gold ’s th’ interpreter.
Pernicious metal! thrice accurs’d be he
Who found thee firſt; all evils ſpring from thee.20
VI.
Sires ſell their ſons, and ſons their ſires betray;
And ſenates vote, as armies fight, for pay;
The wife no longer is reſtrain’d by ſhame,
But has the huſband’s leave to play the game.
VII.
Diſeas’d, decrepit, from the mix’d embrace25
Succeeds, of ſpurious mould, a puny race:
From ſuch defenders what can Britain hope?
And where, O Liberty! is now thy prop?
VIII.
Not ſuch the men who bent the ſtubborn bow,
And learnt in rugged ſports to dare a foe:30
Not ſuch the men who fill‘’d with heaps of ſlain
Fam’d Agincourt and Creſſy’s bloody plain.
IX.
Haughty Britannia then, inur’d to toil,
Spread far and near the terrors of her iſle;
True to herſelf, and to the public weal,35
No Gallic gold could blunt the Britiſh ſteel.
X.
Not much unlike, when thou in arms wert ſeen,
Eager for glory on th’ embattled green,
When Stanhope led thee thro’ the heats of Spain,
To die in purple Almanara’s plain.40
XI.
The reſcu’d empire, and the Gaul ſubdu’d,
In Anna’s reign, our ancient fame renew’d:
What Britons could, when juſtly rous’d to war,
Let Blenheim ſpeak, and witness Gibraltar.44