A god; and in devout and humble plight

Before it kneeled, the greater to the less;
And on its altar sacrificed ease, peace,
Truth, faith, integrity; good conscience, friends,
Love, charity, benevolence, and all

The sweet and tender sympathies of life;
And, to complete the horrid murderous rite,
And signalize their folly, offered up
Their souls, and an eternity of bliss,

To gain them-what?-an hour of dreaming joy!
A feverish hour, that hasted to be done,
And ended in the bitterness of wo."

THE MISER.

"Most, for the luxuries it bought—the pomp, The praise, the glitter, fashion, and renown— This yellow phantom followed and adored. But there was one in folly farther gone; With eye awry, incurable, and wild, The laughing-stock of devils and of men, And by his guardian-angel quite given up: The miser, who with dust inanimate

Held wedded intercourse. Ill-guided wretch! Thou might'st have seen him at the midnight hour, When good men slept, and in light-winged dreams Ascended up to God-in wasteful hall,

With vigilance and fasting worn to skin

And bone, and wrapp'd in most debasing ragsThou might'st have seen him bending o'er his heaps, And holding strange communion with his gold; And as his thievish fancy seemed to hear

The night-man's foot approach, starting alarmed, And in his old, decrepit, withered hand,

That palsy shook, grasping the yellow earth,

To make it sure.

Of all God made upright,

And in their nostrils breathed a living soul,

Most fallen, most prone, most earthy, most debased.
Of all that sold Eternity for Time,

None bargained on so easy terms with death.
Illustrious fool! Nay, most inhuman wretch!
He sat among his bags, and with a look
Which hell might be ashamed of, drove the poor
Away unalmsed; and midst abundance died-
Sorest of evils!-died of utter want."

FALLACIOUS PLEASURES.

"Before this Shadow, in the vale of earth, Fools saw another glide, which seemed of more Intrinsic worth. Pleasure her name-good name, Though ill applied. A thousand forms she took, A thousand garbs she wore; in every age And clime changing, as in her votaries changed Desire; but, inwardly, the same in all. Her most essential lineaments we trace; -Her general features every where alike. "Of comely form she was, and fair of face; And underneath her eyelids sat a kind Of witching sorcery, that nearer drew Whoever with unguarded look beheld; A dress of gaudy hue loosely attired Her loveliness; her air and manner frank, And seeming free of all disguise; her song

Enchanting; and her words, which sweetly dropp'd
As honey from the comb, most large of promise,
Still prophesying days of new delight,
And rapturous nights of undecaying joy;
And in her hand, where'er she went, she held
A radiant cup that seemed of nectar full;
And by her side danced fair delusive Hope.
The fool pursued, enamored; and the wise,
Experienced man, who reasoned much, and thought,
Was sometimes seen laying his wisdom down,
And vying with the stripling in the chase.

"Nor wonder thou: for she was really fair; Decked to the very taste of flesh and blood, And many thought her sound within, and gay And healthy at the heart; but thought amiss: For she was full of all disease; her bones Were rotten; Consumption licked her blood, and drank

Her marrow up; her breath smelled mortally;
And in her bowels plague and fever lurked;
And in her very heart, and reins, and life,
Corruption's worm gnawed greedily unseen.
"Many her haunts. Thou might'st have seen

her now

With Indolence, lolling on the mid-day couch,
And whispering drowsy words; and now at dawn,
Loudly and rough, joining the sylvan horn;
Or sauntering in the park, and to the tale
Of slander giving ear; or sitting fierce,
Rude, blasphemous, malicious, raving, mad,
Where fortune to the fickle die was bound.