Yet seem to doubt if sins he ever had.

120

Poor honest Truth! thou writ'st of living men,

And art a railer and detractor then;

They die, again to be described, and now

A foe to merit and mankind art thou!

Why banish truth? it injures not the dead;

It aids not them with flattery to be fed;

And, when mankind such perfect pictures view,

They copy less, the more they think them true.