Catching our subjects from the varying scene
Of human things; a mingled work we draw,
Chequered with fancies odd, and figures strange,
Such, as no courtly poet ever saw;
Who writ, beneath some Great Man's ceiling placed;
Travelled no lands, nor roved the watery waste.
To seize some features from the faithless past;
Be this our care—before the century close:
The colours strong!—for, if we deem aright,
The coming age will be an age of prose:
When sordid cares will break the muses' dream,
And Common Sense be ranked in seat supreme.
Go, now, dear book; once more expand your wings:
Still in the cause of Man severely true:
Untaught to flatter pride, or fawn on kings;—
Trojan, or Tyrian,[A]—give them both their due.—
When they are right, the cause of both we plead,
And both will please us well,—if both will read.
[A] Tros, Tyriusque mihi nullo discrimine agetur.—Virg.—Freneau's note.
[147] This was used as the introductory poem to Volume II of the 1809 edition.
TO A NIGHT-FLY[148]
Approaching a Candle
Attracted by the taper's rays,
How carelessly you come to gaze
On what absorbs you in its blaze!