First he relates, how sinking to the chin,
Smit with his mien, the Mud-nymphs suck'd him in.
How young Lutetia, softer than the down,
Nigrina black, and Merdamenta brown,
Vy'd for his love in jetty bow'rs below....
Full in the middle way there stood a lake,
Which Curl's Corinna chanc'd that morn to make
(Such was her wont, at early dawn to drop
Her ev'ning cates before his neighbour's shop).
.... And the fresh vomit run for ever green.
See skulking Truth to her old cavern fled,
Mountains of casuistry heap'd o'er her head!
Philosophy that lean'd on Heav'n before
Shrinks to her second cause and his no more.
Physic of metaphysic begs defence,
And metaphysic calls for aid on sense....
Religion blushing veils her sacred fires,
And unawares morality expires.
Nor public flame, nor private dares to shine,
Nor human spark is left, nor glimpse divine;
Lo! Thy dread empire, Chaos, is restor'd;
Light dies before thy uncreating word,
Thy hand, great Anarch, lets the curtain fall
And universal Darkness buries all.
Oft in her glass the musing shepherd spies
The headlong mountains and downward skies
The watr'y landskip of the pendant woods
And absent trees that tremble in the floods.
See, from the brake the whirring pheasant springs
And mounts exulting on triumphant wings.
Alas, what avail his glossy, varying dies,
His purple crest, and scarlet circled eyes,
The vivid green his shining plumes unfold,
His painted wings, and breast that flames with gold?
But now secure the painted vessel glides,
The sun beams trembling on the floating tides;
While melting music steals upon the sky,
And soften'd sounds along the waters die;
Smooth flow the waves, the Zephyrs gently play.
The lucid squadrons round the sails repair:
Soft o'er the shrouds aerial whispers breathe,
That seem'd but Zephyrs to the train beneath.
Some to the sun their insect wings unfold,
Whaft on the breeze, or sink in clouds of gold;
Transparent forms, too fine for mortal sight,
Their fluid bodies half-dissolv'd in light.
Loose to the wind their airy garment flies,
Where light disports in ever-mingling dyes;
Where ev'ry beam new transient colours flings,
Colours that change whene'er they wave their wings.