Page:Poetical pieces on various subjects.pdf/15



profligate he was, and habits ill

long contracted with assiduous skill.

door of vice he could not think to pass;

cheer'd him much to see the drunkard's glass

hugg'd the world, and in it he did trust,

scarce would spend, but to obtain some lust;

unrepented crimes now makes him shrink,

dreads the awful cup he soon must drink

to God's law he sometimes paid pretence,

Yet still his chiefest deity was sense.

When vice display'd her banner, fools to draw,

heart did leap when he the signal saw

were the passions that did thus enslave,

broke his health, and digg'd for him a grave,

chief delight was in the harlot's bower;

vain's the pleasures of a short-liv'd hour.

him now upon the verge of death,

With great reluctance parting with his breath;

He longs for life; but far it from him flies;

He bows his head, and by compulsion dies