Page:The works of Anna Laetitia Barbauld volume 1.djvu/262

178 The soft luxurious plague alike pervades The marble palaces and rural shades; Hence thronged Augusta builds her rosy bowers, And decks in summer wreaths her smoky towers; And hence, in summer bowers, Art's costly hand Pours courtly splendours o'er the dazzled land: The manners melt;—one undistinguished blaze Overwhelms the sober pomp of elder days; Corruption follows with gigantic stride, And scarce vouchsafes his shameless front to hide The spreading leprosy taints every part, Infects each limb, and sickens at the heart. Simplicity, most dear of rural maids, Weeping resigns her violated shades: Stern Independence from his glebe retires, And anxious Freedom eyes her drooping fires; By foreign wealth are British morals changed, And Afric's sons, and India's, smile avenged. For you, whose tempered ardour long has borne Untired the labour, and unmoved the scorn;