Page:Trivia (John Gay) to which is added London (Samuel Johnson) (1809).djvu/75

Rh 'Since worth,' he cries, 'in these degen'rate days, Wants e'en the cheap reward of empty praise; In those curs'd walls, devote to vice and gain, Since unrewarded Science toils in vain; Since hope but soothes to double my distress, And ev'ry moment leaves my little less:— While yet my steady steps no staff sustains, And life, still vig'rous, revels in my veins; Grant me, kind Heaven, to find some happier place, Where honesty and sense are no disgrace; Some pleasing bank where verdant osiers play, Some peaceful vale with Nature's paintings gay, Where once the harass'd Briton found repose, And safe in poverty defied his foes: Some secret cell, ye pow'rs, indulgent give, Let live here, for  has learned to live. Here let those reign whom pensions can incite To vote a patriot black, a courtier white; Explain their country's dear-bought rights away, And plead for pirates in the face of day; With slavish tenets taint our poison'd youth, And lend a lie the confidence of truth. Rh