Page:Trivia (John Gay) to which is added London (Samuel Johnson) (1809).djvu/80

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 * 'How, when competitors like these contend,

Can surly virtue hope to fix a friend? Slaves that with serious impudence beguile, And lie without a blush, without a smile; Exalt each trifle, ev'ry vice adore, Your taste in snuff, your judgment in a whore; Can Balbo’s eloquence applaud, and swear He gropes his breeches with a monarch’s air.
 * 'For arts like these preferr'd, admir'd, caress’d,

They first invade your table, then your breast; Explore your secrets with insidious art, Watch the weak hour, and ransack all the heart; Then soon your ill-plac'd confidence repay, Commence your lords, and govern or betray.
 * 'By numbers here, from shame or censure free,

All crimes are safe, but hated poverty. This, only this, the rigid law pursues; This, only this, provokes the snarling muse. The sober trader at a tatter'd cloak, Wakes from his dream, and labours for a joke;