American Magazine ―427―
For the AMERICAN MAGAZINE.
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| LET sage discretion the gay world despise; | |
| Let dull philosophers o'er lamps grow wise, | |
| Like bees their summer providently waste | |
| And hoard that treasure which they ne'er shall taste; | |
| Let statesmen court the bubble of applause | |
| And staring cry for sumptuary laws; | |
| Let peevish prelates in devotion kneel | |
| And curse that pleasure which they try to feel; | |
| Life is a blessing, use it as you can, | |
| And the best purpose of that blessing scan | |
| All human reason is no more than this, | |
| To guide our footsteps in the realms of bliss, | |
| While, as in drinking, so in life the will | |
| Must bound our joy, and dictate what to fill.— | |
| Live freely then; for if thy life offend | |
| 'Tis ne'er too late to alter and amend: | |
| But should you hesitate the season's lost, | |
| As backward fruits are subject to the frost. | |
| Then if true spirit ev'ry hope inflame | |
| Mark well the lesson of my proffer'd fame. |
| First trace the limits of thy destin'd sphere: | |
| Here rest thy wisdom, thine ambition here. | |
| 'Tis not each clown that triumphs, tho' he dare | |
| Aspire to charm and captivate the fair; | |
| 'Tis not each witling who the ape dis- plays, | |
| That strikes our fancy or provokes our praise: | |
| But would you sin, be sinful with a grace— | |
| Inaptitude can even vice debase. | |
| Search then your genius, every bent sur- vey; | |
| And where she prompts be ready to obey. | |
| See thro' this crowd where brilliant pros- pects rise, | |
| The chace how luring, and how rare the prize! | |
| The paths of pleasure to no bounds con- fin'd, | |
| As in their shape, are various in their kind. | |
| Fix then thy province, make thy talents good | |
| And be a sop, a gentleman or blood. | |
| Happy the first, who studious to dis- pense | |
| With all the cumb'rous pedantry of sense, | |
| Knows no ambition but the pride of dress; | |
| And for that toy can ev'ry wish suppress: | |
| Whose natal bounties like the fly's consist | |
| In two short words, to flutter and exist; | |
| If to such fame thine emulation turn, | |
| Hear his pursuits; and from example learn. | |
| —'Till ten the morn is squander'd in his bed; | |
| One precious hour's devoted to his head, | |
| Another's finish'd ere his dress complete | |
| From top to toe be critically neat— | |
| Then he struts forth to greet his kindred beaux, | |
| And urge some tardy tradesman for his cloaths; | |
| Or mid the town to saunter and to stare, | |
| And kill an hour or two he knows not where. | |
| In the noon's bustle vacant and serene, | |
| He deals in bows, his business to be seen: | |
| —Perhaps united to some fair he meets | |
| From shop to shop pursues her thro' the streets, | |
| For the last fashions stimulates her pride, | |
| And on the modes is zealous to decide. | |
| Next his soil'd charms he hastens to re- pair, | |
| To give a finer polish to his hair, | |
| His ev'ry grace with ev'ry art entwine, | |
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| And form his looks more strikingly di- vine; | |
| Till the last noblest pastime of the day | |
| To his bright zenith summons him away. | |
| There in the circle of some coterie, | |
| Rous'd by the exhilarating fumes of sea, | |
| View him triumphant, with unrival'd fame | |
| Attract each ogle, and each breast in- flame; | |
| To ev'ry sense a magic thrill impart, | |
| And steal thro' all the mazes of the heart, | |
| Next let us view the gentleman at ease, | |
| Too rich to toil, too indolent to please; | |
| Whose days unharass'd by desire or woe | |
| In one smooth stream uninterrupted flow: | |
| Born to no end, for no one purpose fit, | |
| A load of vanity, a grain of wit, | |
| Who, far remov'd from ev'ry worldly strife, | |
| Lives for himself, and sleeps away his life. |
| If to the third thine happier choice in- cline, | |
| And thy warm genius as a blood would shine, | |
| Be the first caution in thy bold career | |
| To shun low comrades and a vulgar sphere; | |
| The great unpunish'd from their rank offend, | |
| But humbler culprits with the laws con- tend.— | |
| Then if some revel or a midnight joke | |
| Insult our slumbers, or the watch provoke, | |
| Thy looks can wrest stern justice from the scale, | |
| Suspend her frowns and snatch thee from a jail. | |
| Let dauntless spirit animate thy soul, | |
| No fears restrain thee and no threats con- troul. | |
| Whether in hunting, at an arm's expence, | |
| You dash a furious courser o'er a fence, | |
| Or at the bottle be thy matchless boast, | |
| To sit the longest, and to drink the most: | |
| —So shall thy fame to wond'rous heights ascend; | |
| And ev'ry rake shall hail thee as a friend. | |
| —But, if thy soul such base ambition spurn, | |
| And in thy breast a purer spirit burn, | |
| Leave such poor laurels to the brows of Youth; | |
| And place thy zeal in wisdom and in truth. | |
| Then in thy way, tho' mean temptation rise, | |
| The task discourage or the world despise, | |
| Proceed—until the triumph of thy worth record, | |
| That virtue is the surest best reward. | |
| The sop, whose merits on his charms de- pend, | |
| May gain a mistress, but will lose a friend; | |
| The blood will tell thee e'er he quit the stage, | |
| That joy of youth's the misery of age; | |
| And the deluded idler with remorse | |
| Will own a blessing what he fear'd a curse: | |
| But he whose wisdom, such desires with- stood, | |
| Unites his pleasure with his greatest good, | |
| Knows not misfortune tho' a fair one frown, | |
| His wealth escape him, and his friends disown; | |
| But, firm in what he is, in what he may be blest, | |
| Feels an unvaried sunshine in his breast. |
The counterpart, addressed to the fe-
male sex, is requested agreeably to the
promise of our ingenious correspondent.