The Life and Poetical Works of James Woodhouse :: :: University of Virginia Library

In my last, Thou'lt fully find
How Creature-worship will degrade the Mind—
How Vanity and Riches, Pomp and Pow'r,
The small remains of Innocence devour;
While from such fate, We feel Ourselves exempt,
No Wealth to wilder, and no Pomp to tempt—
From Fashion's wild bewitching influence free,
And Customs which corrupt each high Degree.
Still, tho' our hearts experience inborn Pride,
Its insolent demands are all denied;
And still, let us, my Hannah; live such lives
As well may shame all Courtiers and their Wives—
Our strength of Mind to moral duties turn'd,
Which Heav'n has taught, or Love, and Reason, learn'd.
Our noble energies confin'd, alone,
To pay their due devoirs at Heaven's throne—
To waft each Wish, and wing each dull Desire;
To graft each Grace, and rear each Virtue high'r,
Till all our Souls, inflam'd with heavenly Love,
Spurn Earth's frail toys, and soar to bliss above!
All weedy growths with ghostly tools root out;
Not dung and dress, like Them, each poisonous sprout,
But lop off every Lust's luxuriant head,
By Pow'r and Riches, Pomp and Luxury, fed—
Deprive the parent, Pride, of fattening food,
And strive to banish all its bastard brood.
With Affluence pamper'd or supine with Ease,
Pride scouts the very first of God's Decrees—
Heedless, or ignorant, of the sacred text,
In countless views Pomp violates the next;
And, still revolting from Heav'n's holy word,
Blind Passion and Prophaneness, break the third.
When God in Love his gracious Law declares,
And stamps with guilt each graceless Soul that swears;
Did He intend His vengeance to confine,
To mere blasphemers of his Name divine;
Whose impious hearts, in jollity, or joke,
Contemn His Anger, and His Pow'r provoke?
Those who in Passion His fix'd will defy,
Or use His Name to seal a solemn Lie?
Did He not comprehend, in that command,
As well the careless, hypocritic Band;
And mean the punishment alike for all,
Who on that Name in sacred Temples call;
When thoughtless, thankless, Worshippers appear,
And oft repeat those awful accents there,
As inattentive, idle, heedless, loud,
As oaths and curses in a vulgar crowd?
Pure Appellation! which, when Seraphs sound,
They bow their heads with holy awe profound!
And when His praise the high'st Archangel sings,
He veils his visage with his shining wings!
Yes—shameless Hypocrites must share the curse,
Whose bold audacity's the vile reverse!
Whose folly, falshood, or indifference, dare
Profane that Name in thanks, or praise, or pray'r—
Worse than vain Wretches who in sport, or pet,
Swear by that God, and swell their damning debt!

Does Birth, on which sublimity is built,
Absolve the crime, or ne'er incur the guilt?

Does Wit ne'er wander in its devious race,
And deem such grovelling figures furnish grace?

Learning ne'er sink its elevated Sense,
By off'ring Deity this dire offence?

Are Imprecations and blaspheming Oaths,
The vulgar faults Pride's squeamish conscience loaths?

Do curses never stain the Courtier's style,
When wantonness prevails, or passions boil?
Or is a full-mouth'd curse, or oath, sublime?
Mere form—phrase—fun—at most a venial crime?
No Vice, tho' scattering every venom'd breath,
Infernal firebrands—arrows—darts—and death?

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Or are all banish'd from the titled Brood,
And only found among Plebeians, rude;
In shops, or garrets; cellars, stalls, or cells;
Where Ignorance, Poverty, or Penance, dwells?
Such crimes ne'er known among the haughty Band,
That Levees fill, and frolic round the Land?
That princely Epicures, or courtly Crews,
Which glut the gambling-house, and stuff the stews—
That push the pleasures of the ranting Race,
That chouse in Cockpits, or pursue the Chace—
For Wealth, or Wife, or sacred Cure, presume,
To risque the rigour of that dreadful Doom?

Are sacred Oaths ne'er prostituted sports,
Ev'n in the bosoms of rebellious Courts?
In Councils, and in Cabinets, well known
To 'stablish, or to overturn a Throne?
Do Potentates, themselves, thro' Lust, or Pride,
Ne'er make their vows and protestations void,
By basely breaking solemn-sanction'd Acts
Where all the Names of Heav'n confirm the pacts.