In burden'd vessels now they travelled o're
The furrow'd deep to seas unknown before:
And any hidden part of land or sea,
That gold afforded, was an enemy.
Thus fate the seeds of civil fury rais'd,
When great in wealth no common pleasure pleas'd.
Delights more out of fashion by the town:
Th' souldiers scarlet now from Spain must come;
The purple of the sea contemn'd is grown.
India with silks, Africk with precious stone,
Arabia with its spices hither come,
And with their ruin raise the pride of Rome.
But other spoils, destructive to her peace,
Rome's ruin bode, and future ills encrease:
Through Libyan desarts are wild monsters chas'd.
And the remotest parts of Africk trac'd:
Where the unwieldy elephant that's ta'en,
For fatal value of his tooth is slain.
Uncommon tygers are imported here,
And triumphant in the theatre;
Where, while devouring jaws on men they try,
The people clap to see their fellows die.
But oh! who can without a blush relate
The horrid scene of their approaching fate?
When Persian customs, fashionable grown,
Made nature start, and her best work disown,
Male infants are divorc'd from all that can,
By timely progress ripen into man.
Thus circling nature dampt, a while restrain
Her hasty course, and a pause remains;
Till working a return t'her wonted post,
She seeks her self, and to her self is lost.
Pages:
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173