Like sage AENEAS, mantled in a cloud,
Unseen you see the falshood of the crowd:
Brother his brother cheats, and friend his friend: —
Life's vain wise men prove blockheads in the end. —
Thou seest, like ADAM by the archangel led,
The many peopled earth beneath thee spread;
(Thy eyes much purg'd with euphrasy and rue,
For even a CHESTERFIELD has much to view)
Thou seest like him the plagues of human strife,
The snares of greatness, emptiness of life,
Abner's sincerity, and Joab's heart,
Achitophel's deep schemes, and Zimrl's part;
Shimei's ill-nature, and (to mark the times)
The flattery of Og's and Doeg's rhymes.
O still contemplate, look thro' Reason's eye, —
For hours are precious ages when we die!