A bold speculation in search of her end, 884 Thus covetous meanness combines with profusion, To spread o'er her actions the veil of delusion; While Misery attends her wherever she goes, With hosts of bad passions, and myriads of woes, The foremost I ween is that canker-worm Care, And the last that black fiend which proceeds from despair, Life knows not one torment that gnaws like the first, And the last of all _deaths_, is the death most accurst. I hope you'll excuse this long fabling digression, As a thing very common in bards by profession, And to tell you the truth having been somewhat bit, I find I have gain'd a new edge to my wit, Yes! thanks to O'Baffin, his friendship's unriddled, And her Ladyship's simper, with "Blunderhead's diddled." But 'tis well I'm no worse and the wisdom they taught me, Experience alone I'm afraid could have bought me, For I foolishly slighted Sir J--n G--ff--d's hint, Tho' I knew his heart sterling as gold from the mint; I wish my good Col'nel aware of this Major, Would take home his wife in the country to cage her, For this Cormorant's eyes while they glanc'd on my purse, Mark'd the Col'nel I doubt for a robb'ry far worse, Ah mother! dear mother! I now can perceive it, The world is far worse than I once could believe it, When we mountaineers from the Peak make these sallies, We meet with strange cattle in civiliz'd vallies, And our good education I honestly own, But fits us to mix with each other alone, Our naiveté, simplicity, openness, truth, The romantic attachments of warm-hearted youth, In the world's chilling atmosphere meet with such shocks, We had better ne'er roam from our own native rocks, But at present away with these moral excursions, And return we again to the list of diversions. 916