And on her tomb inscribed a virtuous name: "A tender wife, respected, and so forth."-- The marble still bears witness to the worth. He has some children, but he knows not where; Something they cost, but neither love nor care; A father's feelings he has never known, His joys, his sorrows, have been all his own. He now would build--and lofty seat he built, And sought, in various ways, relief from guilt. Restless, for ever anxious to obtain 110 Ease for the heart by ramblings of the brain, He would have pictures, and of course a taste, And found a thousand means his wealth to waste. Newmarket steeds he bought at mighty cost; They sometimes won, but Blaney always lost. Quick came his ruin, came when he had still For life a relish, and in pleasure skill: By his own idle reckoning he supposed His wealth would last him till his life was closed; But no! he found his final hoard was spent, 120 While he had years to suffer and repent. Yet at the last, his noble mind to show, And in his misery how he bore the blow, He view'd his only guinea, then suppress'd For a short time, the tumults in his breast, And, moved by pride, by habit and despair, Gave it an opera-bird to hum an air. Come ye! who live for pleasure, come, behold A man of pleasure when he's poor and old; When he looks back through life, and cannot find 130 A single action to relieve his mind; When he looks forward, striving still to keep A steady prospect of eternal sleep; When not one friend is left, of all the train Whom 'twas his pride and boast to entertain-- Friends now employ'd from house to house to run And say, "Alas! poor Blaney is undone!"-- Those whom he shook with ardour by the hand, By whom he stood as long as he could stand, Who seem'd to him from all deception clear, 140 And who, more strange! might think themselves sincere. Lo! now the hero shuffling through the town, To hunt a dinner and to beg a crown; To tell an idle tale, that boys may smile; To bear a strumpet's billet-doux a mile; To cull a wanton for a youth of wealth, (With [reverent] view to both his taste and health); To be a useful, needy thing between Fear and desire--the pander and the screen; To flatter pictures, houses, horses, dress, 150 The wildest fashion or the worst excess; To be the grey seducer, and entice Unbearded folly into acts of vice; And then, to level every fence which law And virtue fix to keep the mind in awe, He first inveigles youth to walk astray, } Next prompts and soothes them in their fatal way, } Then vindicates the deed, and makes the mind his prey. } Unhappy man! what pains he takes to state (Proof of his fear!) that all below is fate; 160