“Such is our state: but I resolve to live By rules my reason and my feelings give; No legal guards shall keep enthrall’d my mind, No slaves command me, and no teachers blind. “Tempted by sins, let me their strength defy, But have no second in a surplice by No bottle-holder, with officious aid, 170 To comfort conscience, weaken’d and afraid: Then if I yield, my frailty is not known; And, if I stand, the glory is my own. “When Truth and Reason are our friends, we seem Alive! awake!--the superstitious dream. “Oh! then, fair Truth, for thee alone I seek, Friend to the wise, supporter of the weak; From thee we learn whate’er is right and just; Forms to despise, professions to distrust; Creeds to reject, pretensions to deride, 180 And, following thee, to follow none beside.” Such was the speech; it struck upon the ear Like sudden thunder, none expect to hear. He saw men’s wonder with a manly pride, And gravely smiled at guest electrified; “A farmer this!” they said, “Oh! let him seek That place where he may for his country speak; On some great question to harangue for hours, While speakers hearing, envy nobler powers!” Wisdom like this, as all things rich and rare, 190 Must be acquired with pains, and kept with care; In books he sought it, which his friends might view, When their kind host the guarding curtain drew. There were historic works for graver hours, And lighter verse, to spur the languid powers; There metaphysics, logic there had place; But of devotion not a single trace-- Save what is taught in Gibbon’s florid page, And other guides of this inquiring age; There Hume appear’d, and, near, a splendid book 200 Composed by Gay’s good Lord of Bolingbroke: With these were mix’d the light, the free, the vain, And from a corner peep’d the sage Tom Paine: Here four neat volumes ‘Chesterfield’ were named, For manners much and easy morals famed; With chaste Memoirs of Females, to be read When deeper studies had confused the head. Such his resources, treasures where he sought For daily knowledge till his mind was fraught: Then, when his friends were present, for their use 210 He would the riches he had stored produce; He found his lamp burn clearer, when each day He drew for all he purposed to display. For these occasions, forth his knowledge sprung, As mustard quickens on a bed of dung; All was prepared, and guests allow’d the praise, For what they saw he could so quickly raise. Such this new friend; and, when the year came round, The same impressive, reasoning sage was found: Then, too, was seen the pleasant mansion graced 220 With a fair damsel--his no vulgar taste: The neat Rebecca--sly, observant, still;