In private life may happiness be found With those who only live, or who abound? Mark all estates, and shew me if you can, What's more precarious than the bliss of man. Amidst his joys, uncertain to possess, The fear of losing makes the pleasure less. Thus one's tormented with foreboding pain, Another's wretched thro' desire of gain. Some who enjoy health, peace, and competence, Are still unhappy; they've but common sense. The man of genius, brighter far and great, [Sidenote: _fol._ 402.] Would gladly change for a genteel estate. In ev'ry station discontent we see; Each thinks his neighbour happier than he. Search the world o'er, 'tis doubtful if you find One man's condition fitted to his mind. Alternate real or imagin'd woes Disturb our life and all our joys oppose. Nor can my muse the mournful tale avoid, What numbers zeal and brav'ry have destroy'd, The gen'rous, faithful, uncorrupted band, Design'd deliv'rers of a sinking land. Tho' good, unfortunate; oppress'd, tho' brave; See spiteful foes pursue them to the grave. Unshaken loyalty is all their crime, And struggling with their chains a second time. For this they suffer worse than traitor's fate, Condemned by knaves and furies of the state, In loathsome dungeons close confin'd they lie, To feel a thousand deaths before they die. At last these heroes must resign their breath, And close the scene with ignominious death. Thus ev'n the best their virtue has undone, And fix'd the slav'ry which they sought to shun. How then shall man attain the state of bliss? In t' other world he may, but not in this. Unjustly, therefore, some we happy call. [Sidenote: _fol._ 403.] More or less wretched is the fate of all. _Upon the different Accounts of the behaviour of the two executed lords (Kilmarnock and Balmerino), taken out of an English Newspaper._ If Ford and Foster haply disagree, What is a trivial circumstance to me. But this of their two heroes I remark, Howe'er the historians leave us in the dark, OLD ROUGH AND TUGGED much outmann'd the Earl, And tho' mistaken was a steady carl. The Earl's conversion is an obvious thing, If not to Christ, at least to George our king. _Arthurus, Dominus de Balmerino, decollatus 18 die Augusti 1746, ætatis suæ 58. By a Lady._