Honour

O, curas hominum! O, quantum est in rebus inane!

1. 1The fervid Sun had more than halv'd the day,
2. 2When gloomy on his couch Philedon lay;
3. 3His feeble frame consumptive as his purse,
4. 4His aching head did wine and women curse;
5. 5His fortune ruin'd and his wealth decay'd,
6. 6Clamorous his duns, his gaming debts unpaid,
7. 7The youth indignant seiz'd his tailor's bill,
8. 8And on its back thus wrote with moral quill:
9. 9'Various as colours in the rainbow shown,
10. 10Or similar in emptiness alone,
11. 11How false, how vain are Man's pursuits below!
12. 12Wealth, Honour, Pleasure--what can ye bestow?
13. 13Yet see, how high and low, and young and old
14. 14Pursue the all-delusive power of Gold.
15. 15Fond man! should all Peru thy empire own,
16. 16For thee tho' all Golconda's jewels shone,
17. 17What greater bliss could all this wealth supply?
18. 18What, but to eat and drink and sleep and die?
19. 19Go, tempt the stormy sea, the burning soil--
20. 20Go, waste the night in thought, the day in toil,
21. 21Dark frowns the rock, and fierce the tempests rave--
22. 22Thy ingots go the unconscious deep to pave!
23. 23Or thunder at thy door the midnight train,
24. 24Or Death shall knock that never knocks in vain.
25. 25Next Honour's sons come bustling on amain;
26. 26I laugh with pity at the idle train.
27. 27Infirm of soul! who think'st to lift thy name
28. 28Upon the waxen wings of human fame,--
29. 29Who for a sound, articulated breath--
30. 30Gazest undaunted in the face of death!
31. 31What art thou but a Meteor's glaring light--
32. 32Blazing a moment and then sunk in night?
33. 33Caprice which rais'd thee high shall hurl thee low,
34. 34Or Envy blast the laurels on thy brow.
35. 35To such poor joys could ancient Honour lead
36. 36When empty fame was toiling Merit's meed;
37. 37To Modern Honour other lays belong;
38. 38Profuse of joy and Lord of right and wrong,
39. 39Honour can game, drink, riot in the stew,
40. 40Cut a friend's throat;--what cannot Honour do?
41. 41Ah me!--the storm within can Honour still
42. 42For Julio's death, whom Honour made me kill?
43. 43Or will this lordly Honour tell the way
44. 44To pay those debts, which Honour makes me pay?
45. 45Or if with pistol and terrific threats
46. 46I make some traveller pay my Honour's debts,
47. 47A medicine for this wound can Honour give?
48. 48Ah, no! my Honour dies to make my Honour live.
49. 49But see! young Pleasure, and her train advance,
50. 50And joy and laughter wake the inebriate dance;
51. 51Around my neck she throws her fair white arms,
52. 52I meet her loves, and madden at her charms.
53. 53For the gay grape can joys celestial move,
54. 54And what so sweet below as Woman's love?
55. 55With such high transport every moment flies,
56. 56I curse Experience that he makes me wise;
57. 57For at his frown the dear deliriums flew,
58. 58And the changed scene now wears a gloomy hue.
59. 59A hideous hag th' Enchantress Pleasure seems,
60. 60And all her joys appear but feverous dreams.
61. 61The vain resolve still broken and still made,
62. 62Disease and loathing and remorse invade;
63. 63The charm is vanish'd and the bubble's broke,--
64. 64A slave to pleasure is a slave to smoke!'
65. 65Such lays repentant did the Muse supply;
66. 66When as the Sun was hastening down the sky,
67. 67In glittering state twice fifty guineas come,--
68. 68His Mother's plate antique had rais'd the sum.
69. 69Forth leap'd Philedon of new life possest:--
70. 70'Twas Brookes's all till two,--'twas Hackett's all the rest!