The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 4 - Poems and Plays by Charles Lamb;Mary Lamb
page 40 of 693 (05%)
page 40 of 693 (05%)
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Forego the scent, which for six thousand years
Like a good hound he has followed, or at length More manners learning, and a decent sense And reverence of a philosophic world, Relent, and leave to prey on carcasses. But these are fancies of a few: the rest, Atheists, or Deists only in the name, By word or deed deny a God. They eat Their daily bread, and draw the breath of heaven Without or thought or thanks; heaven's roof to them Is but a painted ceiling hung with lamps, No more, that lights them to their purposes. They wander "loose about," they nothing see, Themselves except, and creatures like themselves, Short-liv'd, short-sighted, impotent to save. So on their dissolute spirits, soon or late, Destruction cometh "like an armed man," Or like a dream of murder in the night, Withering their mortal faculties, and breaking The bones of all their pride. POEMS FROM _BLANK VERSE_, BY CHARLES LLOYD AND CHARLES LAMB, 1798 |
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