59 



Performs abnormal tricks, in masquerade. 



Apostate Justice, doubly blind for thee, 



Yields ready judgment to thy perjury. 



By thee, the guiltless bleed, the culprit lives, 



And dextrous knavery, exulting, thrives : 



By thee, aspiring Dullness upward flies, 



And brazen Vice grasps struggling Virtue s prize. 



Say, must we ever feel thy perjured sway, 

 Nor hail the glories of a nobler day ? 

 Must Man, perfected, lose all manhood s pride, 

 Live but to learn, yet learn but to misguide? 

 Is Wisdom s end but Falsehood s vile success ? 

 Must Life s great lesson be but faithlessness ? 

 Must ever Truth to juggling Fiction bow? 

 And modest worth to meretricious show ? 

 \Yhen shall Man s nature rise, in Nature s might, 

 And spar above this thick obstructing night ; 

 Shake off th.e shackles that constrict the heart, 

 And dare, at length, to play true Manhood s part ? 

 Above this atmosphere of social lies, 

 Error s thick mists, and clouds of fallacies, 

 Fly to a height, where Truth refulgent beams, 

 Her rays unclouded by these noxious streams ; 

 There, champion of her banner wide unfurled, 

 Lead a new life in a regenerate World ? 



