BOOK.] Chace, 281 



Where horror flalks at large, infatiate death 



Sits growling o'er his prey : each hour prefents 



A diff'rent fcene of ruin and diftrefs. 



How bufy art thou, Fate ! and how fevere 



Thy pointed wrath ! The dying and the dead 



Promifcuous lie J o'er thefe the living fight 



In one eternal broil ; not confcious why. 



Nor yet with whom. So drunkards, in their cups. 



Spare not their friends, while fenfelcfs fquabble reigns. 



Huntfman ! it much behooves thee to avoid 

 The perilous debate. Ah! rouze up all 

 Thy vigilance, and tread the treach'rous ground 

 With careful ftep. Thy fires unquench'd preferve. 

 As erft the veftal flame ; the pointed fleel 

 In the hot embers hide •, and if furpris'd 

 Thou feel'ft the deadly bite, quick urge it home 

 Into the recent fore, and cauterize 

 The wound •, fpare not thy flefli, nor dread th' event : 

 Vulcan fliall fave, when ^fculapius fails. 



Here Ihou'd the knowing Mufe recount the means 

 To flop this growing plague. And here, alas ! 

 Each hand prefents a fov'reign cure, and boalls 

 Infallibility, but boafts in vain. 

 On this depend: each to his fep'rate feat 

 Confine, in fetters bound ; give each his mefs 

 Apart, his range in open air ; and then 

 If deadly fymptoms to thy grief appear. 

 Devote the wretch, and let him greatly fall, 

 A gen'rous vidtim for the public weal. 



Sing, 



