286 THE AGE OF REASON
whole family for a year? nay, that five pickle-shops can serve all
the kingdom? Besides, Sir, there is no harm done to any body
by the making of pickles, or the eating of pickles.1
Goldsmith believed, or professed to believe, that Piety,
Loyalty, and Faithful Love, the Muse of Poetry and Freedom,
or " self-dependent power," were departing with the emigrants
to North America.2
O luxury I thou cursed by Heaven's decree,
How ill exchanged are things like these for thee!
How do thy potions, with insidious joy,
Diffuse their pleasure only to destroy!
Kingdoms, by thee to sickly greatness grown,
Boast of a florid vigour not their own.
At every draught more large and large they grow,
A bloated mass of rank unwieldy woe;
Till sapped their strength, and every part unsound,
Down, down they sink and spread a ruin round.
Even now the devastation is begun,
And half the business of destruction done;
Even now, methinks, as pondering here I stand,
I see the rural virtues leave the land.
Down where yon anchoring vessel spreads the sail
That idly waiting flaps with every gale,
Downward they move, a melancholy band,
Pass from the shore, and darken all the strand.
Contented toil, and hospitable care,
And kind connubial tenderness, are there;
And piety, with wishes placed above,
And steady loyalty, and faithful love.
And thou, sweet Poetry, thou loveliest maid,
Still first to fly where sensual joys invade;
Unfit in these degenerate times of shame
To catch the heart, or strike for honest fame;
Dear charming nymph, neglected and decried,
My shame in crowds, my solitary pride;
Thou source of all my bliss, and all my woe,
That fomxTst me poor at first, and keep'st me so;
Thou guide by which the nobler arts excel,
Thou nurse of every virtue, fare thee well!
1 Boswdl, Ufe of Johnson, sub anno 1773.
1 C. B. Tinker, Nature's Simple Plan (1922), p. 3-