s croak,
Where _Socrates_ and _Plato_ spoke.

Proud _Troy_ herself (as all things must)
Is crumbled into native dust;
Is now a pasture, where the beast
Strays for his vegetable feast,
Old _Priam_'s royal palace now
May couch the ox, the ass, the cow.--

_Rome_, city of imperial worth,
The mighty mistress of the earth;
_Rome_, that gave law to all the world,
Is now to blank Destruction hurl'd!--
Is now a sepulchre, a tomb,
To tell the stranger, "Here was _Rome_."--

View the _West Abbey_! there we see
How frail a thing is royalty!
Where crowns and sceptres worms supply,
And kings and queens, like lumber lie.
The _Tombs themselves_ are worn away,
And own the empire of _Decay_,
Mouldering like the royal dust,
Which to preserve they have in trust.
Nor has the _Marble_ more withstood
The rage of _Time_, than _Flesh and Blood_!
The _King of Stone_ is worn away,
As well as is the _King of Clay_--
Here lies a _King without a Nose_,
And there a _Prince without his Toes_;
Here on her back a _Royal Fair_
Lies, but a little worse for wear;
Those lips, whose touch cou'd almost turn
Old age to youth, and make it burn;
To which young kings were proud to kneel,
Are kick'd by every Schoolboy's heel;
Struck rudely by the _Showman's Wand_,
And crush'd by every callous Hand:
Here a _puissant Monarch_ frowns
In menace high to rival Crowns;
He threatens--but will do no harm--
Our _Monarch_ has not left an arm.
Thus all _Things_ feel the gen'ral curse,
_That all Things must with Time grow worse_.

But your Philosophers will say,
_Best Things grow worst when they decay_.
And many facts they have at hand
To prove it, shou'd you proofs demand.
As if _Corruption_ shut her jaw,
And scorn'd to cram her filthy maw,
With aught but dainties rich and rare,
And morsels of the choicest fare;
As garden Birds are led to bite,
Where'er the fairest fruits invite.
If _Phoebus'_ rays too fiercely burn,
The _richest Wines_ to _sourest_ turn:
And they who living _highly fed_,
Will breed a _Pestilence when dead_.
Thus _Aldermen_, who at each Feast,
Cram Tons of Spices from the East,
Whose leading wish, and only plan,
Is to learn how to _pickle Man_;
Who more than vie with _AEgypt_'s art,
And make the