All in a trice they caft the cart to ground, And in the dung the murder'd body found; Though breathlefs, warm, and reeking from the wound.
Good Heaven, whofe darling attribute we find
Is boundless grace, and mercy to mankind,
Abhors the cruel; and the deeds of night
By wondrous ways reveals in open light:
Murder may pass unpunish'd for a time,
But tardy juftice will o'ertake the crime.
And oft a speedier pain the guilty feels,
The hue and cry of Heaven purfues him at the
heels,
Fresh from the fact; as in the present case,
The criminals are feiz'd upon the place: 290
Carter and hoft confronted face to face.
Stiff in denial, as the law appoints,
On engines they diftend their tortur'd joints: So was confeffion forc'd, the offence was known, And public juftice on the offenders done.
Here may you fee that vifions are to dread;
And in the page that follows this, I read
Of two young merchants, whom the hope of
gain
Induc'd in partnership to cross the main :
Waiting till willing winds their fails fupply'd,
Within a trading-town they long abide,
Full fairly fituate on a haven's fide.
One evening it befel, that looking out,
The wind they long had wish'd was come about:
Well pleas'd they went to reft; and if the gale
Till morn continu'd, both refolv'd to fail.
But as together in a bed they lay,
The younger had a dream at break of day.
A man he thought stood frowning at his fide:
Who warn'd him for his fafety to provide, 310
Nor put to fea, but fafe on fhore abide.
I come, thy genius, to command thy ftay;
Trust not the winds, for fatal is the day,
And death unhop'd attends the watry way.
The vifion faid: and vanish'd from his fight:
The dreamer waken'd in a mortal fright:
Then pull'd his drowsy neighbour, and declar'd
What in his flumber he had feen and heard.
His friend fmil'd fcornful, and with proud con
Rejects as idle what his fellow dreamt.
Stay, who will ftay: for me no fears restrain,
Who follow Mercury the god of gain;
Let each man do as to his fancy feems,
I wait, not I, till you have better dreams.
Dreams are but interludes which fancy makes
When monarch reafon fleeps, this mimic wakes:
Ver. 325-339. Thefe lines are not in the original. It is probable that our author had been reading, perhaps tranflating Lucretius.
Et quoi quifque ferè ftudio devinctus adhæret,
Aut quibus in rebus multum fumus antè morati ;
Compounds a medley of disjointed things,
A mob of coblers, and a court of kings:
Light fumes are merry, groffer fumes are fad :
Both are the reasonable foul run mad:
And many monftrous forms in fleep we fee, That neither were, nor are, nor e'er can be. Sometimes forgotten things long caft behind Rush forward in the brain, and come to mind. The nurfe's legends are for truths receiv'd, 335 And the man dreams but what the boy believ❜d.
Sometimes we but rehearse a former play, The night reftores our actions done by day; As hounds in fleep will open for their prey.
Atque in quâ ratione fuit contenta magis mens;
In fomnis eadem plerumque videmur obire.
Et quicunque dies multos ex ordine ludis
Affiduas dederint operas: plerumque videmus,
Quum jam deftiterint ea fenfibus ufurpare,
Relliquas tamen effe vias in mente patentes,
Quà poffint eadem rerum fimulachra venire.
Permultos itaque illa dies eadem obverfantur
Ante oculos, etiam vigilantes ut videantur
Cernere faltantes, et mollia membra moventes;
Et citharæ liquidum carmen, chordafque loquentes,
Auribus accipere, et confeffum cernere eundem
Scenaique fimul varios fplendere decores.
Ufque adeo magni refert ftudium atque voluntas;
Et quibus in rebus confuerint effe operati
Non homines folum, fed vero animalia cuncta.
Venantumque canes in molli fæpe quiete
Jactant crura tamen fubito, vocefque repente
Mittunt, et crebras reducunt naribus auras,
Ut veftigia fi teneant inventa ferarum-
In short the farce of dreams is of a piece,
Chimeras all; and more abfurd, or lefs:
You, who believe in tales, abide alone;
Whate'er I get this voyage is my own.
Thus while he spoke, he heard the shouting
That call'd aboard, and took his laft adieu. 345 The veffel went before a merry gale,
And for quick paffage put on every
But when leaft fear'd, and ev'n in open day,
The mischief overtook her in the way:
Whether she sprung a leak, I cannot find,
Or whether she was overfet with wind,
Or that fome rock below her bottom rent;
But down at once with all her crew fhe went:
Her fellow-fhips from far her lofs defcry'd ;
But only she was funk, and all were fafe be-
fide.
By this example you are taught again, That dreams and visions are not always vain : But if, dear Partlet, you are ftill in doubt, Another tale fhall make the former out. Kenelm, the fon of Kenulph, Mercia's king, 360 Whofe holy life the legends loudly fing, Warn'd in a dream, his murder did foretel From point to point as after it befel : All circumftances to his nurse he told, (A wonder from a child of feven years old :) 365
The dream with horror heard, the good old
From treafon counfell'd him to guard his life;
But close to keep the fecret in his mind,
For a boy's vision small belief would find.
The pious child, by promise bound, obey'd, 370
Nor was the fatal murder long delay'd:
By Quenda flain, he fell before his time,
Made a young martyr by his fifter's crime.
The tale is told by venerable Bede,
Which, at your better leifure, you may read. 375
Macrobius too relates the vifion fent
To the great Scipio, with the fam'd event:
Objections makes, but after makes replies,
And adds, that dreams are often prophecies.
Of Daniel you may read in holy writ, 380 Who, when the king his vifion did forget, Could word for word the wondrous dream repeat.
Nor lefs of patriarch Jofeph understand,
Who by a dream enflaved the Egyptian land
The years of plenty and of dearth foretold, 385
When, for their bread, their liberty they fold.
Nor must the exalted butler be forgot,
Nor he whofe dream prefag'd his hanging lot.
And did not Crafus the fame death fore-
Rais'd in his vifion on a lofty tree?
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