Time, and thy charms, thou fanciest will redeem Yon aweless libertine from rooted vice. Misleading thought! has he not paid the price, His taste for virtue? -- Ah, the sensual stream Has flowed too long. -- What charms can so entice, What frequent guilt so pall, as not to shame The rash belief, presumptuous and unwise, That crimes habitual will forsake the frame? -- Thus, on the river's bank, in fabled lore, The rustic stands; sees the stream swiftly go, And thinks he soon shall find the gulf below A channel dry, which he may safe pass o'er. -- Vain hope! -- it flows -- and flows -- and yet will flow, Volume decreaseless, to the @3final hour@1. |