Poona autem vehemens ac multò sævior illis,
Quas et Cæditius gravis invenit aut Rhadamanthus,
Nocte dieque suum gestare in pectore testem.
Think my former state a happy dream,
From which awak'd, the truth of what we are,
Shows us but this,-I am sworn brother now
To grim Necessity, and he and I
Will keep a league till death.
The Mind of Man accommodates itself to all Situations; Prisons otherwise would be intolerable.-Debtors: their different Kinds: Three particularly described; others more briefly.-An arrested Prisoner: His Account of his Feelings and his Situation.-The Alleviations of a Prison.-Prisoners for Crimes.-Two condemned: a vindictive Female: a Highwayman. - The Interval between Condemnation and Execution.-His Feelings as the Time approaches.-His Dream.
Is well-that Man to all the varying states
Of Good and Ill his Mind accommodates;
He not alone progressive Grief sustains,
But soon submits to unexperienc'd Pains :
Change after change, all Climes his Body bears;
His Mind repeated shocks of changing Cares:
Faith and fair Virtue arm the nobler Breast;
Hope and mere Want of Feeling aid the rest.
Or who could bear to lose the balmy Air
Of Summer's Breath, from all things fresh and fair,
With all that Man admires or loves below;
All Earth and Water, Wood and Vale bestow,
Where rosy Pleasures smile, whence real Blessings flow;
With Sight and Sound of every kind that lives,
And crowning all with Joy that Freedom gives?
Who could from these, in some unhappy Day,
Bear to be drawn by ruthless arms away,
To the vile Nuisance of a noisome Room,
Where only Insolence and Misery come?
(Save that the curious will by chance appear,
Or some in Pity drop a fruitless Tear ;)
To a damp Prison, where the very sight
Of the warm Sun is favour and not right;
Where all we hear or see the Feelings shock,
The Oath and Groan, the Fetter and the Lock?
Who could bear this and live?-Oh! many a year
All this is borne, and Miseries more severe;
And some there are, familiar with the Scene,
Who live in Mirth, though few become serene.
Far as I might the inward Man perceive,
There was a constant Effort-not to grieve;
Not to despair, for better Days would come,
And the freed Debtor smile again at home:
Subdued his Habits, he may Peace regain,
And bless the Woes that were not sent in vain.
Thus might we class the Debtors here confin'd,
The more deceiv'd, the more deceitful kind;
Here are the guilty Race, who mean to live
On Credit, that Credulity will give ;
Who purchase, conscious they can never pay;
Who know their Fate, and traffic to betray;
On whom no Pity, Fear, Remorse, prevail,
Their aim a Statute, their resource a Jail ;—
These, as the public Spoilers, we regard,
No Dun so harsh, no Creditor so hard.
A second kind are they, who truly strive
To keep their sinking Credit long alive;
Success, nay Prudence, they may want, but yet
They would be solvent, and deplore a Debt;
All Means they use, to all Expedients run,
And are by slow, sad steps, at last undone :
Justly, perhaps, you blame their Want of Skill,
But mourn their Feelings and absolve their Will.
There is a Debtor, who his trifling all
Spreads in a Shop; it would not fill a Stall:
There at one Window his Temptation lays,
And in new Modes disposes and displays:
Above the Door you shall his Name behold,
And what he vends in ample Letters told,
The words Repository, Warehouse, all
He uses to enlarge Concerns so small:
He to his Goods assigns some Beauty's Name,
Then in her Reign, and hopes they'll share her Fame;
And talks of Credit, Commerce, Traffic, Trade,
As one important by their Profit made;
But who can paint the vacancy, the gloom,
And spare dimensions of one backward Room?
Wherein he dines, if so 'tis fit to speak,
Of one day's Herring and the morrow's Steak;
An Anchorite in diet, all his care
Is to display his Stock and vend his Ware.
Long waiting hopeless, then he tries to meet
A kinder Fortune in a distant Street;
There he again displays, increasing yet
Corroding Sorrow and consuming Debt:
Alas! he wants the Requisities to rise-
The true Connections, the availing Ties;
They who proceed on Certainties advance,
These are not Times when Men prevail by Chance:
But still he tries, till, after Years of Pain,
He finds, with anguish, he has tried in vain. Debtors are these on whom 'tis hard to press, "Tis base, impolitic, and merciless.
To these we add a miscellaneous kind,
By Pleasure, Pride, and Indolence confin'd;
Those whom no Calls, no Warnings could divert,
The unexperienc'd and the inexpert;
The Builder, Idler, Schemer, Gamester, Sot,-
The Follies different, but the same their Lot;
Victims of Horses, Lasses, Drinking, Dice,
Of every Passion, Humour, Whim, and Vice.
See! that sad Merchant, who but yesterday
Had a vast Household in command and pay;
He now entreats permission to employ
A Boy he needs, and then entreats the Boy.
And there sits one, improvident but kind, Bound for a Friend, whom Honour could not bind ; Sighing, he speaks to any who appear,
"A treach'rous Friend 'twas that which sent me here:
"I was too kind,-I thought I could depend
"On his bare word he was a treach'rous Friend."
A Female too!-it is to her a Home,
She came before-and she again will come:
Her Friends have pity; when their Anger drops,
They take her home-she's tried her Schools and
Shops
Plan after Plan;-but Fortune would not mend,
She to herself was still the treach'rous Friend;
And wheresoe'er began, all here was sure to end:
And there she sits as thoughtless and as gay,
As if she'd Means, or not a Debt to pay
Or knew to-morrow she'd be call'd away
Or felt a Shilling and could dine to-day.
While thus observing, I began to trace
The sober'd Features of a well-known Face
Looks once familiar, Manners form'd to please,
And all illumin'd by a Heart at ease:
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