1 The best concerted schemes men lay for fame The tap'ring pyramid, th' Egyptian's pride, liv'd The angry shaking of the winter's storm; Yet, spent at last by th' injuries of Heaven, age, The mystic cone, with hieroglyphics crusted, At once gives way. O lamentable sight! ages lumbers down, A hideous and mis-shapen length of ruins! With all-subduing Time: her cank'ring hand Here all the mighty troublers of the earth, Who swam to sov'reign rule through seas of blood; Th' oppressive, sturdy, man-destroying villains, Thinn'd states of half their people, and gave up scorn, That haunts and dogs them like an injur'd ghost Implacable! Here too the petty tyrant, Whose scant domains geographer ne'er notic'd, And, well for neighb'ring grounds, of arm as short; Who fix'd his iron talons on the poor, And grip'd them like some lordly beast of prey, Of the same common nature with his lord); Now tame and humble, like a child that's whipp'd, Shakes hands with dust, and calls the worm his kinsman ! Nor pleads his rank and birthright. Under ground When self-esteem, or other's adulation, Would cunningly persuade us we were something |