The Virginia Gazette

POETS CORNER.

To IGNORANCE.

HAIL IGNORANCE! thou source of all content,
In pleasures gay, in raptures innocent;
Though old as Chaos thou thy power maintain'st,
And happy every breast is where thou reign'st:
The smiles, the graces, and the sports attend
Where'er thy easy snow-white footsteps bend;
Light as a feather thou can'st trip along,
No heart-felt sorrow to thy sons belong;
Polemic doctrines never vex their brain,
The tree of knowledge never gave them pain;
Blest in themselves, they need no foreign aid,
Nor are of any outward woes afraid;
Joy, mirth, and pleasure, always on them wait,
Advance their merit, and support their state;
Fortune to them delights in being kind,
But to dull sons of science still is blind;
She, though a female, constant doth remain
To thee, O IGNORANCE! and all thy train;
None call her fickle but the learn'd and wise,
Because from their dull seats she always flies.
Thy sons their constant joy of heart express
By looks and actions, words, and airy dress;
In them it is, and them alone we find
The smooth forehead an index of the mind;
No furrow'd wrinkle on their visage grows,
Nor from their eye e'er drops the tear of woes;
The day with melody they merry keep,
And, free from care, all night they soundly sleep:
For they alone do Morpheus' kindness share
Who, sons of IGNORANCE, are free from care,
Nor have their cheek e'er sullied with a tear.
Not so the man who from his eager breast
With care and pain hath got thee dispossess'd;
By loss of thee he lost his greatest friend,
And brought on toils and troubles without end:
Wrapp'd up in dreary thought, he neither knows
What is around him nor which way he goes;
Like one amazed, he wildly stares and talks,
And frights thy darling children in his walks;
Shabby from head to foot, he cannot show
Himself in presence of a prightly beau;
Hear how they cry when clumsily he dances,
See, see, how that strange bear or camel prances!
Thy old child LAUGHTER, holding both her sides,
The awkward wisdom of thy foes derides;
A hearty laugh, or in or out of season,
O'erthrows the strongest arguments of reason;
A scoff, a sneer, is loaded with such magick
As bids defiance to all rules of logic;
A well tim'd grin can baffle all the rules
So much admired by the dull sons of schools,
Who losing thee thus lose their greatest good,
Alas! 'tis lost not fully understood;
By this, unfit for company, they hide
Among their books, and in their cells abide,
And, as ashamed of day, take their night tour,
With bird of Athens, at the moonshine hour,
When heavily along their footsteps tread,
For loss of thee makes them despise their bed;
Such cares oppress, such griefs afflict their mind,
That day nor night they no true pleasure find;
By flights of soaring fancy vainly toss'd,
They are in mazes, endless mazes lost;
Strangers to joy, wrapp'd up in anxious thought,
Yet ne'er arriving at the end they sought.
Blest IGNORANCE! who giv'st us halcyon days,
I'll raise a monument unto thy praise;
Around it all thy wanton sons shall play,
And incense offer there from day to day,
From day to day thy praises there resound,
And sing this theme to all the world around:
"Tis IGNORANCE alone from which we find
Our body's safety, and our peace of mind;
She keeps from care, and shelters us from strife,
And makes us feel the real joys of life."

SWEET HALL CALEDONIENSIS.
March 4, 1769.