The Virginia Gazette

Mr. HUNTER,

If you think the following well-merited, tho' poorly written Burlesque worthy of public View, you may insert it in your Gazette.

I am, Sir,

Your constant Reader,

MISO-OCHLOS.

MODERN CONVERSATION

SICKEN'd at the Nonsense of the Crowd
Where noisy Folly talks and laughs aloud,
Still of her own applauded Nonsense proud
Insipid Trifles occupy the Tongue.
And the eternal silly Chat prolong
Th' unthinking Laugh, the Fleer, the scornful Eye
The rare, short Intervals of Chat supply.
The calm and solemn Ev'ning Hours, design'd
For Contemplation by the noble Mind, ..
In marshalling a Pack of Cards they waste,
And like their Fellow-Children, play themselves to Rest:
Mean Time I feel, (ah! why am I so rude ?)
Curs'd with their Comp'ny, painful Solitude
I sit, and mope, and yawn, stupid, forlorn
They fleer at me, and I repay their Scorn
They ridicule my stupid Gravity: . .:
Thus I'm a Fool to them, and they to me
Away, ye Mimics of Mankind, away!
Go with your Fellow-Children toy and play;
Go, gather Sticks with Boys, and in some Field
With equal Art your mimic Houses build,
Renounce the Nature, or the Age of Men,
Nor own the Species you so foully stain.
Hail, Solitude! Divinest Blessing, hail!
With thee compos'd, oh let me ever dwell.
Thou sweetest Refuge! thou serene Retreat!
Virtue's and Wisdom's contemplative Seat!
Welcome my Study! sacred Volumes, hail!
Here with the venerable Dead I'll dwell;
With them converse; the Wretches that survive
Teach me no Science but to fret and grieve.
Now I'm my own again; th' unfetter'd Mind
Employment equal to its Pow'rs can find;
From Theme to Theme with willing Pinions moves,
And thro'the charming Fields of Knowledge roves:
Now 'tis not my hard Task to please the vain,
To talk the same stale Nonsense o'er again;
Or pouting sit, and hear their senseless Chat,
And laugh I know not why, or be laugh'd at.