On Conversation (1782) [ Concepts ]
… Infectious as impure, your blighting power Taints in its rudiments the promised flower; Its odour perish'd and its charming hue, Thenceforth 'tis hateful, for it smells of you. Not e'en the vigorous and headlong rage Of adolescence, or … crime, Youth has a sprightliness and fire to boast, That in the valley of decline are lost, And virtue with peculiar charms appears, Crown'd with the garland of life's blooming years; Yet age, by long experience well inform'd, Well read, …
Conversation | Crime
Anthology