On Conversation (1782) [ Concepts ]
… Embalm'd for ever in its own perfume. And to say truth, though in its early prime, And when unstain'd with any grosser crime, Youth has a sprightliness and fire to boast, That in the valley of decline are lost, And virtue with peculiar … sincere. Retort the charge, and let the world be told She boasts a confidence she does not hold; That, conscious of her crimes, she feels instead A cold misgiving and a killing dread: That while in health the ground of her support Is madly … And I had rather creep to what is true, Than rove and stagger with no mark in view; Yet to consult a little, seem'd no crime, The freakish humour of the present time: But now to gather up what seems dispersed, And touch the subject I …
Conversation | Crime
Anthology