On Conversation (1782) [ Concepts ]
… his frequent prayers. Go, quit the rank to which ye stood preferr'd, Henceforth associate in one common herd; Religion, virtue, reason, common sense, Pronounce your human form a false pretence: A mere disguise, in which a devil lurks, Who … with any grosser 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 … profaning friendship's hallow'd name, Form, in its stead, a covenant of shame. A dark confederacy against the laws Of virtue, and religion's glorious cause: They build each other up with dreadful skill, As bastions set point-blank against …
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