tragic fragment

    all devil as i am—a damned wretch,

    a hardened, stubborn, unrepenting villain,

    still my heart melts at human wretchedness;

    and with sincere but unavailing sighs

    i view the helpless children of distress:

    with tears indignant i behold the oppressor

    rejoicing in the honest man's destruction,

    whose unsubmitting heart was all his crime.—

    ev'n you, ye hapless crew! i pity you;

    ye, whom the seeming good think sin to pity;

    ye poor, despised, abandoned vagabonds,

    whom vice, as usual, has turn'd o'er to ruin.

    oh! but for friends and interposing heaven,

    i had been driven forth like you forlorn,

    the most detested, worthless wretch among you!

    o injured god! thy goodness has endow'd me

    with talents passing most of my compeers,

    which i in just proportion have abused—

    as far surpassing other common villains

    as thou in natural parts has given me more.