45.  At conversazioni—­balls—­ Conventicles—­and drawing-rooms—­ Courts of law—­committees—­calls Of a morning—­clubs—­book-stalls—­ 215 Churches—­masquerades—­and tombs.

15.  And this is Hell—­and in this smother All are damnable and damned; Each one damning, damns the other; They are damned by one another, 220 By none other are they damned.

16.  ’Tis a lie to say, ‘God damns’!  Where was Heaven’s Attorney General When they first gave out such flams?  Let there be an end of shams, 225 They are mines of poisonous mineral.

17.  Statesmen damn themselves to be Cursed; and lawyers damn their souls To the auction of a fee; Churchmen damn themselves to see 230 God’s sweet love in burning coals.

18.  The rich are damned, beyond all cure, To taunt, and starve, and trample on The weak and wretched; and the poor Damn their broken hearts to endure 235 Stripe on stripe, with groan on groan.

19.  Sometimes the poor are damned indeed To take,—­not means for being blessed,—­ But Cobbett’s snuff, revenge; that weed From which the worms that it doth feed 240 Squeeze less than they before possessed.

20.  And some few, like we know who, Damned—­but God alone knows why—­ To believe their minds are given To make this ugly Hell a Heaven; 245 In which faith they live and die.

21.  Thus, as in a town, plague-stricken, Each man be he sound or no Must indifferently sicken; As when day begins to thicken, 250 None knows a pigeon from a crow,—­

22.  So good and bad, sane and mad, The oppressor and the oppressed; Those who weep to see what others Smile to inflict upon their brothers; 255 Lovers, haters, worst and best;

23.  All are damned—­they breathe an air, Thick, infected, joy-dispelling:  Each pursues what seems most fair, Mining like moles, through mind, and there 260 Scoop palace-caverns vast, where Care In throned state is ever dwelling.

 SIN.

1.  Lo.  Peter in Hell’s Grosvenor Square, A footman in the Devil’s service!  And the misjudging world would swear 265 That every man in service there To virtue would prefer vice.