Damætas

In law an infant, and in years a boy,In mind a slave to every vicious joy;From every sense of shame and virtue wean'd,In lies an adept, in deceit a fiend;Vers'd in hypocrisy, while yet a child;Fickle as wind, of inclinations wild;Woman his dupe, his heedless friend a tool;Old in the world, though scarcely broke from school;Damœtas ran through all the maze of sin,And found the goal, when others just begin:Ev'n still conflicting passions shake his soul,And bid him drain the dregs of Pleasure's bowl;But, pall'd with vice, he breaks his former chain,And what was once his bliss appears his bane.