Tragic Fragment

  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.