The poetical works of Sir Walter Scott, with memoir of the author.

88 THE BRIDAL OF TRIERMAIN. [CANTO I.
Closer he press'd, while beakers rang,
While maidens laugh'd and minstrels sang,
Still closer to her earBut why pursue the common tale?
Or wherefore show how knights prevail
When ladies dare to hear?
Or wherefore trace, from what slight cause
Its source one tyrant passion draws,
Till, mastering all within,1
Where lives the man that has not tried,
How mirth can into folly glide,
And folly into sin! "
1 [ " One MASTER PASSION in the breast,
Like Aaron's serpent, swallows up the rest."
POPE.]