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diff --git a/18827-tei/18827-tei.tei b/18827-tei/18827-tei.tei new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ff400b0 --- /dev/null +++ b/18827-tei/18827-tei.tei @@ -0,0 +1,13705 @@ +<!DOCTYPE TEI.2 SYSTEM "http://www.gutenberg.org/tei/marcello/0.4/dtd/pgtei.dtd"> + +<!-- +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Poetical Works of Edward Young, Volume 2 by Edward Young + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost +no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it +under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this +eBook or online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license + +Title: The Poetical Works of Edward Young, Volume 2 + +Author: Edward Young + +Release Date: June 2006 [Ebook #18827] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 +--> + +<TEI.2 lang="en"> +<teiHeader> +<fileDesc> + +<titleStmt> +<title>The Poetical Works of Edward Young, Volume 2</title> +<author>Edward Young</author> +</titleStmt> + +<editionStmt> +<edition n="1">Edition 1</edition> +</editionStmt> + +<publicationStmt> +<publisher>Project Gutenberg</publisher> +<date value="2006-07">July 2006</date> +<idno type="etext-no">18827</idno> +<idno type='DPid'>projectID3f5889b9c8bc1</idno> +<availability> +<p>This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and +with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it +away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg +License online at www.gutenberg.org/license</p> +</availability> +</publicationStmt> + +<sourceDesc> +<bibl> +<title>The Poetical Works of Edward Young, Volume 2</title> +<author>Edward Young</author> +<imprint> +<pubPlace>Boston</pubPlace> +<publisher>Little, Brown and Company.</publisher> +<date>1859</date> +</imprint> +</bibl> +</sourceDesc> +</fileDesc> + +<encodingDesc> +<classDecl> +<taxonomy id="lc"> +<bibl> +<title>Library of Congress Classification</title> +</bibl> +</taxonomy> +</classDecl> +</encodingDesc> + +<profileDesc> +<langUsage> +<language id="en">English</language> +</langUsage> + +<textClass> +<classCode scheme="lc"> +*** +</classCode> + +<keywords> +<list> +</list> +</keywords> + +</textClass> +</profileDesc> + +<revisionDesc> +<change> +<date value="2006-7">July 2006</date> +<respStmt> +<name>Joshua Hutchinson<lb /></name> +<name>Online Distributed Proofreading Team<lb /></name> +<name>This file was made using scans of public domain works from the +University of Michigan Digital Libraries</name> +</respStmt> + +<item>Project Gutenberg Edition</item> +</change> +</revisionDesc> +</teiHeader> + + + +<text> +<front> +<div> +<divGen type="pgheader" /> +</div> + +<titlePage rend="page-break-before: always"> +<docTitle> + +<titlePart type="main" rend="font-size: x-large; text-align: center">The Poetical Works of Edward Young</titlePart> +<titlePart type="sub" rend="text-align: center"><lb />Volume II.<lb /><lb /></titlePart> +</docTitle> + +<docImprint rend="text-align: center">Boston<lb /> +Little, Brown and Company<lb /><lb /> +Cambridge<lb /> +Allen and Farnham, Printers.<lb /><lb /> +</docImprint> +<docDate rend="text-align: center">1859</docDate> +</titlePage> + +<div rend="page-break-before: always"> +<head rend="text-align: center">Contents</head> +<divGen type="toc" /> +</div> + +</front> + +<body> + +<div rend="page-break-before: right"> +<pb n="001" /><anchor id="Pg001" /> +<index index="toc" level1="The Last Day. In Three Books" /><index index="pdf" /> + +<head rend="text-align: center">The Last Day.</head> +<head rend="text-align: center" type="sub">In Three Books.</head> + +<quote rend="display"> +<p> +Venit summa dies.—<hi rend="font-variant: small-caps">Virg.</hi> +</p> +</quote> + +<div rend="page-break-before: always"> +<index index="toc" /><index index="pdf" /> +<head rend="text-align: center">Book I.</head> + +<quote rend="display"> +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Ipse pater, media nimborum in nocte, corusca</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Fulmina molitur dextra. Quo maxima motu</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Terra tremit: fugêre feræ! et mortalia corda</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Per gentes humilis stravit pavor.</l> +</lg> +<p rend="text-align: right"><hi rend="font-variant: small-caps">Virg.</hi></p> +</quote> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">While others sing the fortune of the great;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Empire and arms, and all the pomp of state;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With Britain's hero<note place="foot"><p>The Duke of Marlborough.</p></note> set their souls on fire,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And grow immortal as his deeds inspire;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">I draw a deeper scene: a scene that yields</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A louder trumpet, and more dreadful fields;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The world alarm'd, both earth and heaven o'erthrown,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And gasping nature's last tremendous groan;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Death's ancient sceptre broke, the teeming tomb,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The righteous Judge, and man's eternal doom.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">'Twixt joy and pain I view the bold design,</l> + +<pb n="002" /><anchor id="Pg002" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And ask my anxious heart, if it be mine.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whatever great or dreadful has been done</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Within the sight of conscious stars or sun,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Is far beneath my daring: I look down</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">On all the splendours of the British crown.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">This globe is for my verse a narrow bound;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Attend me, all the glorious worlds around!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">O! all ye angels, howsoe'er disjoin'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of every various order, place, and kind,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Hear, and assist, a feeble mortal's lays;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Tis your Eternal King I strive to praise.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">But chiefly thou, great Ruler! Lord of all!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Before whose throne archangels prostrate fall;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">If at thy nod, from discord, and from night,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Sprang beauty, and yon sparkling worlds of light,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Exalt e'en me; all inward tumults quell;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The clouds and darkness of my mind dispel;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To my great subject thou my breast inspire,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And raise my lab'ring soul with equal fire.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Man, bear thy brow aloft, view every grace</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In God's great offspring, beauteous nature's face:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">See spring's gay bloom; see golden autumn's store;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">See how earth smiles, and hear old ocean roar.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Leviathans but heave their cumbrous mail,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">It makes a tide, and wind-bound navies sail.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Here, forests rise, the mountains awful pride;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Here, rivers measure climes, and worlds divide;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">There, valleys fraught with gold's resplendent seeds,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Hold kings, and kingdoms' fortunes, in their beds:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">There, to the skies, aspiring hills ascend,</l> + +<pb n="003" /><anchor id="Pg003" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And into distant lands their shades extend.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">View cities, armies, fleets; of fleets the pride,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">See Europe's law, in Albion's channel ride.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">View the whole earth's vast landscape unconfin'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or view in Britain all her glories join'd.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Then let the firmament thy wonder raise;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Twill raise thy wonder, but transcend thy praise.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How far from east to west? the lab'ring eye</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Can scarce the distant azure bounds descry:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Wide theatre! where tempests play at large,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And God's right hand can all its wrath discharge.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Mark how those radiant lamps inflame the pole,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Call forth the seasons, and the year control:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They shine thro' time, with an unalter'd ray:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">See this grand period rise, and that decay:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">So vast, this world's a grain; yet myriads grace,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With golden pomp, the throng'd ethereal space;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">So bright, with such a wealth of glory stor'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Twere sin in heathens not to have ador'd.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">How great, how firm, how sacred, all appears!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How worthy an immortal round of years!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Yet all must drop, as autumn's sickliest grain,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And earth and firmament be sought in vain:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The tract forgot where constellations shone,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or where the Stuarts fill'd an awful throne:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Time shall be slain, all nature be destroy'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor leave an atom in the mighty void.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Sooner, or later, in some future date,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">(A dreadful secret in the book of fate!)</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">This hour, for aught all human wisdom knows,</l> + +<pb n="004" /><anchor id="Pg004" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or when ten thousand harvests more have rose;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When scenes are chang'd on this revolving earth,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Old empires fall, and give new empires birth;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">While other Bourbons rule in other lands,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And (if man's sin forbids not) other Annes;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">While the still busy world is treading o'er</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The paths they trod five thousand years before,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thoughtless as those who now life's mazes run,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of earth dissolv'd, or an extinguish'd sun;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">(Ye sublunary worlds, awake, awake!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Ye rulers of the nation, hear, and shake!)</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thick clouds of darkness shall arise on day;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In sudden night all earth's dominions lay;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Impetuous winds the scatter'd forests rend;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Eternal mountains, like their cedars, bend:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The valleys yawn, the troubled ocean roar,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And break the bondage of his wonted shore;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A sanguine stain the silver moon o'erspread;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Darkness the circle of the sun invade;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From inmost heaven incessant thunders roll,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And the strong echo bound from pole to pole.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">When, lo, a mighty trump, one half conceal'd</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In clouds, one half to mortal eye reveal'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Shall pour a dreadful note; the piercing call</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Shall rattle in the centre of the ball;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Th' extended circuit of creation shake,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The living die with fear, the dead awake.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Oh powerful blast! to which no equal sound</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Did e'er the frighted ear of nature wound,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Tho' rival clarions have been strain'd on high,</l> + +<pb n="005" /><anchor id="Pg005" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And kindled wars immortal thro' the sky,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Tho' God's whole enginery discharg'd, and all</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The rebel angels bellow'd in their fall.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Have angels sinn'd? and shall not man beware?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How shall a son of earth decline the snare?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Not folded arms, and slackness of the mind,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Can promise for the safety of mankind:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">None are supinely good: thro' care and pain</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And various arts, the steep ascent we gain.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">This is the scene of combat, not of rest,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Man's is laborious happiness at best;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">On this side death his dangers never cease,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His joys are joys of conquest, not of peace.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">If then, obsequious to the will of fate,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And bending to the terms of human state,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When guilty joys invite us to their arms,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When beauty smiles, or grandeur spreads her charms,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The conscious soul would this great scene display,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Call down th' immortal hosts in dread array,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The trumpet sound, the Christian banner spread,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And raise from silent graves the trembling dead;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Such deep impression would the picture make,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">No power on earth her firm resolve could shake;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Engag'd with angels she would greatly stand,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And look regardless down on sea and land;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Not proffer'd worlds her ardour could restrain,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And death might shake his threat'ning lance in vain!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her certain conquest would endear the sight,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And danger serve but to exalt delight.</l> + +<pb n="006" /><anchor id="Pg006" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Instructed thus to shun the fatal spring,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whence flow the terrors of that day I sing;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">More boldly we our labours may pursue,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And all the dreadful image set to view.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The sparkling eye, the sleek and painted breast,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The burnish'd scale, curl'd train, and rising crest,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">All that is lovely in the noxious snake,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Provokes our fear, and bids us flee the brake:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The sting once drawn, his guiltless beauties rise</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In pleasing lustre, and detain our eyes;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">We view with joy, what once did horror move,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And strong aversion softens into love.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Say then, my muse, whom dismal scenes delight,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Frequent at tombs, and in the realms of night;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Say, melancholy maid, if bold to dare</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The last extremes of terror and despair;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Oh say, what change on earth, what heart in man,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">This blackest moment since the world began.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Ah mournful turn! the blissful earth, who late</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">At leisure on her axle roll'd in state;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">While thousand golden planets knew no rest,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Still onward in their circling journey prest;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A grateful change of seasons some to bring,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And sweet vicissitude of fall and spring:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Some thro' vast oceans to conduct the keel,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And some those watery worlds to sink, or swell:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Around her some their splendours to display,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And gild her globe with tributary day:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">This world so great, of joy the bright abode,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Heaven's darling child, and fav'rite of her God,</l> + +<pb n="007" /><anchor id="Pg007" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Now looks an exile from her father's care,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Deliver'd o'er to darkness and despair.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">No sun in radiant glory shines on high;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">No light, but from the terrors of the sky:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Fall'n are her mountains, her fam'd rivers lost,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And all into a second chaos tost:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">One universal ruin spreads abroad;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nothing is safe beneath the throne of God.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Such, earth, thy fate: what then canst thou afford</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To comfort and support thy guilty lord?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Man, haughty lord of all beneath the moon,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How must he bend his soul's ambition down</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Prostrate, the reptile own, and disavow</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His boasted stature, and assuming brow?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Claim kindred with the clay, and curse his form,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That speaks distinction from his sister worm?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What dreadful pangs the trembling heart invade?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Lord, why dost thou forsake whom thou hast made?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who can sustain thy anger? who can stand</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Beneath the terrors of thy lifted hand?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">It flies the reach of thought; oh, save me, Power</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of powers supreme, in that tremendous hour!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thou who beneath the frown of fate hast stood,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And in thy dreadful agony sweat blood;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thou, who for me, thro' every throbbing vein,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Hast felt the keenest edge of mortal pain;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whom death led captive thro' the realms below,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And taught those horrid mysteries of woe;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Defend me, O my God! Oh, save me, Power</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of powers supreme, in that tremendous hour!</l> + +<pb n="008" /><anchor id="Pg008" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From east to west they fly, from pole to line,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Imploring shelter from the wrath divine;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Beg flames to wrap, or whelming seas to sweep,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or rocks to yawn, compassionately deep;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Seas cast the monster forth to meet his doom,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And rocks but prison up for wrath to come.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">So fares a traitor to an earthly crown;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">While death sits threat'ning in his prince's frown</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His heart's dismay'd; and now his fears command,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To change his native for a distant land:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Swift orders fly, the king's severe decree</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Stands in the channel, and locks up the sea;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The port he seeks, obedient to her lord,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Hurls back the rebel to his lifted sword.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">But why this idle toil to paint that day?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">This time elaborately thrown away?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Words all in vain pant after the distress,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The height of eloquence would make it less;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Heavens! how the good man trembles!—</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And is there a last day? and must there come</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A sure, a fix'd, inexorable doom?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Ambition swell, and, thy proud sails to show,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Take all the winds that vanity can blow;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Wealth on a golden mountain blazing stand,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And reach an India forth in either hand;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Spread all thy purple clusters, tempting vine,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And thou, more dreaded foe, bright beauty, shine;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Shine all; in all your charms together rise;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That all, in all your charms, I may despise;</l> + +<pb n="009" /><anchor id="Pg009" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">While I mount upward on a strong desire,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Borne, like Elijah, in a car of fire.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">In hopes of glory to be quite involv'd!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To smile at death! to long to be dissolv'd!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From our decays a pleasure to receive!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And kindle into transport at a grave!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What equals this? And shall the victor now</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Boast the proud laurels on his loaded brow?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Religion! Oh, thou cherub, heavenly bright!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Oh, joys unmix'd, and fathomless delight!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thou, thou art all; nor find I in the whole</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Creation aught, but God and my own soul.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">For ever, then, my soul, thy God adore,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor let the brute creation praise him more.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Shall things inanimate my conduct blame,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And flush my conscious cheek with spreading shame?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They all for him pursue, or quit, their end</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The mountain flames their burning power suspend;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In solid heaps th' unfrozen billows stand,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To rest and silence aw'd by his command:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nay, the dire monsters that infest the flood,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">By nature dreadful, and athirst for blood,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His will can calm, their savage tempers bind,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And turn to mild protectors of mankind.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Did not the prophet this great truth maintain</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In the deep chambers of the gloomy main;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When darkness round him all her horrors spread,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And the loud ocean bellow'd o'er his head?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">When now the thunder roars, the lightning flies,</l> + +<pb n="010" /><anchor id="Pg010" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And all the warring winds tumultuous rise;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When now the foaming surges, tost on high,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Disclose the sands beneath, and touch the sky;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When death draws near, the mariners aghast,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Look back with terror on their actions past;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Their courage sickens into deep dismay,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Their hearts, thro' fear and anguish, melt away;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor tears, nor prayers, the tempest can appease;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Now they devote their treasure to the seas;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Unload their shatter'd barque, tho' richly fraught,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And think the hopes of life are cheaply bought</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With gems and gold; but oh, the storm so high!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor gems nor gold the hopes of life can buy.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The trembling prophet then, themselves to save,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They headlong plunge into the briny wave;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Down he descends, and, booming o'er his head,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The billows close; he's number'd with the dead.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">(Hear, O ye just! attend, ye virtuous few!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And the bright paths of piety pursue)</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Lo! the great Ruler of the world, from high,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Looks smiling down with a propitious eye,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Covers his servant with his gracious hand,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And bids tempestuous nature silent stand;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Commands the peaceful waters to give place,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or kindly fold him in a soft embrace:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He bridles in the monsters of the deep:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The bridled monsters awful distance keep:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Forget their hunger, while they view their prey;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And guiltless gaze, and round the stranger play.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">But still arise new wonders; nature's Lord</l> + +<pb n="011" /><anchor id="Pg011" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Sends forth into the deep his powerful word,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And calls the great leviathan: the great</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Leviathan attends in all his state;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Exults for joy, and, with a mighty bound,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Makes the sea shake, and heaven and earth resound;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Blackens the waters with the rising sand.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And drives vast billows to the distant land.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">As yawns an earthquake, when imprison'd air</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Struggles for vent, and lays the centre bare,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The whale expands his jaws' enormous size;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The prophet views the cavern with surprise;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Measures his monstrous teeth, afar descried,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And rolls his wond'ring eyes from side to side:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Then takes possession of the spacious seat,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And sails secure within the dark retreat.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Now is he pleas'd the northern blast to hear,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And hangs on liquid mountains, void of fear;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or falls immers'd into the depths below,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Where the dead silent waters never flow;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To the foundation of the hills convey'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Dwells in the shelving mountain's dreadful shade:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Where plummet never reach'd, he draws his breath,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And glides serenely thro' the paths of death.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Two wondrous days and nights thro' coral groves,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thro' labyrinths of rocks and sands, he roves:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When the third morning with its level rays</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The mountains gilds, and on the billows plays,</l> + +<pb n="012" /><anchor id="Pg012" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">It sees the king of waters rise and pour</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His sacred guest uninjur'd on the shore:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A type of that great blessing, which the muse</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In her next labour ardently pursues.</l> +</lg> +</div> + +<div rend="page-break-before: always"> +<index index="toc" /><index index="pdf" /> +<head rend="text-align: center">Book II.</head> + +<quote rend="display"> +<p>Έκ γαιη έλπιξομεν ές Φάος έλθειν. Λειψαν άποιχομένων όπισω δέ Θεοι τελέθονται.</p> +<!-- [Greek: Ek gaiês elpizomen es phaos elthein. +Leipsan apoichomenôn opisô de Theoi telethontai.] +--> + +<p rend="text-align: right"><hi rend="font-variant: small-caps">Phocyl.</hi></p> +</quote> + +<quote rend="display"> +<p>——We hope that the departed will rise again from the +dust: after which, like the gods, they will be immortal.</p> +</quote> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Now man awakes, and from his silent bed,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Where he has slept for ages, lifts his head;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Shakes off the slumber of ten thousand years,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And on the borders of new worlds appears.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whate'er the bold, the rash, adventure cost,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In wide eternity I dare be lost.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The muse is wont in narrow bounds to sing,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To teach the swain, or celebrate the king.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">I grasp the whole, no more to parts confin'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">I lift my voice, and sing to humankind:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">I sing to men and angels; angels join,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">While such the theme, their sacred songs with mine.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Again the trumpet's intermitted sound</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Rolls the wide circuit of creation round,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A universal concourse to prepare</l> + +<pb n="013" /><anchor id="Pg013" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of all that ever breath'd the vital air:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In some wide field, which active whirlwinds sweep,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Drive cities, forests, mountains, to the deep,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To smooth and lengthen out th' unbounded space,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And spread an area for all human race.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Now monuments prove faithful to their trust,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And render back their long committed dust.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Now charnels rattle; scatter'd limbs, and all</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The various bones, obsequious to the call,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Self-mov'd, advance; the neck perhaps to meet</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The distant head; the distant legs the feet.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Dreadful to view, see thro' the dusky sky</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Fragments of bodies in confusion fly,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To distant regions journeying, there to claim</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Deserted members, and complete the frame.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">When the world bow'd to Rome's almighty sword,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Rome bow'd to Pompey, and confess'd her lord.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Yet one day lost, this deity below</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Became the scorn and pity of his foe.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His blood a traitor's sacrifice was made,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And smok'd indignant on a ruffian's blade.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">No trumpet's sound, no gasping army's yell,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Bid, with due horror, his great soul farewell.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Obscure his fall! all welt'ring in his gore,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His trunk was cast to perish on the shore!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">While Julius frown'd the bloody monster dead,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who brought the world in his great rival's head.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">This sever'd head and trunk shall join once more,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Tho' realms now rise between, and oceans roar.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The trumpet's sound each fragrant mote shall hear,</l> + +<pb n="014" /><anchor id="Pg014" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or fix'd in earth, or if afloat in air,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Obey the signal wafted in the wind,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And not one sleeping atom lag behind.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">So swarming bees, that on a summer's day</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In airy rings, and wild meanders play,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Charm'd with the brazen sound, their wand'rings end,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And, gently circling, on a bough descend.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The body thus renew'd, the conscious soul,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Which has perhaps been flutt'ring near the pole,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or midst the burning planets wond'ring stray'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or hover'd o'er where her pale corpse was laid;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or rather coasted on her final state,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And fear'd or wish'd for her appointed fate:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">This soul, returning with a constant flame,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Now weds for ever her immortal frame.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Life, which ran down before, so high is wound,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The springs maintain an everlasting round.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Thus a frail model of the work design'd</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">First takes a copy of the builder's mind,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Before the structure firm with lasting oak,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And marble bowels of the solid rock,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Turns the strong arch, and bids the columns rise,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And bear the lofty palace to the skies;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The wrongs of time enabled to surpass,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With bars of adamant, and ribs of brass.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">That ancient, sacred, and illustrious dome,<note place="foot"><p>Westminster Abbey.</p></note></l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Where soon or late fair Albion's heroes come,</l> + +<pb n="015" /><anchor id="Pg015" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From camps, and courts, tho' great, or wise, or just,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To feed the worm, and moulder into dust;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That solemn mansion of the royal dead,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Where passing slaves o'er sleeping monarchs tread,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Now populous o'erflows: a num'rous race</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of rising kings fill all th' extended space:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A life well spent, not the victorious sword,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Awards the crown, and styles the greater lord.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Nor monuments alone, and burial-earth,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Labours with man to this his second birth;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But where gay palaces in pomp arise,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And gilded theatres invade the skies,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nations shall wake, whose unrespected bones</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Support the pride of their luxurious sons.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The most magnificent and costly dome</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Is but an upper chamber to the tomb.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">No spot on earth but has supplied a grave,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And human skulls the spacious ocean pave.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">All's full of man; and at this dreadful turn,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The swarm shall issue, and the hive shall burn.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Not all at once, nor in like manner, rise:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Some lift with pain their slow, unwilling eyes:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Shrink backward from the terror of the light,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And bless the grave, and call for lasting night.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Others, whose long-attempted virtue stood</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Fix'd as a rock, and broke the rushing flood,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whose firm resolve, nor beauty could melt down,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor raging tyrants from their posture frown;</l> + +<pb n="016" /><anchor id="Pg016" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Such, in this day of horrors, shall be seen</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To face the thunders with a godlike mien;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The planets drop, their thoughts are fixt above;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The centre shakes, their hearts disdain to move;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">An earth dissolving, and a heaven thrown wide,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A yawning gulf, and fiends on every side,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Serene they view, impatient of delay,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And bless the dawn of everlasting day.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Here, greatness prostrate falls; there, strength gives place;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Here, lazars smile; there, beauty hides her face.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Christians, and Jews, and Turks, and Pagans stand,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A blended throng, one undistinguish'd band.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Some who, perhaps, by mutual wounds expir'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With zeal for their distinct persuasions fir'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In mutual friendship their long slumber break,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And hand in hand their Saviour's love partake.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">But none are flush'd with brighter joy, or, warm</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With juster confidence, enjoy the storm,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Than those, whose pious bounties, unconfin'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Have made them public fathers of mankind.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In that illustrious rank, what shining light</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With such distinguish'd glory fills my sight?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Bend down, my grateful muse, that homage show,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Which to such worthies thou art proud to owe.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Wickham! Fox! Chichley! hail, illustrious names,<note place="foot"><p>Founders of New College, Corpus Christi, and All Souls, +in Oxford; of all which the author was a member.</p></note></l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who to far distant times dispense your beams;</l> + +<pb n="017" /><anchor id="Pg017" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Beneath your shades, and near your crystal springs,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">I first presum'd to touch the trembling strings.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">All hail, thrice honour'd! 'Twas your great renown</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To bless a people, and oblige a crown.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And now you rise, eternally to shine,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Eternally to drink the rays divine.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Indulgent God! Oh how shall mortal raise</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His soul to due returns of grateful praise,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For bounty so profuse to humankind,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thy wondrous gift of an eternal mind?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Shall I, who, some few years ago, was less</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Than worm, or mite, or shadow can express,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Was nothing; shall I live, when every fire</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And every star shall languish and expire?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When earth's no more, shall I survive above,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And thro' the radiant files of angels move?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or, as before the throne of God I stand,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">See new worlds rolling from his spacious hand,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Where our adventures shall perhaps be taught,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As we now tell how Michael sung or fought?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">All that has being in full concert join,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And celebrate the depths of love divine!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">But oh! before this blissful state, before</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Th' aspiring soul this wondrous height can soar,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The Judge, descending, thunders from afar,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And all mankind is summon'd to the bar.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">This mighty scene I next presume to draw:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Attend, great Anna, with religious awe.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Expect not here the known successful arts</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To win attention, and command our hearts:</l> + +<pb n="018" /><anchor id="Pg018" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Fiction, be far away; let no machine</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Descending here, no fabled god, be seen;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Behold the God of gods indeed descend,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And worlds unnumber'd his approach attend!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Lo! the wide theatre, whose ample space</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Must entertain the whole of human race,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">At heaven's all-powerful edict is prepar'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And fenc'd around with an immortal guard.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Tribes, provinces, dominions, worlds, o'erflow</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The mighty plain, and deluge all below:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And every age, and nation, pours along,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nimrod and Bourbon mingle in the throng:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Adam salutes his youngest son; no sign,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of all those ages, which their births disjoin.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">How empty learning, and how vain is art,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But as it mends the life, and guides the heart!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What volumes have been swell'd, what time been spent,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To fix a hero's birth-day, or descent!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What joy must it now yield, what rapture raise,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To see the glorious race of ancient days!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To greet those worthies who perhaps have stood</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Illustrious on record before the flood!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Alas! a nearer care your soul demands,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Cæsar unnoted in your presence stands.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">How vast the concourse! not in number more</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The waves that break on the resounding shore,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The leaves that tremble in the shady grove,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The lamps that gild the spangled vaults above:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Those overwhelming armies, whose command</l> + +<pb n="019" /><anchor id="Pg019" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Said to one empire, fall; another, stand:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whose rear lay wrapt in night, while breaking dawn</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Rous'd the broad front, and call'd the battle on:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Great Xerxes' world in arms, proud Cannæ's field,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Where Carthage taught victorious Rome to yield,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">(Another blow had broke the fates' decree,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And earth had wanted her fourth monarchy,)</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Immortal Blenheim, fam'd Ramillia's host,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They all are here, and here they all are lost:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Their millions swell to be discern'd in vain,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Lost as a billow in th' unbounded main.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">This echoing voice now rends the yielding air,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For judgment, judgment, sons of men, prepare!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Earth shakes anew; I hear her groans profound;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And hell through all her trembling realms resound.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Whoe'er thou art, thou greatest power of earth,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Blest with most equal planets at thy birth;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whose valour drew the most successful sword,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Most realms united in one common lord;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who, on the day of triumph, saidst, Be thine</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The skies, Jehovah, all this world is mine:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Dare not to lift thine eye—Alas! my muse,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How art thou lost! what numbers canst thou choose?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">A sudden blush inflames the waving sky,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And now the crimson curtains open fly;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Lo! far within, and far above all height,</l> + +<pb n="020" /><anchor id="Pg020" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Where heaven's great Sov'reign reigns in worlds of light,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whence nature he informs, and with one ray</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Shot from his eye, does all her works survey,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Creates, supports, confounds! Where time, and place,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Matter, and form, and fortune, life, and grace,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Wait humbly at the footstool of their God,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And move obedient at his awful nod;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whence he beholds us vagrant emmets crawl</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">At random on this air-suspended ball</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">(Speck of creation): if he pour one breath,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The bubble breaks, and 'tis eternal death.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Thence issuing I behold (but mortal sight</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Sustains not such a rushing sea of light!)</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">I see, on an empyreal flying throne</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Sublimely rais'd, heaven's everlasting Son;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Crown'd with that majesty which form'd the world,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And the grand rebel flaming downward hurl'd.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Virtue, dominion, praise, omnipotence,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Support the train of their triumphant prince.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A zone, beyond the thought of angels bright,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Around him, like the zodiac, winds its light.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Night shades the solemn arches of his brows,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And in his cheek the purple morning glows.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Where'er serene, he turns propitious eyes,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or we expect, or find, a paradise:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But if resentment reddens their mild beams,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The Eden kindles, and the world's in flames.</l> + +<pb n="021" /><anchor id="Pg021" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">On one hand, knowledge shines in purest light;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">On one, the sword of justice fiercely bright.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Now bend the knee in sport, present the reed;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Now tell the scourg'd impostor he shall bleed!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Thus glorious thro' the courts of heav'n, the source</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of life and death eternal bends his course;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Loud thunders round him roll, and lightnings play;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Th' angelic host is rang'd in bright array:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Some touch the string, some strike the sounding shell,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And mingling voices in rich concert swell;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Voices seraphic; blest with such a strain,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Could Satan hear, he were a god again.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Triumphant King of Glory! Soul of bliss!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What a stupendous turn of fate is this!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">O! whither art thou rais'd above the scorn</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And indigence of him in Bethlem born;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A needless, helpless, unaccounted guest,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And but a second to the fodder'd beast!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How chang'd from him, who, meekly prostrate laid,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Vouchsaf'd to wash the feet himself had made!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From him who was betray'd, forsook, denied,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Wept, languish'd, pray'd, bled, thirsted, groan'd, and died;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Hung pierc'd and bare, insulted by the foe,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">All heaven in tears above, earth unconcern'd below!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And was't enough to bid the sun retire?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Why did not nature at thy groan expire?</l> + +<pb n="022" /><anchor id="Pg022" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">I see, I hear, I feel, the pangs divine;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The world is vanish'd,—I am wholly thine.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Mistaken Caiaphas! Ah! which blasphem'd;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thou, or thy pris'ner? which shall be condemn'd?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Well might'st thou rend thy garments, well exclaim;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Deep are the horrors of eternal flame!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But God is good! 'Tis wondrous all! Ev'n he</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thou gav'st to death, shame, torture, died for thee.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Now the descending triumph stops its flight</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From earth full twice a planetary height.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">There all the clouds condens'd, two columns raise</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Distinct with orient veins, and golden blaze.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">One fix'd on earth, and one in sea, and round</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Its ample foot the swelling billows sound.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">These an immeasurable arch support,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The grand tribunal of this awful court.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Sheets of bright azure, from the purest sky,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Stream from the crystal arch, and round the columns fly.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Death, wrapt in chains, low at the basis lies,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And on the point of his own arrow dies.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Here high enthron'd th' eternal Judge is plac'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With all the grandeur of his godhead grac'd;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Stars on his robes in beauteous order meet,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And the sun burns beneath his awful feet.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Now an archangel eminently bright,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From off his silver staff of wondrous height,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Unfurls the Christian flag, which waving flies,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And shuts and opens more than half the skies:</l> + +<pb n="023" /><anchor id="Pg023" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The cross so strong a red, it sheds a stain,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Where'er it floats, on earth, and air, and main;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Flushes the hill, and sets on fire the wood,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And turns the deep-dy'd ocean, into blood.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Oh formidable glory! dreadful bright!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Refulgent torture to the guilty sight.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Ah turn, unwary muse, nor dare reveal</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What horrid thoughts with the polluted dwell.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Say not, (to make the sun shrink in his beam,)</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Dare not affirm, they wish it all a dream;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With, or their souls may with their limbs decay,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or God be spoil'd of his eternal sway.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But rather, if thou know'st the means, unfold</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How they with transport might the scene behold.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Ah how! but by repentance, by a mind</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Quick, and severe its own offence to find?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">By tears, and groans, and never-ceasing care,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And all the pious violence of prayer?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thus then, with fervency till now unknown,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">I cast my heart before th' eternal throne,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In this great temple, which the skies surround,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For homage to its lord, a narrow bound.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">"O thou! whose balance does the mountains weigh,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whose will the wild tumultuous seas obey,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whose breath can turn these watery worlds to flame,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That flame to tempest, and that tempest tame;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Earth's meanest son, all trembling, prostrate falls,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And on the boundless of thy goodness calls.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">"Oh! give the winds all past offence to sweep,</l> + +<pb n="024" /><anchor id="Pg024" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To scatter wide, or bury in the deep:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thy power, my weakness, may I ever see,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And wholly dedicate my soul to thee:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Reign o'er my will; my passions ebb and flow</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">At thy command, nor human motive know!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">If anger boil, let anger be my praise,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And sin the graceful indignation raise.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">My love be warm to succour the distress'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And lift the burden from the soul oppress'd.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Oh may my understanding ever read</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">This glorious volume, which thy wisdom made!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who decks the maiden spring with flow'ry pride?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who calls forth summer, like a sparkling bride?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who joys the mother autumn's bed to crown?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And bids old winter lay her honours down?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Not the great Ottoman, or greater Czar,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Not Europe's arbitress of peace and war.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">May sea and land, and earth and heaven be join'd</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To bring th' eternal author to my mind!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When oceans roar, or awful thunders roll,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">May thoughts of thy dread vengeance shake my soul!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When earth's in bloom, or planets proudly shine,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Adore, my heart, the majesty divine!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">"Thro' every scene of life, or peace, or war,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Plenty, or want, thy glory be my care!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Shine we in arms? or sing beneath our vine?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thine is the vintage, and the conquest thine:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thy pleasure points the shaft, and bends the bow;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The cluster blasts, or bids it brightly glow:</l> + +<pb n="025" /><anchor id="Pg025" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Tis thou that lead'st our powerful armies forth,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And giv'st great Anne thy sceptre o'er the north.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">"Grant I may ever, at the morning ray,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Open with prayer the consecrated day;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Tune thy great praise, and bid my soul arise,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And with the mounting sun ascend the skies:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As that advances, let my zeal improve,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And glow with ardour of consummate love;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor cease at eve, but with the setting sun</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">My endless worship shall be still begun.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">"And, oh! permit the gloom of solemn night</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To sacred thought may forcibly invite.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When this world's shut, and awful planets rise,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Call on our minds, and raise them to the skies;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Compose our souls with a less dazzling sight,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And show all nature in a milder light;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How every boisterous thought in calm subsides!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How the smooth'd spirit into goodness glides!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">O how divine! to tread the milky way,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To the bright palace of the lord of day;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His court admire, or for his favour sue,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or leagues of friendship with his saints renew;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Pleas'd to look down, and see the world asleep,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">While I long vigils to its founder keep!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">"Canst thou not shake the centre? Oh! control,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Subdue by force, the rebel in my soul:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thou, who canst still the raging of the flood,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Restrain the various tumults of my blood;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Teach me, with equal firmness, to sustain</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Alluring pleasure, and assaulting pain.</l> + +<pb n="026" /><anchor id="Pg026" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">O may I pant for thee in each desire!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And with strong faith foment the holy fire!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Stretch out my soul in hope, and grasp the prize,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Which in eternity's deep bosom lies!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">At the great day of recompense behold,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Devoid of fear, the fatal book unfold!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Then wafted upward to the blissful seat,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From age to age, my grateful song repeat;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">My light, my life, my God, my Saviour see,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And rival angels in the praise of thee."</l> +</lg> +</div> + +<div rend="page-break-before: always"> +<index index="toc" /><index index="pdf" /> +<head rend="text-align: center">Book III.</head> + +<quote rend="display"> +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Esse quoque in fatis reminiscitur, affore tempus,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Quo mare, quo tellus, correptaque regia cæli</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Ardeat; et mundi moles operosa laboret.</l> +</lg> + +<p rend="text-align: right">—<hi rend="font-variant: small-caps">Ovid. Met.</hi></p> +</quote> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The book unfolding; the resplendent seat</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of saints and angels; the tremendous fate</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of guilty souls; the gloomy realms of woe;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And all the horrors of the world below;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">I next presume to sing: what yet remains</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Demands my last, but most exalted strains.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And let the muse or now affect the sky,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or in inglorious shades for ever lie.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">She kindles, she's inflam'd so near the goal;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">She mounts, she gains upon the starry pole;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The world grows less as she pursues her flight,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And the sun darkens to her distant sight.</l> + +<pb n="027" /><anchor id="Pg027" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Heaven op'ning, all its sacred pomp displays,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And overwhelms her with the rushing blaze!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The triumph rings! archangels shout around!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And echoing nature lengthens out the sound!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Ten thousand trumpets now at once advance;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Now deepest silence lulls the vast expanse:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">So deep the silence, and so strong the blast,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As nature died, when she had groan'd her last.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor man, nor angel, moves; the Judge on high</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Looks round, and with his glory fills the sky:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Then on the fatal book his hand he lays,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Which high to view supporting seraphs raise;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In solemn form the rituals are prepar'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The seal is broken, and a groan is heard.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And thou, my soul, (oh fall to sudden pray'r,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And let the thought sink deep!) shalt thou be there?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">See on the left (for by the great command</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The throng divided falls on either hand);</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How weak, how pale, how haggard, how obscene,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What more than death in ev'ry face and mien!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With what distress, and glarings of affright.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They shock the heart, and turn away the sight!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In gloomy orbs their trembling eye-balls roll,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And tell the horrid secrets of the soul.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Each gesture mourns, each look is black with care,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And ev'ry groan is loaden with despair.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Reader, if guilty, spare the muse, and find</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A truer image pictur'd in thy mind.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Shouldst thou behold thy brother, father, wife,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And all the soft companions of thy life,</l> + +<pb n="028" /><anchor id="Pg028" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whose blended int'rests levell'd at one aim,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whose mix'd desires sent up one common flame,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Divided far; thy wretched self alone</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Cast on the left, of all whom thou hast known;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How would it wound! what millions wouldst thou give</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For one more trial, one more day to live!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Flung back in time an hour, a moment's space,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To grasp with eagerness the means of grace;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Contend for mercy with a pious rage,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And in that moment to redeem an age?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Drive back the tide, suspend a storm in air,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Arrest the sun!—but still of this despair.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Mark, on the right, how amiable a grace!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Their Maker's image fresh in ev'ry face!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What purple bloom my ravish'd soul admires!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And their eyes sparkling with immortal fires!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Triumphant beauty! charms that rise above</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">This world, and in blest angels kindle love!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To the great Judge with holy pride they turn,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And dare behold th' Almighty's anger burn;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Its flash sustain, against its terror rise,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And on the dread tribunal fix their eyes.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Are these the forms that moulder'd in the dust?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Oh the transcendent glory of the just!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Yet still some thin remains of fear and doubt,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Th' infected brightness of their joy pollute.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Thus the chaste bridegroom, when the priest draws nigh,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Beholds his blessing with a trembling eye,</l> + +<pb n="029" /><anchor id="Pg029" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Feels doubtful passions throb in every vein,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And in his cheeks are mingled joy and pain,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Lest still some intervening chance should rise,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Leap forth at once, and snatch the golden prize;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Inflame his woe, by bringing it so late,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And stab him in the crisis of his fate.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Since Adam's family, from first to last,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Now into one distinct survey is cast;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Look round, vainglorious muse, and you whoe'er</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Devote yourselves to fame, and think her fair;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Look round, and seek the lights of human race,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whose shining acts time's brightest annals grace;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who founded sects; crowns conquer'd, or resign'd;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Gave names to nations: or fam'd empires join'd;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who raised the vale, and laid the mountain low;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And taught obedient rivers where to flow;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who with vast fleets, as with a mighty chain,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Could bind the madness of the roaring main:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">All lost? all undistinguish'd? nowhere found?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How will this truth in Bourbon's palace sound?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">That hour, on which the Almighty King on high</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From all eternity has fix'd his eye,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whether his right hand favour'd, or annoy'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Continu'd, alter'd, threaten'd, or destroy'd;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Southern or eastern sceptre downward hurl'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Gave north or west dominion o'er the world;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The point of time, for which the world was built,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For which the blood of God himself was spilt,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That dreadful moment is arriv'd.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Aloft, the seats of bliss their pomp display</l> + +<pb n="030" /><anchor id="Pg030" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Brighter than brightness, this distinguish'd day;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Less glorious, when of old th' eternal Son</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From realms of night return'd with trophies won:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thro' heaven's high gates, when he triumphant rode,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And shouting angels hail'd the victor God.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Horrors, beneath, darkness in darkness, hell</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of hell, where torments behind torments dwell;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A furnace formidable, deep, and wide,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">O'erboiling with a mad sulphureous tide,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Expands its jaws, most dreadful to survey,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And roars outrageous for the destin'd prey.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The sons of light scarce unappall'd look down,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And nearer press heaven's everlasting throne.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Such is the scene; and one short moment's space</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Concludes the hopes and fears of human race.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Proceed who dares!—I tremble as I write,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The whole creation swims before my sight:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">I see, I see, the Judge's frowning brow;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Say not, 'tis distant; I behold it now;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">I faint, my tardy blood forgets to flow,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">My soul recoils at the stupendous woe;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That woe, those pangs, which from the guilty breast,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In these, or words like these, shall be exprest.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">"Who burst the barriers of my peaceful grave?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Ah! cruel death, that would no longer save,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But grudg'd me e'en that narrow dark abode,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And cast me out into the wrath of God;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Where shrieks, the roaring flame, the rattling chain,</l> + +<pb n="031" /><anchor id="Pg031" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And all the dreadful eloquence of pain,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Our only song; black fire's malignant light,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The sole refreshment of the blasted sight.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Must all those pow'rs, heaven gave me to supply</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">My soul with pleasure, and bring in my joy,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Rise up in arms against me, join the foe,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Sense, reason, memory, increase my woe?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And shall my voice, ordain'd on hymns to dwell,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Corrupt to groans, and blow the fires of hell?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Oh! must I look with terror on my gain,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And with existence only measure pain?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What! no reprieve, no least indulgence given,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">No beam of hope, from any point of heaven!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Ah mercy! mercy! art thou dead above?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Is love extinguish'd in the source of love?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">"Bold that I am, did heaven stoop down to hell?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Th' expiring Lord of life my ransom seal?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Have I not been industrious to provoke?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From his embraces obstinately broke?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Pursu'd and panted for his mortal hate,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Earn'd my destruction, labour'd out my fate?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And dare I on extinguish'd love exclaim?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Take, take full vengeance, rouse the slack'ning flame;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Just is my lot—but oh! must it transcend</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The reach of time, despair a distant end?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With dreadful growth shoot forward, and arise,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Where thought can't follow, and bold fancy dies?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">"Never! where falls the soul at that dread sound?</l> + +<pb n="032" /><anchor id="Pg032" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Down an abyss how dark, and how profound?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Down, down, (I still am falling, horrid pain!)</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Ten thousand thousand fathoms still remain;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">My plunge but still begun—And this for sin?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Could I offend, if I had never been,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But still increas'd the senseless happy mass,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Flow'd in the stream, or shiver'd in the grass?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">"Father of mercies! why from silent earth</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Didst thou awake, and curse me into birth?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Tear me from quiet, ravish me from night,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And make a thankless present of thy light?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Push into being a reverse of thee,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And animate a clod with misery?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">"The beasts are happy; they come forth, and keep</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Short watch on earth, and then lie down to sleep.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Pain is for man; and oh! how vast a pain</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For crimes, which made the Godhead bleed in vain!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Annull'd his groans, as far as in them lay,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And flung his agonies, and death, away!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As our dire punishment for ever strong,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Our constitution too for ever young,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Curs'd with returns of vigour, still the same,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Powerful to bear, and satisfy the flame:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Still to be caught, and still to be pursu'd!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To perish still, and still to be renew'd!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">"And this, my help! my God! at thy decree?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nature is chang'd, and hell should succour me.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And canst thou then look down from perfect bliss,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And see me plunging in the dark abyss?</l> + +<pb n="033" /><anchor id="Pg033" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Calling thee Father, in a sea of fire?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or pouring blasphemies at thy desire?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With mortals' anguish wilt thou raise thy name,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And by my pangs omnipotence proclaim?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">"Thou, who canst toss the planets to and fro,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Contract not thy great vengeance to my woe;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Crush worlds; in hotter flames fall'n angels lay;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">On me Almighty wrath is cast away.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Call back thy thunders, Lord, hold in thy rage,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor with a speck of wretchedness engage:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Forget me quite, nor stoop a worm to blame;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But lose me in the greatness of thy name.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thou art all love, all mercy, all divine,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And shall I make these glories cease to shine?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Shall sinful man grow great by his offence,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And from its course turn back Omnipotence?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">"Forbid it! and oh! grant, great God, at least</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">This one, this slender, almost no request;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When I have wept a thousand lives away,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When torment is grown weary of its prey,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When I have rav'd ten thousand years in fire,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Ten thousand thousand, let me then expire."</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Deep anguish! but too late; the hopeless soul,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Bound to the bottom of the burning pool,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Though loth, and ever loud blaspheming, owns</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He's justly doom'd to pour eternal groans;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Enclos'd with horrors, and transfix'd with pain,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Rolling in vengeance, struggling with his chain:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To talk to fiery tempests; to implore</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The raging flame to give its burnings o'er;</l> + +<pb n="034" /><anchor id="Pg034" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To toss, to writhe, to pant beneath his load,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And bear the weight of an offended God.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The favour'd of their Judge, in triumph move</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To take possession of their thrones above;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Satan's accurs'd desertion to supply,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And fill the vacant stations of the sky;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Again to kindle long-extinguish'd rays,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And with new lights dilate the heavenly blaze;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To crop the roses of immortal youth,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And drink the fountain-head of sacred truth</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To swim in seas of bliss, to strike the string,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And lift the voice to their Almighty King;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To lose eternity in grateful lays,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And fill heaven's wide circumference with praise.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">But I attempt the wondrous height in vain,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And leave unfinish'd the too lofty strain:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What boldly I begin, let others end;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">My strength exhausted, fainting I descend,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And choose a less, but no ignoble, theme,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Dissolving elements, and worlds, in flame.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The fatal period, the great hour, is come,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And nature shrinks at her approaching doom;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Loud peals of thunder give the sign, and all</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Heaven's terrors in array surround the ball;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Sharp lightnings with the meteor's blaze conspire,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And, darted downward, set the world on fire;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Black rising clouds the thicken'd ether choke,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And spiry flames dart through the rolling smoke,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With keen vibrations cut the sullen night,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And strike the darken'd sky with dreadful light;</l> + +<pb n="035" /><anchor id="Pg035" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From heaven's four regions, with immortal force,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Angels drive on the wind's impetuous course,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">T' enrage the flame: It spreads, it soars on high,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Swells in the storm, and billows through the sky:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Here winding pyramids of fire ascend,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Cities and deserts in one ruin blend;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Here blazing volumes wafted, overwhelm</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The spacious face of a far distant realm;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">There, undermin'd, down rush eternal hills,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The neighb'ring vales the vast destruction fills.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Hear'st thou that dreadful crack? that sound which broke</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Like peals of thunder, and the centre shook?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What wonders must that groan of nature tell?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Olympus there, and mightier Atlas, fell;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Which seem'd above the reach of fate to stand,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A tow'ring monument of God's right hand;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Now dust and smoke, whose brow, so lately, spread</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">O'er shelter'd countries its diffusive shade.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Show me that celebrated spot, where all</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The various rulers of the sever'd ball</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Have humbly sought wealth, honour, and redress,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That land which heaven seem'd diligent to bless,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Once call'd Britannia: can her glories end?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And can't surrounding seas her realms defend?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Alas! in flames behold surrounding seas!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Like oil, their waters but augment the blaze.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Some angel say, where ran proud Asia's bound?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or where with fruits was fair Europa crown'd?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Where stretch'd waste Lybia? Where did India's shore</l> + +<pb n="036" /><anchor id="Pg036" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Sparkle in diamonds, and her golden ore?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Each lost in each, their mingling kingdoms glow,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And all dissolv'd, one fiery deluge flow:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thus earth's contending monarchies are join'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And a full period of ambition find.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And now whate'er or swims, or walks, or flies,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Inhabitants of sea, or earth, or skies;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">All on whom Adam's wisdom fix'd a name,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">All plunge, and perish in the conquering flame.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">This globe alone would but defraud the fire,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Starve its devouring rage: the flakes aspire,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And catch the clouds, and make the heavens their prey;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The sun, the moon, the stars, all melt away;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">All, all is lost; no monument, no sign,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Where once so proudly blaz'd the gay machine.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">So bubbles on the foaming stream expire,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">So sparks that scatter from the kindling fire;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The devastations of one dreadful hour</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The great Creator's six days' work devour.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A mighty, mighty ruin! yet one soul</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Has more to boast, and far outweighs the whole</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Exalted in superior excellence,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Casts down to nothing, such a vast expense.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Have you not seen th' eternal mountains nod,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">An earth dissolving, a descending God?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What strange surprises through all nature ran?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For whom these revolutions, but for man?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For him, Omnipotence new measures takes,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For him, through all eternity, awakes;</l> + +<pb n="037" /><anchor id="Pg037" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Pours on him gifts sufficient to supply</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Heaven's loss, and with fresh glories fill the sky.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Think deeply then, O man, how great thou art;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Pay thyself homage with a trembling heart;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What angels guard, no longer dare neglect,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Slighting thyself, affront not God's respect.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Enter the sacred temple of thy breast,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And gaze, and wander there, a ravish'd guest;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Gaze on those hidden treasures thou shalt find,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Wander through all the glories of thy mind.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of perfect knowledge, see, the dawning light</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Foretells a noon most exquisitely bright!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Here, springs of endless joy are breaking forth!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">There, buds the promise of celestial worth!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Worth, which must ripen in a happier clime,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And brighter sun, beyond the bounds of time.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thou, minor, canst not guess thy vast estate,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What stores, on foreign coasts, thy landing wait:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Lose not thy claim, let virtue's path be trod;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thus glad all heaven, and please that bounteous God,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who, to light thee to pleasures, hung on high</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Yon radiant orb, proud regent of the sky:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That service done, its beams shall fade away,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And God shine forth in one eternal day.</l> +</lg> +</div> +</div> + +<div rend="page-break-before: right"> +<pb n="038" /><anchor id="Pg038" /> +<index index="toc" /><index index="pdf" /> + +<head rend="text-align: center">The Force of Religion; or, Vanquished Love.</head> + +<quote rend="display"> +<p>Gratior et pulchro veniens in corpore virtus.</p> + +<p rend="text-align: right">—<hi rend="font-variant: small-caps">Virg.</hi></p> +</quote> + +<div rend="page-break-before: always"> +<index index="toc" /><index index="pdf" /> +<head rend="text-align: center">Book I.</head> + +<quote rend="display"> +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">——Ad cœlum ardentia lumina tollens,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Lumina; nam teneras arcebant vincula palmas.</l> +</lg> + +<p rend="text-align: right"><hi rend="font-variant: small-caps">Virg.</hi></p> +</quote> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From lofty themes, from thoughts that soar'd on high,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And open'd wondrous scenes above the sky,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">My muse descend: indulge my fond desire;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With softer thoughts my melting soul inspire,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And smooth my numbers to a female's praise:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A partial world will listen to my lays,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">While Anna reigns, and sets a female name</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Unrival'd in the glorious lists of fame.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Hear, ye fair daughters of this happy land,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whose radiant eyes the vanquish'd world command,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Virtue is beauty: but when charms of mind</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With elegance of outward form are join'd;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When youth makes such bright objects still more bright,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And fortune sets them in the strongest light;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Tis all of heaven that we below may view,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And all, but adoration, is your due.</l> + +<pb n="039" /><anchor id="Pg039" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Fam'd female virtue did this isle adorn,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Ere Ormond, or her glorious queen, was born:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When now Maria's powerful arms prevail'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And haughty Dudley's bold ambition fail'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The beauteous daughter of great Suffolk's race,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In blooming youth adorn'd with every grace;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who gain'd a crown by treason not her own,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And innocently fill'd another's throne;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Hurl'd from the summit of imperial state,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With equal mind sustain'd the stroke of fate.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">But how will Guilford, her far dearer part,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With manly reason fortify his heart?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">At once she longs, and is afraid, to know:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Now swift she moves, and now advances slow,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To find her lord; and, finding, passes by,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Silent with fear, nor dares she meet his eye;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Lest that, unask'd, in speechless grief, disclose</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The mournful secret of his inward woes.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thus, after sickness, doubtful of her face,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The melancholy virgin shuns the glass.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">At length, with troubled thought, but look serene,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And sorrow soften'd by her heavenly mien,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">She clasps her lord, brave, beautiful, and young,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">While tender accents melt upon her tongue;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Gentle, and sweet, as vernal zephyr blows,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Fanning the lily, or the blooming rose.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">"Grieve not, my lord; a crown indeed is lost;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What far outshines a crown, we still may boast;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A mind compos'd; a mind that can disdain</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A fruitless sorrow for a loss so vain.</l> + +<pb n="040" /><anchor id="Pg040" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nothing is loss that virtue can improve</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To wealth eternal; and return above;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Above, where no distinction shall be known</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Twixt him whom storms have shaken from a throne,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And him, who, basking in the smiles of fate,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Shone forth in all the splendour of the great:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor can I find the diff'rence here below;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">I lately was a queen; I still am so,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">While Guilford's wife: thee rather I obey,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Than o'er mankind extend imperial sway.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When we lie down in some obscure retreat,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Incens'd Maria may her rage forget;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And I to death my duty will improve,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And what you miss in empire, add in love—</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Your godlike soul is open'd in your look,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And I have faintly your great meaning spoke,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For this alone I'm pleas'd I wore the crown,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To find with what content we lay it down.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Heroes may win, but 't is a heavenly race</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Can quit a throne with a becoming grace."</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Thus spoke the fairest of her sex, and cheer'd</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her drooping lord; whose boding bosom fear'd</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A darker cloud of ills would burst, and shed</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Severer vengeance on her guiltless head:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Too just, alas, the terrors which he felt!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For, lo! a guard!—Forgive him, if he melt—</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How sharp her pangs, when sever'd from his side,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The most sincerely lov'd, and loving bride,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In space confin'd, the muse forbears to tell;</l> + +<pb n="041" /><anchor id="Pg041" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Deep was her anguish, but she bore it well.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His pain was equal, but his virtue less;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He thought in grief there could be no excess.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Pensive he sat, o'ercast with gloomy care,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And often fondly clasp'd his absent fair;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Now, silent, wander'd thro' his rooms of state,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And sicken'd at the pomp, and tax'd his fate;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Which thus adorn'd, in all her shining store,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A splendid wretch, magnificently poor.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Now on the bridal-bed his eyes were cast,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And anguish fed on his enjoyments past;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Each recollected pleasure made him smart,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And every transport stabb'd him to the heart.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">That happy moon, which summon'd to delight,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That moon which shone on his dear nuptial night,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Which saw him fold her yet untasted charms</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">(Denied to princes) in his longing arms;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Now sees the transient blessing fleet away,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Empire and love! the vision of a day.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Thus, in the British clime, a summer-storm</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Will oft the smiling face of heaven deform;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The winds with violence at once descend,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Sweep flowers and fruits, and make the forest bend;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A sudden winter, while the sun is near,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">O'ercomes the season, and inverts the year.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">But whither is the captive borne away,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The beauteous captive, from the cheerful day?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The scene is chang'd indeed; before her eyes</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Ill boding looks and unknown horrors rise:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For pomp and splendour, for her guard and crown,</l> + +<pb n="042" /><anchor id="Pg042" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A gloomy dungeon, and a keeper's frown:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Black thoughts, each morn, invade the lover's breast,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Each night, a ruffian locks the queen to rest.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Ah mournful change, if judg'd by vulgar minds!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But Suffolk's daughter its advantage finds.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Religion's force divine is best display'd</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In deep desertion of all human aid:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To succour in extremes, is her delight,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And cheer the heart, when terror strikes the sight.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">We, disbelieving our own senses, gaze,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And wonder what a mortal's heart can raise</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To triumph o'er misfortunes, smile in grief,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And comfort those who come to bring relief:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">We gaze; and as we gaze, wealth, fame, decay,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And all the world's vain glories fade away.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Against her cares she rais'd a dauntless mind,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And with an ardent heart, but most resign'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Deep in the dreadful gloom, with pious heat,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Amid the silence of her dark retreat,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Address'd her God,—"Almighty power divine!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Tis thine to raise, and to depress, is thine;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With honour to light up the name unknown,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or to put out the lustre of a throne.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In my short span both fortunes I have prov'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And though with ill frail nature will be mov'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">I'll bear it well: (O strengthen me to bear!)</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And if my piety may claim thy care;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">If I remember'd, in youth's giddy heat,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And tumult of a court, a future state;</l> + +<pb n="043" /><anchor id="Pg043" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">O favour, when thy mercy I implore</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For one who never guilty sceptre bore!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Twas I receiv'd the crown; my lord is free;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">If it must fall, let vengeance fall on me.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Let him survive, his country's name to raise,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And in a guilty land to speak thy praise!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">O may th' indulgence of a father's love,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Pour'd forth on me, be doubled from above!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">If these are safe, I'll think my prayers succeed,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And bless thy tender mercies, whilst I bleed."</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">'Twas now the mournful eve before that day</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In which the queen to her full wrath gave way;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thro' rigid justice, rush'd into offence,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And drank in zeal the blood of innocence:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The sun went down in clouds, and seem'd to mourn</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The sad necessity of his return;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The hollow wind, and melancholy rain,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or did, or was imagin'd to, complain:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The tapers cast an inauspicious light;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Stars there were none, and doubly dark the night.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Sweet innocence in chains can take her rest;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Soft slumber gently creeping through her breast,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">She sinks; and in her sleep is reinthron'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Mock'd by a gaudy dream, and vainly crown'd.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">She views her fleets and armies, seas and land,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And stretches wide her shadow of command:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With royal purple is her vision hung;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">By phantom hosts are shouts of conquest rung;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Low at her feet the suppliant rival lies;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Our prisoner mourns her fate, and bids her rise.</l> + +<pb n="044" /><anchor id="Pg044" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Now level beams upon the waters play'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Glanc'd on the hills, and westward cast the shade;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The busy trades in city had began</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To sound, and speak the painful life of man.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In tyrants' breasts the thoughts of vengeance rouse,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And the fond bridegroom turns him to his spouse.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">At this first birth of light, while morning breaks,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Our spouseless bride, our widow'd wife, awakes;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Awakes, and smiles; nor night's imposture blames;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her real pomps were little more than dreams;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A short-liv'd blaze, a lightning quickly o'er,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That died in birth, that shone, and were no more:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">She turns her side, and soon resumes a state</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of mind, well suited to her alter'd fate,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Serene, though serious; when dread tidings come</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">(Ah wretched Guilford!) of her instant doom.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Sun, hide thy beams; in clouds as black as night</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thy face involve; be guiltless of the sight;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or haste more swiftly to the western main;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor let her blood the conscious daylight stain!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Oh! how severe! to fall so new a bride,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Yet blushing from the priest, in youthful pride;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When time had just matur'd each perfect grace,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And open'd all the wonders of her face!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To leave her Guilford dead to all relief,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Fond of his woe, and obstinate in grief.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Unhappy fair! whatever fancy drew,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">(Vain promis'd blessings,) vanish from her view;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">No train of cheerful days, endearing nights,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">No sweet domestic joys, and chaste delights;</l> + +<pb n="045" /><anchor id="Pg045" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Pleasures that blossom e'en from doubts and fears;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And bliss and rapture rising out of cares:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">No little Guilford, with paternal grace,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Lull'd on her knee, or smiling in her face;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who, when her dearest father shall return,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From pouring tears on her untimely urn,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Might comfort to his silver hairs impart,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And fill her place in his indulgent heart:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As where fruits fall, quick rising blossoms smile,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And the bless'd Indian of his care beguile,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">In vain these various reasons jointly press,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To blacken death, and heighten her distress;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">She, thro' th' encircling terrors darts her sight</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To the bless'd regions of eternal light,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And fills her soul with peace: to weeping friends</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her father, and her lord, she recommends;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Unmov'd herself: her foes her air survey,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And rage to see their malice thrown away.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">She soars; now nought on earth detains her care——</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But Guilford; who still struggles for his share.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Still will his form importunately rise,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Clog and retard her transport to the skies;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As trembling flames now take a feeble flight,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Now catch the brand with a returning light,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thus her soul onward from the seats above</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Falls fondly back, and kindles into love:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">At length she conquers in the doubtful field;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That heaven she seeks will be her Guilford's shield.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Now death is welcome; his approach is slow;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Tis tedious longer to expect the blow.</l> + +<pb n="046" /><anchor id="Pg046" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Oh! mortals, short of sight, who think the past</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">O'erblown misfortune still shall prove the last:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Alas! misfortunes travel in a train,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And oft in life form one perpetual chain;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Fear buries fear, and ills on ills attend,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Till life and sorrow meet one common end.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">She thinks that she has nought but death to fear,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And death is conquer'd. Worse than death is near.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her rigid trials are not yet complete;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The news arrives of her great father's fate.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">She sees his hoary head, all white with age,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A victim to th' offended monarch's rage.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How great the mercy, had she breath'd her last,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Ere the dire sentence on her father past!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">A fonder parent nature never knew;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And as his age increas'd, his fondness grew.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A parent's love ne'er better was bestow'd;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The pious daughter in her heart o'erflow'd.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And can she from all weakness still refrain?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And still the firmness of her soul maintain?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Impossible! a sigh will force its way;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">One patient tear her mortal birth betray;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">She sighs and weeps! but so she weeps and sighs,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As silent dews descend, and vapours rise.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Celestial patience! how dost thou defeat</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The foe's proud menace, and elude his hate!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">While passion takes his part, betrays our peace;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To death and torture swells each slight disgrace;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">By not opposing, thou dost ills destroy,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And wear thy conquer'd sorrows into joy.</l> + +<pb n="047" /><anchor id="Pg047" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Now she revolves within her anxious mind,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What woe still lingers in reserve behind.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Griefs rise on griefs, and she can see no bound,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">While nature lasts, and can receive a wound.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The sword is drawn; the queen to rage inclin'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">By mercy, nor by piety, confin'd.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What mercy can the zealot's heart assuage,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whose piety itself converts to rage?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">She thought, and sigh'd. And now the blood began</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To leave her beauteous cheek all cold and wan.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">New sorrow dimm'd the lustre of her eye,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And on her cheek the fading roses die.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Alas! should Guilford too—when now she's brought</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To that dire view, that precipice of thought,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">While there she trembling stands, nor dares look down,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor can recede, till heaven's decrees are known;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Cure of all ills, till now, her lord appears—</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But not to cheer her heart, and dry her tears!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Not now, as usual, like the rising day,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To chase the shadows, and the damps away:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But, like a gloomy storm, at once to sweep</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And plunge her to the bottom of the deep.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Black were his robes, dejected was his air,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His voice was frozen by his cold despair;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Slow, like a ghost, he mov'd with solemn pace;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A dying paleness sat upon his face.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Back she recoil'd, she smote her lovely breast,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her eyes the anguish of her heart confess'd;</l> + +<pb n="048" /><anchor id="Pg048" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Struck to the soul, she stagger'd with the wound,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And sunk, a breathless image, to the ground.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Thus the fair lily, when the sky's o'ercast,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">At first but shudders in the feeble blast;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But when the winds and weighty rains descend,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The fair and upright stem is forc'd to bend;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Till broke at length, its snowy leaves are shed,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And strew with dying sweets their native bed.</l> +</lg> +</div> + +<div rend="page-break-before: always"> +<index index="toc" /><index index="pdf" /> + +<head rend="text-align: center">Book II.</head> + +<quote rend="display"> +<p>Hic pietatis honos? sic nos in sceptra reponis!</p> + +<p rend="text-align: right">—<hi rend="font-variant: small-caps">Virg.</hi></p> +</quote> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her Guilford clasps her, beautiful in death,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And with a kiss recalls her fleeting breath,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To tapers thus, which by a blast expire,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A lighted taper, touch'd, restores the fire:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">She rear'd her swimming eye, and saw the light,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And Guilford too, or she had loath'd the sight:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her father's death she bore, despis'd her own,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But now she must, she will, have leave to groan:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Ah! Guilford, she began, and would have spoke;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But sobs rush'd in, and ev'ry accent broke:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Reason itself, as gusts of passion blew,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Was ruffled in the tempest, and withdrew.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">So the youth lost his image in the well,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When tears upon the yielding surface fell.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The scatter'd features slid into decay,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And spreading circles drove his face away.</l> + +<pb n="049" /><anchor id="Pg049" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To touch the soft affections, and control</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The manly temper of the bravest soul,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What with afflicted beauty can compare,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And drops of love distilling from the fair?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">It melts us down; our pains delight bestow;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And we with fondness languish o'er our woe.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">This Guilford prov'd; and, with excess of pain,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And pleasure too, did to his bosom strain</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The weeping fair: sunk deep in soft desire,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Indulg'd his love, and nurs'd the raging fire:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Then tore himself away; and, standing wide,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As fearing a relapse of fondness, cried,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With ill-dissembled grief; "My life, forbear!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">You wound your Guilford with each cruel tear:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Did you not chide my grief? repress your own;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor want compassion for yourself alone:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Have you beheld, how, from the distant main,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The thronging waves roll on, a num'rous train,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And foam, and bellow, till they reach the shore;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">There burst their noisy pride, and are no more?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thus the successive flows of human race,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Chas'd by the coming, the preceding, chase;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They sound, and swell, their haughty heads they rear;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Then fall, and flatten, break, and disappear.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Life is a forfeit we must shortly pay;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And where's the mighty lucre of a day?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Why should you mourn my fate? 'tis most unkind;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Your own you bore with an unshaken mind:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And which, can you imagine, was the dart</l> + +<pb n="050" /><anchor id="Pg050" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That drank most blood, sunk deepest in my heart?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">I cannot live without you; and my doom</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">I meet with joy, to share one common tomb.—</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And are again your tears profusely spilt!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Oh! then, my kindness blackens to my guilt;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">It foils itself, if it recall your pain;—</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Life of my life, I beg you to refrain!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The load which fate imposes, you increase;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And help Maria to destroy my peace."</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">But, oh! against himself his labour turn'd;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The more he comforted, the more she mourn'd:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Compassion swells our grief; words soft and kind</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But soothe our weakness, and dissolve the mind:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her sorrow flow'd in streams; nor hers alone,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">While that he blam'd, he yielded to his own.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Where are the smiles she wore, when she, so late,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Hail'd him great partner of the regal state;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When orient gems around her temples blaz'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And bending nations on the glory gaz'd?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">'Tis now the queen's command, they both retreat,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To weep with dignity, and mourn in state:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">She forms the decent misery with joy,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And loads with pomp the wretch she would destroy.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A spacious hall is hung with black; all light</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Shut out, and noon-day darken'd into night.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From the mid-roof a lamp depends on high,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Like a dim crescent in a clouded sky:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">It sheds a quiv'ring melancholy gloom,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Which only shows the darkness of the room.</l> + +<pb n="051" /><anchor id="Pg051" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A shining axe is on the table laid;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A dreadful sight! and glitters through the shade.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">In this sad scene the lovers are confin'd;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A scene of terrors, to a guilty mind!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A scene, that would have damp'd with rising cares,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And quite extinguish'd every love but theirs.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What can they do? They fix their mournful eyes——</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Then Guilford, thus abruptly; "I despise</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">An empire lost; I fling away the crown;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Numbers have laid that bright delusion down;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But where's the Charles, or Dioclesian where,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Could quit the blooming, wedded, weeping fair?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Oh! to dwell ever on thy lip! to stand</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In full possession of thy snowy hand!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And, thro' th' unclouded crystal of thine eye,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The heavenly treasures of thy mind to spy!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Till rapture reason happily destroys,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And my soul wanders through immortal joys!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Give me the world, and ask me, where's my bliss?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">I clasp thee to my breast, and answer, this.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And shall the grave"—He groans, and can no more;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But all her charms in silence traces o'er;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her lip, her cheek, and eye, to wonder wrought;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And, wond'ring, sees, in sad presaging thought,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From that fair neck, that world of beauty fall,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And roll along the dust, a ghastly ball!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Oh! let those tremble, who are greatly bless'd!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For who, but Guilford, could be thus distress'd?</l> + +<pb n="052" /><anchor id="Pg052" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Come hither, all you happy, all you great,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From flowery meadows, and from rooms of state;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor think I call, your pleasures to destroy,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But to refine, and to exalt your joy:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Weep not; but, smiling, fix your ardent care</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">On nobler titles than the brave or fair.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Was ever such a mournful, moving sight?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">See, if you can, by that dull, trembling light:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Now they embrace; and, mix'd with bitter woe,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Like Isis and her Thames, one stream they flow:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Now they start wide; fix'd in benumbing care,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They stiffen into statues of despair:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Now, tenderly severe, and fiercely kind,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They rush at once; they fling their cares behind,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And clasp, as if to death; new vows repeat;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And, quite wrapp'd up in love, forget their fate.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A short delusion! for the raging pain</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Returns; and their poor hearts must bleed again.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Meantime, the queen new cruelty decreed;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But, ill content that they should only bleed,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A priest is sent; who, with insidious art,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Instills his poison into Suffolk's heart;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And Guilford drank it: banging on the breast,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He from his childhood was with Rome possest.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When now the ministers of death draw nigh,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And in her dearest lord she first must die,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The subtle priest, who long had watch'd to find</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The most unguarded passes of her mind,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Bespoke her thus: "Grieve not; 'tis in your power</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Your lord to rescue from this fatal hour."</l> + +<pb n="053" /><anchor id="Pg053" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her bosom pants; she draws her breath with pain;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A sudden horror thrills through every vein;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Life seems suspended, on his words intent;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And her soul trembles for the great event.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The priest proceeds: "Embrace the faith of Rome,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And ward your own, your lord's, and father's doom."</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Ye blessed spirits! now your charge sustain;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The past was ease; now first she suffers pain.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Must she pronounce her father's death? must she</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Bid Guilford bleed?—It must not, cannot, be.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">It cannot be! But 'tis the Christian's praise,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Above impossibilities to raise</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The weakness of our nature; and deride</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of vain philosophy the boasted pride.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What though our feeble sinews scarce impart</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A moment's swiftness to the feather'd dart;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Though tainted air our vig'rous youth can break,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And a chill blast the hardy warrior shake,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Yet are we strong: hear the loud tempest roar</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From east to west, and call us weak no more;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The lightning's unresisted force proclaims</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Our might; and thunders raise our humble names;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Tis our Jehovah fills the heavens; as long</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As he shall reign Almighty, we are strong:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">We, by devotion, borrow from his throne;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And almost make Omnipotence our own:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">We force the gates of heaven, by fervent prayer;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And call forth triumph out of man's despair.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Our lovely mourner, kneeling, lifts her eyes</l> + +<pb n="054" /><anchor id="Pg054" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And bleeding heart, in silence, to the skies,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Devoutly sad—then, bright'ning, like the day,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When sudden winds sweep scatter'd clouds away,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Shining in majesty, till now unknown,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And breathing life and spirit scarce her own;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">She, rising, speaks: "If these the terms——"</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Here, Guilford, cruel Guilford, (barb'rous man!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Is this thy love?) as swift as lightning ran;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">O'erwhelm'd her with tempestuous sorrow fraught,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And stifled, in its birth, the mighty thought;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Then bursting fresh into a flood of tears,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Fierce, resolute, delirious with his fears;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His fears for her alone: he beat his breast,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And thus the fervour of his soul exprest:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">"Oh! let thy thought o'er our past converse rove,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And show one moment uninflam'd with love!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Oh! if thy kindness can no longer last,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In pity to thyself, forget the past!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Else wilt thou never, void of shame and fear,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Pronounce his doom, whom thou hast held so dear:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thou who hast took me to thy arms, and swore</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Empires were vile, and fate could give no more:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That to continue, was its utmost power,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And make the future like the present hour.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Now call a ruffian; bid his cruel sword</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Lay wide the bosom of thy worthless lord;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Transfix his heart (since you its love disclaim),</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And stain his honour with a traitor's name.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">This might perhaps be borne without remorse;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But sure a father's pangs will have their force!</l> + +<pb n="055" /><anchor id="Pg055" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Shall his good age, so near its journey's end,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Through cruel torment to the grave descend?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His shallow blood all issue at a wound,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Wash a slave's feet, and smoke upon the ground?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But he to you has ever been severe;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Then take your vengeance"—Suffolk now drew near;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Bending beneath the burden of his care;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His robes neglected, and his head was bare;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Decrepid winter, in the yearly ring,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thus slowly creeps, to meet the blooming spring:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Downward he cast a melancholy look;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thrice turn'd, to hide his grief; then faintly spoke:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">"Now deep in years, and forward in decay,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That axe can only rob me of a day;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For thee, my soul's desire! I can't refrain;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And shall my tears, my last tears, flow in vain?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When you shall know a mother's tender name,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">My heart's distress no longer will you blame."</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">At this, afar his bursting groans were heard;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The tears ran trickling down his silver beard:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He snatch'd her hand, which to his lips he prest,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And bid her plant a dagger in his breast;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Then, sinking, call'd her piety unjust,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And soil'd his hoary temples in the dust.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Hard-hearted men! will you no mercy know?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Has the queen brib'd you to distress her foe?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">O weak deserters to misfortune's part,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">By false affection thus to pierce her heart!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When she had soar'd, to let your arrows fly,</l> + +<pb n="056" /><anchor id="Pg056" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And fetch her bleeding from the middle sky!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And can her virtue, springing from the ground,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her flight recover, and disdain the wound,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When cleaving love, and human interest, bind</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The broken force of her aspiring mind;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As round the gen'rous eagle, which in vain</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Exerts her strength, the serpent wreaths his train,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her struggling wings entangles, curling plies</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His pois'nous tail, and stings her as she flies!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">While yet the blow's first dreadful weight she feels,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And with its force her resolution reels;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Large doors, unfolding with a mournful sound,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To view discover, welt'ring on the ground,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Three headless trunks, of those whose arms maintain'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And in her wars immortal glory gain'd:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The lifted axe assur'd her ready doom,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And silent mourners sadden'd all the room.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Shall I proceed; or here break off my tale;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor truths, to stagger human faith, reveal?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">She met this utmost malice of her fate</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With Christian dignity, and pious state:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The beating storm's propitious rage she blest,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And all the martyr triumph'd in her breast:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her lord and father, for a moment's space,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">She strictly folded in her soft embrace!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Then thus she spoke, while angels heard on high,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And sudden gladness smil'd along the sky:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">"Your over fondness has not mov'd my hate;</l> + +<pb n="057" /><anchor id="Pg057" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">I am well pleas'd you make my death so great;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">I joy I cannot save you; and have giv'n</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Two lives, much dearer than my own, to heaven,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">If so the queen decrees:<note place="foot"><p>Here she embraces them.</p></note>—But I have cause</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To hope my blood will satisfy the laws;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And there is mercy still, for you, in store:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With me the bitterness of death is o'er.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He shot his sting in that farewell embrace;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And all, that is to come, is joy and peace.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Then let mistaken sorrow be supprest,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor seem to envy my approaching rest."</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Then, turning to the ministers of fate,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">She, smiling, says, "My victory complete:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And tell your queen, I thank her for the blow,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And grieve my gratitude I cannot show:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A poor return I leave in England's crown,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For everlasting pleasure, and renown:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her guilt alone allays this happy hour;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her guilt,—the only vengeance in her power."</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Not Rome, untouch'd with sorrow, heard her fate;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And fierce Maria pitied her too late.</l> +</lg> +</div> +</div> + +<div rend="page-break-before: right"> +<pb n="058" /><anchor id="Pg058" /> +<index index="toc" level1="Love of Fame, the Universal Passion. In Seven Characteristical Satires." /><index index="pdf" /> + +<head rend="text-align: center">Love of Fame, the Universal Passion.</head> + +<head rend="text-align: center" type="sub">In Seven Characteristical Satires.</head> + +<quote rend="display"> +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">——Fulgente trahit constrictos gloria curru.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Non minus ignotos generosis.</l> +</lg> + +<p rend="text-align: right">—<hi rend="font-variant: small-caps">Hor.</hi></p> +</quote> + +<div> +<index index="toc" /><index index="pdf" /> +<head rend="text-align: center">Preface.</head> + +<p>These satires have been favourably received at +home and abroad. I am not conscious of the +least malevolence to any particular person through +all the characters; though some persons may be +so selfish, as to engross a general application to +themselves. A writer in polite letters should be +content with reputation; the private amusement +he finds in his compositions; the good influence +they have on his severer studies; that admission +they give him to his superiors; and the possible +good effect they may have on the public; or else +he should join to his politeness some more lucrative +qualification.</p> + +<p>But it is possible, that satire may not do much +good: men may rise in their affections to their +follies, as they do to their friends, when they are +abused by others: it is much to be feared, that + +<pb n="059" /><anchor id="Pg059" /> + +misconduct will never be chased out of the world +by satire; all therefore that is to be said for it is, +that misconduct will certainly be never chased out +of the world by satire, if no satires are written: +nor is that term unapplicable to graver compositions. +Ethics, heathen and Christian, and the +Scriptures themselves, are, in a great measure, a +satire on the weakness and iniquity of men; and +some part of that satire is in verse too: nay, in +the first ages, philosophy and poetry were the +same thing; wisdom wore no other dress: so +that, I hope, these satires will be the more easily +pardoned that misfortune by the severe. Nay, +historians themselves may be considered as satirists, +and satirists most severe; since such are +most human actions, that to relate, is to expose +them.</p> + +<p>No man can converse much in the world, but, +at what he meets with, he must either be insensible, +or grieve, or be angry, or smile. Some +passion (if we are not impassive) must be moved; +for the general conduct of mankind is by no +means a thing indifferent to a reasonable and virtuous +man. Now to smile at it, and turn it into +ridicule, I think most eligible; as it hurts ourselves +least, and gives vice and folly the greatest +offence: and that for this reason; because what +men aim at by them, is, generally, public opinion +and esteem; which truth is the subject of the following +satire; and joins them together, as several + +<pb n="060" /><anchor id="Pg060" /> + +brandies from the same root: a unity of design, +which has not, I think, in a set of satires, been +attempted before.</p> + +<p>Laughing at the misconduct of the world, will, +in a great measure, ease us of any more disagreeable +passion about it. One passion is more effectually +driven out by another, than by reason; +whatever some may teach: for to reason we owe +our passions: had we not reason, we should not +be offended at what we find amiss: and the cause +seems not to be the natural cure of any effect.</p> + +<p>Moreover, laughing satire bids the fairest for +success: the world is too proud to be fond of a +serious tutor; and when an author is in a passion, +the laugh, generally, as in conversation, turns +against him. This kind of satire only has any +delicacy in it. Of this delicacy Horace is the +best master: he appears in good humour while he +censures; and therefore his censure has the more +weight, as supposed to proceed from judgment, +not from passion. Juvenal is ever in a passion; +he has little valuable but his eloquence and morality: +the last of which I have had in my eye: +but rather for emulation, than imitation, through +my whole work.</p> + +<p>But though I comparatively condemn Juvenal, +in part of the sixth satire (where the occasion +most required it), I endeavoured to touch on his +manner; but was forced to quit it soon, as disagreeable +to the writer, and reader too. Boileau + +<pb n="061" /><anchor id="Pg061" /> + +has joined both the Roman satirists with great +success; but has too much of Juvenal in his very +serious satire on woman, which should have been +the gayest of all. An excellent critic of our own +commends Boileau's closeness, or, as he calls it, +pressness, particularly; whereas, it appears to +me, that repetition is his fault, if any fault should +be imputed to him.</p> + +<p>There are some prose satirists of the greatest +delicacy and wit; the last of which can never, or +should never, succeed without the former. An +author without it, betrays too great a contempt for +mankind, and opinion of himself, which are bad advocates +for reputation and success. What a difference +is there between the merit, if not the wit, of +Cervantes and Rabelais? The last has a particular +art of throwing a great deal of genius and +learning into frolic and jest; but the genius and +the scholar is all you can admire; you want the +gentleman to converse with in him: he is like a +criminal who receives his life for some services; +you commend, but you pardon too. Indecency +offends our pride, as men; and our unaffected +taste, as judges of composition: nature has wisely +formed us with an aversion to it; and he that +succeeds in spite of it, is,<note place="foot"><p>Val. Max.</p></note> aliena venia, quam sua +providentia tutior.</p> + +<p>Such wits, like false oracles of old (which were +wits and cheats), should set up for reputation + +<pb n="062" /><anchor id="Pg062" /> + +among the weak, in some Bœotia, which was the +land of oracles; for the wise will hold them in +contempt. Some wits, too, like oracles, deal in +ambiguities; but not with equal success: for +though ambiguities are the first excellence of an +impostor, they are the last of a wit.</p> + +<p>Some satirical wits and humourists, like their +father Lucian, laugh at every thing indiscriminately; +which betrays such a poverty of wit, as +cannot afford to part with any thing; and such a +want of virtue, as to postpone it to a jest. Such +writers encourage vice and folly, which they pretend +to combat, by setting them on an equal foot +with better things: and while they labour to +bring every thing into contempt, how can they +expect their own parts should escape? Some +French writers, particularly, are guilty of this in +matters of the last consequence; and some of our +own. They that are for lessening the true dignity +of mankind, are not sure of being successful, +but with regard to one individual in it. It is this +conduct that justly makes a wit a term of reproach.</p> + +<p>Which puts me in mind of Plato's fable of the +birth of love; one of the prettiest fables of all antiquity; +which will hold likewise with regard to +modern poetry. Love, says he, is the son of the +goddess poverty, and the god of riches: he has +from his father his daring genius; his elevation +of thought; his building castles in the air; his + +<pb n="063" /><anchor id="Pg063" /> + +prodigality; his neglect of things serious and useful; +his vain opinion of his own merit; and his +affectation of preference and distinction: from his +mother he inherits his indigence, which makes +him a constant beggar of favours; that importunity +with which he begs; his flattery; his servility; +his fear of being despised, which is inseparable +from him. This addition may be made; +viz. that poetry, like love, is a little subject to +blindness, which makes her mistake her way to +preferments and honours; that she has her satirical +quiver; and, lastly, that she retains a dutiful +admiration of her father's family; but divides +her favours, and generally lives with her mother's +relations.</p> + +<p>However, this is not necessity, but choice: +were wisdom her governess, she might have +much more of the father than the mother; especially +in such an age as this, which shows a due +passion for her charms.</p> +</div> + +<div rend="page-break-before: always"> +<index index="toc" /><index index="pdf" /> +<head rend="text-align: center">Satire I.</head> +<head rend="text-align: center" type="sub">TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF DORSET.</head> + +<quote rend="display"> +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">——Tanto major famæ sitis est, quam</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Virtutis.</l> +</lg> + +<p rend="text-align: right"><hi rend="font-variant: small-caps">Juv. Sat. X.</hi></p> +</quote> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">My verse is satire; Dorset, lend your ear,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And patronize a muse you cannot fear.</l> + +<pb n="064" /><anchor id="Pg064" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To poets sacred is a Dorset's name:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Their wonted passport through the gates of fame:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">It bribes the partial reader into praise,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And throws a glory round the shelter'd lays:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The dazzled judgment fewer faults can see,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And gives applause to Blackmore, or to me.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But you decline the mistress we pursue;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Others are fond of fame, but fame of you.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Instructive satire, true to virtue's cause!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thou shining supplement of public laws!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When flatter'd crimes of a licentious age</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Reproach our silence, and demand our rage;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When purchas'd follies, from each distant land,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Like arts, improve in Britain's skilful hand;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When the law shows her teeth, but dares not bite,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And south sea treasures are not brought to light;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When churchmen scripture for the classics quit,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Polite apostates from God's grace to wit;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When men grow great from their revenue spent,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And fly from bailiffs into parliament;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When dying sinners, to blot out their score,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Bequeath the church the leavings of a whore;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To chafe our spleen, when themes like these increase,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Shall panegyric reign, and censure cease?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Shall poesy, like law, turn wrong to right,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And dedications wash an Æthiop white,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Set up each senseless wretch for nature's boast,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">On whom praise shines, as trophies on a post?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Shall fun'ral eloquence her colours spread,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And scatter roses on the wealthy dead?</l> + +<pb n="065" /><anchor id="Pg065" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Shall authors smile on such illustrious days,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And satirize with nothing—but their praise?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Why slumbers Pope, who leads the tuneful train,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor hears that virtue, which he loves, complain?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Donne, Dorset, Dryden, Rochester, are dead,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And guilt's chief foe, in Addison, is fled;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Congreve, who, crown'd with laurels, fairly won,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Sits smiling at the goal, while others run,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He will not write; and (more provoking still!)</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Ye gods! he will not write, and Mævius will.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Doubly distrest, what author shall we find</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Discreetly daring, and severely kind,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The courtly<note place="foot"><p>Horace.</p></note> Roman's shining path to tread,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And sharply smile prevailing folly dead?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Will no superior genius snatch the quill,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And save me, on the brink, from writing ill?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Tho' vain the strife, I'll strive my voice to raise,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What will not men attempt for sacred praise?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The love of praise, howe'er conceal'd by art,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Reigns, more or less, and glows, in ev'ry heart:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The proud, to gain it, toils on toils endure;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The modest shun it, but to make it sure.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">O'er globes, and sceptres, now on thrones it swells;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Now, trims the midnight lamp in college cells:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Tis tory, whig; it plots, prays, preaches, pleads,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Harangues in senates, squeaks in masquerades.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Here, to Steele's humour makes a bold pretence</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">There, bolder, aims at Pulteney's eloquence.</l> + +<pb n="066" /><anchor id="Pg066" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">It aids the dancer's heel, the writer's head,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And heaps the plain with mountains of the dead;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor ends with life; but nods in sable plumes,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Adorns our hearse, and flatters on our tombs.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">What is not proud? The pimp is proud to see</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">So many like himself in high degree:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The whore is proud her beauties are the dread</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of peevish virtue, and the marriage-bed;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And the brib'd cuckold, like crown'd victims born</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To slaughter, glories in his gilded horn.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Some go to church, proud humbly to repent,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And come back much more guilty than they went:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">One way they look, another way they steer,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Pray to the gods, but would have mortals hear;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And when their sins they set sincerely down,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They'll find that their religion has been one.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Others with wishful eyes on glory look,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When they have got their picture tow'rds a book;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or pompous title, like a gaudy sign,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Meant to betray dull sots to wretched wine.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">If at his title T—— had dropt his quill,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">T—— might have pass'd for a great genius still.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But T——, alas! (excuse him, if you can)</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Is now a scribbler, who was once a man.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Imperious some a classic fame demand,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For heaping up, with a laborious hand,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A waggon-load of meanings for one word,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">While A's deposed, and B with pomp restor'd.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Some, for renown, on scraps of learning dote,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And think they grow immortal as they quote.</l> + +<pb n="067" /><anchor id="Pg067" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To patch-work learn'd quotations are allied;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Both strive to make our poverty our pride.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">On glass how witty is a noble peer!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Did ever diamond cost a man so dear?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Polite diseases make some idiots vain,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Which, if unfortunately well, they feign.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Of folly, vice, disease, men proud we see;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And (stranger still!) of blockheads' flattery;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whose praise defames; as if a fool should mean,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">By spitting on your face, to make it clean.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Nor is't enough all hearts are swoln with pride,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her power is mighty, as her realm is wide.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What can she not perform? The love of fame</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Made bold Alphonsus his Creator blame:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Empedocles hurl'd down the burning steep:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And (stronger still!) made Alexander weep.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nay, it holds Delia from a second bed,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Tho' her lov'd lord has four half months been dead.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">This passion with a pimple have I seen</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Retard a cause, and give a judge the spleen.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">By this inspir'd (O ne'er to be forgot!)</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Some lords have learn'd to spell, and some to knot.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">It makes Globose a speaker in the house;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He hems, and is deliver'd of his mouse.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">It makes dear self on well-bred tongues prevail,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And I the little hero of each tale.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Sick with the love of fame, what throngs pour in,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Unpeople court, and leave the senate thin!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">My glowing subject seems but just begun,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And, chariot-like, I kindle as I run.</l> + +<pb n="068" /><anchor id="Pg068" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Aid me, great Homer! with thy epic rules,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To take a catalogue of British fools.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Satire! had I thy Dorset's force divine,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A knave or fool should perish in each line;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Tho' for the first all Westminster should plead,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And for the last, all Gresham intercede.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Begin. Who first the catalogue shall grace?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To quality belongs the highest place.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">My lord comes forward; forward let him come!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Ye vulgar! at your peril, give him room:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He stands for fame on his forefathers' feet,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">By heraldry prov'd valiant or discreet.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With what a decent pride he throws his eyes</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Above the man by three descents less wise!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">If virtues at his noble hands you crave,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">You bid him raise his fathers from the grave.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Men should press forward in fame's glorious chase;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nobles look backward, and so lose the race.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Let high birth triumph! What can be more great?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nothing—but merit in a low estate.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To virtue's humblest son let none prefer</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Vice, though descended from the conqueror.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Shall men, like figures, pass for high, or base,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Slight, or important, only by their place?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Titles are marks of honest men, and wise;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The fool, or knave, that wears a title, lies.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">They that on glorious ancestors enlarge,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Produce their debt, instead of their discharge.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Dorset, let those who proudly boast their line,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Like thee, in worth hereditary, shine.</l> + +<pb n="069" /><anchor id="Pg069" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Vain as false greatness is, the muse must own</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">We want not fools to buy that Bristol stone;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Mean sons of earth, who, on a south-sea tide</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of full success, swarm into wealth and pride;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Knock with a purse of gold at Anstis' gate,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And beg to be descended from the great.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">When men of infamy to grandeur soar,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They light a torch to show their shame the more.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Those governments which curb not evils, cause!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And a rich knave's a libel on our laws.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Belus with solid glory will be crown'd;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He buys no phantom, no vain empty sound;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But builds himself a name; and, to be great,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Sinks in a quarry an immense estate!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In cost and grandeur, Chandos he'll outdo;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And Burlington, thy taste is not so true.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The pile is finish'd! ev'ry toil is past;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And full perfection is arriv'd at last;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When, lo! my lord to some small corner runs,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And leaves state-rooms to strangers and to duns.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The man who builds, and wants wherewith to pay,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Provides a home from which to run away.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In Britain, what is many a lordly seat,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But a discharge in full for an estate?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">In smaller compass lies Pygmalion's fame;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Not domes, but antique statues, are his flame:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Not Fountaine's self more Parian charms has known,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor is good Pembroke more in love with stone.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The bailiffs come (rude men profanely bold!)</l> + +<pb n="070" /><anchor id="Pg070" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And bid him turn his Venus into gold.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">"No, sirs," he cries; "I'll sooner rot in jail;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Shall Grecian arts be truck'd for English bail?"</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Such heads might make their very busto's laugh:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His daughter starves; but<note place="foot"><p>A famous statue.</p></note> Cleopatra's safe.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Men, overloaded with a large estate,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">May spill their treasure in a nice conceit:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The rich may be polite; but, oh! 'tis sad</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To say you're curious, when we swear you're mad.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">By your revenue measure your expense;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And to your funds and acres join your sense.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">No man is bless'd by accident or guess;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">True wisdom is the price of happiness:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Yet few without long discipline are sage;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And our youth only lays up sighs for age.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But how, my muse, canst thou resist so long</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The bright temptation of the courtly throng,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thy most inviting theme? The court affords</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Much food for satire;—it abounds in lords.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">"What lords are those saluting with a grin?"</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">One is just out, and one as lately in.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">"How comes it then to pass we see preside</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">On both their brows an equal share of pride?"</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Pride, that impartial passion, reigns through all,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Attends our glory, nor deserts our fall.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As in its home it triumphs in high place,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And frowns a haughty exile in disgrace.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Some lords it bids admire their wands so white,</l> + +<pb n="071" /><anchor id="Pg071" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Which bloom, like Aaron's, to their ravish'd sight:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Some lords it bids resign; and turn their wands,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Like Moses', into serpents in their hands.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">These sink, as divers, for renown; and boast,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With pride inverted, of their honours lost.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But against reason sure 'tis equal sin,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To boast of merely being out, or in.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">What numbers here, through odd ambition, strive</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To seem the most transported things alive!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As if by joy, desert was understood;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And all the fortunate were wise and good.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Hence aching bosoms wear a visage gay,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And stifled groans frequent the ball and play.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Completely drest by<note place="foot"><p>A famous tailor.</p></note> Monteuil, and grimace,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They take their birth-day suit, and public face:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Their smiles are only part of what they wear,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Put off at night, with Lady B——'s hair.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What bodily fatigue is half so bad?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With anxious care they labour to be glad.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">What numbers, here, would into fame advance,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Conscious of merit, in the coxcomb's dance;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The tavern! park! assembly! mask! and play!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Those dear destroyers of the tedious day!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That wheel of fops! that saunter of the town!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Call it diversion, and the pill goes down.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Fools grin on fools, and, stoic-like, support,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Without one sigh, the pleasures of a court.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Courts can give nothing, to the wise and good,</l> + +<pb n="072" /><anchor id="Pg072" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But scorn of pomp, and love of solitude.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">High stations tumult, but not bliss, create:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">None think the great unhappy, but the great:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Fools gaze, and envy; envy darts a sting,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Which makes a swain as wretched as a king.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">I envy none their pageantry and show;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">I envy none the gilding of their woe.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Give me, indulgent gods! with mind serene,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And guiltless heart, to range the sylvan scene;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">No splendid poverty, no smiling care,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">No well-bred hate, or servile grandeur, there:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">There pleasing objects useful thought suggest;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The sense is ravish'd, and the soul is blest;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">On every thorn delightful wisdom grows;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In every rill a sweet instruction flows.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But some, untaught, o'erhear the whisp'ring rill,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In spite of sacred leisure, blockheads still;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor shoots up folly to a nobler bloom</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In her own native soil, the drawing-room.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The squire is proud to see his coursers strain,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or well-breath'd beagles sweep along the plain.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Say, dear Hippolitus, (whose drink is ale,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whose erudition is a Christmas tale,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whose mistress is saluted with a smack,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And friend receiv'd with thumps upon the back,)</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When thy sleek gelding nimbly leaps the mound,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And Ringwood opens on the tainted ground,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Is that thy praise? Let Ringwood's fame alone;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Just Ringwood leaves each animal his own;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor envies, when a gipsy you commit,</l> + +<pb n="073" /><anchor id="Pg073" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And shake the clumsy bench with country wit;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When you the dullest of dull things have said,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And then ask pardon for the jest you made.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Here breathe, my muse! and then thy task renew:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Ten thousand fools unsung are still in view.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Fewer lay-atheists made by church debates;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Fewer great beggars fam'd for large estates;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Ladies, whose love is constant as the wind;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Cits, who prefer a guinea to mankind;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Fewer grave lords to Scrope discreetly bend;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And fewer shocks a statesman gives his friend.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Is there a man of an eternal vein,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who lulls the town in winter with his strain,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">At Bath, in summer, chants the reigning lass,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And sweetly whistles, as the waters pass?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Is there a tongue, like Delia's o'er her cup,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That runs for ages without winding up?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Is there, whom his tenth epic mounts to fame?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Such, and such only, might exhaust my theme:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor would these heroes of the task be glad;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For who can write so fast as men run mad?</l> +</lg> +</div> + +<div rend="page-break-before: always"> +<index index="toc" /><index index="pdf" /> +<head rend="text-align: center">Satire II</head> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">My muse, proceed, and reach thy destin'd end;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Though toils and danger the bold task attend.</l> + +<pb n="074" /><anchor id="Pg074" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Heroes and gods make other poems fine;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Plain satire calls for sense in every line:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Then, to what swarms thy faults I dare expose!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">All friends to vice and folly are thy foes.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When such the foe, a war eternal wage;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Tis most ill-nature to repress thy rage:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And if these strains some nobler muse excite,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">I'll glory in the verse I did not write.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">So weak are human kind by nature made,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or to such weakness by their vice betray'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Almighty vanity! to thee they owe</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Their zest of pleasure, and their balm of woe.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thou, like the sun, all colours dost contain,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Varying, like rays of light, on drops of rain.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For every soul finds reasons to be proud,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Tho' hiss'd and hooted by the pointing crowd.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Warm in pursuit of foxes, and renown,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2"><note place="foot"><p>This refers to the first satire.</p></note>Hippolitus demands the sylvan crown;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But Florio's fame, the product of a shower,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Grows in his garden, an illustrious flower!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Why teems the earth? Why melt the vernal skies?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Why shines the sun? To make<note place="foot"><p>The name of a tulip.</p></note> Paul Diack rise.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From morn to night has Florio gazing stood,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And wonder'd how the gods could be so good;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What shape! what hue! was ever nymph so fair!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He dotes! he dies! he too is rooted there.</l> + +<pb n="075" /><anchor id="Pg075" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">O solid bliss! which nothing can destroy,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Except a cat, bird, snail, or idle boy.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In fame's full bloom lies Florio down at night,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And wakes next day a most inglorious wight;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The tulip's dead! See thy fair sister's fate,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">O C——! and be kind ere 'tis too late.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Nor are those enemies I mention'd, all;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Beware, O florist, thy ambition's fall.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A friend of mine indulg'd this noble flame;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A quaker serv'd him, Adam was his name;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To one lov'd tulip oft the master went,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Hung o'er it, and whole days in rapture spent;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But came, and miss'd it, one ill-fated hour:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He rag'd! he roar'd! "What demon cropt my flower?"</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Serene, quoth Adam, "Lo! 'twas crusht by me;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Fall'n is the Baal to which thou bow'dst thy knee."</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">But all men want amusement; and what crime</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In such a paradise to fool their time?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">None: but why proud of this? to fame they soar;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">We grant they're idle, if they'll ask no more.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">We smile at florists, we despise their joy,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And think their hearts enamour'd of a toy:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But are those wiser whom we most admire,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Survey with envy, and pursue with fire?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What's he who sighs for wealth, or fame, or power?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Another Florio doting on a flower;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A short liv'd flower; and which has often sprung</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From sordid arts, as Florio's out of dung.</l> + +<pb n="076" /><anchor id="Pg076" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With what, O Codrus! is thy fancy smit?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The flower of learning, and the bloom of wit.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The gaudy shelves with crimson bindings glow,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And Epictetus is a perfect beau.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How fit for thee! bound up in crimson too,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Gilt, and, like them, devoted to the view!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thy books are furniture. Methinks 'tis hard</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That science should be purchas'd by the yard;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And Tonson, turn'd upholsterer, send home</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The gilded leather to fit up thy room.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">If not to some peculiar end design'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Study's the specious trifling of the mind;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or is at best a secondary aim,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A chase for sport alone, and not for game.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">If so, sure they who the mere volume prize,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But love the thicket where the quarry lies.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">On buying books Lorenzo long was bent,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But found at length that it reduc'd his rent;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His farms were flown; when, lo! a sale comes on,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A choice collection! what is to be done?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He sells his last; for he the whole will buy;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Sells ev'n his house; nay, wants whereon to lie:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">So high the gen'rous ardour of the man</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For Romans, Greeks, and Orientals ran.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When terms were drawn, and brought him by the clerk,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Lorenzo sign'd the bargain—with his mark.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Unlearned men of books assume the care,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As eunuchs are the guardians of the fair.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Not in his authors' liveries alone</l> + +<pb n="077" /><anchor id="Pg077" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Is Codrus' erudite ambition shown:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Editions various, at high prices bought,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Inform the world what Codrus would be thought;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And to his cost another must succeed</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To pay a sage, who says that he can read;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who titles knows, and indexes has seen;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But leaves to Chesterfield what lies between;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of pompous books who shuns the proud expense,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And humbly is contented with their sense.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">O Stanhope, whose accomplishments make good</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The promise of a long illustrious blood,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In arts and manners eminently grac'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The strictest honour! and the finest taste!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Accept this verse; if satire can agree</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With so consummate a humanity.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">By your example would Hilario mend,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How would it grace the talents of my friend,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who, with the charms of his own genius smit,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Conceives all virtues are compris'd in wit!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But time his fervent petulance may cool;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For though he is a wit, he is no fool.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In time he'll learn to use, not waste, his sense;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor make a frailty of an excellence.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He spares nor friend, nor foe; but calls to mind,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Like doomsday, all the faults of all mankind.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">What though wit tickles? tickling is unsafe,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">If still 'tis painful while it makes us laugh.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who, for the poor renown of being smart,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Would leave a sting within a brother's heart?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Parts may be prais'd, good-nature is ador'd;</l> + +<pb n="078" /><anchor id="Pg078" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Then draw your wit as seldom as your sword;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And never on the weak; or you'll appear</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As there no hero, no great genius here.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As in smooth oil the razor best is whet,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">So wit is by politeness sharpest set:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Their want of edge from their offence is seen;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Both pain us least when exquisitely keen.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The fame men give is for the joy they find;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Dull is the jester, when the joke's unkind.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Since Marcus, doubtless, thinks himself a wit,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To pay my compliment, what place so fit?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His most facetious<note place="foot"><p>Letters sent to the author, signed Marcus.</p></note>letters came to hand,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Which my first satire sweetly reprimand:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">If that a just offence to Marcus gave,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Say, Marcus, which art thou, a fool, or knave?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For all but such with caution I forbore;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That thou wast either, I ne'er knew before:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">I know thee now, both what thou art, and who;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">No mask so good, but Marcus must shine through:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">False names are vain, thy lines their author tell;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thy best concealment had been writing well:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But thou a brave neglect of fame hast shown,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of others' fame, great genius! and thy own.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Write on unheeded; and this maxim know,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The man who pardons, disappoints his foe.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">In malice to proud wits, some proudly lull</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Their peevish reason; vain of being dull;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When some home joke has stung their solemn souls,</l> + +<pb n="079" /><anchor id="Pg079" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In vengeance they determine to be fools;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Through spleen, that little nature gave, make less,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Quite zealous in the way of heaviness;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To lumps inanimate a fondness take;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And disinherit sons that are awake.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">These, when their utmost venom they would spit,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Most barbarously tell you—"He's a wit."</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Poor negroes, thus, to show their burning spite</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To cacodemons, say, they're dev'lish white.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Lampridius, from the bottom of his breast,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Sighs o'er one child; but triumphs in the rest.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How just his grief! one carries in his head</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A less proportion of the father's lead;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And is in danger, without special grace,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To rise above a justice of the peace.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The dunghill breed of men a diamond scorn,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And feel a passion for a grain of corn;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Some stupid, plodding, monkey-loving wight,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who wins their hearts by knowing black from white,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who with much pains, exerting all his sense,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Can range aright his shillings, pounds, and pence.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The booby father craves a booby son;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And by heaven's blessing thinks himself undone.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Wants of all kinds are made to fame a plea;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">One learns to lisp; another not to see:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Miss D——, tottering, catches at your hand:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Was ever thing so pretty born to stand?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whilst these, what nature gave, disown, through pride,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Others affect what nature has denied;</l> + +<pb n="080" /><anchor id="Pg080" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What nature has denied, fools will pursue,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As apes are ever walking upon two.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Crassus, a grateful sage, our awe and sport!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Supports grave forms; for forms the sage support.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He hems; and cries, with an important air,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">"If yonder clouds withdraw it will be fair:"</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Then quotes the Stagyrite, to prove it true;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And adds, "The learn'd delight in something new."</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Is't not enough the blockhead scarce can read,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But must he wisely look, and gravely plead?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As far a formalist from wisdom sits,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In judging eyes, as libertines from wits.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">These subtle wights (so blind are mortal men,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Though satire couch them with her keenest pen)</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For ever will hang out a solemn face,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To put off nonsense with a better grace:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As pedlers with some hero's head make bold,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Illustrious mark! where pins are to be sold.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What's the bent brow, or neck in thought reclin'd?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The body's wisdom to conceal the mind.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A man of sense can artifice disdain;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As men of wealth may venture to go plain;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And be this truth eternal ne'er forgot,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Solemnity's a cover for a sot.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">I find the fool, when I behold the screen;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For 'tis the wise man's interest to be seen.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Hence, Chesterfield, that openness of heart,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And just disdain for that poor mimic art;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Hence (manly praise!) that manner nobly free,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Which all admire, and I commend, in thee.</l> + +<pb n="081" /><anchor id="Pg081" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With generous scorn how oft hast thou survey'd</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of court and town the noontide masquerade;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Where swarms of knaves the vizor quite disgrace,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And hide secure behind a naked face?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Where nature's end of language is declin'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And men talk only to conceal the mind;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Where gen'rous hearts the greatest hazard run,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And he who trusts a brother, is undone?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">These all their care expend on outward show</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For wealth and fame; for fame alone, the beau.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of late at White's was young Florello seen!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How blank his look! how discompos'd his mien!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">So hard it proves in grief sincere to feign!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Sunk were his spirits; for his coat was plain.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Next day his breast regain'd its wonted peace;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His health was mended with a silver lace.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A curious artist, long inur'd to toils</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of gentler sort, with combs, and fragrant oils,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whether by chance, or by some god inspir'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">So touch'd his curls, his mighty soul was fir'd.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The well swoln ties an equal homage claim,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And either shoulder has its share of fame;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His sumptuous watch-case, tho' conceal'd it lies,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Like a good conscience, solid joy supplies.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He only thinks himself (so far from vain!)</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Stanhope in wit, in breeding Deloraine.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whene'er, by seeming chance, he throws his eye</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">On mirrors that reflect his Tyrian dye,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With how sublime a transport leaps his heart!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But fate ordains that dearest friends must part.</l> + +<pb n="082" /><anchor id="Pg082" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In active measures, brought from France, he wheels,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And triumphs, conscious of his learned heels.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">So have I seen, on some bright summer's day,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A calf of genius, debonnair and gay,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Dance on the bank, as if inspir'd by fame,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Fond of the pretty fellow in the stream.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Morose is sunk with shame, whene'er surpris'd</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In linen clean, or peruke undisguis'd.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">No sublunary chance his vestments fear;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Valu'd, like leopards, as their spots appear.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A fam'd surtout he wears, which once was blue,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And his foot swims in a capacious shoe;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">One day his wife (for who can wives reclaim?)</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Levell'd her barb'rous needle at his fame:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But open force was vain; by night she went,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And while he slept, surpris'd the darling rent:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Where yawn'd the frieze is now become a doubt;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And glory, at one entrance, quite shut out.<note place="foot"><p>Milton.</p></note></l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">He scorns Florello, and Florello him;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">This hates the filthy creature; that, the prim:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thus, in each other, both these fools despise</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Their own dear selves, with undiscerning eyes;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Their methods various, but alike their aim;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The sloven and the fopling are the same.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Ye whigs and tories! thus it fares with you,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When party rage too warmly you pursue;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Then both club nonsense, and impetuous pride,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And folly joins whom sentiments divide.</l> + +<pb n="083" /><anchor id="Pg083" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">You vent your spleen, as monkeys, when they pass,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Scratch at the mimic monkey in the glass;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">While both are one: and henceforth be it known,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Fools of both sides shall stand for fools alone.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">"But who art thou?" methinks Florello cries;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">"Of all thy species art thou only wise?"</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Since smallest things can give our sins a twitch,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As crossing straws retard a passing witch,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Florello, thou my monitor shalt be;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">I'll conjure thus some profit out of thee.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">O thou myself! abroad our counsels roam,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And, like ill husbands, take no care at home:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thou too art wounded with the common dart,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And love of fame lies throbbing at thy heart;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And what wise means to gain it hast thou chose?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Know, fame and fortune both are made of prose.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Is thy ambition sweating for a rhyme,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thou unambitious fool, at this late time?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">While I a moment name, a moment's past;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">I'm nearer death in this verse, than the last:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What then is to be done? Be wise with speed;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A fool at forty is a fool indeed.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And what so foolish as the chance of fame?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How vain the prize! how impotent our aim!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For what are men who grasp at praise sublime,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But bubbles on the rapid stream of time,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That rise, and fall, that swell, and are no more,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Born, and forgot, ten thousand in an hour?</l> +</lg> +</div> + +<div rend="page-break-before: always"> +<index index="toc" /><index index="pdf" /> +<pb n="084" /><anchor id="Pg084" /> + +<head rend="text-align: center">Satire III.</head> +<head rend="text-align: center" type="sub">To the Right Honorable Mr. Dodington.</head> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Long, Dodington, in debt, I long have sought</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To ease the burthen of my grateful thought;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And now a poet's gratitude you see;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Grant him two favours, and he'll ask for three:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For whose the present glory, or the gain?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">You give protection, I a worthless strain.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">You love and feel the poet's sacred flame;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And know the basis of a solid fame;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Tho' prone to like, yet cautious to commend,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">You read with all the malice of a friend;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor favour my attempts that way alone,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But, more to raise my verse, conceal your own.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">An ill-tim'd modesty! turn ages o'er,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When wanted Britain bright examples more?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her learning, and her genius too, decays,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And dark and cold are her declining days;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As if men now were of another cast,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They meanly live on alms of ages past.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Men still are men; and they who boldly dare,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Shall triumph o'er the sons of cold despair;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or, if they fail, they justly still take place</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of such who run in debt for their disgrace;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who borrow much, then fairly make it known,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And damn it with improvements of their own.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">We bring some new materials, and what's old</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">New cast with care, and in no borrow'd mould;</l> + +<pb n="085" /><anchor id="Pg085" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Late times the verse may read, if these refuse;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And from sour critics vindicate the muse.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">"Your work is long," the critics cry. "Tis true,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And lengthens still, to take in fools like you:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Shorten my labour, if its length you blame;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For, grow but wise, you rob me of my game;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As hunted hags, who, while the dogs pursue,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Renounce their four legs, and start up on two.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Like the bold bird upon the banks of Nile,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That picks the teeth of the dire crocodile,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Will I enjoy, (dread feast!) the critic's rage,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And with the fell destroyer feed my page.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For what ambitious fools are more to blame,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Than those who thunder in the critic's name?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Good authors damn'd, have their revenge in this,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To see what wretches gain the praise they miss.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Balbutius, muffled in his sable cloak,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Like an old Druid from his hollow oak,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As ravens solemn, and as boding, cries,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">"Ten thousand worlds for the three unities!"</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Ye doctors sage, who thro' Parnassus teach,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or quit the tub, or practise what you preach.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">One judges as the weather dictates; right</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The poem is at noon, and wrong at night:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Another judges by a surer gage,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">An author's principles, or parentage;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Since his great ancestors in Flanders fell,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The poem doubtless must be written well.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Another judges by the writer's look;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Another judges, for he bought the book;</l> + +<pb n="086" /><anchor id="Pg086" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Some judge, their knack of judging wrong to keep;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Some judge, because it is too soon to sleep.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Thus all will judge, and with one single aim,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To gain themselves, not give the writer, fame.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The very best ambitiously advise,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Half to serve you, and half to pass for wise.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Critics on verse, as squibs on triumphs wait,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Proclaim the glory, and augment the state;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Hot, envious, noisy, proud, the scribbling fry</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Burn, hiss, and bounce, waste paper, stink, and die.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Rail on, my friends! what more my verse can crown</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Than Compton's smile, and your obliging frown?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Not all on books their criticism waste:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The genius of a dish some justly taste,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And eat their way to fame; with anxious thought</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The salmon is refus'd, the turbot bought.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Impatient art rebukes the sun's delay,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And bids December yield the fruits of May;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Their various cares in one great point combine</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The business of their lives, that is—to dine.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Half of their precious day they give the feast;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And to a kind digestion spare the rest.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Apicius, here, the taster of the town,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Feeds twice a week, to settle their renown.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">These worthies of the palate guard with care</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The sacred annals of their bills of fare;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In those choice books their panegyrics read,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And scorn the creatures that for hunger feed.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">If man by feeding well commences great,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Much more the worm to whom that man is meat.</l> + +<pb n="087" /><anchor id="Pg087" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To glory some advance a lying claim,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thieves of renown, and pilferers of fame:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Their front supplies what their ambition lacks;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They know a thousand lords, behind their backs.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Cottil is apt to wink upon a peer,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When turn'd away, with a familiar leer;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And Harvey's eyes, unmercifully keen,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Have murder'd fops, by whom she ne'er was seen.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Niger adopts stray libels; wisely prone</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To covet shame still greater than his own.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Bathyllus, in the winter of threescore,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Belies his innocence, and keeps a whore.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Absence of mind Brabantio turns to fame,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Learns to mistake, nor knows his brother's name;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Has words and thoughts in nice disorder set,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And takes a memorandum to forget.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thus vain, not knowing what adorns, or blots,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Men forge the patents, that create them sots.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">As love of pleasure into pain betrays,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">So most grow infamous thro' love of praise.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But whence for praise can such an ardour rise,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When those, who bring that incense, we despise?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For such the vanity of great and small,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Contempt goes round, and all men laugh at all.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Nor can ev'n satire blame them; for, 'tis true,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They have most ample cause for what they do.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">O fruitful Britain! doubtless thou wast meant</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A nurse of fools, to stock the continent.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Tho' Phœbus and the Nine for ever mow,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Rank folly underneath the scythe will grow.</l> + +<pb n="088" /><anchor id="Pg088" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The plenteous harvest calls me forward still,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Till I surpass in length my lawyer's bill;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A Welsh descent, which well paid heralds damn;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or, longer still, a Dutchman's epigram.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When, cloy'd, in fury I throw down my pen,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In comes a coxcomb, and I write again.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">See Tityrus, with merriment possest,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Is burst with laughter, ere he hears the jest:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What need he stay? for when the joke is o'er,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His teeth will be no whiter than before.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Is there of these, ye fair! so great a dearth,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That you need purchase monkeys for your mirth?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Some, vain of paintings, bid the world admire;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of houses some; nay, houses that they hire:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Some (perfect wisdom!) of a beauteous wife;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And boast, like Cordeliers, a scourge for life.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Sometimes, thro' pride, the sexes change their airs;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">My lord has vapours, and my lady swears;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Then, stranger still! on turning of the wind,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">My lord wears breeches, and my lady's kind.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">To show the strength, and infamy of pride,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">By all 'tis follow'd, and by all denied.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What numbers are there, which at once pursue</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Praise, and the glory to contemn it, too!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Vincenna knows self-praise betrays to shame,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And therefore lays a stratagem for fame;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Makes his approach in modesty's disguise,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To win applause; and takes it by surprise.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">"To err," says he, "in small things, is my fate."</l> + +<pb n="089" /><anchor id="Pg089" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">You know your answer, he's exact in great.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">"My style," says he, "is rude and full of faults."</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But oh! what sense! what energy of thoughts!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That he wants algebra, he must confess;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But not a soul to give our arms success.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">"Ah; that's a hit indeed," Vincenna cries;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">"But who in heat of blood was ever wise?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">I own 'twas wrong, when thousands call'd me back,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To make that hopeless, ill-advis'd attack;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">All say, 'twas madness; nor dare I deny;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Sure never fool so well deserv'd to die."</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Could this deceive in others, to be free,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">It ne'er, Vincenna, could deceive in thee;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whose conduct is a comment to thy tongue,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">So clear, the dullest cannot take thee wrong.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thou on one sleeve wilt thy revenues wear;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And haunt the court, without a prospect there.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Are these expedients for renown? Confess</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thy little self, that I may scorn thee less.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Be wise, Vincenna, and the court forsake;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Our fortunes there, nor thou, nor I, shall make.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Ev'n men of merit, ere their point they gain,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In hardy service make a long campaign;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Most manfully besiege their patron's gate,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And oft repuls'd, as oft attack the great</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With painful art, and application warm,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And take, at last, some little place by storm;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Enough to keep two shoes on Sunday clean,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And starve upon discreetly, in Sheer Lane.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Already this thy fortune can afford;</l> + +<pb n="090" /><anchor id="Pg090" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Then starve without the favour of my lord.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Tis true, great fortunes some great men confer;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But often, ev'n in doing right, they err:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From caprice, not from choice, their favours come;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They give, but think it toil to know to whom:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The man that's nearest, yawning, they advance:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Tis inhumanity to bless by chance.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">If merit sues, and greatness is so loth</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To break its downy trance, I pity both.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">I grant at court, Philander, at his need,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">(Thanks to his lovely wife) finds friends indeed.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of every charm and virtue she's possest:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Philander! thou art exquisitely blest;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The public envy! Now then, 'tis allow'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The man is found, who may be justly proud:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But, see! how sickly is ambition's taste!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Ambition feeds on trash, and loaths a feast;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For, lo! Philander, of reproach afraid,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In secret loves his wife, but keeps her maid.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Some nymphs sell reputation; others buy;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And love a market where the rates run high:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Italian music's sweet, because 'tis dear;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Their vanity is tickled, not their ear:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Their taste would lessen, if the prices fell,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And Shakespeare's wretched stuff do quite as well;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Away the disenchanted fair would throng,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And own that English is their mother tongue.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">To show how much our northern tastes refine,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Imported nymphs our peeresses outshine;</l> + +<pb n="091" /><anchor id="Pg091" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">While tradesmen starve, these Philomels are gay;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For generous lords had rather give than pay.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Behold the masquerade's fantastic scene!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The legislature join'd with Drury Lane!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When Britain calls, th' embroider'd patriots run,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And serve their country—if the dance is done.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">"Are we not then allow'd to be polite?"</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Yes, doubtless; but first set your notions right.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Worth, of politeness, is the needful ground;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Where that is wanting, this can ne'er be found.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Triflers not e'en in trifles can excel;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Tis solid bodies only polish well.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Great, chosen prophet! For these latter days,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To turn a willing world from righteous ways!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Well, Heydegger, dost thou thy master serve;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Well has he seen his servant should not starve.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thou to his name hast splendid temples rais'd;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In various forms of worship seen him prais'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Gaudy devotion, like a Roman, shown,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And sung sweet anthems in a tongue unknown.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Inferior off'rings to thy god of vice</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Are duly paid, in fiddles, cards, and dice;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thy sacrifice supreme, a hundred maids!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That solemn rite of midnight masquerades!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">If maids the quite exhausted town denies,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A hundred heads of cuckolds may suffice.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thou smil'st, well pleas'd with the converted land,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To see the fifty churches at a stand.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And that thy minister may never fail,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But what thy hand has planted still prevail,</l> + +<pb n="092" /><anchor id="Pg092" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of minor prophets a succession sure</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The propagation of thy zeal secure.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">See commons, peers, and ministers of state,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In solemn council met, and deep debate!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What godlike enterprise is taking birth?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What wonder opens on th' expecting earth?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Tis done! with loud applause the council rings!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Fix'd is the fate of whores and fiddle-strings!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Tho' bold these truths, thou, muse, with truths like these,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Wilt none offend, whom 'tis a praise to please:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Let others flatter to be flatter'd, thou,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Like just tribunals, bend an awful brow.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How terrible it were to common sense,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To write a satire, which gave none offence!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And, since from life I take the draughts you see,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">If men dislike them, do they censure me?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The fool, and knave, 'tis glorious to offend,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And godlike an attempt the world to mend;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The world, where lucky throws to blockheads fall,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Knaves know the game, and honest men pay all.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">How hard for real worth to gain its price!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A man shall make his fortune in a trice,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">If blest with pliant, tho' but slender, sense,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Feign'd modesty, and real impudence:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A supple knee, smooth tongue, an easy grace,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A curse within, a smile upon his face;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A beauteous sister, or convenient wife,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Are prizes in the lottery of life;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Genius and virtue they will soon defeat,</l> + +<pb n="093" /><anchor id="Pg093" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And lodge you in the bosom of the great.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To merit, is but to provide a pain</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For men's refusing what you ought to gain.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">May, Dodington, this maxim fail in you,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whom my presaging thoughts already view</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">By Walpole's conduct fir'd, and friendship grac'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Still higher in your prince's favour plac'd;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And lending, here, those awful councils aid,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Which you, abroad, with such success obey'd:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Bear this from one, who holds your friendship dear;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What most we wish, with ease we fancy near.</l> +</lg> +</div> + +<div rend="page-break-before: always"> +<index index="toc" /><index index="pdf" /> +<head rend="text-align: center">Satire IV.</head> +<head rend="text-align: center" type="sub">To the Right Honourable Sir Spencer Compton.</head> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Round some fair tree th' ambitious woodbine grows,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And breathes her sweets on the supporting boughs;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">So sweet the verse, th' ambitious verse, should be,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">(O! pardon mine) that hopes support from thee;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thee, Compton, born o'er senates to preside,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Their dignity to raise, their councils guide;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Deep to discern, and widely to survey,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And kingdoms' fates, without ambition, weigh;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of distant virtues nice extremes to blend,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The crown's asserter, and the people's friend:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor dost thou scorn, amid sublimer views,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To listen to the labours of the muse;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thy smiles protect her, while thy talents fire,</l> + +<pb n="094" /><anchor id="Pg094" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And 'tis but half thy glory to inspire.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Vex'd at a public fame, so justly won,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The jealous Chremes is with spleen undone;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Chremes, for airy pensions of renown,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Devotes his service to the state and crown;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">All schemes he knows, and, knowing, all improves,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Tho' Britain's thankless, still this patriot loves:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But patriots differ; some may shed their blood,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He drinks his coffee, for the public good;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Consults the sacred steam, and there foresees</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What storms, or sunshine, Providence decrees;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Knows, for each day, the weather of our fate;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A quid nunc is an almanack of state.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">You smile, and think this statesman void of use:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Why may not time his secret worth produce?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Since apes can roast the choice Castanian nut,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Since steeds of genius are expert at put;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Since half the senate not content can say,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Geese nations save, and puppies plots betray.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">What makes him model realms, and counsel kings?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">An incapacity for smaller things:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Poor Chremes can't conduct his own estate,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And thence has undertaken Europe's fate.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Gehenno leaves the realm to Chremes' skill,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And boldly claims a province higher still:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To raise a name, th' ambitious boy has got,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">At once, a Bible, and a shoulder-knot;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Deep in the secret, he looks thro' the whole,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And pities the dull rogue that saves his soul;</l> + +<pb n="095" /><anchor id="Pg095" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To talk with rev'rence you must take good heed,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor shock his tender reason with the creed:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Howe'er well bred, in public he complies,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Obliging friends alone with blasphemies.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Peerage is poison, good estates are bad</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For this disease; poor rogues run seldom mad.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Have not attainders brought unhop'd relief,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And falling stocks quite cur'd an unbelief?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">While the sun shines, Blunt talks with wondrous force;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But thunder mars small beer, and weak discourse.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Such useful instruments the weather show,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Just as their mercury is high or low:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Health chiefly keeps an atheist in the dark;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A fever argues better than a Clarke:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Let but the logic in his pulse decay,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The Grecian he'll renounce, and learn to pray,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">While C—— mourns, with an unfeign'd zeal,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Th' apostate youth, who reason'd once so well.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">C——, who makes so merry with the creed;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He almost thinks he disbelieves indeed;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But only thinks so; to give both their due,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Satan, and he, believe, and tremble too.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of some for glory such the boundless rage,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That they're the blackest scandal of their age.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Narcissus the Tartarian club disclaims;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nay, a free-mason, with some terror, names;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Omits no duty; nor can envy say,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He miss'd, these many years, the church, or play:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He makes no noise in parliament, 'tis true;</l> + +<pb n="096" /><anchor id="Pg096" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But pays his debts, and visit, when 'tis due;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His character and gloves are ever clean,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And then, he can out-bow the bowing dean;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A smile eternal on his lip he wears,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Which equally the wise and worthless shares.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In gay fatigues, this most undaunted chief,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Patient of idleness beyond belief,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Most charitably lends the town his face,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For ornament, in ev'ry public place;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As sure as cards, he to th' assembly comes,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And is the furniture of drawing-rooms:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When ombre calls, his hand and heart are free,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And, join'd to two, he fails not—to make three:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Narcissus is the glory of his race;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For who does nothing with a better grace?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">To deck my list, by nature were design'd</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Such shining expletives of human kind,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who want, while thro' blank life they dream along,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Sense to be right, and passion to be wrong.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">To counterpoise this hero of the mode,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Some for renown are singular and odd;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What other men dislike, is sure to please,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of all mankind, these dear antipodes;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thro' pride, not malice, they run counter still,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And birthdays are their days of dressing ill,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Arbuthnot is a fool, and F—— a sage,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">S—ly will fright you, E—— engage;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">By nature streams run backward, flame descends,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Stones mount, and Sussex is the worst of friends;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They take their rest by day, and wake by night,</l> + +<pb n="097" /><anchor id="Pg097" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And blush, if you surprise them in the right;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">If they by chance blurt out, ere well aware,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A swan is white, or Queensberry is fair.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Nothing exceeds in ridicule, no doubt,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A fool in fashion, but a fool that's out,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His passion for absurdity's so strong,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He cannot bear a rival in the wrong;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Tho' wrong the mode, comply; more sense is shown</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In wearing others' follies, than your own.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">If what is out of fashion most you prize,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Methinks you should endeavour to be wise.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But what in oddness can be more sublime</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Than Sloane, the foremost toyman of his time?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His nice ambition lies in curious fancies,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His daughter's portion a rich shell inhances,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And Ashmole's baby-house is, in his view,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Britannia's golden mine, a rich Peru!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How his eyes languish! how his thoughts adore</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That painted coat, which Joseph never wore!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He shows, on holidays, a sacred pin,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That touch'd the ruff, that touch'd Queen Bess's chin.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">"Since that great dearth our chronicles deplore,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Since that great plague that swept as many more,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Was ever year unblest as this?" he'll cry,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">"It has not brought us one new butterfly!"</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In times that suffer such learn'd men as these,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Unhappy I——y! how came you to please?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Not gaudy butterflies are Lico's game;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But, in effect, his chase is much the same;</l> + +<pb n="098" /><anchor id="Pg098" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Warm in pursuit, he levees all the great,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Stanch to the foot of title and estate:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Where'er their lordships go, they never find</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or Lico, or their shadows, lag behind!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He sets them sure, where'er their lordships run,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Close at their elbows, as a morning dun;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As if their grandeur, by contagion, wrought,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And fame was, like a fever, to be caught:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But after seven years' dance, from place to place,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The<note place="foot"><p>A Danish dog of the Duke of Argyle.</p></note> Dane is more familiar with his grace.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Who'd be a crutch to prop a rotten peer;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or living pendant dangling at his ear,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For ever whisp'ring secrets, which were blown</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For months before, by trumpets, thro' the town?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who'd be a glass, with flattering grimace,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Still to reflect the temper of his face;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or happy pin to stick upon his sleeve,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When my lord's gracious, and vouchsafes it leave;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or cushion, when his heaviness shall please</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To loll, or thump it, for his better ease;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or a vile butt, for noon, or night, bespoke,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When the peer rashly swears he'll club his joke?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who'd shake with laughter, tho' he could not find</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His lordship's jest; or, if his nose broke wind,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For blessings to the gods profoundly bow,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That can cry, chimney sweep, or drive a plough?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With terms like these, how mean the tribe that close!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Scarce meaner they, who terms like these, impose.</l> + +<pb n="099" /><anchor id="Pg099" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But what's the tribe most likely to comply?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The men of ink, or ancient authors lie;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The writing tribe, who shameless auctions hold</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of praise, by inch of candle to be sold:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">All men they flatter, but themselves the most,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With deathless fame, their everlasting boast:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For fame no cully makes so much her jest,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As her old constant spark, the bard profest.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">"Boyle shines in council, Mordaunt in the fight,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Pelham's magnificent; but I can write,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And what to my great soul like glory dear?"</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Till some god whispers in his tingling ear,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That fame's unwholesome taken without meat.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And life is best sustain'd by what is eat:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Grown lean, and wise, he curses what he writ,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And wishes all his wants were in his wit.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Ay! what avails it, when his dinner's lost,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That his triumphant name adorns a post?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or that his shining page (provoking fate!)</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Defends sirloins, which sons of dulness eat?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">What foe to verse without compassion hears,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What cruel prose-man can refrain from tears,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When the poor muse, for less than half a crown,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A prostitute on every bulk in town,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With other whores undone, tho' not in print,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Clubs credit for Geneva in the mint?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Ye bards! why will you sing, tho' uninspir'd?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Ye bards! why will you starve, to be admir'd?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Defunct by Phœbus' laws, beyond redress,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Why will your spectres haunt the frighted press?</l> + +<pb n="100" /><anchor id="Pg100" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Bad metre, that excrescence of the head,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Like hair, will sprout, altho' the poet's dead.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">All other trades demand, verse makers beg;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A dedication is a wooden leg;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A barren Labeo, the true mumper's fashion,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Exposes borrow'd brats to move compassion.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Tho' such myself, vile bards I discommend;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nay more, tho' gentle Damon is my friend.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">"Is 't then a crime to write?"—If talent rare</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Proclaim the god, the crime is to forbear:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For some, tho' few, there are large-minded men,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who watch unseen the labours of the pen;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who know the muse's worth, and therefore court,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Their deeds her theme, their beauty her support;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who serve, unask'd, the least pretence to wit;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">My sole excuse, alas! for having writ.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Argyll true wit is studious to restore;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And Dorset smiles, if Phœbus smil'd before;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Pembroke in years the long-lov'd arts admires,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And Henrietta like a muse inspires.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">But, ah! not inspiration can obtain</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That fame, which poets languish for in vain.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How mad their aim, who thirst for glory, strive</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To grasp, what no man can possess alive!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Fame's a reversion in which men take place</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">(O late reversion!) at their own decease.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">This truth sagacious Lintot knows so well,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He starves his authors, that their works may sell.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">That fame is wealth, fantastic poets cry;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That wealth is fame, another clan reply;</l> + +<pb n="101" /><anchor id="Pg101" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who know no guilt, no scandal, but in rags;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And swell in just proportion to their bags.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor only the low-born, deform'd and old,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Think glory nothing but the beams of gold;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The first young lord, which in the mall you meet,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Shall match the veriest huncks in Lombard-street,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From rescu'd candles' ends, who rais'd a sum,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And starves to join a penny to a plumb.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A beardless miser! 'tis a guilt unknown</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To former times, a scandal all our own.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Of ardent lovers, the true modern band</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Will mortgage Celia to redeem their land.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For love, young, noble, rich, Castalio dies:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Name but the fair, love swells into his eyes.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Divine Monimia, thy fond fears lay down;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">No rival can prevail,—but half a crown.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">He glories to late times to be convey'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Not for the poor he has reliev'd, but made:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Not such ambition his great fathers fir'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When Harry conquer'd, and half France expir'd:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He'd be a slave, a pimp, a dog, for gain:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nay, a dull sheriff, for his golden chain.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">"Who'd be a slave?" the gallant colonel cries,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">While love of glory sparkles from his eyes:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To deathless fame he loudly pleads his right,—</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Just is his title,—for he will not fight:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">All soldiers valour, all divines have grace,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As maids of honour beauty,—by their place:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But, when indulging on the last campaign,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His lofty terms climb o'er the hills of slain;</l> + +<pb n="102" /><anchor id="Pg102" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He gives the foes he slew, at each vain word,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A sweet revenge, and half absolves his sword.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Of boasting more than of a bomb afraid,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A soldier should be modest as a maid:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Fame is a bubble the reserv'd enjoy;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who strive to grasp it, as they touch, destroy:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Tis the world's debt to deeds of high degree;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But if you pay yourself, the world is free.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Were there no tongue to speak them but his own,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Augustus' deeds in arms had ne'er been known.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Augustus' deeds! if that ambiguous name</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Confounds my reader, and misguides his aim,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Such is the prince's worth, of whom I speak,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The Roman would not blush at the mistake.</l> +</lg> +</div> + +<div rend="page-break-before: always"> +<index index="toc" level1="Satire V. On Women" /><index index="pdf" /> +<head rend="text-align: center">Satire V.</head> +<head rend="text-align: center" type="sub">On Women.</head> + +<quote rend="display"> +<lg> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>O fairest of creation! last and best</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of all God's works! Creature in whom excell'd</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whatever can to sight, or thought, be form'd!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Holy, divine, good, amiable, or sweet!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How art thou lost!—-—-</l> +</lg> + +<p rend="text-align: right"><hi rend="font-variant: small-caps">Milton.</hi></p> +</quote> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor reigns ambition in bold man alone;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Soft female hearts the rude invader own:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But there, indeed, it deals in nicer things,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Than routing armies, and dethroning kings:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Attend, and you discern it in the fair</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Conduct a finger, or reclaim a hair;</l> + +<pb n="103" /><anchor id="Pg103" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or roll the lucid orbit of an eye;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or, in full joy, elaborate a sigh.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The sex we honour, tho' their faults we blame;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nay, thank their faults for such a fruitful theme:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A theme, fair ——! doubly kind to me,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Since satirizing those is praising thee;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who wouldst not bear, too modestly refin'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A panegyric of a grosser kind.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Britannia's daughters, much more fair than nice,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Too fond of admiration, lose their price;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Worn in the public eye, give cheap delight</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To throngs, and tarnish to the sated sight:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As unreserv'd, and beauteous, as the sun,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Through every sign of vanity they run;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Assemblies, parks, coarse feasts in city-halls,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Lectures, and trials, plays, committees, balls,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Wells, bedlams, executions, Smithfield scenes,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And fortune-tellers' caves, and lions' dens,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Taverns, exchanges, bridewells, drawing-rooms,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Installments, pillories, coronations, tombs,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Tumblers, and funerals, puppet-shows, reviews,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Sales, races, rabbits, (and still stranger!) pews.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Clarinda's bosom burns, but burns for fame;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And love lies vanquished in a nobler flame;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Warm gleams of hope she, now, dispenses; then,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Like April suns, dives into clouds again:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With all her lustre, now, her lover warms;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Then, out of ostentation, hides her charms:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Tis, next, her pleasure sweetly to complain,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And to be taken with a sudden pain;</l> + +<pb n="104" /><anchor id="Pg104" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Then, she starts up, all ecstasy and bliss,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And is, sweet soul! just as sincere in this:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">O how she rolls her charming eyes in spite!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And looks delightfully with all her might!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But, like our heroes, much more brave than wise,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">She conquers for the triumph, not the prize.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Zara resembles Ætna crown'd with snows;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Without she freezes, and within she glows:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Twice ere the sun descends, with zeal inspir'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From the vain converse of the world retir'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">She reads the psalms and chapters for the day,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In —— Cleopatra, or the last new play.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thus gloomy Zara, with a solemn grace,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Deceives mankind, and hides behind her face.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Nor far beneath her in renown, is she,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who, through good breeding, is ill company;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whose manners will not let her larum cease,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who thinks you are unhappy, when at peace;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To find you news, who racks her subtle head,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And vows—that her great-grandfather is dead.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">A dearth of words a woman need not fear,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But 'tis a task indeed to learn—to hear:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In that the skill of conversation lies;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That shows, or makes, you both polite and wise.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Xantippe cries, "Let nymphs, who nought can say,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Be lost in silence, and resign the day;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And let the guilty wife her guilt confess,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">By tame behaviour, and a soft address;"</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Through virtue, she refuses to comply</l> + +<pb n="105" /><anchor id="Pg105" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With all the dictates of humanity;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Through wisdom, she refuses to submit</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To wisdom's rules, and raves to prove her wit;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Then, her unblemish'd honour to maintain,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Rejects her husband's kindness with disdain:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But if, by chance, an ill-adapted word</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Drops from the lip of her unwary lord,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her darling china, in a whirlwind sent,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Just intimates the lady's discontent.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Wine may indeed excite the meekest dame;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But keen Xantippe, scorning borrow'd flame,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Can vent her thunders, and her lightnings play,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">O'er cooling gruel, and composing tea:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor rests by night, but, more sincere than nice,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">She shakes the curtains with her kind advice:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Doubly, like echo, sound is her delight,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And the last word is her eternal right.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Is't not enough, plagues, wars, and famines rise</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To lash our crimes, but must our wives be wise?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Famine, plague, war, and an unnumber'd throng</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of guilt-avenging ills, to man belong:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What black, what ceaseless cares besiege our state!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What strokes we feel from fancy, and from fate!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">If fate forbears us, fancy strikes the blow;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">We make misfortune; suicides in woe.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Superfluous aid! unnecessary skill!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Is nature backward to torment, or kill?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How oft the noon, how oft the midnight, bell,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">(That iron tongue of death!) with solemn knell,</l> + +<pb n="106" /><anchor id="Pg106" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">On folly's errands as we vainly roam,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Knocks at our hearts, and finds our thoughts from home!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Men drop so fast, ere life's mid stage we tread,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Few know so many friends alive, as dead.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Yet, as immortal, in our up-hill chase</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">We press coy fortune with unslacken'd pace;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Our ardent labours for the toys we seek,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Join night to day, and Sunday to the week:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Our very joys are anxious, and expire</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Between satiety and fierce desire.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Now what reward for all this grief and toil?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But one; a female friend's endearing smile;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A tender smile, our sorrows' only balm,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And, in life's tempest, the sad sailor's calm.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">How have I seen a gentle nymph draw nigh,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Peace in her air, persuasion in her eye;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Victorious tenderness! it all o'ercame,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Husbands look'd mild, and savages grew tame.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The Sylvan race our active nymphs pursue;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Man is not all the game they have in view:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In woods and fields their glory they complete;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Their Master Betty leaps a five-barr'd gate;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">While fair Miss Charles to toilets is confin'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor rashly tempts the barb'rous sun and wind.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Some nymphs affect a more heroic breed,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And volt from hunters to the manag'd steed;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Command his prancings with a martial air,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And Fobert has the forming of the fair.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">More than one steed must Delia's empire feel,</l> + +<pb n="107" /><anchor id="Pg107" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who sits triumphant o'er the flying wheel;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And as she guides it thro' th' admiring throng,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With what an air she smacks the silken thong!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Graceful as John, she moderates the reins,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And whistles sweet her diuretic strains;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Sesostris like, such charioteers as these</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">May drive six harness'd monarchs, if they please:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They drive, row, run, with love of glory smit,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Leap, swim, shoot flying, and pronounce on wit.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">O'er the belle-lettre lovely Daphne reigns;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Again the god Apollo wears her chains:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With legs toss'd high, on her sophee she sits</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Vouchsafing audience to contending wits:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of each performance she's the final test;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">One act read o'er, she prophesies the rest;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And then, pronouncing with decisive air,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Fully convinces all the town—she's fair.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Had lovely Daphne Hecatessa's face,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How would her elegance of taste decrease!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Some ladies' judgment in their features lies,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And all their genius sparkles from their eyes.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">"But hold," she cries, "lampooner! have a care;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Must I want common sense, because I'm fair?"</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">O no: see Stella; her eyes shine as bright</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As if her tongue was never in the right;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And yet what real learning, judgment, fire!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">She seems inspir'd, and can herself inspire:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How then (if malice rul'd not all the fair)</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Could Daphne publish, and could she forbear?</l> + +<pb n="108" /><anchor id="Pg108" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">We grant that beauty is no bar to sense,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor is't a sanction for impertinence.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Sempronia lik'd her man; and well she might;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The youth in person, and in parts, was bright;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Possess'd of every virtue, grace, and art,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That claims just empire o'er the female heart:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He met her passion, all her sighs return'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And, in full rage of youthful ardour, burn'd:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Large his possessions, and beyond her own:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Their bliss the theme, and envy of the town:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The day was fix'd, when, with one acre more,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In stepp'd deform'd, debauch'd, diseas'd threescore.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The fatal sequel I, through shame, forbear:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of pride, and av'rice, who can cure the fair?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Man's rich with little, were his judgment true;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nature is frugal, and her wants are few;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Those few wants answer'd, bring sincere delights;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But fools create themselves new appetites:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Fancy, and pride, seek things at vast expense,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Which relish not to reason, nor to sense.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When surfeit, or unthankfulness, destroys,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In nature's narrow sphere, our solid joys,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In fancy's airy land of noise and show,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Where nought but dreams, no real pleasures, grow;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Like cats in air-pumps, to subsist we strive</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">On joys too thin to keep the soul alive.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Lemira's sick; make haste; the doctor call:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He comes; but where's his patient? At the ball.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The doctor stares; her woman curtsies low,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And cries, "My lady, Sir, is always so:</l> + +<pb n="109" /><anchor id="Pg109" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Diversions put her maladies to flight:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">True, she can't stand, but she can dance all night:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">I've known my lady (for she loves a tune)</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For fevers take an opera in June:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And, tho' perhaps you'll think the practice bold,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A midnight park is sov'reign for a cold:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With cholics, breakfasts of green fruit agree;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With indigestions, supper just at three."</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A strange alternative, replies Sir Hans,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Must women have a doctor, or a dance?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Though sick to death, abroad they safely roam,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But droop and die, in perfect health, at home:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For want—but not of health, are ladies ill;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And tickets cure beyond the doctor's pill.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Alas, my heart! how languishingly fair</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Yon lady lolls! with what a tender air!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Pale as a young dramatic author, when,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">O'er darling lines, fell Cibber waves his pen.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Is her lord angry, or has<note place="foot"><p>Lap-dog.</p></note> Veny chid?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Dead is her father, or the mask forbid?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">"Late sitting up has turn'd her roses white."</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Why went she not to bed? "Because 'twas night."</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Did she then dance, or play? "Nor this, nor that."</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Well, night soon steals away in pleasing chat.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">"No, all alone, her prayers she rather chose,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Than be that wretch to sleep till morning rose."</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Then lady Cynthia, mistress of the shade,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Goes, with the fashionable owls, to bed:</l> + +<pb n="110" /><anchor id="Pg110" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">This her pride covets, this her health denies;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her soul is silly, but her body's wise.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Others, with curious arts, dim charms revive,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And triumph in the bloom of fifty-five.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">You, in the morning, a fair nymph invite;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To keep her word, a brown one comes at night:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Next day she shines in glossy black; and then</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Revolves into her native red again:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Like a dove's neck, she shifts her transient charms,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And is her own dear rival in your arms.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">But one admirer has the painted lass;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor finds that one, but in her looking-glass:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Yet Laura's beautiful to such excess,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That all her art scarce makes her please us less.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To deck the female cheek, he only knows,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who paints less fair the lily, and the rose.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">How gay they smile! Such blessings nature pours,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">O'erstock'd mankind enjoy but half her stores:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In distant wilds, by human eyes unseen,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">She rears her flowers, and spreads her velvet green:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Pure gurgling rills the lonely desert trace,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And waste their music on the savage race.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Is nature then a niggard of her bliss?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Repine we guiltless in a world like this?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But our lewd tastes her lawful charms refuse,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And painted art's depraved allurements choose.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Such Fulvia's passion for the town; fresh air</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">(An odd effect!) gives vapours to the fair;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Green fields, and shady groves, and crystal springs,</l> + +<pb n="111" /><anchor id="Pg111" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And larks, and nightingales, are odious things;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But smoke, and dust, and noise, and crowds, delight;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And to be press'd to death, transports her quite:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Where silver riv'lets play through flow'ry meads,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And woodbines give their sweets, and limes their shades,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Black kennels' absent odours she regrets,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And stops her nose at beds of violets.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Is stormy life preferr'd to the serene?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or is the public to the private scene?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Retir'd, we tread a smooth and open way;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Through briers and brambles in the world we stray;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Stiff opposition, and perplex'd debate,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And thorny care, and rank and stinging hate,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Which choke our passage, our career control,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And wound the firmest temper of our soul.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">O sacred solitude! divine retreat!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Choice of the prudent! envy of the great!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">By thy pure stream, or in thy waving shade,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">We court fair wisdom, that celestial maid:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The genuine offspring of her lov'd embrace,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">(Strangers on earth!) are innocence and peace:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">There, from the ways of men laid safe ashore,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">We smile to hear the distant tempest roar;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">There, bless'd with health, with business unperplex'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">This life we relish, and ensure the next;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">There too the muses sport; these numbers free,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Pierian Eastbury! I owe to thee.</l> + +<pb n="112" /><anchor id="Pg112" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">There sport the muses; but not there alone:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Their sacred force Amelia feels in town.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nought but a genius can a genius fit;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A wit herself, Amelia weds a wit:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Both wits! though miracles are said to cease,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Three days, three wondrous days! they liv'd in peace;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With the fourth sun a warm dispute arose,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">On Durfey's poesy, and Bunyan's prose:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The learned war both wage with equal force,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And the fifth morn concluded the divorce.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Phœbe, though she possesses nothing less,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Is proud of being rich in happiness:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Laboriously pursues delusive toys,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Content with pains, since they're reputed joys.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With what well-acted transport will she say,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">"Well, sure, we were so happy yesterday!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And then that charming party for to-morrow!"</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Though, well she knows, 'twill languish into sorrow:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But she dares never boast the present hour;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">So gross that cheat, it is beyond her power:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For such is or our weakness, or our curse,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or rather such our crime, which still is worse,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The present moment, like a wife, we shun,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And ne'er enjoy, because it is our own.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Pleasures are few, and fewer we enjoy;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Pleasure, like quicksilver, is bright, and coy;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">We strive to grasp it with our utmost skill,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Still it eludes us, and it glitters still:</l> + +<pb n="113" /><anchor id="Pg113" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">If seiz'd at last, compute your mighty gains;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What is it, but rank poison in your veins?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">As Flavia in her glass an angel spies,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Pride whispers in her ear pernicious lies;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Tells her, while she surveys a face so fine,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">There's no satiety of charms divine:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Hence, if her lover yawns, all chang'd appears</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her temper, and she melts (sweet soul!) in tears:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">She, fond and young, last week, her wish enjoy'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In soft amusement all the night employ'd;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The morning came, when Strephon, waking, found</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">(Surprising sight!) his bride in sorrow drown'd.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">"What miracle," says Strephon, "makes thee weep?"</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">"Ah, barb'rous man!" she cries, "how could you——sleep?"</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Men love a mistress, as they love a feast;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How grateful one to touch, and one to taste!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Yet sure there is a certain time of day,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">We wish our mistress, and our meat, away:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But soon the sated appetites return,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Again our stomachs crave, our bosoms burn:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Eternal love let man, then, never swear;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Let women never triumph, nor despair;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor praise, nor blame, too much, the warm, or chill;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Hunger and love are foreign to the will.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">There is indeed a passion more refin'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For those few nymphs whose charms are of the mind:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But not of that unfashionable set</l> + +<pb n="114" /><anchor id="Pg114" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Is Phyllis; Phyllis and her Damon met.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Eternal love exactly hits her taste;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Phyllis demands eternal love at least.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Embracing Phyllis with soft smiling eyes,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Eternal love I vow, the swain replies:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But say, my all, my mistress, and my friend!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What day next week th' eternity shall end?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Some nymphs prefer astronomy to love:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Elope from mortal man, and range above.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The fair philosopher to Rowley flies,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Where, in a box, the whole creation lies:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">She sees the planets in their turns advance,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And scorns, Poitier, thy sublunary dance;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of Desagulier she bespeaks fresh air;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And Whiston has engagements with the fair.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What vain experiments Sophronia tries!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Tis not in air-pumps the gay colonel dies.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But though to-day this rage of science reigns,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">(O fickle sex!) soon end her learned pains.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Lo! Pug from Jupiter her heart has got,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Turns out the stars, and Newton is a sot.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">To——turn; she never took the height</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of Saturn, yet is ever in the right.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">She strikes each point with native force of mind,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">While puzzled learning blunders far behind,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Graceful to sight, and elegant to thought,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The great are vanquish'd, and the wise are taught.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her breeding finish'd, and her temper sweet,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When serious, easy; and when gay, discreet;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In glittering scenes, o'er her own heart, sincere;</l> + +<pb n="115" /><anchor id="Pg115" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In crowds, collected; and in courts, severe;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Sincere, and warm, with zeal well understood,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">She takes a noble pride in doing good;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Yet not superior to her sex's cares,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The mode she fixes by the gown she wears;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of silks and china she's the last appeal;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In these great points she leads the commonweal;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And if disputes of empire rise between</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Mechlin the queen of lace, and colberteen,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Tis doubt! 'tis darkness! till suspended fate</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Assumes her nod, to close the grand debate.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When such her mind, why will the fair express</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Their emulation only in their dress?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">But, oh! the nymph that mounts above the skies,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And, gratis, clears religious mysteries,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Resolv'd the church's welfare to ensure,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And make her family a sine-cure:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The theme divine at cards she'll not forget,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But takes in texts of Scripture at picquet;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In those licentious meetings acts the prude,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And thanks her Maker that her cards are good.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What angels would those be, who thus excel</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In theologies, could they sew as well!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Yet why should not the fair her text pursue?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Can she more decently the doctor woo?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Tis hard, too, she who makes no use but chat</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of her religion, should be barr'd in that.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Isaac, a brother of the canting strain,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When he has knock'd at his own skull in vain,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To beauteous Marcia often will repair</l> + +<pb n="116" /><anchor id="Pg116" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With a dark text, to light it at the fair.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">O how his pious soul exults to find</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Such love for holy men in woman-kind!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Charm'd with her learning, with what rapture he</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Hangs on her bloom, like an industrious bee!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Hums round about her, and with all his power</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Extracts sweet wisdom from so fair a flower!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The young and gay declining, Appia flies</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">At nobler game, the mighty and the wise:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">By nature more an eagle than a dove,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">She impiously prefers the world to love.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Can wealth give happiness? look round, and see</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What gay distress! what splendid misery!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whatever fortune lavishly can pour,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The mind annihilates, and calls for more!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Wealth is a cheat; believe not what it says;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Like any lord it promises—and pays.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How will the miser startle, to be told</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of such a wonder, as insolvent gold!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What nature wants has an intrinsic weight;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">All more, is but the fashion of the plate,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Which, for one moment, charms the fickle view;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">It charms us now; anon we cast anew;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To some fresh birth of fancy more inclin'd:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Then wed not acres, but a noble mind.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Mistaken lovers, who make worth their care,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And think accomplishments will win the fair:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The fair, 'tis true, by genius should be won,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As flow'rs unfold their beauties to the sun;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And yet in female scales a fop outweighs,</l> + +<pb n="117" /><anchor id="Pg117" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And wit must wear the willow and the bays.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nought shines so bright in vain Liberia's eye</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As riot, impudence, and perfidy;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The youth of fire, that has drunk deep, and play'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And kill'd his man, and triumph'd o'er his maid;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For him, as yet unhang'd, she spreads her charms,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Snatches the dear destroyer to her arms;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And amply gives (though treated long amiss)</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The man of merit his revenge in this,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">If you resent, and wish a woman ill,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But turn her o'er one moment to her will.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The languid lady next appears in state,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who was not born to carry her own weight;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">She lolls, reels, staggers, till some foreign aid</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To her own stature lifts the feeble maid.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Then, if ordain'd to so severe a doom,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">She, by just stages, journeys round the room:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But, knowing her own weakness, she despairs</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To scale the Alps—that is, ascend the stairs.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">My fan! let others say, who laugh at toil;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Fan! hood! glove! scarf! is her laconic style;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And that is spoke with such a dying fall,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That Betty rather sees, than hears the call:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The motion of her lips, and meaning eye,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Piece out th' idea her faint words deny.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">O listen with attention most profound!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her voice is but the shadow of a sound.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And help! oh help! her spirits are so dead,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">One hand scarce lifts the other to her head.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">If, there, a stubborn pin it triumphs o'er,</l> + +<pb n="118" /><anchor id="Pg118" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">She pants! she sinks away! and is more.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Let the robust and the gigantic carve,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Life is not worth so much, she'd rather starve;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But chew she must herself; ah cruel fate!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That Rosalinda can't by proxy eat.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">An antidote in female caprice lies</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">(Kind heaven!) against the poison of their eyes.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Thalestris triumphs in a manly mien;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Loud is her accent, and her phrase obscene.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In fair and open dealing where's the shame?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What nature dares to give, she dares to name.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">This honest fellow is sincere and plain,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And justly gives the jealous husband pain.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">(Vain is the task to petticoats assign'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">If wanton language shows a naked mind.)</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And now and then, to grace her eloquence,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">An oath supplies the vacancies of sense.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Hark! the shrill notes transpierce the yielding air,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And teach the neighb'ring echoes how to swear.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">By Jove, is faint, and for the simple swain;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">She, on the Christian system, is profane.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But though the volley rattles in your ear,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Believe her dress, she's not a grenadier.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">If thunder's awful, how much more our dread,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When Jove deputes a lady in his stead?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A lady! pardon my mistaken pen,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A shameless woman is the worst of men.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Few to good breeding make a just pretence;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Good breeding is the blossom of good sense;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The last result of an accomplish'd mind,</l> + +<pb n="119" /><anchor id="Pg119" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With outward grace, the body's virtue, join'd.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A violated decency now reigns;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And nymphs for failings take peculiar pains.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With Chinese painters modern toasts agree,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The point they aim at is deformity:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They throw their persons with a hoyden air</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Across the room, and toss into the chair.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">So far their commerce with mankind is gone,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They, for our manners, have exchang'd their own.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The modest look, the castigated grace,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The gentle movement, and slow measur'd pace,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For which her lovers died, her parents pray'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Are indecorums with the modern maid.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Stiff forms are bad; but let not worse intrude,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor conquer art and nature, to be rude.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Modern good-breeding carry to its height,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And lady D——'s self will be polite.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Ye rising fair! ye bloom of Britain's isle!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When high-born Anna, with a soften'd smile,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Leads on your train, and sparkles at your head,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What seems most hard, is, not to be well bred.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her bright example with success pursue,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And all, but adoration, is your due.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">But adoration! give me something more,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Cries Lyce, on the borders of threescore:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nought treads so silent as the foot of time;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Hence we mistake our autumn for our prime;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Tis greatly wise to know, before we're told,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The melancholy news, that we grow old.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Autumnal Lyce carries in her face</l> + +<pb n="120" /><anchor id="Pg120" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Memento mori to each public place.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">O how your beating breast a mistress warms,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who looks through spectacles to see your charms!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">While rival undertakers hover round,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And with his spade the sexton marks the ground,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Intent not on her own, but others' doom,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">She plans new conquests, and defrauds the tomb.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In vain the cock has summon'd sprites away,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">She walks at noon, and blasts the bloom of day.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Gay rainbow silks her mellow charms infold,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And nought of Lyce but herself is old.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her grizzled locks assume a smirking grace,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And art has levell'd her deep-furrow'd face.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her strange demand no mortal can approve,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">We'll ask her blessing, but can't ask her love.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">She grants, indeed, a lady may decline</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">(All ladies but herself) at ninety-nine.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">O how unlike her is the sacred age</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of prudent Portia! her gray hairs engage;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whose thoughts are suited to her life's decline:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Virtue's the paint that can with wrinkles shine.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That, and that only, can old age sustain;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Which yet all wish, nor know they wish for pain.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Not num'rous are our joys, when life is new;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And yearly some are falling of the few;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But when we conquer life's meridian stage,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And downward tend into the vale of age,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They drop apace; by nature some decay,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And some the blasts of fortune sweep away;</l> + +<pb n="121" /><anchor id="Pg121" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Till naked quite of happiness, aloud</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">We call for death, and shelter in a shroud.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Where's Portia now?—But Portia left behind</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Two lovely copies of her form and mind.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What heart untouch'd their early grief can view,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Like blushing rose-buds dipp'd in morning dew?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who into shelter takes their tender bloom,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And forms their minds to flee from ills to come?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The mind, when turn'd adrift, no rules to guide,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Drives at the mercy of the wind and tide;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Fancy and passion toss it to and fro;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Awhile torment, and then quite sink in woe.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Ye beauteous orphans, since in silent dust</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Your best example lies, my precepts trust.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Life swarms with ills; the boldest are afraid;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Where then is safety for a tender maid?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Unfit for conflict, round beset with woes,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And man, whom least she fears, her worst of foes!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When kind, most cruel; when oblig'd the most,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The least obliging; and by favours lost.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Cruel by nature, they for kindness hate;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And scorn you for those ills themselves create.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">If on your fame your sex a blot has thrown,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Twill ever stick, through malice of your own.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Most hard! in pleasing your chief glory lies;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And yet from pleasing your chief dangers rise:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Then please the best; and know, for men of sense,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Your strongest charms are native innocence.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Art on the mind, like paint upon the face,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Fright him, that's worth your love, from your embrace.</l> + +<pb n="122" /><anchor id="Pg122" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In simple manners all the secret lies;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Be kind and virtuous, you'll be blest and wise.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Vain show and noise intoxicate the brain,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Begin with giddiness, and end in pain.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Affect not empty fame, and idle praise,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Which, all those wretches I describe, betrays.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Your sex's glory 'tis, to shine unknown;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of all applause, be fondest of your own.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Beware the fever of the mind! that thirst</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With which the age is eminently curst:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To drink of pleasure, but inflames desire;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And abstinence alone can quench the fire;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Take pain from life, and terror from the tomb;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Give peace in hand; and promise bliss to come.</l> +</lg> +</div> + +<div rend="page-break-before: always"> +<index index="toc" level1="Satire VI. On Women" /><index index="pdf" /> +<head rend="text-align: center">Satire VI.</head> +<head rend="text-align: center" type="sub">On Women.</head> +<head rend="text-align: center" type="sub">Inscribed to the Right Honourable the Lady Elizabeth Germain.</head> + +<quote rend="display"> +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Interdum tamen et tollit comœdia vocem.</l> +</lg> + +<p rend="text-align: right">—<hi rend="font-variant: small-caps">Hor.</hi></p> +</quote> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">I sought a patroness, but sought in vain.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Apollo whisper'd in my ear—"Germain."—</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">I know her not.—"Your reason's somewhat odd;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who knows his patron, now?" replied the god.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">"Men write, to me, and to the world, unknown;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Then steal great names, to shield them from the town.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Detected worth, like beauty disarray'd,</l> + +<pb n="123" /><anchor id="Pg123" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To covert flies, of praise itself afraid:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Should she refuse to patronize your lays,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In vengeance write a volume in her praise.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor think it hard so great a length to run;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When such the theme, 'twill easily be done."</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Ye fair! to draw your excellence at length,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Exceeds the narrow bounds of human strength;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">You, here, in miniature your picture see;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor hope from Zincks more justice than from me.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">My portraits grace your mind, as his your side;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His portraits will inflame, mine quench, your pride.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He's dear, you frugal; choose my cheaper lay;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And be your reformation all my pay.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Lavinia is polite, but not profane;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To church as constant as to Drury Lane.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">She decently, in form, pays heaven its due;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And makes a civil visit to her pew.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her lifted fan, to give a solemn air,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Conceals her face, which passes for a prayer:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Curtsies to curtsies, then, with grace, succeed;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Not one the fair omits, but at the creed.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or if she joins the service, 'tis to speak;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thro' dreadful silence the pent heart might break;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Untaught to bear it, women talk away</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To God himself, and fondly think they pray.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But sweet their accent, and their air refin'd;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For they're before their Maker—and mankind:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When ladies once are proud of praying well,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Satan himself will toll the parish bell.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Acquainted with the world, and quite well bred,</l> + +<pb n="124" /><anchor id="Pg124" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Drusa receives her visitants in bed;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But, chaste as ice, this Vesta, to defy</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The very blackest tongue of calumny,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When from the sheets her lovely form she lifts,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">She begs you just would turn you, while she shifts.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Those charms are greatest which decline the sight,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That makes the banquet poignant and polite.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">There is no woman, where there's no reserve;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And 'tis on plenty your poor lovers starve.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But with a modern fair, meridian merit</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Is a fierce thing, they call a nymph of spirit.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Mark well the rollings of her flaming eye;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And tread on tiptoe, if you dare draw nigh.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">"Or if you take a lion by the beard,<note place="foot"><p>Shakespeare.</p></note></l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or dare defy the fell Hyrcanian pard,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or arm'd rhinoceros, or rough Russian bear,"</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">First make your will, and then converse with her.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">This lady glories in profuse expense;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And thinks distraction is magnificence.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To beggar her gallant, is some delight;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To be more fatal still, is exquisite;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Had ever nymph such reason to be glad?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In duel fell two lovers; one run mad.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her foes their honest execrations pour;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her lovers only should detest her more.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Flavia is constant to her old gallant,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And generously supports him in his want;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But marriage is a fetter, is a snare,</l> + +<pb n="125" /><anchor id="Pg125" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A hell, no lady so polite can bear.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">She's faithful, she's observant, and with pains</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her angel brood of bastards she maintains.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor least advantage has the fair to plead,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But that of guilt, above the marriage-bed.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Amasia hates a prude, and scorns restraint;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whate'er she is, she'll not appear a saint:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her soul superior flies formality;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">So gay her air, her conduct is so free,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Some might suspect the nymph not over good—</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor would they be mistaken, if they should.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Unmarried Abra puts on formal airs;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her cushion's threadbare with her constant prayers.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her only grief is, that she cannot be</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">At once engag'd in prayer and charity.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And this, to do her justice, must be said,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">"Who would not think that Abra was a maid?"</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Some ladies are too beauteous to be wed;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For where's the man that's worthy of their bed?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">If no disease reduce her pride before,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Lavinia will be ravish'd at threescore.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Then she submits to venture in the dark;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And nothing now is wanting—but her spark.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Lucia thinks happiness consists in state;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">She weds an idiot, but she eats in plate.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The goods of fortune, which her soul possess,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Are but the ground of unmade happiness;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The rude material: wisdom add to this,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Wisdom, the sole artificer of bliss;</l> + +<pb n="126" /><anchor id="Pg126" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">She from herself, if so compell'd by need,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of thin content can draw the subtle thread;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But (no detraction to her sacred skill)</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">If she can work in gold, 'tis better still.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">If Tullia had been blest with half her sense,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">None could too much admire her excellence:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But since she can make error shine so bright,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">She thinks it vulgar to defend the right.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With understanding she is quite o'errun;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And by too great accomplishments undone:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With skill she vibrates her eternal tongue,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For ever most divinely in the wrong.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Naked in nothing should a woman be;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But veil her very wit with modesty:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Let man discover, let not her display,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But yield her charms of mind with sweet delay.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">For pleasure form'd, perversely some believe,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To make themselves important, men must grieve.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Lesbia the fair, to fire her jealous lord,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Pretends, the fop she laughs at, is ador'd.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In vain she's proud of secret innocence;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The fact she fains were scarce a worse offence.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Mira, endow'd with every charm to bless,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Has no design, but on her husband's peace:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He lov'd her much; and greatly was he mov'd</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">At small inquietudes in her he lov'd.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">"How charming this!"—The pleasure lasted long;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Now every day the fits come thick and strong:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">At last he found the charmer only feign'd;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And was diverted when he should be pain'd.</l> + +<pb n="127" /><anchor id="Pg127" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What greater vengeance had the gods in store?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How tedious life, now she can plague no more!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">She tries a thousand arts; but none succeed:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">She's forc'd a fever to procure indeed:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thus strictly prov'd this virtuous, loving wife,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her husband's pain was dearer than her life.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Anxious Melania rises to my view,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who never thinks her lover pays his due:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Visit, present, treat, flatter, and adore;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her majesty, to-morrow, calls for more.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His wounded ears complaints eternal fill,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As unoil'd hinges, querulously shrill.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">"You went last night with Celia to the ball."</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">You prove it false. "Not go! that's worst of all."</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nothing can please her, nothing not inflame;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And arrant contradictions are the same.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her lover must be sad, to please her spleen;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His mirth is an inexpiable sin:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For of all rivals that can pain her breast,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">There's one, that wounds far deeper than the rest;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To wreck her quiet, the most dreadful shelf</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Is if her lover dares enjoy himself.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And this, because she's exquisitely fair:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Should I dispute her beauty, how she'd stare!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How would Melania be surpris'd to hear</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">She's quite deform'd! And yet the case is clear;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What's female beauty, but an air divine,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thro' which the mind's all gentle graces shine?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They, like the sun, irradiate all between;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The body charms because the soul is seen.</l> + +<pb n="128" /><anchor id="Pg128" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Hence, men are often captives of a face,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They know not why, of no peculiar grace:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Some forms, tho' bright, no mortal man can bear;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Some, none resist, tho' not exceeding fair.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Aspasia's highly born, and nicely bred,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of taste refin'd, in life and manners read;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Yet reaps no fruit from her superior sense,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But to be teaz'd by her own excellence.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">"Folks are so awkward! things so unpolite!"</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">She's elegantly pain'd from morn till night.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her delicacy's shock'd where'er she goes;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Each creature's imperfections are her woes.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Heaven by its favour has the fair distrest,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And pour'd such blessings—that she can't be blest.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Ah! why so vain, though blooming in thy spring,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thou shining, frail, ador'd, and wretched thing?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Old age will come; disease may come before;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Fifteen is full as mortal as threescore.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thy fortune, and thy charms, may soon decay:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But grant these fugitives prolong their stay,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Their basis totters, their foundation shakes;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Life, that supports them, in a moment breaks;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Then wrought into the soul let virtues shine;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The ground eternal, as the work divine.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Julia's a manager; she's born for rule;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And knows her wiser husband is a fool;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Assemblies holds, and spins the subtle thread</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That guides the lover to his fair one's bed:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For difficult amours can smooth the way,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And tender letters dictate, or convey.</l> + +<pb n="129" /><anchor id="Pg129" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But if depriv'd of such important cares,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her wisdom condescends to less affairs.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For her own breakfast she'll project a scheme,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor take her tea without a stratagem;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Presides o'er trifles with a serious face;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Important by the virtue of grimace.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Ladies supreme among amusements reign;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">By nature born to soothe, and entertain.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Their prudence in a share of folly lies:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Why will they be so weak, as to be wise?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Syrena is for ever in extremes,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And with a vengeance she commends, or blames.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Conscious of her discernment, which is good,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">She strains too much to make it understood.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her judgment just, her sentence is too strong;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Because she's right, she's ever in the wrong.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Brunetta's wise in actions great, and rare;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But scorns on trifles to bestow her care.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thus ev'ry hour Brunetta is to blame,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Because th' occasion is beneath her aim,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Think nought a trifle, though it small appear;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Small sands the mountain, moments make the year,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And trifles life. Your care to trifles give,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or you may die, before you truly live.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Go breakfast with Alicia, there you'll see,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Simplex munditiis, to the last degree:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Unlac'd her stays, her night-gown is untied,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And what she has of head-dress is aside.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">She drawls her words, and waddles in her pace;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Unwash'd her hands, and much besnuff'd her face.</l> + +<pb n="130" /><anchor id="Pg130" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A nail uncut, and head uncomb'd, she loves;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And would draw on jack-boots, as soon as gloves.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Gloves by Queen Bess's maidens might be miss'd;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her blessed eyes ne'er saw a female fist.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Lovers, beware! to wound how can she fail</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With scarlet finger, and long jetty nail?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For Harvey the first wit she cannot be,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor, cruel Richmond, the first toast for thee.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Since full each other station of renown,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who would not be the greatest trapes in town?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Women were made to give our eyes delight;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A female sloven is an odious sight.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Fair Isabella is so fond of fame,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That her dear self is her eternal theme;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Through hopes of contradiction, oft she'll say,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">"Methinks I look so wretchedly to-day!"</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When most the world applauds you, most beware;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Tis often less a blessing than a snare.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Distrust mankind; with your own heart confer;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And dread even there to find a flatterer.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The breath of others raises our renown;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Our own as surely blows the pageant down.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Take up no more than you by worth can claim,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Lest soon you prove a bankrupt in your fame.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">But own I must, in this perverted age,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who most deserve, can't always most engage.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">So far is worth from making glory sure,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">It often hinders what it should procure.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whom praise we most? The virtuous, brave, and wise?</l> + +<pb n="131" /><anchor id="Pg131" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">No; wretches, whom, in secret, we despise.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And who so blind, as not to see the cause?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">No rivals rais'd by such discreet applause;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And yet, of credit it lays in a store,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">By which our spleen may wound true worth the more.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Ladies there are who think one crime is all:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Can women, then, no way but backward fall?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">So sweet is that one crime they don't pursue,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To pay its loss, they think all others few.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who hold that crime so dear, must never claim</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of injur'd modesty the sacred name.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">But Clio thus: "What! railing without end?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Mean task! how much more gen'rous to commend!"</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Yes, to commend as you are wont to do,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">My kind instructor, and example too.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">"Daphnis," says Clio, "has a charming eye:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What pity 'tis her shoulder is awry!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Aspasia's shape indeed—but then her air—</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The man has parts who finds destruction there.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Almeria's wit has something that's divine;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And wit's enough—how few in all things shine!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Selina serves her friends, relieves the poor—</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who was it said Selina's near threescore?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">At Lucia's match I from my soul rejoice;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The world congratulates so wise a choice;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His lordship's rent-roll is exceeding great—</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But mortgages will sap the best estate.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In Sherley's form might cherubims appear;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But then—she has a freckle on her ear."</l> + +<pb n="132" /><anchor id="Pg132" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Without a but, Hortensia she commends,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The first of women, and the best of friends;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Owns her in person, wit, fame, virtue, bright:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But how comes this to pass?—She died last night.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Thus nymphs commend, who yet at satire rail:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Indeed that's needless, if such praise prevail.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And whence such praise? Our virulence is thrown</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">On others' fame, thro' fondness for our own.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Of rank and riches proud, Cleora frowns;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For are not coronets akin to crowns?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her greedy eye, and her sublime address,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The height of avarice and pride confess.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">You seek perfections worthy of her rank;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Go, seek for her perfections at the bank.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">By wealth unquench'd, by reason uncontrol'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For ever burns her sacred thirst of gold.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As fond of five-pence, as the veriest cit;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And quite as much detested as a wit.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Can gold calm passion, or make reason shine?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Can we dig peace, or wisdom, from the mine?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Wisdom to gold prefer; for 'tis much less</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To make our fortune, than our happiness.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That happiness which great ones often see,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With rage and wonder, in a low degree;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Themselves unblest. The poor are only poor;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But what are they who droop amid their store?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nothing is meaner than a wretch of state;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The happy only are the truly great.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Peasants enjoy like appetites with kings;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And those best satisfied with cheapest things.</l> + +<pb n="133" /><anchor id="Pg133" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Could both our Indies buy but one new sense,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Our envy would be due to large expense.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Since not, those pomps which to the great belong,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Are but poor arts to mark them from the throng.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">See how they beg an alms of flattery!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They languish! oh support them with a lie!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A decent competence we fully taste;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">It strikes our sense, and gives a constant feast:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">More, we perceive by dint of thought alone;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The rich must labor to possess their own,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To feel their great abundance; and request</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Their humble friends to help them to be blest;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To see their treasures, hear their glory told,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And aid the wretched impotence of gold.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">But some, great souls! and touch'd with warmth divine,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Give gold a price, and teach its beams to shine.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">All hoarded treasures they repute a load;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor think their wealth their own, till well bestow'd.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Grand reservoirs of public happiness,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Through secret streams diffusively they bless;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And, while their bounties glide conceal'd from view,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Relieve our wants, and spare our blushes too.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But satire is my task; and these destroy</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her gloomy province, and malignant joy.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Help me, ye misers! help me to complain,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And blast our common enemy, Germain:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But our invectives must despair success;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For next to praise, she values nothing less.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">What picture's yonder, loosen'd from its frame?</l> + +<pb n="134" /><anchor id="Pg134" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or is't Asturia? that affected dame.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The brightest forms, through affectation, fade</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To strange new things, which nature never made.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Frown not, ye fair! so much your sex we prize,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">We hate those arts that take you from our eyes.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In Albucinda's native grace is seen</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What you, who labour at perfection, mean.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Short is the rule, and to be learnt with ease,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Retain your gentle selves, and you must please.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Here might I sing of Memmia's mincing mien,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And all the movements of the soft machine:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How two red lips affected zephyrs blow,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To cool the Bohea, and inflame the beau:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">While one white finger, and a thumb, conspire</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To lift the cup, and make the world admire.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Tea! how I tremble at thy fatal stream!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As Lethe, dreadful to the love of fame.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What devastations on thy banks are seen!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What shades of mighty names which once have been!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">An hecatomb of characters supplies</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thy painted altars' daily sacrifice.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">H——, P——, B——, aspers'd by thee, decay,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As grains of finest sugars melt away,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And recommend thee more to mortal taste:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Scandal's the sweet'ner of a female feast.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">But this inhuman triumph shall decline,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And thy revolting naiads call for wine;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Spirits no longer shall serve under thee;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But reign in thy own cup, exploded tea!</l> + +<pb n="135" /><anchor id="Pg135" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Citronia's nose declares thy ruin nigh,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And who dares give Citronia's nose the lie?<note place="foot"> +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">——Solem quis dicere falsum</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Audeat?</l> +</lg> + +<p rend="text-align: right">Virg.</p></note></l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The ladies long at men of drink exclaim'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And what impair'd both health and virtue, blam'd;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">At length, to rescue man, the generous lass</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Stole from her consort the pernicious glass;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As glorious as the British queen renown'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who suck'd the poison from her husband's wound.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Nor to the glass alone are nymphs inclin'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But every bolder vice of bold mankind.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">O Juvenal! for thy severer rage!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To lash the ranker follies of our age.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Are there, among the females of our isle,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Such faults, at which it is a fault to smile?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">There are. Vice, once by modest nature chain'd</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And legal ties, expatiates unrestrain'd;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Without thin decency held up to view,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Naked she stalks o'er law and gospel too.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Our matrons lead such exemplary lives,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Men sigh in vain for none, but for their wives;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who marry to be free, to range the more,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And wed one man to wanton with a score.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Abroad too kind, at home 'tis steadfast hate,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And one eternal tempest of debate.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What foul eruptions, from a look most meek!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What thunders bursting, from a dimpled cheek!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Their passions bear it with a lofty hand!</l> + +<pb n="136" /><anchor id="Pg136" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But then, their reason is at due command.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Is there whom you detest, and seek his life?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Trust no soul with the secret—but his wife.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Wives wonder that their conduct I condemn,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And ask, what kindred is a spouse to them?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">What swarms of am'rous grandmothers I see!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And misses, ancient in iniquity?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What blasting whispers, and what loud declaiming!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What lying, drinking, bawding, swearing, gaming!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Friendship so cold, such warm incontinence;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Such griping av'rice, such profuse expense;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Such dead devotion, such a zeal for crimes;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Such licens'd ill, such masquerading times;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Such venal faith, such misapplied applause;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Such flatter'd guilt, and such inverted laws;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Such dissolution through the whole I find,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Tis not a world, but chaos of mankind.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Since Sundays have no balls, the well-dress'd belle</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Shines in the pew, but smiles to hear of hell;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And casts an eye of sweet disdain on all,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who listens less to Collins than St. Paul.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Atheists have been but rare; since nature's birth,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Till now, she-atheists ne'er appear'd on earth.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Ye men of deep researches, say, whence springs</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">This daring character, in timorous things?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who start at feathers, from an insect fly,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A match for nothing—but the Deity.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">But, not to wrong the fair, the muse must own</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In this pursuit they court not fame alone;</l> + +<pb n="137" /><anchor id="Pg137" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But join to that a more substantial view,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">"From thinking free, to be free agents too."</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">They strive with their own hearts, and keep them down,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In complaisance to all the fools in town.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">O how they tremble at the name of prude!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And die with shame at thought of being good!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For what will Artimis, the rich and gay,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What will the wits, that is, the coxcombs say?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They heaven defy, to earth's vile dregs a slave;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thro' cowardice, most execrably brave.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With our own judgments durst we to comply,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In virtue should we live, in glory die.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Rise then, my muse, in honest fury rise;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They dread a satire, who defy the skies.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Atheists are few: most nymphs a Godhead own;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And nothing but his attributes dethrone.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From Atheists far, they steadfastly believe</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">God is, and is Almighty——to forgive.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His other excellence they'll not dispute;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But mercy, sure, is his chief attribute.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Shall pleasures of a short duration chain</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A lady's soul in everlasting pain?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Will the great Author us poor worms destroy,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For now and then a sip of transient joy?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">No, he's for ever in a smiling mood;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He's like themselves, or how could he be good?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And they blaspheme, who blacker schemes suppose.—</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Devoutly, thus, Jehovah they depose,</l> + +<pb n="138" /><anchor id="Pg138" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The pure! the just! and set up, in his stead,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A deity, that's perfectly well bred.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">"Dear Tillotson! be sure the best of men;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor thought he more, than thought great Origen,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Though once upon a time he misbehav'd;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Poor Satan! doubtless, he'll at length be sav'd.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Let priests do something for their one in ten;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">It is their trade; so far they're honest men.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Let them cant on, since they have got the knack,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And dress their notions, like themselves, in black;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Fright us, with terrors of a world unknown,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From joys of this, to keep them all their own.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of earth's fair fruits, indeed, they claim a fee;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But then they leave our untith'd virtue free.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Virtue's a pretty thing to make a show:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Did ever mortal write like Rochefocaut?"</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thus pleads the devil's fair apologist,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And, pleading, safely enters on his list.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Let angel-forms angelic truths maintain;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nature disjoins the beauteous and profane.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For what's true beauty, but fair virtue's face?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Virtue made visible in outward grace?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">She, then, that's haunted with an impious mind,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The more she charms, the more she shocks mankind.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">But charms decline: the fair long vigils keep:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They sleep no more! <note place="foot"><p>Shakespeare.</p></note>quadrille has murder'd sleep.</l> + +<pb n="139" /><anchor id="Pg139" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">"Poor K—p! cries Livia; I have not been there</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">These two nights; the poor creature will despair.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">I hate a crowd—but to do good, you know—</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And people of condition should bestow."</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Convinc'd, o'ercome, to K—p's grave matrons run;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Now set a daughter, and now stake a son;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Let health, fame, temper, beauty, fortune, fly;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And beggar half their race—thro' charity.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Immortal were we, or else mortal quite,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">I less should blame this criminal delight:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But since the gay assembly's gayest room</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Is but the upper story of some tomb,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Methinks, we need not our short beings shun,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And, thought to fly, contend to be undone.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">We need not buy our ruin with our crime,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And give eternity to murder time.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The love of gaming is the worst of ills;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With ceaseless storms the blacken'd soul it fills;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Inveighs at heaven, neglects the ties of blood;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Destroys the power and will of doing good;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Kills health, pawns honour, plunges in disgrace,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And, what is still more dreadful—spoils your face.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">See yonder set of thieves that live on spoil,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The scandal, and the ruin of our isle!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And see, (strange sight!) amid that ruffian band,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A form divine high wave her snowy hand;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That rattles loud a small enchanted box,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Which, loud as thunder, on the board she knocks.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And as fierce storms, which earth's foundation shook,</l> + +<pb n="140" /><anchor id="Pg140" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From Æolus's cave impetuous broke,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From this small cavern a mix'd tempest flies,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Fear, rage, convulsion, tears, oaths, blasphemies!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For men, I mean,—the fair discharges none;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">She (guiltless creature!) swears to heaven alone.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">See her eyes start! cheeks glow! and muscles swell!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Like the mad maid in the Cumean cell.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thus that divine one her soft nights employs!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thus tunes her soul to tender nuptial joys!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And when the cruel morning calls to bed,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And on her pillow lays her aching head,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With the dear images her dreams are crown'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The die spins lovely, or the cards go round;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Imaginary ruin charms her still;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her happy lord is cuckol'd by spadille:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And if she's brought to bed, 'tis ten to one,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He marks the forehead of her darling son.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">O scene of horror, and of wild despair,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Why is the rich Atrides' splended heir</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Constrain'd to quit his ancient lordly seat,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And hide his glories in a mean retreat?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Why that drawn sword? And whence that dismal cry?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Why pale distraction thro' the family?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">See my lord threaten, and my lady weep,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And trembling servants from the tempest creep.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Why that gay son to distant regions sent?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What fiends that daughter's destin'd match prevent?</l> + +<pb n="141" /><anchor id="Pg141" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Why the whole house in sudden ruin laid?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">O nothing, but last night—my lady play'd.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">But wanders not my satire from my theme?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Is this too owing to the love of fame?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Though now your hearts on lucre are bestow'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Twas first a vain devotion to the mode;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor cease we here, since 'tis a vice so strong,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The torrent sweeps all womankind along;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">This may be said, in honour of our times,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That none now stand distinguish'd by their crimes.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">If sin you must, take nature for your guide:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Love has some soft excuse to soothe your pride:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Ye fair apostates from love's ancient power!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Can nothing ravish, but a golden shower?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Can cards alone your glowing fancy seize;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Must Cupid learn to punt, ere he can please?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When you're enamour'd of a lift or cast,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What can the preacher more, to make us chaste?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Why must strong youths unmarried pine away?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They find no woman disengag'd——from play.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Why pine the married—O severer fate!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They find from play no disengag'd—estate.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Flavia, at lovers false, untouch'd and hard,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Turns pale, and trembles at a cruel card.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor Arria's Bible can secure her age;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her threescore years are shuffling with her page.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">While death stands by, but till the game is done,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To sweep that stake, in justice, long his own;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Like old cards ting'd with sulphur, she takes fire;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or, like snuffs sunk in sockets, blazes higher.</l> + +<pb n="142" /><anchor id="Pg142" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Ye gods! with new delights inspire the fair;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or give us sons, and save us from despair.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Sons, brothers, fathers, husbands, tradesmen, close</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In my complaint, and brand your sins in prose:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Yet I believe, as firmly as my creed,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In spite of all our wisdom, you'll proceed:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Our pride so great, our passion is so strong,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Advice to right confirms us in the wrong.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">I hear you cry, "This fellow's very odd."</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When you chastise, who would not kiss the rod?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But I've a charm your anger shall control,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And turn your eyes with coldness on the vole.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The charm begins! To yonder flood of light,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That bursts o'er gloomy Britain, turn your sight.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What guardian power o'erwhelms your souls with awe?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her deeds are precepts, her example law;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Midst empire's charms, how Carolina's heart</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Glows with the love of virtue, and of art!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her favour is diffus'd to that degree,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Excess of goodness! it has dawn'd on me:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When in my page, to balance numerous faults,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or godlike deeds were shown, or gen'rous thoughts,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">She smil'd, industrious to be pleas'd, nor knew</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From whom my pen the borrow'd lustre drew.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4"><note place="foot"><p>Milton.</p></note>Thus the majestic mother of mankind,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To her own charms most amiably blind,</l> + +<pb n="143" /><anchor id="Pg143" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">On the green margin innocently stood,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And gaz'd indulgent on the crystal flood;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Survey'd the stranger in the painted wave,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And, smiling, prais'd the beauties which she gave.</l> +</lg> +</div> + +<div rend="page-break-before: always"> +<index index="toc" /><index index="pdf" /> +<head rend="text-align: center">Satire VII.</head> +<head rend="text-align: center" type="sub">To the Right Honourable Sir Robert Walpole.</head> + +<quote rend="display"> +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Carmina tum melius, cum venerit ipse, canemus.</l> +</lg> + +<p rend="text-align: right"><hi rend="font-variant: small-caps">Virg.</hi></p> +</quote> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">On this last labour, this my closing strain,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Smile, Walpole! or the Nine inspire in vain:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To thee, 'tis due; that verse how justly thine,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Where Brunswick's glory crowns the whole design!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That glory, which thy counsels make so bright;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That glory, which on thee reflects a light.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Illustrious commerce, and but rarely known!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To give, and take, a lustre from the throne.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Nor think that thou art foreign to my theme;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The fountain is not foreign to the stream.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How all mankind will be surprised, to see</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">This flood of British folly charg'd on thee!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Say, Britain! whence this caprice of thy sons,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Which thro' their various ranks with fury runs?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The cause is plain, a cause which we must bless;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For caprice is the daughter of success,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">(A bad effect, but from a pleasing cause!)</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And gives our rulers undesign'd applause;</l> + +<pb n="144" /><anchor id="Pg144" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Tells how their conduct bids our wealth increase,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And lulls us in the downy lap of peace.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">While I survey the blessings of our isle,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her arts triumphant in the royal smile,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her public wounds bound up, her credit high,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her commerce spreading sails in every sky,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The pleasing scene recalls my theme again,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And shows the madness of ambitious men,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who, fond of bloodshed, draw the murd'ring sword,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And burn to give mankind a single lord.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The follies past are of a private kind;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Their sphere is small; their mischief is confin'd:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But daring men there are (Awake, my muse,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And raise thy verse!) who bolder frenzy choose;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who stung by glory, rave, and bound away;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The world their field, and humankind their prey.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The Grecian chief, th' enthusiast of his pride,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With rage and terror stalking by his side,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Raves round the globe; he soars into a god!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Stand fast, Olympus! and sustain his nod.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The pest divine in horrid grandeur reigns,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And thrives on mankind's miseries and pains,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What slaughter'd hosts! what cities in a blaze!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What wasted countries! and what crimson seas!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With orphans' tears his impious bowl o'erflows,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And cries of kingdoms lull him to repose.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And cannot thrice ten hundred years unpraise</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The boist'rous boy, and blast his guilty bays?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Why want we then encomiums on the storm,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or famine, or volcano? They perform</l> + +<pb n="145" /><anchor id="Pg145" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Their mighty deeds: they, hero-like, can slay,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And spread their ample desarts in a day.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">O great alliance! O divine renown!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With dearth, and pestilence, to share the crown.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When men extol a wild destroyer's name,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Earth's builder and preserver they blaspheme.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">One to destroy, is murder by the law;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And gibbets keep the lifted hand in awe;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To murder thousands, takes a specious name,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">War's glorious art, and gives immortal fame.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">When, after battle, I the field have seen</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Spread o'er with ghastly shapes, which once were men;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A nation crush'd, a nation of the brave!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A realm of death! and on this side the grave!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Are there, said I, who from this sad survey,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">This human chaos, carry smiles away?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How did my heart with indignation rise!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How honest nature swell'd into my eyes!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How was I shock'd to think the hero's trade</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of such materials, fame and triumph made!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">How guilty these! Yet not less guilty they,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who reach false glory by a smoother way:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who wrap destruction up in gentle words,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And bows, and smiles, more fatal than their swords;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who stifle nature, and subsist on art;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who coin the face, and petrify the heart;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">All real kindness for the show discard,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As marble polish'd, and as marble hard;</l> + +<pb n="146" /><anchor id="Pg146" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who do for gold what Christians do thro' grace,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">"With open arms their enemies embrace:"</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who give a nod when broken hearts repine;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">"The thinnest food on which a wretch can dine:"</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or, if they serve you, serve you disinclin'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And, in their height of kindness, are unkind.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Such courtiers were, and such again may be,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Walpole! when men forget to copy thee.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Here cease, my muse! the catalogue is writ;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor one more candidate for fame admit,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Tho' disappointed thousands justly blame</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thy partial pen, and boast an equal claim:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Be this their comfort, fools, omitted here,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">May furnish laughter for another year.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Then let Crispino, who was ne'er refused</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The justice yet of being well abus'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With patience wait; and be content to reign</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The pink of puppies in some future strain.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Some future strain, in which the muse shall tell</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How science dwindles, and how volumes swell.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">How commentators each dark passage shun,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And hold their farthing candle to the sun.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">How tortur'd texts to speak our sense are made,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And every vice is to the scripture laid.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">How misers squeeze a young voluptuous peer;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His sins to Lucifer not half so dear.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2"> How Verres is less qualified to steal</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With sword and pistol, than with wax and seal.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">How lawyers' fees to such excess are run,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That clients are redress'd till they're undone.</l> + +<pb n="147" /><anchor id="Pg147" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How one man's anguish is another's sport;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And ev'n denials cost us dear at court.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">How man eternally false judgments makes,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And all his joys and sorrows are mistakes.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">This swarm of themes that settles on my pen,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Which I, like summer flies, shake off again,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Let others sing; to whom my weak essay</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But sounds a prelude, and points out their prey:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That duty done, I hasten to complete</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">My own design; for Tonson's at the gate.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The love of fame in its effect survey'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The muse has sung; be now the cause display'd:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Since so diffusive, and so wide its sway,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What is this power, whom all mankind obey?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Shot from above, by heaven's indulgence, came</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">This generous ardour, this unconquer'd flame,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To warm, to raise, to deify, mankind,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Still burning brightest in the noblest mind.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">By large-soul'd men, for thirst of fame renown'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Wise laws were fram'd, and sacred arts were found;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Desire of praise first broke the patriot's rest,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And made a bulwark of the warrior's breast;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">It bids Argyll in fields and senate shine.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What more can prove its origin divine?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">But, oh! this passion planted in the soul,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">On eagle's wings to mount her to the pole,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The flaming minister of virtue meant,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Set up false gods, and wrong'd her high descent.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Ambition, hence, exerts a doubtful force,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of blots, and beauties, an alternate source;</l> + +<pb n="148" /><anchor id="Pg148" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Hence Gildon rails, that raven of the pit,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who thrives upon the carcasses of wit;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And in art-loving Scarborough is seen</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How kind a pattern Pollio might have been.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Pursuit of fame with pedants fills our schools,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And into coxcombs burnishes our fools;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Pursuit of fame makes solid learning bright,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And Newton lifts above a mortal height;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That key of nature, by whose wit she clears</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her long, long secrets of five thousand years.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Would you then fully comprehend the whole,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Why, and in what degrees, pride sways the soul?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">(For though in all, not equally, she reigns,)</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Awake to knowledge, and attend my strains.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Ye doctors! hear the doctrine I disclose,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As true, as if't were writ in dullest prose;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As if a letter'd dunce had said, "'Tis right,"</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And imprimatur usher'd it to light.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Ambition, in the truly noble mind,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With sister virtue is for ever join'd;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As in fam'd Lucrece, who, with equal dread,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From guilt, and shame, by her last conduct, fled:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her virtue long rebell'd in firm disdain,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And the sword pointed at her heart in vain;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But, when the slave was threaten'd to be laid</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Dead by her side, her love of fame obey'd.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">In meaner minds ambition works alone;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But with such art puts virtue's aspect on,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That not more like in feature and in mien,</l> + +<pb n="149" /><anchor id="Pg149" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2"><note place="foot"><p>Amphitryon.</p></note>The god and mortal in the comic scene.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">False Julius, ambush'd in this fair disguise,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Soon made the Roman liberties his prize.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">No mask in basest minds ambition wears,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But in full light pricks up her ass's ears:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">All I have sung are instances of this,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And prove my theme unfolded not amiss.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Ye vain! desist from your erroneous strife;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Be wise, and quit the false sublime of life,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The true ambition there alone resides,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Where justice vindicates, and wisdom guides;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Where inward dignity joins outward state;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Our purpose good, as our achievement great;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Where public blessings public praise attend;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Where glory is our motive, not our end.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Wouldst thou be fam'd? Have those high deeds in view</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Brave men would act, though scandal should ensue.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Behold a prince! whom no swoln thoughts inflame;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">No pride of thrones, no fever after fame!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But when the welfare of mankind inspires,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And death in view to dear-bought glory fires,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Proud conquests then, then regal pomps delight;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Then crowns, then triumphs, sparkle in his sight;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Tumult and noise are dear, which with them bring</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His people's blessings to their ardent king:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But, when those great heroic motives cease,</l> + +<pb n="150" /><anchor id="Pg150" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His swelling soul subsides to native peace;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From tedious grandeur's faded charms withdraws,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A sudden foe to splendour and applause;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Greatly deferring his arrears of fame,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Till men and angels jointly shout his name.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">O pride celestial! which can pride disdain;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">O blest ambition! which can ne'er be vain.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">From one fam'd Alpine hill, which props the sky,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In whose deep womb unfathom'd waters lie,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Here burst the Rhone, and sounding Po; there shine,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In infant rills, the Danube and the Rhine;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From the rich store one fruitful urn supplies,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whole kingdoms smile, a thousand harvests rise.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">In Brunswick such a source the muse adores,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Which public blessings thro' half Europe pours.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When his heart burns with such a godlike aim,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Angels and George are rivals for the fame;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">George! who in foes can soft affections raise,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And charm envenom'd satire into praise.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4"><note place="foot"><p>The king in danger by sea.</p></note>Nor human rage alone his power perceives,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But the mad winds, and the tumultuous waves.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Ev'n storms (death's fiercest ministers!) forbear,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And, in their own wild empire, learn to spare.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thus, nature's self, supporting man's decree,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Styles Britain's sovereign, sovereign of the sea.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">While sea and air, great Brunswick! shook our state,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And sported with a king's and kingdom's fate,</l> + +<pb n="151" /><anchor id="Pg151" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Depriv'd of what she lov'd, and press'd by fear</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of ever losing what she held most dear,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How did Britannia, like <note place="foot"><p>Hom. Il. lib. I.</p></note>Achilles, weep,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And tell her sorrows to the kindred deep!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Hang o'er the floods, and, in devotion warm,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Strive, for thee, with the surge, and fight the storm</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">What felt thy Walpole, pilot of the realm!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Our Palinurus<note place="foot"> +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Ecce Deus ramum Lethæo rore madentem, &c.</l> +</lg> + +<p rend="text-align: right">Virg.</p></note> slept not at the helm;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His eye ne'er clos'd; long since inur'd to wake,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And out-watch every star for Brunswick's sake:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">By thwarting passions tost, by cares opprest,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He found the tempest pictur'd in his breast:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But, now, what joys that gloom of heart dispel,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">No powers of language—but his own, can tell:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His own, which nature and the graces form,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">At will, to raise, or hush, the civil storm.</l> +</lg> +</div> +</div> + +<div rend="page-break-before: right"> +<pb n="152" /><anchor id="Pg152" /> +<index index="toc" level1="Ocean: an Ode, occasioned by his Majesty's royal Encouragement of the Sea Service. To which is prefixed an Ode to the King; and A Discourse on Ode" /><index index="pdf" /> +<head rend="text-align: center">Ocean: An Ode</head> +<head rend="text-align: center" type="sub">occasioned by His Majesty's Royal Encouragement of the Sea Service.</head> +<head rend="text-align: center" type="sub">To Which is Prefixed an Ode to the King; and a Discourse on Ode.</head> + +<quote rend="display"> +<p>I think myself obliged to recommend to you a consideration +of the greatest importance; and I should look upon it as a +great happiness, if, at the beginning of my reign, I could see +the foundation laid of so great and necessary a work, as the +increase and encouragement of our seamen in general; that +they may be invited, rather than compelled by force and violence, +to enter into the service of their country, as oft as +occasion shall require it: a consideration worthy the representatives +of a people great and flourishing in trade and navigation. +This leads me to mention to you the case of Greenwich +Hospital, that care may be taken, by some addition to that +fund, to render comfortable and effectual that charitable provision, +for the support and maintenance of our seamen, worn +out, and become decrepit by age and infirmities, in the service +of their country.</p> + +<p rend="text-align: right">[Speech, Jan. 27, 1727-8.]</p> +</quote> + +<div rend="page-break-before: always"> +<head rend="text-align: center">To the King.—1728.</head> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Old ocean's praise</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Demands my lays;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A truly British theme I sing;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">A theme so great,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">I dare complete,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And join with ocean, ocean's king.</l> +</lg> + +<pb n="153" /><anchor id="Pg153" /> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The Roman ode</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Majestic flow'd:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Its stream divinely clear, and strong;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">In sense, and sound,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Thebes roll'd profound;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The torrent roar'd and foam'd along.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Let Thebes, nor Rome,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">So fam'd, presume</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To triumph o'er a northern isle;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Late time shall know</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The north can glow,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">If dread Augustus deign to smile.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The naval crown</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Is all his own!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Our fleet, if war, or commerce, call,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">His will performs</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Through waves and storms,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And rides in triumph round the ball.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">No former race,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">With strong embrace,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">This theme to ravish durst aspire;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">With virgin charms</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">My soul it warms,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And melts melodious on my lyre.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">My lays I file</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">With cautious toil;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Ye graces! turn the glowing lines;</l> + +<pb n="154" /><anchor id="Pg154" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">On anvils neat</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Your strokes repeat;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">At every stroke the work refines!</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">How music charms!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">How metre warms!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Parent of actions, good and brave!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">How vice it tames!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And worth inflames!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And holds proud empire o'er the grave!</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Jove mark'd for man</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">A scanty span,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But lent him wings to fly his doom;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Wit scorns the grave;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">To wit he gave</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The life of gods! immortal bloom!</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Since years will fly,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And pleasures die,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Day after day, as years advance;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Since, while life lasts,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Joy suffers blasts</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From frowning fate, and fickle chance;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Nor life is long;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">But soon we throng,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Like autumn leaves, death's pallid shore;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">We make, at least,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Of bad the best,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">If in life's phantom, fame, we soar.</l> +</lg> + +<pb n="155" /><anchor id="Pg155" /> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Our strains divide</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The laurel's pride;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With those we lift to life, to live;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">By fame enroll'd</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">With heroes bold,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And share the blessings which we give.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">What hero's praise</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Can fire my lays,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Like his, with whom my lay begun?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">"Justice sincere,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And courage clear,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Rise the two columns of his throne.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">"How form'd for sway!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Who look, obey;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They read the monarch in his port:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Their love and awe</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Supply the law;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And his own lustre makes the court:"</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">On yonder height,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">What golden light</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Triumphant shines? and shines alone?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Unrivall'd blaze!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The nations gaze!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Tis not the sun; 'tis Britain's throne.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Our monarch, there,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Rear'd high in air,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Should tempests rise, disdains to bend;</l> + +<pb n="156" /><anchor id="Pg156" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Like British oak,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Derides the stroke;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His blooming honours far extend!</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Beneath them lies,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">With lifted eyes,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Fair Albion, like an amorous maid;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">While interest wings</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Bold foreign kings</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To fly, like eagles, to his shade.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">At his proud foot</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The sea, pour'd out,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Immortal nourishment supplies;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Thence wealth and state,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And power and fate,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Which Europe reads in George's eyes.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">From what we view,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">We take the clue,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Which leads from great to greater thing</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Men doubt no more,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">But gods adore,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When such resemblance shines in kings.</l> +</lg> +</div> + +<pb n="157" /><anchor id="Pg157" /> + +<div rend="page-break-before: always"> +<head rend="text-align: center">On Lyric Poetry.</head> + +<p>How imperfect soever my own composition may +be, yet am I willing to speak a word or two, of +the nature of lyric poetry; to show that I have, +at least, some idea of perfection in that kind of +poem in which I am engaged; and that I do not +think myself poet enough entirely to rely on inspiration +for success in it.</p> + +<p>To our having, or not having, this idea of perfection +in the poem we undertake, is chiefly owing +the merit or demerit of our performances, as also +the modesty or vanity of our opinions concerning +them. And in speaking of it I shall show how it +unavoidably comes to pass, that bad poets, that is, +poets in general, are esteemed, and really are, the +most vain, the most irritable, and most ridiculous +set of men upon earth. But poetry in its own +nature is certainly</p> + +<quote rend="display"> +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Non hos quæsitum munus in usus.</l> +</lg> + +<p rend="text-align: right">—<hi rend="font-variant: small-caps">Virg.</hi></p> +</quote> + +<p>He that has an idea of perfection in the work +he undertakes may fail in it; he that has not, +must: and yet he will be vain. For every little +degree of beauty, how short or improper soever, +will be looked on fondly by him; because it is all +pure gains, and more than he promised to himself; +and because he has no test, or standard in his +judgment, with which to chastise his opinion of it.</p> + +<pb n="158" /><anchor id="Pg158" /> + +<p>Now this idea of perfection is, in poetry, more +refined than in other kinds of writing; and because +more refined, therefore more difficult; and +because more difficult, therefore more rarely attained; +and the non-attainment of it is, as I have +said, the source of our vanity. Hence the poetic +clan are more obnoxious to vanity than others. +And from vanity consequently flows that great +sensibility of disrespect, that quick resentment, +that tinder of the mind that kindles at every +spark, and justly marks them out for the genus +irritabile among mankind. And from this combustible +temper, this serious anger for no very +serious things, things looked on by most as foreign +to the important points of life, as consequentially +flows that inheritance of ridicule, which devolves +on them, from generation to generation. As +soon as they become authors, they become like +Ben Jonson's angry boy, and learn the art of +quarrel.</p> + +<quote rend="display"> +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Concordes animæ—dum nocte prementur;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Heu! quantum inter se bellum, si lumina vitæ</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Attigerint, quantas acies stragemque ciebunt!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Qui Juvenes! quantas ostentant, aspice, vires.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Ne, pueri! ne tanta animis assuescite bella.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Tuque prior, tu parce, genus qui ducis Olympo,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Sidereo flagrans clypeo, et cœlestibus armis,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Projice tela manu, sanguis meus!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nec te ullæ facies, non terruit ipse Typhœus</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Arduus, arma tenens; non te Messapus et Ufens,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Contemtorque Deûm Mezentius.</l> +</lg> + +<p rend="text-align: right"><hi rend="font-variant: small-caps">Virg.</hi></p> +</quote> + +<pb n="159" /><anchor id="Pg159" /> + +<p>But to return. He that has this idea of perfection +in the work he undertakes, however successful +he is, will yet be modest; because to rise +up to that idea, which he proposed for his model, +is almost, if not absolutely, impossible.</p> + +<p>These two observations account for what may +seem as strange, as it is infallibly true; I mean, +they show us why good writers have the lowest, +and bad writers the highest, opinion of their own +performances. They who have only a partial idea +of this perfection, as their portion of ignorance +or knowledge of it is greater or less, have proportionable +degrees of modesty or conceit.</p> + +<p>Nor, though natural good understanding makes +a tolerably just judgment in things of this nature, +will the reader judge the worse, for forming to +himself a notion of what he ought to expect from +the piece he has in hand, before he begins his +perusal of it.</p> + +<p>The ode, as it is the eldest kind of poetry, so it +is more spiritous, and more remote from prose, +than any other, in sense, sound, expression, and +conduct. Its thoughts should be uncommon, sublime, +and moral; its numbers full, easy, and most +harmonious; its expression pure, strong, delicate, +yet unaffected; and of a curious felicity beyond +other poems; its conduct should be rapturous, +somewhat abrupt, and immethodical to a vulgar +eye. That apparent order, and connexion, which +gives form and life to some compositions, takes + +<pb n="160" /><anchor id="Pg160" /> + +away the very soul of this. Fire, elevation, and +select thought, are indispensable; an humble, +tame, and vulgar ode is the most pitiful error a +pen can commit.</p> + +<quote rend="display"> +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Musa dedit fidibus divos, puerosque deorum.</l> +</lg> +</quote> + +<p>And as its subjects are sublime, its writer's genius +should be so too; otherwise it becomes the +meanest thing in writing, viz. an involuntary burlesque.</p> + +<p>It is the genuine character, and true merit of +the ode, a little to startle some apprehensions. +Men of cold complexions are very apt to mistake +a want of vigour in their imaginations, for a delicacy +of taste in their judgments; and, like persons +of a tender sight, they look on bright objects, +in their natural lustre, as too glaring; what is +most delightful to a stronger eye, is painful to +them. Thus Pindar, who has as much logic at +the bottom as Aristotle or Euclid, to some critics +has appeared as mad; and must appear so to all +who enjoy no portion of his own divine spirit. +Dwarf understandings, measuring others by their +own standard, are apt to think they see a monster, +when they see a man.</p> + +<p>And indeed it seems to be the amends which +nature makes to those whom she has not blessed +with an elevation of mind, to indulge them in the +comfortable mistake, that all is wrong, which falls +not within the narrow limits of their own comprehensions +and relish.</p> + +<pb n="161" /><anchor id="Pg161" /> + +<p>Judgment, indeed, that masculine power of the +mind, in ode, as in all compositions, should bear +the supreme sway; and a beautiful imagination, +as its mistress, should be subdued to its dominion. +Hence, and hence only, can proceed the fairest +offspring of the human mind.</p> + +<p>But then in ode, there is this difference from +other kinds of poetry; that, there, the imagination, +like a very beautiful mistress, is indulged in +the appearance of domineering; though the judgment, +like an artful lover, in reality carries its +point; and the less it is suspected of it, it shows +the more masterly conduct, and deserves the +greater commendation.</p> + +<p>It holds true in this province of writing, as in +war, "The more danger; the more honour." It +must be very enterprising: it must, in Shakespeare's +style, have hairbreadth 'scapes; and often +tread the very brink of error: nor can it ever +deserve the applause of the real judge, unless it +renders itself obnoxious to the misapprehensions +of the contrary.</p> + +<p>Such is Casimire's strain among the moderns, +whose lively wit, and happy fire, is an honour to +them. And Buchanan might justly be much admired, +if any thing more than the sweetness of +his numbers, and the purity of his diction, were +his own: his original, from which I have taken +my motto, through all the disadvantages of a +northern prose translation, is still admirable; and, + +<pb n="162" /><anchor id="Pg162" /> + +Cowley says, as preferable in beauty to Buchanan, +as Judæa is to Scotland.</p> + +<p>Pindar, Anacreon, Sappho, and Horace, are +the great masters of lyric poetry among Heathen +writers. Pindar's muse, like Sacharissa, is +a stately, imperious, and accomplished beauty; +equally disdaining the use of art, and the fear of +any rival; so intoxicating that it was the highest +commendation that could be given an ancient, that +he was not afraid to taste of her charms;</p> + +<quote rend="display"> +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Pindarici fontis qui non expalluit haustus;</l> +</lg> +</quote> + +<p>a danger which Horace declares he durst not run.</p> + +<p>Anacreon's Muse is like Amoret, most sweet, +natural, and delicate; all over flowers, graces, +and charms; inspiring complacency, not awe; and +she seems to have good nature enough to admit a +rival, which she cannot find.</p> + +<p>Sappho's Muse, like Lady ——, is passionately +tender, and glowing; like oil set on fire, she is +soft, and warm, in excess. Sappho has left us a +few fragments only; time has swallowed the rest; +but that little which remains, like the remaining +jewel of Cleopatra, after the other was dissolved at +her banquet, may be esteemed (as was that jewel) +a sufficient ornament for the goddess of beauty +herself.</p> + +<p>Horace's Muse (like one I shall not presume to +name) is correct, solid, and moral; she joins all +the sweetness and majesty, all the sense and the + +<pb n="163" /><anchor id="Pg163" /> + +fire of the former, in the justest proportions and +degrees; superadding a felicity of dress entirely +her own. She moreover is distinguishable by this +particularity, that she abounds in hidden graces, +and secret charms, which none but the discerning +can discover; nor are any capable of doing full +justice, in their opinion to her excellencies, without +giving the world, at the same time, an incontestable +proof of refinement in their own understandings.</p> + +<p>But, after all, to the honour of our own country +I must add, that I think Mr. Dryden's Ode on St. +Cecilia's Day inferior to no composition of this +kind. Its chief beauty consists in adapting the +numbers most happily to the variety of the occasion. +Those by which he has chosen to express +majesty, (viz.)</p> + +<quote rend="display"> +<lg> +<l rend='margin-left: 4'>Assumes the God,</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 4'>Affects to nod,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And seems to shake the spheres,</l> +</lg> +</quote> + +<p>are chosen in the following ode, because the subject +of it is great.</p> + +<p>For the more harmony likewise, I chose the +frequent return of rhyme; which laid me under +great difficulties. But difficulties overcome give +grace and pleasure. Nor can I account for the +pleasure of rhyme in general (of which the moderns +are too fond) but from this truth.</p> + +<p>But then the writer must take care that the +difficulty is overcome. That is, he must make + +<pb n="164" /><anchor id="Pg164" /> + +rhyme consistent with as perfect sense, and expression, +as could be expected if he was free from +that shackle. Otherwise, it gives neither grace to +the work, nor pleasure to the reader, nor, consequently, +reputation to the poet.</p> + +<p>To sum the whole: ode should be peculiar, but +not strained; moral, but not flat; natural, but not +obvious; delicate, but not affected; noble, but not +ambitious; full, but not obscure; fiery, but not +mad; thick, but not loaded in its numbers, which +should be most harmonious, without the least +sacrifice of expression, or of sense. Above all, in +this, as in every work of genius, somewhat of an +original spirit should be, at least attempted; otherwise +the poet, whose character disclaims mediocrity, +makes a secondary praise his ultimate +ambition; which has something of a contradiction +in it. Originals only have true life, and differ as +much from the best imitations, as men from the +most animated pictures of them. Nor is what I +say at all inconsistent with a due deference for +the great standards of antiquity; nay, that very +deference is an argument for it, for doubtless their +example is on my side in this matter. And we +should rather imitate their example in the general +motives, and fundamental methods of their working, +than in their works themselves. This is a +distinction, I think, not hitherto made, and a distinction +of consequence. For the first may make +us their equals; the second must pronounce us + +<pb n="165" /><anchor id="Pg165" /> + +their inferiors even in our utmost success. But +the first of these prizes is not so readily taken by +the moderns; as valuables too massy for easy carriage +are not so liable to the thief.</p> + +<p>The ancients had a particular regard to the choice +of their subjects; which were generally national +and great. My subject is, in its own nature, noble; +most proper for an Englishman; never more +proper than on this occasion; and (what is strange) +hitherto unsung.</p> + +<p>If I stand not absolutely condemned by my own +rules; if I have hit the spirit of ode in general; +if I cannot think with Mr. Cowley, that "Music +alone, sometimes, makes an excellent ode;"</p> + +<quote rend="display"> +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Versus inopes rerum, nugæque canoræ;</l> +</lg> +</quote> + +<p>if there is any thought, enthusiasm, and picture, +which are as the body, soul, and robe of poetry; +in a word, if in any degree I have provided rather +food for men, than air for wits; I hope smaller +faults will meet indulgence for the sake of the +design, which is the glory of my country and my +king.</p> + +<p>And indeed, this may be said, in general, that +great subjects are above being nice; that dignity +and spirit ever suffer from scrupulous exactness; +And that the minuter cares effeminate a composition. +Great masters of poetry, painting, and statuary, +in their nobler works, have even affected +the contrary: and justly; for a truly masculine + +<pb n="166" /><anchor id="Pg166" /> + +air partakes more of the negligent, than of the +neat, both in writings, and in life—</p> + +<quote rend="display"> +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Grandis oratio haberet majestatis suæ pondus.</l> +</lg> + +<p rend="text-align: right">—<hi rend="font-variant: small-caps">Petron.</hi></p> +</quote> + +<p>A poem, like a criminal, under too severe correction, +may lose all its spirit, and expire. We +know it was Faberrimus, that was such an artist +at a hair or a nail. And we know the cause was</p> + +<quote rend="display"> +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Quia ponere totum</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nescius.</l> +</lg> + +<p rend="text-align: right"><hi rend="font-variant: small-caps">Hor.</hi></p> +</quote> + +<p>To close: if a piece of this nature wants an +apology, I must own, that those who have strength +of mind sufficient profitably to devote the whole +of their time to the severer studies, I despair of +imitating, I can only envy and admire. The mind +is relieved and strengthened by variety; and he +that sometimes is sporting with his pen, is only +taking the most effectual means of giving a general +importance to it. This truth is clear from the +knowledge of human nature, and of history; from +which I could cite very celebrated instances, did I +not fear that, by citing them, I should condemn +myself, who am so little qualified to follow their +example in its full extent.</p> +</div> + +<div rend="page-break-before: always"> +<pb n="167" /><anchor id="Pg167" /> + +<head rend="text-align: center">Ocean. An Ode.</head> + +<quote rend="display"> +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Let the sea make a noise, let the floods clap their hands.</l> +</lg> + +<p rend="text-align: right"><hi rend="font-variant: small-caps">Psalm</hi> XCVIII.</p> +</quote> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Sweet rural scene!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Of flocks and green!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">At careless ease my limbs are spread;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">All nature still,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">But yonder rill;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And list'ning pines nod o'er my head:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">In prospect wide,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The boundless tide!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Waves cease to foam, and winds to roar;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Without a breeze,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The curling seas</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Dance on, in measure to the shore.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Who sings the source</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Of wealth and force?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Vast field of commerce, and big war,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Where wonders dwell!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Where terrors swell!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And Neptune thunders from his car?</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Where? where are they,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Whom Pæan's ray</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Has touch'd, and bid divinely rave?—</l> + +<pb n="168" /><anchor id="Pg168" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What! none aspire?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">I snatch the lyre,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And plunge into the foaming wave.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The wave resounds!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The rock rebounds!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The Nereids to my song reply!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">I lead the choir,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And they conspire,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With voice and shell, to lift it high.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">They spread in air</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Their bosoms fair,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Their verdant tresses pour behind:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The billows beat</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">With nimble feet,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With notes triumphant swell the wind.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Who love the shore,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Let those adore</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The god Apollo, and his Nine,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Parnassus' hill,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And Orpheus' skill;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But let Arion's harp be mine.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The main! the main!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Is Britain's reign;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her strength, her glory, is her fleet:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The main! the main!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Be Britain's strain;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As Tritons strong, as Syrens sweet.</l> +</lg> + +<pb n="169" /><anchor id="Pg169" /> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thro' nature wide</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Is nought descried</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">So rich in pleasure or surprise;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">When all-serene,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">How sweet the scene!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How dreadful, when the billows rise;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And storms deface</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The fluid glass,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In which erewhile Britannia fair</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Look'd down with pride,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Like Ocean's bride,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Adjusting her majestic air!</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">When tempests cease,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And, hush'd in peace,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The flatten'd surges smoothly spread,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Deep silence keep,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And seem to sleep</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Recumbent on their oozy bed;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">With what a trance,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The level glance,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Unbroken, shoots along the seas!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Which tempt from shore</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The painted oar;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And every canvass courts the breeze!</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">When rushes forth</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The frowning north</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">On black'ning billows, with what dread</l> + +<pb n="170" /><anchor id="Pg170" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">My shuddering soul</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Beholds them roll,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And hears their roarings o'er my head!</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">With terror mark</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Yon flying bark!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Now center-deep descend the brave;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Now, toss'd on high,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">It takes the sky,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A feather on the tow'ring wave!</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Now spins around</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">In whirls profound:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Now whelm'd; now pendant near the clouds;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Now stunn'd, it reels</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">'Midst thunder's peals:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And now fierce lightning fires the shrouds.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">All ether burns!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Chaos returns!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And blends, once more, the seas and skies:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">No space between</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Thy bosom green,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">O deep! and the blue concave, lies.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The northern blast,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The shatter'd mast,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The syrt, the whirlpool, and the rock,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The breaking spout,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The stars gone out,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The boiling streight, the monsters shock,</l> +</lg> + +<pb n="171" /><anchor id="Pg171" /> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Let others fear;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">To Britain dear</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whate'er promotes her daring claim;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Those terrors charm,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Which keep her warm</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In chase of honest gain, or fame.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The stars are bright</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">To cheer the night,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And shed, thro' shadows, temper'd fire;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And Phœbus' flames,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">With burnish'd beams,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Which some adore, and all admire.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Are then the seas</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Outshone by these?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Bright Thetis! thou art not outshone;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">With kinder beams,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And softer gleams,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thy bosom wears them as thy own.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">There, set in green,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Gold stars are seen,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A mantle rich! thy charms to wrap;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And when the sun</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">His race has run,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He falls enamour'd in thy lap.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Those clouds, whose dyes</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Adorn the skies,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That silver snow, that pearly rain,</l> + +<pb n="172" /><anchor id="Pg172" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Has Phœbus stole</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">To grace the pole,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The plunder of th' invaded main!</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The gaudy bow,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Whose colours glow,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whose arch with so much skill is bent,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">To Phœbus' ray,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Which paints so gay,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">By thee the wat'ry woof was lent.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">In chambers deep,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Where waters sleep,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What unknown treasures pave the floor!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The pearl, in rows,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Pale lustre throws;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The wealth immense, which storms devour.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">From Indian mines,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">With proud designs,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The merchant, swoln, digs golden ore;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The tempests rise,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And seize the prize,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And toss him breathless on the shore.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">His son complains</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">In pious strains,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">"Ah cruel thirst of gold!" he cries;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Then ploughs the main,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">In zeal for gain,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The tears yet swelling in his eyes.</l> +</lg> + +<pb n="173" /><anchor id="Pg173" /> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Thou wat'ry vast!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">What mounds are cast</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To bar thy dreadful flowings o'er!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Thy proudest foam</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Must know its home;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But rage of gold disdains a shore.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Gold pleasure buys;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">But pleasure dies,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Too soon the gross fruition cloys;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Tho' raptures court,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The sense is short;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But virtue kindles living joys;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Joys felt alone!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Joys ask'd of none!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Which time's and fortune's arrows miss:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Joys that subsist,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Tho' fates resist,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">An unprecarious, endless bliss!</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The soul refin'd</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Is most inclin'd</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To every moral excellence;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">All vice is dull,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">A knave's a fool;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And virtue is the child of sense.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The virtuous mind,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Nor wave, nor wind,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor civil rage, nor tyrant's frown,</l> + +<pb n="174" /><anchor id="Pg174" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The shaken ball,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Nor planet's fall,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From its firm basis can dethrone.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">This Britain knows,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And therefore glows</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With gen'rous passions, and expends</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Her wealth and zeal</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">On public weal,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And brightens both by god-like ends.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">What end so great</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">As that which late</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Awoke the genius of the main;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Which tow'ring rose</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">With George to close,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And rival great Eliza's reign?</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">A voice has flown</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">From Britain's throne</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To re-inflame a grand design;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">That voice shall rear</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Yon <note place="foot"><p>A new fund for Greenwich hospital, recommended from the throne.</p></note>fabric fair,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As nature's rose at the divine.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">When nature sprung,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Blest angels sung,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And shouted o'er the rising ball;</l> + +<pb n="175" /><anchor id="Pg175" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 4">For strains as high</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">As man's can fly,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">These sea-devoted honours call.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">From boist'rous seas,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The lap of ease</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Receives our wounded, and our old;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">High domes ascend!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Stretch'd arches bend!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Proud columns swell! wide gates unfold!</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Here, soft reclin'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">From wave, from wind,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And fortune's tempest safe ashore,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">To cheat their care,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Of former war</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They talk the pleasing shadows o'er.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">In lengthen'd tales,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Our fleet prevails;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In tales the lenitives of age!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And o'er the bowl,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">They fire the soul</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of list'ning youth, to martial rage.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Unhappy they!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And falsely gay!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who bask for ever in success;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">A constant feast</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Quite palls the taste,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And long enjoyment is distress.</l> +</lg> + +<pb n="176" /><anchor id="Pg17" /> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">When, after toil,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">His native soil</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The panting mariner regains,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">What transport flows</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">From bare repose!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">We reap our pleasure from our pains.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Ye warlike slain!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Beneath the main,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Wrapt in a wat'ry winding sheet;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Who bought with blood</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Your country's good,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Your country's <note place="foot"><p>Written soon after King George the First's accession.</p></note>full-blown glory greet.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">What pow'rful charm</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Can death disarm?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Your long, your iron slumbers break?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">By Jove, by Fame,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">By George's name,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Awake! awake! awake! awake!</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">With spiral shell,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Full blasted, tell,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That all your wat'ry realms should ring;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Your pearl alcoves,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Your coral groves,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Should echo theirs, and Britain's king.</l> +</lg> + +<pb n="177" /><anchor id="Pg177" /> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">As long as stars</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Guide mariners,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As Carolina's virtues please,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Or suns invite</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The ravish'd sight,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The British flag shall sweep the seas.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Peculiar both!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Our soil's strong growth,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And our bold natives' hardy mind;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Sure heaven bespoke</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Our hearts and oak,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To give a master to mankind.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">That noblest birth</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Of teeming earth,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of forests fair, that daughter proud,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">To foreign coasts</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Our grandeur boasts,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And Britain's pleasure speaks aloud:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Now big with war,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Sends fate from far,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">If rebel realms their fate demand,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Now, sumptuous spoils</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Of foreign soils</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Pours in the bosom of our land.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Hence Britain lays</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">In scales, and weighs</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The fate of kingdoms, and of kings;</l> + +<pb n="178" /><anchor id="Pg178" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And as she frowns,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Or smiles, on crowns</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A night, or day of glory, springs.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Thus ocean swells</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The streams and rills,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And to their borders lifts them high;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Or else withdraws</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The mighty cause,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And leaves their famish'd channels dry.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">How mixt, how frail,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">How sure to fail,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Is every pleasure of mankind!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">A damp destroys</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">My blooming joys,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">While Britain's glory fires my mind.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">For who can gaze</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">On restless seas,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Unstruck with life's more restless state?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Where all are tost,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And most are lost,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">By tides of passion, blasts of fate?</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The world's the main,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">How vext! how vain!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Ambition swells, and anger foams;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">May good men find,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Beneath the wind,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A noiseless shore, unruffled homes!</l> +</lg> + +<pb n="179" /><anchor id="Pg179" /> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The public scene</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Of harden'd men</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Teach me, O teach me to despise!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The world few know</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">But to their woe,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Our crimes with our experience rise;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">All tender sense</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Is banish'd thence,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">All maiden nature's first alarms</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">What shock'd before</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Disgust no more,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And what disgusted has its charms.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">In landscapes green</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">True bliss is seen,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With innocence, in shades, she sports;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">In wealthy towns</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Proud labour frowns,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And painted sorrow smiles in courts.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">These scenes untried</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Seduc'd my pride,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To fortune's arrows bar'd my breast;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Till wisdom came,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">A hoary dame!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And told me pleasure was in rest.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">"O may I steal</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Along the vale</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of humble life, secure from foes!</l> + +<pb n="180" /><anchor id="Pg180" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 4">My friend sincere!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">My judgment clear!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And gentle business my repose!</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">"My mind be strong</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">To combat wrong!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Grateful, O king! for favours shown!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Soft to complain</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">For others' pain!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And bold to triumph o'er my own!</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">"(When fortune's kind)</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Acute to find,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And warm to relish every boon!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And wise to still</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Fantastic ill,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whose frightful spectres stalk at noon!</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">"No fruitless toils!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">No brainless broils!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Each moment levell'd at the mark!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Our day so short</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Invites to sport;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Be sad and solemn when 'tis dark.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">"Yet, prudence, still</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Rein thou my will!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What's most important, make most dear!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">For 'tis in this</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Resides true bliss;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">True bliss, a deity severe!</l> +</lg> + +<pb n="181" /><anchor id="Pg181" /> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">"When temper leans</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">To gayer scenes,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And serious life void moments spares,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The sylvan chase</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">My sinews brace!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or song unbend my mind from cares!</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">"Nor shun, my soul!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The genial bowl,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Where mirth, good nature, spirit, flow!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Ingredients these,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Above, to please</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The laughing gods, the wise, below.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">"Though rich the vine,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">More wit than wine,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">More sense than wit, good-will than art,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">May I provide!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Fair truth, my pride!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">My joy, the converse of the heart!</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">"The gloomy brow,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The broken vow,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To distant climes, ye gods! remove!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The nobly soul'd</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Their commerce hold</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With words of truth and looks of love!</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">"O glorious aim!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">O wealth supreme!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Divine benevolence of soul!</l> + +<pb n="182" /><anchor id="Pg182" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 4">That greatly glows,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And freely flows,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And in one blessing grasps the whole;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">"Prophetic schemes,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And golden dreams,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">May I, unsanguine, cast away!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Have, what I have!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And live, not leave,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Enamour'd of the present day!</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">"My hours my own!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">My faults unknown!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">My chief revenue in content!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Then, leave one beam</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Of honest fame!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And scorn the labour'd monument!</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">"Unhurt my urn!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Till that great turn</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When mighty nature's self shall die!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Time cease to glide,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">With human pride,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Sunk in the ocean of eternity."</l> +</lg> +</div> +</div> + +<div rend="page-break-before: right"> +<index index="toc" /><index index="pdf" /> +<pb n="183" /><anchor id="Pg183" /> + +<head rend="text-align: center">A Paraphrase on Part of the Book of Job.<note place="foot"><p>It is disputed amongst the critics who was the author of +the book of Job; some give it to Moses, some to others. As I +was engaged in this little performance, some arguments occurred +to me which favour the former of those opinions; +which arguments I have flung into the following notes, where +little else is to be expected.</p></note></head> +<head rend="text-align: center" type="sub">To the Right Honourable Thomas Lord Parker, Baron of Macclesfield, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, etc. etc.</head> + + +<p>My Lord,</p> + +<p>Though I have not the honour of being known +to your lordship, I presume to take a privilege +which men of retirement are apt to think themselves +in possession of, as being the only method +they have of making their way to persons of your +lordship's high station without struggling through +multitudes for access. I may possibly fail in my +respect to your lordship, even while I endeavour +to show it most; but if I err, it is because I +imagined I ought not to make my first approach +to one of your lordship's exalted character with +less ceremony than that of a dedication. It is +annexed to the condition of eminent merit, not to +suffer more from the malice of its enemies, than +from the importunity of its admirers; and perhaps + +<pb n="184" /><anchor id="Pg184" /> + +it would be unjust, that your lordship should +hope to be exempted from the troubles, when you +possess all the talents, of a patron.</p> + +<p>I have here a fair occasion to celebrate those +sublime qualities, of which a whole nation is sensible, +were it not inconsistent with the design of +my present application. By the just discharge of +your great employments, your lordship may well +deserve the prayers of the distressed, the thanks +of your country, and the approbation of your +royal master: this indeed is a reason why every +good Briton should applaud your lordship; but it +is equally a reason why none should disturb you +in the execution of your important affairs by +works of fancy and amusement. I was therefore +induced to make this address to your lordship, by +considering you rather in the amiable light of a +person distinguished for a refined taste of the polite +arts, and the candour that usually attends it, +than in the dignity of your public character.</p> + +<p>The greatness and solemnity of the subjects +treated of in the following work cannot fail in +some measure to recommend it to a person who +holds in the utmost veneration those sacred books +from which it is taken; and would at the same +time justify to the world my choice of the great +name prefixed to it, could I be assured that the +undertaking had not suffered in my hands. Thus +much I think myself obliged to say; that if this +little performance had not been very indulgently + +<pb n="185" /><anchor id="Pg185" /> + +spoken of by some, whose judgment is universally +allowed in writings of this nature, I had not +dared to gratify my ambition in offering it to +your lordship: I am sensible that I am endeavouring +to excuse one vanity by another; but I hope +I shall meet with pardon for it, since it is visibly +intended to show the great submission and respect +with which I am, my lord, your lordship's +most obedient and most humble servant,</p> + +<p rend="text-align: right"><hi rend="font-variant: small-caps">Edward Young.</hi></p> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thrice happy Job<note place="foot"><p>The Almighty's speech, chapter xxxviii. &c. which is +what I paraphrase in this little work, is by much the finest +part of the noblest and most ancient poem in the world. +Bishop Patrick says, its grandeur is as much above all other +poetry, as thunder is louder than a whisper. In order to set +this distinguished part of the poem in a fuller light, and give +the reader a clearer conception of it, I have abridged the preceding +and subsequent parts of the poem, and joined them to +it; so that this piece is a sort of an epitome of the whole book +of Job.</p> + +<p>I use the word paraphrase, because I want another which +might better answer to the uncommon liberties I have taken. +I have omitted, added, and transposed. The mountain, the +comet, the sun, and other parts, are entirely added: those +upon the peacock, the lion, &c. are much enlarged; and I +have thrown the whole into a method more suited to our notions +of regularity. The judicious, if they compare this piece +with the original, will, I flatter myself, find the reasons for +the great liberties I have indulged myself in through the +whole.</p> + +<p>Longinus has a chapter on interrogations, which shows that +they contribute much to the sublime. This speech of the Almighty +is made up of them. Interrogation seems indeed the +proper style of majesty incensed. It differs from other manner +of reproof, as bidding a person execute himself does from +a common execution; for he that asks the guilty a proper +question, makes him, in effect, pass sentence on himself.</p></note> long liv'd in regal state,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor saw the sumptuous East a prince so great;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whose worldly stores in such abundance flow'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whose heart with such exalted virtue glow'd.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">At length misfortunes take their turn to reign,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And ills on ills succeed; a dreadful train!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What now but deaths, and poverty, and wrong,</l> + +<pb n="186" /><anchor id="Pg186" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The sword wide-wasting, the reproachful tongue,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And spotted plagues, that mark'd his limbs all o'er</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">So thick with pains, they wanted room for more?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A change so sad what mortal heart could bear?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Exhausted woe had left him nought to fear;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But gave him all to grief. Low earth he prest,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Wept in the dust, and sorely smote his breast.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His friends around the deep affliction mourn'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Felt all his pangs, and groan for groan return'd;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In anguish of their hearts their mantles rent,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And seven long days in solemn silence spent;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A debt of rev'rence to distress so great!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Then Job contain'd no more; but cursed his fate.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His day of birth, its inauspicious light</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He wishes sunk in shades of endless night,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And blotted from the year; nor fears to crave</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Death, instant death; impatient for the grave,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That seat of bliss, that mansion of repose,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Where rest and mortals are no longer foes;</l> + +<pb n="187" /><anchor id="Pg187" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Where counsellors are hush'd, and mighty kings</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">(O happy turn!) no more are wretched things.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">His words were daring, and displeas'd his friends;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His conduct they reprove, and he defends;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And now they kindled into warm debate,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And sentiments oppos'd with equal heat;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Fix'd in opinion, both refuse to yield,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And summon all their reason to the field:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">So high at length their arguments were wrought,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They reach'd the last extent of human thought:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A pause ensu'd.—When, lo! Heaven interpos'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And awfully the long contention clos'd.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Full o'er their heads, with terrible surprise,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A sudden whirlwind blacken'd all the skies:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">(They saw, and trembled!<note place="foot"><p>The book of Job is well known to be dramatic, and, like +the tragedies of old Greece, is fiction built on truth. Probably +this most noble part of it, the Almighty speaking out of +the whirlwind, (so suitable to the after-practice of the Greek +stage, when there happened <hi rend='font-style: italic'>dignus vindice nodus</hi>,) is fictitious; +but is a fiction more agreeable to the time in which Job lived, +than to any since. Frequent before the law were the appearances +of the Almighty after this manner, Exod. c. xix. Ezek. +c. i. &c. Hence is he said to "dwell in thick darkness: and +have his way in the whirlwind."</p></note>) From the darkness broke</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A dreadful voice, and thus th' Almighty spoke.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Who gives his tongue a loose so bold and vain,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Censures my conduct, and reproves my reign?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Lifts up his thoughts against me from the dust,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And tells the world's Creator what is just?</l> + +<pb n="188" /><anchor id="Pg188" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of late so brave, now lift a dauntless eye,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Face my demand, and give it a reply:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Where didst thou dwell at nature's early birth?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who laid foundations for the spacious earth?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who on its surface did extend the line,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Its form determine, and its bulk confine?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who fix'd the corner-stone? What hand, declare,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Hung it on nought, and fasten'd it on air;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When the bright morning stars in concert sung,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When heaven's high arch with loud hosannas rung;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When shouting sons of God the triumph crown'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And the wide concave thunder'd with the sound?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Earth's num'rous kingdoms, hast thou view'd them all?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And can thy span of knowledge grasp the ball?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who heav'd the mountain, which sublimely stands,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And casts its shadow into distant lands?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Who, stretching forth his sceptre o'er the deep,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Can that wide world in due subjection keep?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">I broke the globe, I scoop'd its hollow'd side,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And did a bason for the floods provide;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">I chain'd them with my word; the boiling sea,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Work'd up in tempests, hears my great decree;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">"<note place="foot"><p>There is a very great air in all that precedes, but this is +signally sublime. We are struck with admiration to see the +vast and ungovernable ocean receiving commands, and punctually +obeying them; to find it like a managed horse, raging, +tossing, and foaming, but by the rule and direction of its master. +This passage yields in sublimity to that of "Let there be +light," &c., so much only as the absolute government of +nature yields to the creation of it.</p></note>Thus far, thy floating tide shall be convey'd;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And here, O main, be thy proud billows stay'd."</l> + +<pb n="189" /><anchor id="Pg189" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Hast thou explor'd the secrets of the deep,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Where, shut from use, unnumber'd treasures sleep?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Where, down a thousand fathoms from the day,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Springs the great fountain, mother of the sea?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Those gloomy paths did thy bold foot e'er tread,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whole worlds of waters rolling o'er thy head?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Hath the cleft centre open'd wide to thee?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Death's inmost chambers didst thou ever see?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">E'er knock at his tremendous gate, and wade</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To the black portal through th' incumbent shade?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Deep are those shades; but shades still deeper hide</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">My counsels from the ken of human pride.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Where dwells the light? In what refulgent dome?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And where has darkness made her dismal home?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thou know'st, no doubt, since thy large heart is fraught</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With ripen'd wisdom, through long ages brought;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Since nature was call'd forth when thou wast by,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And into being rose beneath thine eye!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Are mists begotten? Who their father knew?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From whom descend the pearly drops of dew?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To bind the stream by night, what hand can boast,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or whiten morning with the hoary frost?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whose powerful breath, from northern regions blown,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Touches the sea, and turns it into stone?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The like spirit in these two passages is no bad concurrent</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">argument, that Moses is author of the book of Job.]</l> + +<pb n="190" /><anchor id="Pg190" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A sudden desart spreads o'er realms defac'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And lays one half of the creation waste?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Thou know'st me not; thy blindness cannot see</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How vast a distance parts thy God from thee.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Canst thou in whirlwinds mount aloft? Canst thou</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In clouds and darkness wrap thy awful brow?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And, when day triumphs in meridian light,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Put forth thy hand, and shade the world with night?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Who launch'd the clouds in air, and bid them roll</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Suspended seas aloft, from pole to pole?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who can refresh the burning sandy plain,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And quench the summer with a waste of rain?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who, in rough desarts, far from human toil,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Made rocks bring forth, and desolation smile?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">There blooms the rose, where human face ne'er shone,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And spreads its beauties to the sun alone.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">To check the shower, who lifts his hand on high,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And shuts the sluices of th' exhausted sky</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When earth no longer mourns her gaping veins,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her naked mountains, and her russet plains;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But, new in life, a cheerful prospect yields</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of shining rivers, and of verdant fields;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When groves and forests lavish all their bloom,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And earth and heaven are fill'd with rich perfume?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Hast thou e'er scal'd my wintry skies, and seen</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of hail and snows my northern magazine?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">These the dread treasures of mine anger are,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">My funds of vengeance for the day of war,</l> + +<pb n="191" /><anchor id="Pg191" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When clouds rain death, and storms, at my command,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Rage through the world, or waste a guilty land.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Who taught the rapid winds to fly so fast,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or shakes the centre with his eastern blast?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who from the skies can a whole deluge pour?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who strikes through nature with the solemn roar</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of dreadful thunder, points it where to fall,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And in fierce lightning wraps the flying ball?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Not he who trembles at the darted fires,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Falls at the sound, and in the flash expires.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Who drew the comet out to such a size,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And pour'd his flaming train o'er half the skies?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Did thy resentment hang him out? Does he</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Glare on the nations, and denounce, from thee?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Who on low earth can moderate the rein,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That guides the stars along th' ethereal plain?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Appoint their seasons, and direct their course,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Their lustre brighten, and supply their force?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Canst thou the skies' benevolence restrain,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And cause the Pleiades to shine in vain?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or, when Orion sparkles from his sphere,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thaw the cold season, and unbind the year?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Bid Mazzaroth his destin'd station know,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And teach the bright Arcturus where to glow?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Mine is the night, with all her stars; I pour</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Myriads, and myriads I reserve in store.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Dost thou pronounce where day-light shall be born,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And draw the purple curtain of the morn;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Awake the sun, and bid him come away,</l> + +<pb n="192" /><anchor id="Pg192" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And glad thy world with his obsequious ray?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Hast thou, inthron'd in flaming glory, driven</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Triumphant round the spacious ring of heaven?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That pomp of light, what hand so far displays,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That distant earth lies basking in the blaze?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Who did the soul with her rich powers invest,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And light up reason in the human breast?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To shine, with fresh increase of lustre, bright,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When stars and sun are set in endless night?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To these my various questions make reply.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Th' Almighty spoke; and, speaking, shook the sky.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">What then, Chaldæan sire, was thy surprise!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thus thou, with trembling heart, and downcast eyes:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">"Once and again, which I in groans deplore,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">My tongue has err'd; but shall presume no more.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">My voice is in eternal silence bound,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And all my soul falls prostrate to the ground."</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">He ceas'd: when, lo! again th' Almighty spoke;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The same dread voice from the black whirlwind broke.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Can that arm measure with an arm divine?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And canst thou thunder with a voice like mine?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or in the hollow of thy hand contain</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The bulk of waters, the wide-spreading main,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When, mad with tempests, all the billows rise</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In all their rage, and dash the distant skies?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Come forth, in beauty's excellence array'd;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And be the grandeur of thy power display'd;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Put on omnipotence, and, frowning, make</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The spacious round of the creation shake;</l> + +<pb n="193" /><anchor id="Pg193" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Dispatch thy vengeance, bid it overthow</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Triumphant vice, lay lofty tyrants low,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And crumble them to dust. When this is done,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">I grant thy safety lodg'd in thee alone;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of thee thou art, and mayst undaunted stand</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Behind the buckler of thine own right hand.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Fond man! the vision of a moment made!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Dream of a dream! and shadow of a shade!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What worlds hast thou produc'd, what creatures fram'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What insects cherish'd, that thy God is blam'd?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When <note place="foot"><p>Another argument that Moses was the author, is, that most +of the creatures here mentioned are Egyptian. The reason +given why the raven is particularly mentioned as an object of +the care of Providence, is, because by her clamorous and importunate +voice, she particularly seems always calling upon +it; thence [Greek: korassô, a korax], Ælian. l. ii. c. 48, is "to ask +earnestly." And since there were ravens on the bank of the +Nile more clamorous than the rest of that species, those probably +are meant in that place.</p></note>pain'd with hunger, the wild raven's brood</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Loud calls on God, importunate for food,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who hears their cry, who grants their hoarse request,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And stills the clamour of the craving nest?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Who in the stupid ostrich<note place="foot"><p>There are many instances of this bird's stupidity: let two +suffice. First, it covers its head in the reeds, and thinks +itself all out of sight,</p> + +<quote rend="display"> +<lg> +<l rend='margin-left: 12'>Stat lumine clauso</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Ridendum revoluta caput, creditque latere</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Quæ non ipsa videt.</l> +</lg> + +<p rend="text-align: right">Claud.</p> +</quote> + +<p>Secondly, they that go in pursuit of them, draw the skin of +an ostrich's neck on one hand, which proves a sufficient lure +to take them with the other.</p> + +<p>They have so little brain, that Heliogabalus had six hundred +heads for his supper.</p> + +<p>Here we may observe, that our judicious as well as sublime +author, just touches the great points of distinction in each +creature, and then hastens to another. A description is exact +when you cannot add, but what is common to another thing; +nor withdraw, but something peculiarly belonging to the thing +described. A likeness is lost in too much description, as a +meaning often in too much illustration.</p></note> has subdu'd</l> + +<pb n="194" /><anchor id="Pg194" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A parent's care, and fond inquietude?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">While far she flies, her scatter'd eggs are found,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Without an owner, on the sandy ground;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Cast out on fortune, they at mercy lie,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And borrow life from an indulgent sky;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Adopted by the sun, in blaze of day,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They ripen under his prolific ray.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Unmindful she, that some unhappy tread</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">May crush her young in their neglected bed.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2"><note place="foot"><p>Here is marked another peculiar quality of this creature, +which neither flies nor runs directly, but has a motion composed +of both, and, using its wings as sails, makes great +speed.</p> + +<quote rend="display"> +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Vasta velut Libyæ venantûm vocibus ales</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Cum premitur, calidas cursu transmittit arenas,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Inque modum veli sinuatis flamine pennis</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Pulverulenta volat.</l> +</lg> + +<p rend="text-align: right">Claud. in Eutr.</p> +</quote></note>What time she skims along the field with speed,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2"><note place="foot"><p>Xenophon says, Cyrus had horses that could overtake the +goat and the wild ass; but none that could reach this creature. +A thousand golden ducats, or a hundred camels, was the +stated price of a horse that could equal their speed.</p></note>She scorns the rider, and pursuing steed.</l> + +<pb n="195" /><anchor id="Pg195" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How rich the peacock!<note place="foot"><p>Though this bird is but just mentioned in my author, I +could not forbear going a little farther, and spreading those +beautiful plumes (which are there shut up) in half a dozen +lines. The circumstance I have marked of his opening his +plumes to the sun is true. Expandit colores adverso maxime +sole, quia sic fulgentius radiant. Plin. l. x. c. 20.</p></note> what bright glories run</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From plume to plume, and vary in the sun!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He proudly spreads them, to the golden ray</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Gives all his colours, and adorns the day;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With conscious state the specious round displays,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And slowly moves amid the waving blaze.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Who taught the hawk to find, in seasons wise,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Perpetual summer, and a change of skies?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When clouds deform the year, she mounts the wind,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Shoots to the south, nor fears the storm behind;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The sun returning, she returns again,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Lives in his beams, and leaves ill days to men.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Tho' strong the hawk,<note place="foot"><p>Thyanus (de Re Accip.) mentions a hawk that flew +from Paris to London in a night.</p> + +<p>And the Egyptians, in regard to its swiftness, made it their +symbol for the wind; for which reason we may suppose the +hawk, as well as the crow above, to have been a bird of note +in Egypt.</p></note> tho' practis'd well to fly,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">An eagle drops her in a lower sky;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">An eagle, when, deserting human sight,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">She seeks the sun in her unwearied flight:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Did thy command her yellow pinion lift</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">So high in air, and set her on the clift,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Where far above thy world she dwells alone,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And proudly makes the strength of rocks her own;</l> + +<pb n="196" /><anchor id="Pg196" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2"><note place="foot"><p>The eagle is said to be of so acute a sight, that when she +is so high in air that man cannot see her, she can discern the +smallest fish under water. My author accurately understood +the nature of the creatures he describes, and seems to have +been a naturalist as well as a poet, which the next note will +confirm.</p></note>Thence wide o'er nature takes her dread survey,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And with a glance predestinates her prey?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">She feasts her young with blood; and, hov'ring o'er</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Th' unslaughter'd host, enjoys the promis'd gore.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4"><note place="foot"><p>The meaning of this question is, Knowest thou the time +and circumstances of their bringing forth? For to know the +time only was easy, and had nothing extraordinary in it; but +the circumstances had something peculiarly expressive of God's +providence, which makes the question proper in this place. +Pliny observes, that the hind with young is by instinct directed +to a certain herb called Seselis, which facilitates the birth. +Thunder also (which looks like the more immediate hand of +Providence) has the same effect. Ps. xxix. In so early an +age to observe these things, may style our author a naturalist.</p></note>Know'st thou how many moons, by me assign'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Roll o'er the mountain goat, and forest hind,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">While pregnant they a mother's load sustain?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They bend in anguish, and cast forth their pain.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Hale are their young, from human frailties freed;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Walk unsustain'd, and unassisted feed;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They live at once; forsake the dam's warm side;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Take the wide world, with nature for their guide;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Bound o'er the lawn, or seek the distant glade;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And find a home in each delightful shade.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Will the tall reem, which knows no lord but me,</l> + +<pb n="197" /><anchor id="Pg197" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Low at the crib, and ask an alms of thee;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Submit his unworn shoulder to the yoke,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Break the stiff clod, and o'er thy furrow smoke?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Since great his strength, go trust him, void of care;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Lay on his neck the toil of all the year;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Bid him bring home the seasons to thy doors,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And cast his load among thy gather'd stores.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Didst thou from service the wild ass discharge,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And break his bonds, and bid him live at large,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Through the wide waste, his ample mansion, roam,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And lose himself in his unbounded home?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">By nature's hand magnificently fed,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His meal is on the range of mountains spread;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As in pure air aloft he bounds along,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He sees in distant smoke the city throng;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Conscious of freedom, scorns the smother'd train,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The threat'ning driver, and the servile rein.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Survey the warlike horse! didst thou invest</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With thunder his robust distended chest?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">No sense of fear his dauntless soul allays;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Tis dreadful to behold his nostrils blaze;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To paw the vale he proudly takes delight,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And triumphs in the fulness of his might;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">High rais'd he snuffs the battle from afar,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And burns to plunge amid the raging war;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And mocks at death, and throws his foam around,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And in a storm of fury shakes the ground.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How does his firm, his rising heart, advance</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Full on the brandish'd sword, and shaken lance;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">While his fix'd eyeballs meet the dazzling shield,</l> + +<pb n="198" /><anchor id="Pg198" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Gaze, and return the lightning of the field!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He sinks the sense of pain in gen'rous pride,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor feels the shaft that trembles in his side;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But neighs to the shrill trumpet's dreadful blast</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Till death; and when he groans, he groans his last.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">But, fiercer still, the lordly lion stalks,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Grimly majestic in his lonely walks;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When round he glares, all living creatures fly;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He clears the desart with his rolling eye.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Say, mortal, does he rouse at thy command,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And roar to thee, and live upon thy hand?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Dost thou for him in forests bend thy bow,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And to his gloomy den the morsel throw,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Where bent on death lie hid his tawny brood,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And, couch'd in dreadful ambush, pant for blood;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or, stretch'd on broken limbs, consume the day,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In darkness wrapt, and slumber o'er their prey?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2"><note place="foot"><p>Pursuing their prey by night is true of most wild beasts, +particularly the lion. Ps. cvi. 20. The Arabians have one +among their five hundred names for the lion, which signifies +"the hunter by moonshine."</p></note>By the pale moon they take their destin'd round,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And lash their sides, and furious tear the ground.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Now shrieks, and dying groans, the desart fill;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They rage, they rend; their rav'nous jaws distill</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With crimson foam; and, when the banquet's o'er,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They stride away, and paint their steps with gore;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In flight alone the shepherd puts his trust,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And shudders at the talon in the dust.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Mild is my behemoth, though large his frame;</l> + +<pb n="199" /><anchor id="Pg199" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Smooth is his temper, and represt his flame,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">While unprovok'd. This native of the flood</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Lifts his broad foot, and puts ashore for food;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Earth sinks beneath him, as he moves along</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To seek the herbs, and mingle with the throng.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">See with what strength his harden'd loins are bound,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">All over proof and shut against a wound.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How like a mountain cedar moves his tail!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor can his complicated sinews fail.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Built high and wide, his solid bones surpass</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The bars of steel; his ribs are ribs of brass;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His port majestic, and his armed jaw,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Give the wide forest, and the mountain, law.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The mountains feed him; there the beasts admire</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The mighty stranger, and in dread retire:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">At length his greatness nearer they survey,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Graze in his shadow, and his eye obey.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The fens and marshes are his cool retreat,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His noontide shelter from the burning heat;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Their sedgy bosoms his wide couch are made,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And groves of willows give him all their shade.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">His eye drinks Jordan up, when, fir'd with drought,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He trusts to turn its current down his throat;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In lessen'd waves it creeps along the plain:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2"><note place="foot"><lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Cephissi glaciale caput, quo suetus anhelam</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Ferre sitim Python, amnemque avertere ponto.</l> +</lg> + +<p rend="text-align: right">Stat. Theb. vii. 349.</p> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Qui spiris tegeret montes, hauriret hiatu</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Flumina, &c. Claud. Pref. in Ruf.</l> +</lg> + +<p>Let not then this hyperbole seem too much for an eastern poet, +though some commentators of name strain hard in this place +for a new construction, through fear of it.</p></note>He sinks a river, and he thirsts again.</l> + +<pb n="200" /><anchor id="Pg200" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2"><note place="foot"><p>The taking the crocodile is most difficult. Diodorus +says, they are not to be taken but by iron nets. When Augustus +conquered Egypt, he struck a medal, the impress of +which was a crocodile chained to a palm-tree, with this inscription, +Nemo antea religavit.</p></note>Go to the Nile, and, from its fruitful side,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Cast forth thy line into the swelling tide:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With slender hair leviathan command,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And stretch his vastness on the loaded strand.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Will he become thy servant? Will he own</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thy lordly nod, and tremble at thy frown?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or with his sport amuse thy leisure day,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And, bound in silk, with thy soft maidens play?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Shall pompous banquets swell with such a prize?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And the bowl journey round his ample size?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or the debating merchants share the prey,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And various limbs to various marts convey?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thro' his firm skull what steel its way can win?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What forceful engine can subdue his skin?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Fly far, and live; tempt not his matchless might:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The bravest shrink to cowards in his sight;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2"><note place="foot"><p>This alludes to a custom of this creature, which is, when +sated with fish, to come ashore and sleep among the reeds.</p></note>The rashest dare not rouse him up: Who then</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Shall turn on me, among the sons of men?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Am I a debtor? Hast thou ever heard</l> + +<pb n="201" /><anchor id="Pg201" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whence come the gifts that are on me conferr'd?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">My lavish fruit a thousand valleys fills,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And mine the herds, that graze a thousand hills:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Earth, sea, and air, all nature is my own;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And stars and sun are dust beneath my throne.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And dar'st thou with the world's great Father vie,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thou, who dost tremble at my creature's eye?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">At full my huge leviathan shall rise,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Boast all his strength, and spread his wondrous size.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who, great in arms, e'er stripp'd his shining mail,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or crown'd his triumph with a single scale?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whose heart sustains him to draw near? <note place="foot"><p>The crocodile's mouth is exceeding wide. When he +gapes, says Pliny, sic totum os. Martial says to his old +woman,</p> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Cum comparata rictibus tuis ora</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Niliacus habet crocodilus angusta.</l> +</lg> + +<p>So that the expression there is barely just.</p></note>Behold,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Destruction yawns; his spacious jaws unfold,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And, marshall'd round the wide expanse, disclose</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Teeth edg'd with death, and crowding rows on rows:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What hideous fangs on either side arise!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And what a deep abyss between them lies!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Mete with thy lance, and with thy plummet sound,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The one how long, the other how profound.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">His bulk is charg'd with such a furious soul,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That clouds of smoke from his spread nostrils roll,</l> + +<pb n="202" /><anchor id="Pg202" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As from a furnace; and, when rous'd his ire,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2"><note place="foot"><p>This too is nearer the truth than at first view may be +imagined. The crocodile, say the naturalists, lying long under +water, and being there forced to hold its breath, when +it emerges, the breath long represt is hot, and bursts out so +violently, that it resembles fire and smoke. The horse suppresses +not his breath by any means so long, neither is he so +fierce and animated; yet the most correct of poets ventures +to use the same metaphor concerning him:</p> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Collectumque premens volvit sub naribus ignem.</l> +</lg> + +<p>By this and the foregoing note I would caution against a false +opinion of the eastern boldness, from passages in them ill understood.</p></note>Fate issues from his jaws in streams of fire.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The rage of tempests, and the roar of seas,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thy terror, this thy great superior please;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Strength on his ample shoulder sits in state;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His well-join'd limbs are dreadfully complete;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His flakes of solid flesh are slow to part;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As steel his nerves, as adamant his heart.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">When, late awak'd, he rears him from the floods,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And, stretching forth his stature to the clouds,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Writhes in the sun aloft his scaly height,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And strikes the distant hills with transient light,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Far round are fatal damps of terror spread,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The mighty fear, nor blush to own their dread.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4"><note place="foot"><p>"His eyes are like the eyelids of the morning." I think +this gives us as great an image of the thing it would express +as can enter the thought of man. It is not improbable that +the Egyptians stole their hieroglyphic for the morning, which +is the crocodile's eye, from this passage, though no commentator, +I have seen, mentions it. It is easy to conceive how the +Egyptians should be both readers and admirers of the writings +of Moses, whom I suppose the author of this poem.</p> + +<p>I have observed already that three or four of the creatures +here described are Egyptian; the two last are notoriously so, +they are the river-horse and the crocodile, those celebrated inhabitants +of the Nile; and on these two it is that our author +chiefly dwells. It would have been expected from an author +more remote from that river than Moses, in a catalogue of +creatures produced to magnify their Creator, to have dwelt on +the two largest works of his hand, viz. the elephant and the +whale. This is so natural an expectation, that some commentators +have rendered behemoth and leviathan, the elephant +and whale, though the descriptions in our author will not +admit of it; but Moses being, as we may well suppose, under +an immediate terror of the hippopotamus and crocodile, from +their daily mischiefs and ravages around him, it is very accountable +why he should permit them to take place.</p></note>Large is his front; and, when his burnish'd eyes</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Lift their broad lids, the morning seems to rise.</l> + +<pb n="203" /><anchor id="Pg203" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In vain may death in various shapes invade,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The swift-wing'd arrow, the descending blade;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His naked breast their impotence defies;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The dart rebounds, the brittle fauchion flies.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Shut in himself, the war without he hears,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Safe in the tempest of their rattling spears;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The cumber'd strand their wasted volleys strow;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His sport, the rage and labour of the foe.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">His pastimes like a cauldron boil the flood,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And blacken ocean with the rising mud;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The billows feel him, as he works his way;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His hoary footsteps shine along the sea;</l> + +<pb n="204" /><anchor id="Pg204" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The foam high-wrought, with white divides the green,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And distant sailors point where death has been.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">His like earth bears not on her spacious face:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Alone in nature stands his dauntless race,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For utter ignorance of fear renown'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In wrath he rolls his baleful eye around:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Makes every swoln, disdainful heart, subside,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And holds dominion o'er the sons of pride.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Then the Chaldæan eas'd his lab'ring breast,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With full conviction of his crime opprest.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">"Thou canst accomplish all things, Lord of might:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And every thought is naked to thy sight.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But, oh! thy ways are wonderful, and lie</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Beyond the deepest reach of mortal eye.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Oft have I heard of thine Almighty power;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But never saw thee till this dreadful hour.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">O'erwhelm'd with shame, the Lord of life I see,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Abhor myself, and give my soul to thee.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor shall my weakness tempt thine anger more:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Man is not made to question, but adore."</l> +</lg> +</div> + +<div rend="page-break-before: right"> +<index index="toc" /><index index="pdf" /> +<pb n="205" /><anchor id="Pg205" /> + +<head rend="text-align: center">On Michael Angelo's Famous Piece of the Crucifixion;</head> + +<head rend="text-align: center" type="sub">Who Is Said To Have Stabbed a Person That He Might Draw It More Naturally.<note place="foot"><p>Though the report was propagated without the least truth, +it may be sufficient ground to justify a poetical fancy's enlarging +on it.</p></note></head> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whilst his Redeemer on his canvass dies,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Stabb'd at his feet his brother weltering lies:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The daring artist, cruelly serene,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Views the pale cheek and the distorted mien;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He drains off life by drops, and, deaf to cries,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Examines every spirit as it flies:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He studies torment, dives in mortal woe,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To rouse up every pang repeats his blow;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Each rising agony, each dreadful grace,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Yet warm transplanting to his Saviour's face.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Oh glorious theft! oh nobly wicked draught!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With its full charge of death each feature fraught,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Such wondrous force the magic colours boast,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From his own skill he starts in horror lost.</l> +</lg> +</div> + +<div rend="page-break-before: right"> +<pb n="206" /><anchor id="Pg206" /> +<index index="toc" level1="To Mr. Addison, on the Tragedy of Cato" /><index index="pdf" /> +<head rend="text-align: center">To Mr. Addison,</head> +<head rend="text-align: center" type="sub">On the Tragedy of Cato.</head> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What do we see? Is Cato then become</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A greater name in Britain than in Rome?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Does mankind now admire his virtues more,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Though Lucan, Horace, Virgil, wrote before?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How will posterity this truth explain?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">"Cato begins to live in Anna's reign."</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The world's great chiefs, in council or in arms,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Rise in your lines with more exalted charms;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Illustrious deeds in distant nations wrought,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And virtues by departed heroes taught,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Raise in your soul a pure immortal flame,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Adorn your life, and consecrate your fame;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To your renown all ages you subdue,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And Cæsar fought, and Cato bled for you.</l> +</lg> + +<p rend="text-align: right">All Souls Coll. Oxon.</p> +</div> + +<div rend="page-break-before: right"> +<index index="toc" level1="Historical Epilogue to the Brothers. A Tragedy" /><index index="pdf" /> +<head rend="text-align: center">Historical Epilogue to the Brothers.</head> +<head rend="text-align: center" type="sub">A Tragedy.</head> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">An Epilogue, through custom, is your right,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But ne'er perhaps was needful till this night:</l> + +<pb n="207" /><anchor id="Pg207" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To-night the virtuous falls, the guilty flies,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Guilt's dreadful close our narrow scene denies.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In history's authentic record read</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What ample vengeance gluts Demetrius' shade;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Vengeance so great, that, when his tale is told,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With pity some e'en Perseus may behold.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Perseus surviv'd, indeed, and fill'd the throne,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But ceaseless cares in conquest made him groan:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor reign'd he long; from Rome swift thunder flew,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And headlong from his throne the tyrant threw:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thrown headlong down, by Rome in triumph led,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For this night's deed his perjur'd bosom bled:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His brother's ghost each moment made him start,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And all his father's anguish rent his heart.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">When, rob'd in black, his children round him hung,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And their rais'd arms in early sorrow wrung;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The younger smil'd, unconscious of their woe;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">At which thy tears, O Rome! began to flow;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">So sad the scene! What then must Perseus feel,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To see Jove's race attend the victor's wheel:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To see the slaves of his worst foes increase,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From such a source!—An emperor's embrace!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He sicken'd soon to death; and, what is worse,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He well deserv'd, and felt, the coward's curse;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Unpitied, scorn'd, insulted his last hour,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Far, far from home, and in a vassal's power:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His pale cheek rested on his shameful chain,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">No friend to mourn, no flatterer to feign;</l> + +<pb n="208" /><anchor id="Pg208" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">No suit retards, no comfort soothes his doom,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And not one tear bedews a monarch's tomb.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor ends it thus—dire vengeance to complete,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His ancient empire falling shares his fate:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His throne forgot! his weeping country chain'd!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And nations ask—where Alexander reign'd.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As public woes a prince's crime pursue,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">So public blessings are his virtue's due.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Shout, Britons, shout—auspicious fortune bless!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And cry, Long live—Our title to success!</l> +</lg> +</div> + +<div rend="page-break-before: right"> +<index index="toc" level1="Epitaph on Lord Aubrey Beauclerk, in Westminster Abbey, 1740" /><index index="pdf" /> +<head rend="text-align: center">Epitaph</head> +<head rend="text-align: center" type="sub">On Lord Aubrey Beauclerk<note place="foot"><p>Lord Aubrey Beauclerk was the eighth son of the Duke +of St. Albans, who was one of the sons of King Charles the +Second. He was born in the year 1711; and, being regularly +bred to the sea service, in 1731 he was appointed to the command +of his majesty's ship the Ludlow Castle; and he commanded +the Prince Frederick at the attack of the harbour of +Carthagena, March 24, 1741. This young nobleman was one +of the most promising commanders in the king's service. +When on the desperate attack of the castle of Bocca Chica, at +the entrance of the said harbour, he lost his life, both his legs +being first shot off. The prose part of the inscription on his +monument was the production of Mrs. Mary Jones of Oxford; +who also wrote a poem on his death, printed in her Miscellanies, +8vo, 1752.—<hi rend='font-style: italic'>R.</hi></p></note>, in Westminster Abbey, 1740.</head> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whilst Britain boasts her empire o'er the deep,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">This marble shall compel the brave to weep:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As men, as Britons, and as soldiers, mourn;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Tis dauntless, loyal, virtuous Beauclerk's urn.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Sweet were his manners, as his soul was great,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And ripe his worth, though immature his fate;</l> + +<pb n="209" /><anchor id="Pg209" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Each tender grace that joy and love inspires,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Living, he mingled with his martial fires:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Dying, he bid Britannia's thunders roar;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And Spain still felt him, when he breath'd no more.</l> +</lg> +</div> + +<div rend="page-break-before: right"> +<index index="toc" /><index index="pdf" /> +<head rend="text-align: center">Epitaph at Welwyn, Hertfordshire.</head> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 8">If fond of what is rare, attend!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 12">Here lies an honest man,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 16">Of perfect piety,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 14">Of lamblike patience,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 12">My friend, James Barker;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 8">To whom I pay this mean memorial,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 8"> For what deserves the greatest.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 18">An example</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Which shone through all the clouds of fortune,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 12">Industrious in low estate,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The lesson and reproach of those above him.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 14">To lay this little stone</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 16">Is my ambition;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 16">While others rear</l> + +<pb n="210" /><anchor id="Pg210" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The polish'd marbles of the great!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 12"> Vain pomp;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A turf o'er virtue charms us more.</l> +</lg> + +<p rend="text-align: right">E. Y. 1749.</p> +</div> + +<div rend="page-break-before: right"> +<index index="toc" level1="A Letter to Mr. Tickell, occasioned by the Death of the Right Hon. Joseph Addison" /><index index="pdf" /> +<head rend="text-align: center">A Letter to Mr. Tickell,</head> +<head rend="text-align: center" type="sub">Occasioned by the Death of the Right Hon. Joseph Addison, Esq., 1719.</head> + +<quote rend="display"> +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">—Tu nunc eris alter ab illo.</l> +</lg> + +<p rend="text-align: right">—<hi rend="font-variant: small-caps">Virg.</hi></p> +</quote> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">O long with me in Oxford groves confin'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In social arts and sacred friendship join'd;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Fair Isis' sorrow, and fair Isis' boast,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Lost from her side, but fortunately lost;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thy wonted aid, my dear companion! bring,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And teach me thy departed friend to sing:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A darling theme! once powerful to inspire,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And now to melt, the muses' mournful choir:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Now, and now first, we freely dare commend</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His modest worth, nor shall our praise offend.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Early he bloom'd amid the learned train,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And ravish'd Isis listen'd to his strain.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">"See, see," she cried, "old Maro's muse appears,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Wak'd from her slumber of two thousand years:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her finish'd charms to Addison she brings,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thinks in his thought, and in his numbers sings.</l> + +<pb n="211" /><anchor id="Pg211" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">All read transported his pure classic page;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Read, and forget their climate and their age."</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The state, when now his rising fame was known,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Th' unrival'd genius challeng'd for her own,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor would that one, for scenes for action strong,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Should let a life evaporate in song.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As health and strength the brightest charms dispense,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Wit is the blossom of the soundest sense:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Yet few, how few, with lofty thoughts inspir'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With quickness pointed, and with rapture fir'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In conscious pride their own importance find,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Blind to themselves, as the hard world is blind!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Wit they esteem a gay but worthless power,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The slight amusement of a leisure hour;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Unmindful that, conceal'd from vulgar eyes,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Majestic wisdom wears the bright disguise.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Poor Dido fondled thus, with idle joy,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Dread Cupid, lurking in the Trojan boy;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Lightly she toy'd, and trifled with his charms,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And knew not that a god was in her arms.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Who greatest excellence of thought could boast,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In action, too, have been distinguish'd most:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">This Sommers<note place="foot"><p>Lord Sommers procured a pension for Mr. Addison, which +enabled him to prosecute his travels.—<hi rend='font-style: italic'>R.</hi></p></note> knew, and Addison sent forth</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From the malignant regions of the north,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To be matur'd in more indulgent skies,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Where all the vigour of the soul can rise;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thro' warmer veins where sprightlier spirits run,</l> + +<pb n="212" /><anchor id="Pg212" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And sense enliven'd sparkles in the sun.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With secret pain the prudent patriot gave</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The hopes of Britain to the rolling wave,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Anxious, the charge to all the stars resign'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And plac'd a confidence in sea and wind.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Ausonia soon receiv'd her wondering guest,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And equal wonder in her turn confess'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To see her fervours rival'd by the pole,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her lustre beaming from a northern soul:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In like surprise was her Æneas lost,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To find his picture grace a foreign coast.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Now the wide field of Europe he surveys,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Compares her kings, her thrones and empires weighs,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In ripen'd judgment and consummate thought;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Great work! by Nassau's favour cheaply bought.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">He now returns to Britain a support,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Wise in her senate, graceful in her court;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And when the public welfare would permit,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The source of learning, and the soul of wit.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">O Warwick! (whom the muse is fond to name,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And kindles, conscious of her future theme,)</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">O Warwick! by divine contagion bright!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How early didst thou catch his radiant light!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">By him inspir'd, how shine before thy time,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And leave thy years, and leap into thy prime!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">On some warm bank, thus, fortunately born,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A rose-bud opens to a summer's morn,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Full-blown ere noon her fragrant pride displays,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And shows th' abundance of her purple rays.</l> + +<pb n="213" /><anchor id="Pg213" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Wit, as her bays, was once a barren tree;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">We now, surpris'd, her fruitful branches see;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or, orange-like, till his auspicious time</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">It grew indeed, but shiver'd in our clime:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He first the plant to richer gardens led,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And fix'd, indulgent, in a warmer bed:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The nation, pleas'd, enjoys the rich produce,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And gathers from her ornament her use.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">When loose from public cares the grove he sought,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And fill'd the leisure interval with thought,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The various labours of his easy page,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A chance amusement, polish'd half an age.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Beyond this truth old bards could scarce invent,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who durst to frame a world by accident.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">What he has sung, how early and how well,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The Thames shall boast, and Roman Tiber tell.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A glory more sublime remains in store,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Since such his talents, that he sung no more.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">No fuller proof of power th' Almighty gave,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Making the sea, than curbing her proud wave.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Nought can the genius of his works transcend,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But their fair purpose and important end;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To rouse the war for injur'd Europe's laws,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To steel the patriot in great Brunswick's cause;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With virtue's charms to kindle sacred love,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or paint th' eternal bowers of bliss above.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Where hadst thou room, great author! where to roll</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The mighty theme of an immortal soul?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Through paths unknown, unbeaten, whence were brought</l> + +<pb n="214" /><anchor id="Pg214" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thy proofs so strong for immaterial thought?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">One let me join, all other may excel.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">"How could a mortal essence think so well?"</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">But why so large in the great writer's praise?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">More lofty subjects should my numbers raise;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In him (illustrious rivalry!) contend</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The statesman, patriot, Christian, and the friend!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His glory such, it borders on disgrace</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To say he sung the best of human race.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">In joy once join'd, in sorrow now for years,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Partner in grief, and brother of my tears,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Tickell! accept this verse, thy mournful due;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thou further shalt the sacred theme pursue;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And, as thy strain describes the matchless man,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thy life shall second what thy muse began.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Though sweet the numbers, though a fire divine</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Dart through the whole, and burn in every line,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who strives not for that excellence he draws,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Is stain'd by fame, and suffers from applause.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">But haste to thy illustrious task; prepare</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The noble work well trusted to thy care,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The gift<note place="foot"><p>The publication of his Works.</p></note> bequeath'd by Addison's command,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To Craggs made sacred by his dying hand.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Collect the labours, join the various rays,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The scatter'd light in one united blaze;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Then bear to him so true, so truly lov'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In life distinguished, and in death approv'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Th' immortal legacy. He hangs awhile</l> + +<pb n="215" /><anchor id="Pg215" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In generous anguish o'er the glorious pile;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With anxious pleasure the known page reviews,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And the dear pledge with falling tears bedews.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What though thy tears, pour'd o'er thy godlike friend,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thy other cares for Britain's weal suspend?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Think not, O patriot! while thy eyes o'erflow,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Those cares suspended for a private woe;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thy love to him is to thy country shown;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He mourns for her who mourns for Addison.</l> +</lg> +</div> + +<div rend="page-break-before: right"> +<index index="toc" /><index index="pdf" /> +<head rend="text-align: center">Reflections on the Public Situation of the Kingdom</head> +<head rend="text-align: center" type="sub">Inscribed to the Duke of Newcastle.</head> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Holles! immortal in far more than fame!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Be thou illustrious in far more than power.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Great things are small when greater rise to view</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Tho' station'd high, and press'd with public cares,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Disdain not to peruse my serious song,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Which peradventure may push by the world:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of a few moments rob Britannia's weal,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And leave Europa's counsels less mature!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For thou art noble, and the theme is great.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Nor shall or Europe or Britannia blame</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thine absent ear, but gain by the delay.</l> + +<pb n="216" /><anchor id="Pg216" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Long vers'd in senates and in cabinets,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">States' intricate demands and high debates!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As thou of use to those, so this to thee;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And in a point that empire far outweighs,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That far outweighs all Europe's thrones in one.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Let greatness prove its title to be great.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Tis power's supreme prerogative to stamp</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">On other minds an image of its own.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Bend the strong influence of high place, to stem</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The stream that sweeps away the country's weal;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The Stygian stream, the torrent of our guilt.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Far as thou mayst give life to virtue's cause;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Let not the ties of personal regard</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Betray the nation's trust to feeble hands:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Let not fomented flames of private pique</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Prey on the vitals of the public good:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Let not our streets with blasphemies resound,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor lewdness whisper where the laws can reach:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Let not best laws, the wisdom of our sires,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Turn satires on their sunk degenerate sons,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The bastards of their blood! and serve no point</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But with more emphasis to call them fools:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Let not our rank enormities unhinge</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Britannia's welfare from divine support.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Such deeds the minister, the prince adorn;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">No power is shown but in such deeds as these:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">All, all is impotence but acting right;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And where's the statesman but would show his power?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To prince and people thou, of equal zeal!</l> + +<pb n="217" /><anchor id="Pg217" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Be it henceforward but thy second care</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To grace thy country, and support the throne;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Though this supported, that adorn'd so well,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A throne superior our first homage claims;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To Cæsar's Cæsar our first tribute due:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A tribute which, unpaid, makes specious wrong</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And splendid sacrilege of all beside:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Illustrious followers; we must first be just;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And what so just as awe for the supreme?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Less fear we rugged ruffians of the north,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Than virtue's well-clad rebels nearer home</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Less Loyola's disguis'd, all-aping sons,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Than traitors lurking in our appetites;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Less all the legions Seine and Tagus send,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Than unrein'd passions rushing on our peace:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Yon savage mountaineers are tame to these.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Against those rioters send forth the laws,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And break to reason's yoke their wild careers.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Prudence for all things points the proper hour,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Though some seem more importunate and great.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Tho' Britain's generous views and interests spread</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Beyond the narrow circle of her shores,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And their grand entries make on distant lands;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Though Britain's genius the wide wave bestrides,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And, like a vast Colossus, towering stands</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With one foot planted on the continent;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Yet be not wholly wrapp'd in public cares,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Tho' such high cares should call as call'd of late;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The cause of kings and emperors adjourn,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And Europe's little balance drop awhile;</l> + +<pb n="218" /><anchor id="Pg218" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For greater drop it: ponder and adjust</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The rival interests and contending claims</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of life and death, of now and of for-ever;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Sublimest theme; and needful as sublime.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thus great Eliza's oracles renown'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thus Walsingham and Raleigh, (Britain's boasts!)</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thus every statesman thought that ever—died.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">There's inspiration in a sable hour,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And Death's approach makes politicians wise.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">When thunderstruck, that eagle Wolsey fell;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When royal favour, as an ebbing sea,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Like a leviathan, his grandeur left,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His gasping grandeur! naked on the strand,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Naked of human, doubtful of divine,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Assistance; no more wallowing in his wealth,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Spouting proud foams of insolence no more,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">On what, then, smote his heart, uncardinal'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And sunk beneath the level of a man!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">On the grand article, the sum of things!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The point of the first magnitude! that point</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Tubes mounted in a court, but rarely reach;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Some painted cloud still intercepts their sight.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">First right to judge; then choose; then persevere,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Steadfast, as if a crown or mistress call'd.—</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">These, these are politics will stand the test,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When finer politics their masters sting,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And statesmen fain would shrink to common men.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">These, these are politics will answer now,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">(When common men would fain to statesmen swell,)</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Beyond a Machiavel's or Tencin's scheme.</l> + +<pb n="219" /><anchor id="Pg219" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">All safety rests on honest counsels: these</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Immortalize the statesman, bless the state,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Make the prince triumph, and the people smile;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In peace rever'd, or terrible in arms,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Close-leagued with an invincible ally,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Which honest counsels never fail to fix</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In favour of an unabandon'd land;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A land—that starts at such a land as this,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A parliament, so principled, will sink</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">All ancient schools of empire in disgrace,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And Britain's glory, rising from the dead,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Will fill the world, loud fame's superior song.</l> +<l rend="left-margin: 2">Britain!—that word pronounc'd is an alarm;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">It warms the blood, though frozen in our veins;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Awakes the soul, and sends her to the field,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Enamour'd of the glorious face of Death.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Britain!—there's noble magic in the sound.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">O what illustrious images arise!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Embattled, round me, blaze the pomps of war!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">By sea, by land, at home, in foreign climes,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What full-blown laurels on our fathers' brows!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Ye radiant trophies! and imperial spoils!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Ye scenes!—astonishing to modern sight!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Let me, at least, enjoy you in a dream.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Why vanish? Stay, ye godlike strangers! stay:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Strangers!—I wrong my countrymen: they wake;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">High beats the pulse: the noble pulse of war</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Beats to that ancient measure, that grand march</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Which then prevail'd, when Britain highest soar'd,</l> + +<pb n="220" /><anchor id="Pg220" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And every battle paid for heroes slain.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">No more our great forefathers stain our cheeks</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With blushes; their renown our shame no more.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In military garb, and sudden arms,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Up starts old Britain; crosiers are laid by;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Trade wields the sword, and agriculture leaves</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her half-turn'd furrow: other harvests fire</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A nobler avarice, avarice of renown!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And laurels are the growth of every field.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In distant courts is our commotion felt;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And less like gods sit monarches on their thrones.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What arm can want or sinews or success,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Which, lifted from an honest heart, descends,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With all the weight of British wrath, to cleave</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The papal mitre, or the Gallic chain,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">At every stroke, and save a sinking land?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Or death or victory must be resolv'd;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To dream of mercy, O how tame! how mad!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Where, o'er black deeds the crucifix display'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Fools think Heaven purchas'd by the blood they shed;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">By giving, not supporting, pains and death!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor simple death! where they the greatest saints</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who most subdue all tenderness of heart;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Students in torture! where, in zeal to him,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whose darling title is the Prince of Peace,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The best turn ruthless butchers, for our sakes;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To save us in a world they recommend,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And yet forbear, themselves with earth content;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What modesty!—such virtues Rome adorn!</l> + +<pb n="221" /><anchor id="Pg221" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And chiefly those who Rome's first honours wear,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whose name from Jesus, and whose hearts from hell!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And shall a pope-bred princeling crawl ashore,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Replete with venom, guiltless of a sting,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And whistle cut-throats, with those swords that scrap'd</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Their barren rocks for wretched sustenance,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To cut his passage to the British throne?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">One that has suck'd in malice with his milk,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Malice, to Britain, liberty, and truth?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Less savage was his brother-robber's nurse,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The howling nurse of plundering Romulus,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Ere yet far worse than pagan harbour'd there.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Hail to the brave! be Britain Britain still:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Britain! high favour'd of indulgent Heaven!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nature's anointed empress of the deep!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The nurse of merchants, who can purchase crowns!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Supreme in commerce! that exuberant source</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of wealth, the nerve of war; of wealth, the blood,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The circling current in a nation's veins,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To set high bloom on the fair face of peace!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">This once so celebrated seat of power,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From which escap'd the mighty Cæsar triumph'd!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of Gallic lilies this eternal blast!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">This terror of armadas! this true bolt,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Ethereal-temper'd, to repress the vain</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Salmonean thunders from the papal chair!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">This small isle wide-realm'd monarchs eye with awe!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Which says to their ambition's foaming waves,</l> + +<pb n="222" /><anchor id="Pg222" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">"Thus far, nor farther!"—Let her hold, in life,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nought dear disjoin'd from freedom and renown;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Renown, our ancestors' great legacy,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To be transmitted to their latest sons.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">By thoughts inglorious, and un-British deeds,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Their cancel'd will is impiously profan'd.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Inhumanly disturb'd their sacred dust.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Their sacred dust with recent laurels crown,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">By your own valour won. This sacred isle,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Cut from the continent, that world of slaves;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">This temple built by Heaven's peculiar care,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In a recess from the contagious world,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With ocean pour'd around it for its guard,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And dedicated, long, to liberty,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That health, that strength, that bloom, of civil life!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">This temple of still more divine; of faith</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Sifted from errors, purified by flames,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Like gold, to take anew truth's heavenly stamp,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And (rising both in lustre and in weight)</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With her bless'd Master's unmaim'd image shine;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Why should she longer droop? why longer act</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As an accomplice with the plots of Rome?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Why longer lend an edge to Bourbon's sword,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And give him leave, among his dastard troops,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To muster that strong succour, Albion's crimes?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Send his self-impotent ambition aid,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And crown the conquest of her fiercest foes?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Where are her foes most fatal? Blushing truth,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">"In her friends' vices,"—with a sigh replies.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Empire on virtue's rock unshaken stands;</l> + +<pb n="223" /><anchor id="Pg223" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Flux as the billows, when in vice dissolv'd.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">If Heaven reclaims us by the scourge of war,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What thanks are due to Paris and Madrid?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Would they a revolution?—Aid their aim,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But be the revolution—in our hearts!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Wouldst thou (whose hand is at the helm) the bark,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The shaken bark of Britain, should outride</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The present blast, and every future storm?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Give it that ballast which alone has weight</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With Him whom wind, and waves, and war, obey,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Persist. Are others subtle? Thou be wise:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Above the Florentine's court-science raise;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Stand forth a patriot of the moral world;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The pattern, and the patron, of the just:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thus strengthen Britain's military strength;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Give its own terror to the sword she draws.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Ask you, "What mean I?"—The most obvious truth;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Armies and fleets alone ne'er won the day.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When our proud arms are once disarm'd, disarm'd</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of aid from Him by whom the mighty fall;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of aid from Him by whom the feeble stand;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who takes away the keenest edge of battle,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or gives the sword commission to destroy;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who blasts, or bids the martial laurel bloom—</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Emasculated, then, most manly might;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or, though the might remains, it nought avails:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Then wither'd weakness foils the sinewy arm</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of man's meridian and high-hearted power:</l> + +<pb n="224" /><anchor id="Pg224" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Our naval thunders, and our tented fields</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With travel'd banners fanning southern climes,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What do they? This; and more what can they do?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When heap'd the measure of a kingdom's crimes,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The prince most dauntless, the first plume of war,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">By such bold inroads into foreign lands,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Such elongation of our armaments,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But stretches out the guilty nation's neck,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">While Heaven commands her executioner,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Some less abandon'd nation, to discharge</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her full-ripe vengeance in a final blow,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And tell the world, "Not strong is human strength;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And that the proudest empire holds of Heaven."</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">O Britain! often rescued, often crown'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Beyond thy merit and most sanguine hopes,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With all that's great in war, or sweet in peace!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Know from what source thy signal blessings flow.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Though bless'd with spirits ardent in the field,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Though cover'd various oceans with thy fleets,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Though fenc'd with rocks, and moated by the main,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thy trust repose in a far stronger guard;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In Him, who thee, though naked, could defend;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Tho' weak, could strengthen; ruin'd, could restore.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">How oft, to tell what arm defends thine isle,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To guard her welfare, and yet check her pride,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Have the winds snatch'd the victory from war?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or, rather, won the day, when war despair'd?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How oft has providential succour aw'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Aw'd while it bless'd us, conscious of our guilt;</l> + +<pb n="225" /><anchor id="Pg225" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Struck dead all confidence in human aid,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And, while we triumph'd, made us tremble too!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Well may we tremble now; what manners reign?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But wherefore ask we, when a true reply</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Would shock too much? Kind Heaven! avert events</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whose fatal nature might reply too plain!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Heaven's half-bar'd arm of vengeance has been wav'd</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In northern skies, and pointed to the south.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Vengeance delay'd but gathers and ferments;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">More formidably blackens in the wind;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Brews deeper draughts of unrelenting wrath,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And higher charges the suspended storm.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">"That public vice portends a public fall"—</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Is this conjecture of adventurous thought!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or pious coward's pulpit cushion'd dream;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Far from it. This is certain; this is fate.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What says experience, in her awful chair</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of ages, her authentic annals spread</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Around her? What says reason eagle-eyed?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nay, what says common sense, with common care</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Weighing events, and causes, in her scale?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">All give one verdict, one decision sign;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And this the sentence Delphos could not mend:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">"Whatever secondary props may rise</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From politics, to build the public peace,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The basis is the manners of the land.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When rotten these, the politician's wiles</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But struggle with destruction, as a child</l> + +<pb n="226" /><anchor id="Pg226" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With giants huge, or giants with a Jove.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The statesman's arts to conjure up a peace,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or military phantoms void of force,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But scare away the vultures for an hour;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The scent cadaverous (for, oh! how rank</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The stench of profligates!) soon lures them back</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">On the proud flutter of a Gallic wing</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Soon they return; soon make their full descent;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Soon glut their rage, and riot in our ruin;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Their idols grac'd and gorgeous with our spoils,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of universal empire sure presage!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Till now repell'd by seas of British blood."</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And whence the manners of the multitude?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The colours of their manners, black or fair,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Falls from above; from the complexion falls</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of state Othellos, or white men in power:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And from the greater height example falls,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Greater the weight, and deeper its impress</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In ranks inferior, passive to the stroke:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From the court-mint, of hearts the current coin,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The pupil presses, but the pattern drives.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What bonds then, bonds how manifold, and strong</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To duty, double duty, are the great!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And are there Samsons that can burst them all?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Yes; and great minds that stand in need of none,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whose pulse beats virtues, and whose generous blood</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Aids mental motives to push on renown,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In emulation of their glorious sires,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From whom rolls down the consecrated stream.</l> + +<pb n="227" /><anchor id="Pg227" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Some sow good seeds in the glad people's hearts,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Some cursed tares, like Satan in the text:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">This makes a foe most fatal to the state;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A foe who (like a wizard in his cell)</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In his dark cabinet of crooked schemes,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Resembling Cuma's gloomy grot, the forge</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of boasted oracles, and real lies,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">(Aided, perhaps, by second-sighted Scots,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">French magi, relics riding post from Rome,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A gothic hero<note place="foot"><p>The invader affects the character of Charles XII. of +Sweden.</p></note> rising from the dead,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And changing for spruce plaid his dirty shroud,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With succour suitable from lower still,)</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A foe who, these concurring to the charm,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Excites those storms that shall o'erturn the state,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Rend up her ancient honours by the root,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And lay the boast of ages, the rever'd</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of nations, the dear-bought with sumless wealth</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And blood illustrious, (spite of her La Hogues,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her Cresseys, and her Blenheims,) in the dust.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">How must this strike a horror thro' the breast,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thro' every generous breast where honour reigns,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thro' every breast where honour claims a share!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Yes, and thro' every breast of honour void!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">This thought might animate the dregs of men;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Ferment them into spirit; give them fire</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To fight the cause, the black opprobrious cause,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Foul core of all!—corruption at our hearts.</l> + +<pb n="228" /><anchor id="Pg228" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What wreck of empire has the stream of time</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Swept, with her vices, from the mountain height</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of grandeur, deified by half mankind,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To dark oblivion's melancholy lake,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or flagrant infamy's eternal brand!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Those names, at which surrounding nations shook,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Those names ador'd, a nuisance! or forgot!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor this the caprice of a doubtful die,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But Nature's course; no single chance against it.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">For know, my lord! 'tis writ in adamant,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Tis fixt, as is the basis of the world,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whose kingdoms stand or fall by the decree.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What saw these eyes, surpris'd!—Yet why surpris'd—</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For aid divine the crisis seem'd to call,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And how divine was the monition given!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As late I walk'd the night in troubled thought,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">My peace disturb'd by rumours from the north,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">While thunder o'er my head, portentous, roll'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As giving signal of some strange event,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And ocean groan'd beneath for her he lov'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Albion the fair! so long his empire's queen,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whose reign is, now, contested by her foes,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">On her white cliffs (a tablet broad and bright,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Strongly reflecting the pale lunar ray)</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">By fate's own iron pen I saw it writ,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And thus the title ran:</l> +</lg> +</div> + +<div rend="page-break-before: always"> +<pb n="229" /><anchor id="Pg229" /> +<head rend="text-align: center">The Stateman's Creed.</head> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">"Ye states! and empires! nor of empires least,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Though least in size, hear, Britain! thou whose lot,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whose final lot, is in the balance laid,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Irresolutely play the doubtful scales,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor know'st thou which will win.—Know then from me,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As govern'd well or ill, states sink or rise:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">State ministers, as upright or corrupt,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Are balm or poison in a nation's veins!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Health or distemper, hasten or retard</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The period of her pride, her day of doom:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And though, for reasons obvious to the wise,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Just Providence deals otherwise with men,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Yet believe, Britons! nor too late believe,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Tis fix'd! by fate irrevocably fix'd!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Virtue and vice are empire's life and death."</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Thus it is written—Heard you not a groan?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Is Britain on her death-bed?—No, that groan</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Was utter'd by her foes—but soon the scale,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">If this divine monition is despis'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">May turn against us. Read it, ye who rule!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With reverence read; with steadfastness believe;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With courage act as such belief inspires;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Then shall your glory stand like fate's decree;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Then shall your name in adamant be writ,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In records that defy the tooth of time,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">By nations sav'd, resounding your applause.</l> + +<pb n="230" /><anchor id="Pg230" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">While deep beyond your monument's proud base,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In black oblivion's kennel, shall be trod</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Their execrable names, who, high in power,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And deep in guilt, most ominously shine,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">(The meteors of the state!) give vice her head,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To license lewd let loose the public rein;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Quench every spark of conscience in the land,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And triumph in the profligate's applause:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or who to the first bidder sell their souls,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Their country sell, sell all their fathers bought</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With funds exhausted and exhausted veins,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To demons, by his holiness ordain'd</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To propagate the gospel—penn'd at Rome;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Hawk'd through the world by consecrated bulls;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And how illustrated?—by Smithfleld flames:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who plunge (but not like Curtius) down the gulf,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Down narrow-minded self's voracious gulf,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Which gapes and swallows all they swore to save:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Hate all that lifted heroes into gods,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And hug the horrors of a victor's chain:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of bodies politic that destin'd hell,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Inflicted here, since here their beings end;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And fall from foes detested and despis'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">On disbelievers—of the statesman's creed.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Note, here, my lord, (unnoted yet it lies</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">By most, or all,) these truths political</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Serve more than public ends: this creed of states</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Seconds, and irresistibly supports,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The Christian creed. Are you surpris'd?—Attend</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And on the statesman's build a nobler name.</l> + +<pb n="231" /><anchor id="Pg231" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">This punctual justice exercis'd on states,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With which authentic chronicle abounds,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As all men know, and therefore must believe;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">This vengeance pour'd on nations ripe in guilt,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Pour'd on them here, where only they exist,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What is it but an argument of sense,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or rather demonstration, to support</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Our feeble faith—"That they who states compose,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That men who stand not bounded by the grave,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Shall meet like measure at their proper hour?"</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For God is equal, similarly deals</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With states and persons, or he were not God!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What means a rectitude immutable?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A pattern here of universal right.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What, then, shall rescue an abandon'd man?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nothing, it is replied. Replied, by whom?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Replied by politicians well as priests:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Writ sacred set aside, mankind's own writ,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The whole world's annals; these pronounce his doom.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Thus (what might seem a daring paradox)</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">E'en politics advance divinity:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">True masters there are better scholars here,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who travel history in quest of schemes</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To govern nations, or perhaps oppress,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">May there start truths that other aims inspire,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And, like Candace's eunuch, as they read,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">By Providence turn Christians on their road:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Digging for silver, they may strike on gold;</l> + +<pb n="232" /><anchor id="Pg232" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">May be surpris'd with better than they sought,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And entertain an angel unawares.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Nor is divinity ungrateful found.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As politics advance divinity,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thus, in return, divinity promotes</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">True politics, and crowns the statesman's praise.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">All wisdoms are but branches of the chief,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And statesmen found but shoots of honest men.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Are this world's witchcrafts pleaded in excuse</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For deviations in our moral line?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">This, and the next world, view'd with such an eye</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As suits a statesman, such as keeps in view</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His own exalted science, both conspire</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To recommend and fix us in the right.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">If we reward the politics of Heaven,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The grand administration of the whole,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What's the next world? A supplement of this:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Without it, justice is defective here;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Just as to states, defective as to men:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">If so, what is this world? As sure as right</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Sits in Heaven's throne, a prophet of the next.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Prize you the prophet? then believe him too:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His prophecy more precious than his smile.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How comes it then to pass, with most on earth,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That this should charm us, that should discompose?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Long as the statesman finds this case his own,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">So long his politics are uncomplete;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In danger he; nor is the nation safe,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But soon must rue his inauspicious power.</l> + +<pb n="233" /><anchor id="Pg233" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What hence results? a truth that should resound</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For ever awful in Britannia's ear:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">"Religion crowns the statesman and the man,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Sole source of public and of private peace."</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">This truth all men must own, and therefore will,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And praise and preach it too:—and when that's done,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Their compliment is paid, and 'tis forgot.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What highland pole-axe half so deep can wound?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">But how dare I, so mean, presume so far?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Assume my seat in the dictator's chair?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Pronounce, predict (as if indeed inspir'd),</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Promulge my censures, lay out all my throat,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Till hoarse in clamour on enormous crimes?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Two mighty columns rise in my support;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In their more awful and authentic voice,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Record profane and sacred, drown the muse,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Tho' loud, and far out-thread her threatening song.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Still further, Holles! suffer me to plead</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That I speak freely, as I speak to thee:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Guilt only startles at the name of guilt;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And truth, plain truth, is welcome to the wise.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thus what seem'd my presumption is thy praise.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Praise, and immortal praise, is virtue's claim;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And virtue's sphere is action: yet we grant</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Some merit to the trumpet's loud alarm,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whose clangour kindles cowards into men.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor shall the verse, perhaps, be quite forgot,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Which talks of immortality, and bids,</l> + +<pb n="234" /><anchor id="Pg234" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In every British breast, true glory rise,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As now the warbling lark awakes the morn.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To close, my lord! with that which all should close</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And all begin, and strike us every hour,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Though no war wak'd us, no black tempest frown'd.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The morning rises gay; yet gayest morn</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Less glorious after night's incumbent shades;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Less glorious far bright nature, rich array'd</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With golden robes, in all the pomp of noon,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Than the first feeble dawn of moral day?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Sole day, (let those whom statesmen serve attend,)</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Though the sun ripens diamonds for their crowns;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Sole day worth his regard whom Heaven ordains,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Undarken'd, to behold noon dark, and date,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From the sun's death, and every planet's fall,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His all-illustrious and eternal year;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Where statesmen and their monarchs, (names of awe</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And distance here,) shall rank with common men,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Yet own their glory never dawn'd before.</l> +</lg> +</div> + +<div rend="page-break-before: right"> +<index index="toc" level1="Resignation. In Two Parts." /><index index="pdf" /> +<pb n="235" /><anchor id="Pg235" /> +<head rend="text-align: center">Resignation.</head> +<head rend="text-align: center" type="sub">In Two Parts.</head> + +<quote rend="display"> +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">My soul shall be satisfied even as it were with marrow and</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">fatness, when my mouth praiseth thee with joyful lips.</l> +</lg> + +<p rend="text-align: right"><hi rend="font-variant: small-caps">Psalm</hi> lxiii. 6.</p> +</quote> + +<div> +<head rend="text-align: center">Advertisement.</head> + +<p>This was not intended for the public; there were many and +strong reasons against it, and are so still; but some extracts +of it, from the few copies which were given away, being got +into the printed papers, it was thought necessary to publish +something, lest a copy still more imperfect than this should +fall into the press: and it is hoped, that this unwelcome +occasion of publication may be some excuse for it.</p> + +<p>As for the following stanzas, God Almighty's infinite power, +and marvellous goodness to man, is dwelt on, as the most +just and cogent reason for our cheerful and absolute resignation +to his will; nor are any of those topics declined, which +have a just tendency to promote that supreme virtue: such +as the vanity of this life, the value of the next, the approach +of death, &c.</p> +</div> + +<div rend="page-break-before: always"> +<index index="toc" /><index index="pdf" /> +<head rend="text-align: center">Part I.</head> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The days how few, how short the years</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Of man's too rapid race!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Each leaving, as it swiftly flies,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">A shorter in its place.</l> +</lg> + +<pb n="236" /><anchor id="Pg236" /> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They who the longest lease enjoy,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Have told us with a sigh,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That to be born seems little more</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Than to begin to die.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Numbers there are who feel this truth</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">With fears alarm'd; and yet,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In life's delusions lull'd asleep,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">This weighty truth forget:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And am not I to these akin?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Age slumbers o'er the quill;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Its honour blots, whate'er it writes,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And am I writing still?</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Conscious of nature in decline,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And languor in my thoughts;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To soften censure, and abate</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Its rigour on my faults</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Permit me, madam! ere to you</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The promis'd verse I pay,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To touch on felt infirmity,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Sad sister of decay.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">One world deceas'd, another born,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Like Noah they behold,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">O'er whose white hairs, and furrow'd brows,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Too many suns have roll'd:</l> +</lg> + +<pb n="237" /><anchor id="Pg237" /> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Happy the patriarch! he rejoic'd</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">His second world to see:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">My second world, though gay the scene,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Can boast no charms for me.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To me this brilliant age appears</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">With desolation spread;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Near all with whom I liv'd, and smil'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Whilst life was life, are dead;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And with them died my joys; the grave</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Has broken nature's laws;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And clos'd, against this feeble frame,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Its partial cruel jaws;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Cruel to spare! condemn'd to life!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">A cloud impairs my sight;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">My weak hand disobeys my will,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And trembles as I write.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What shall I write? Thalia, tell;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Say, long abandon'd muse!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What field of fancy shall I range?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">What subject shall I choose?</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A choice of moment high inspire,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And rescue me from shame,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For doting on thy charms so late,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">By grandeur in my theme.</l> +</lg> + +<pb n="238" /><anchor id="Pg238" /> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Beyond the themes, which most admire,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Which dazzle, or amaze,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Beyond renown'd exploits of war,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Bright charms, or empire's blaze,</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Are themes, which, in a world of woe</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Can best appease our pain;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And, in an age of gaudy guilt,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Gay folly's flood restrain;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Amidst the storms of life support</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">A calm, unshaken mind;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And with unfading laurels crown</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The brow of the resign'd.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">O resignation! yet unsung,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Untouch'd by former strains;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Though claiming every muse's smile,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And every poet's pains,</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Beneath life's evening, solemn shade,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">I dedicate my page</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To thee, thou safest guard of youth!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Thou sole support of age!</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">All other duties crescents are</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Of virtue faintly bright,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The glorious consummation, thou!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Which fills her orb with light:</l> +</lg> + +<pb n="239" /><anchor id="Pg239" /> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How rarely fill'd! the love divine</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">In evils to discern,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">This the first lesson which we want,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The latest, which we learn;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A melancholy truth! for know,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Could our proud hearts resign,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The distance greatly would decrease</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">'Twixt human and divine.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But though full noble is my theme,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Full urgent is my call</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To soften sorrow, and forbid</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The bursting tear to fall:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The task I dread; dare I to leave</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Of humble prose the shore,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And put to sea? a dangerous sea?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">What throngs have sunk before!</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How proud the poet's billow swells!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The God! the God! his boast:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A boast how vain! What wrecks abound!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Dead bards stench every coast.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What then am I? Shall I presume,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">On such a moulten wing,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Above the general wreck to rise,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And in my winter, sing;</l> +</lg> + +<pb n="240" /><anchor id="Pg240" /> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When nightingales, when sweetest bards</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Confine their charming song</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To summer's animating heats,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Content to warble young?</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Yet write I must; a lady<note place="foot"><p>Mrs. M——.</p></note> sues;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">How shameful her request!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">My brain in labour for dull rhyme!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Hers teeming with the best!</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But you a stranger will excuse,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Nor scorn his feeble strain;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To you a stranger, but, through fate,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">No stranger to your pain.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The ghost of grief deceas'd ascends,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">His old wound bleeds anew;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His sorrows are recall'd to life</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">By those he sees in you;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Too well he knows the twisting strings</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Of ardent hearts combin'd</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When rent asunder, how they bleed,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">How hard to be resign'd:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Those tears you pour, his eyes have shed;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The pang you feel, he felt;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thus nature, loud as virtue, bids</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">His heart at yours to melt.</l> +</lg> + +<pb n="241" /><anchor id="Pg241" /> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But what can heart, or head, suggest?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">What sad experience say?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Through truths austere, to peace we work</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Our rugged, gloomy way:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What are we? whence? for what? and whither?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Who know not, needs must mourn;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But thought, bright daughter of the skies!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Can tears to triumph turn.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thought is our armour, 'tis the mind's</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Impenetrable shield,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When, sent by fate, we meet our foes,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">In sore affliction's field;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">It plucks the frightful mask from ills,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Forbids pale fear to hide,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Beneath that dark disguise, a friend,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Which turns affection's tide.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Affection frail! train'd up by sense,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">From reason's channel strays:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And whilst it blindly points at peace,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Our peace to pain betrays.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thought winds its fond, erroneous stream</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">From daily dying flowers,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To nourish rich immortal blooms,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">In amaranthine bowers;</l> +</lg> + +<pb n="242" /><anchor id="Pg242" /> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whence throngs, in ecstasy, look down</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">On what once shock'd their sight;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And thank the terrors of the past</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">For ages of delight.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">All withers here; who most possess</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Are losers by their gain,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Stung by full proof, that, bad at best,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Life's idle all is vain:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Vain, in its course, life's murmuring stream;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Did not its course offend,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But murmur cease; life, then, would seem</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Still vainer, from its end.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How wretched! who, through cruel fate,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Have nothing to lament!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With the poor alms this world affords</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Deplorably content!</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Had not the Greek his world mistook,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">His wish had been most wise;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To be content with but one world,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Like him, we should despise.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of earth's revenue would you state</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">A full account and fair?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">We hope; and hope; and hope; then cast</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The total up—-—-</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 30; text-decoration: underline">Despair.</l> +</lg> + +<pb n="243" /><anchor id="Pg243" /> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Since vain all here, all future, vast,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Embrace the lot assign'd;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Heaven wounds to heal; its frowns are friends;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Its stroke severe, most kind.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But in laps'd nature rooted deep,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Blind error domineers;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And on fools' errands, in the dark,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Sends out our hopes and fears;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Bids us for ever pains deplore,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Our pleasures overprize;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">These oft persuade us to be weak;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Those urge us to be wise.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From virtue's rugged path to right</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">By pleasure are we brought,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To flowery fields of wrong, and there</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Pain chides us for our fault:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Yet whilst it chides, it speaks of peace</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">If folly is withstood;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And says, time pays an easy price,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">For our eternal good.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In earth's dark cot, and in an hour,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And in delusion great,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What an economist is man</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">To spend his whole estate,</l> +</lg> + +<pb n="244" /><anchor id="Pg244" /> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And beggar an eternity!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">For which as he was born,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">More worlds than one against it weigh'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">As feathers he should scorn.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Say not, your loss in triumph leads</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Religion's feeble strife;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Joys future amply reimburse</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Joys bankrupts of this life.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But not deferr'd your joy so long,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">It bears an early date;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Affliction's ready pay in hand,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Befriends our present state;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What are the tears, which trickle down</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Her melancholy face,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Like liquid pearl? Like pearls of price,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">They purchase lasting peace.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Grief softens hearts, and curbs the will,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Impetuous passion tames,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And keeps insatiate, keen desire</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">From launching in extremes.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Through time's dark womb, our judgment right,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">If our dim eye was thrown,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Clear should we see, the will divine</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Has but forestall'd our own;</l> +</lg> + +<pb n="245" /><anchor id="Pg245" /> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">At variance with our future wish,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Self-sever'd we complain;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">If so, the wounded, not the wound,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Must answer for the pain:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The day shall come, and swift of wing,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Though you may think it slow,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When, in the list of fortune's smiles,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">You'll enter frowns of woe.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For mark the path of Providence;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">This course it has pursued—</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">"Pain is the parent, woe the womb,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Of sound, important good:"</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Our hearts are fasten'd to this world</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">By strong and endless ties:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And every sorrow cuts a string,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And urges us to rise:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Twill sound severe—Yet rest assur'd</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">I'm studious of your peace;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Though I should dare to give you joy—</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Yes, joy of his decease:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">An hour shall come, (you question this,)</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">An hour, when you shall bless,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Beyond the brightest beams of life,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Dark days of your distress.</l> +</lg> + +<pb n="246" /><anchor id="Pg246" /> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Hear then without surprise a truth,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">A daughter truth to this,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Swift turns of fortune often tie</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">A bleeding heart to bliss:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Esteem you this a paradox?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">My sacred motto read;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A glorious truth! divinely sung</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">By one, whose heart had bled;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To resignation swift he flew,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">In her a friend he found,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A friend, which bless'd him with a smile</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">When gasping with his wound.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">On earth nought precious is obtain'd</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">But what is painful too;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">By travel, and to travel born,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Our sabbaths are but few:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To real joy we work our way,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Encountering many a shock,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Ere found what truly charms; as found</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">A Venus in the block.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In some disaster, some severe</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Appointment for our sins,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That mother blessing, (not so call'd,)</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">True happiness, begins.</l> +</lg> + +<pb n="247" /><anchor id="Pg247" /> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">No martyr e'er defied the flames,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">By stings of life unvext;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">First rose some quarrel with this world,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Then passion for the next.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">You see, then, pangs are parent pangs,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The pangs of happy birth;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Pangs, by which only can be born</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">True happiness on earth.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The peopled earth look all around,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Or through time's records run!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And say, what is a man unstruck?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">It is a man undone.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">This moment, am I deeply stung—</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">My bold pretence is tried;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When vain man boasts, heaven puts to proof</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The vauntings of his pride;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Now need I, madam! your support.—</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">How exquisite the smart;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How critically tim'd the news<note place="foot"><p>Whilst the author was writing this, he received the news +of Mr. Samuel Richardson's death, who was then printing the +former part of the poem.</p></note></l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Which strikes me to the heart!</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The pangs of which I spoke, I feel:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">If worth like thine is born,</l> + +<pb n="248" /><anchor id="Pg248" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">O long-belov'd! I bless the blow,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And triumph, whilst I mourn.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor mourn I long; by grief subdued,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">By reason's empire shown;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Deep anguish comes by heaven's decree,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Continues by our own;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And when continued past its point,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Indulg'd in length of time,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Grief is disgrac'd, and, what was fate,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Corrupts into a crime:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And shall I, criminally mean,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Myself and subject wrong?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">No; my example shall support</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The subject of my song.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Madam! I grant your loss is great;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Nor little is your gain?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Let that be weigh'd; when weigh'd aright,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">It richly pays your pain:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When heaven would kindly set us free,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And earth's enchantment end;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">It takes the most effectual means,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And robs us of a friend.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But such a friend! and sigh no more?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">'Tis prudent; but severe:</l> + +<pb n="249" /><anchor id="Pg249" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Heaven aid my weakness, and I drop</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">All sorrow—with this tear.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Perhaps your settled grief to soothe,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">I should not vainly strive,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But with soft balm your pain assuage,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Had he been still alive;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whose frequent aid brought kind relief,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">In my distress of thought,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Ting'd with his beams my cloudy page,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And beautified a fault:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To touch our passions' secret springs</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Was his peculiar care;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And deep his happy genius div'd</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">In bosoms of the fair;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nature, which favours to the few,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">All art beyond, imparts,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To him presented, at his birth,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The key of human hearts.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But not to me by him bequeath'd</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">His gentle, smooth address;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His tender hand to touch the wound</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">In throbbing of distress;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Howe'er, proceed I must, unbless'd</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">With Esculapian art:</l> + +<pb n="250" /><anchor id="Pg250" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Know, love sometimes, mistaken love!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Plays disaffection's part:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor lands, nor seas, nor suns, nor stars,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Can soul from soul divide;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They correspond from distant worlds,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Though transports are denied:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Are you not, then, unkindly kind?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Is not your love severe?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">O! stop that crystal source of woe;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Nor wound him with a tear.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As those above from human bliss</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Receive increase of joy;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">May not a stroke from human woe,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">In part, their peace destroy?</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He lives in those he left;—to what?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Your, now, paternal care,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Clear from its cloud your brighten'd eye,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">It will discern him there;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In features, not of form alone,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">But those, I trust, of mind;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Auspicious to the public weal,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And to their fate resign'd.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Think on the tempests he sustain'd;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Revolve his battles won;</l> + +<pb n="251" /><anchor id="Pg251" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And let those prophesy your joy</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">From such a father's son:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Is consolation what you seek?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Fan, then, his martial fire:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And animate to flame the sparks</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Bequeath'd him by his sire:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As nothing great is born in haste,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Wise nature's time allow;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His father's laurels may descend,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And flourish on his brow.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor, madam! be surpris'd to hear</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">That laurels may be due</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Not more to heroes of the field,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">(Proud boasters!) than to you:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Tender as is the female frame,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Like that brave man you mourn,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">You are a soldier, and to fight</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Superior battles born;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Beneath a banner nobler far</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Than ever was unfurl'd</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In fields of blood; a banner bright!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">High wav'd o'er all the world.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">It, like a streaming meteor, casts</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">A universal light;</l> + +<pb n="252" /><anchor id="Pg252" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Sheds day, sheds more, eternal day</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">On nations whelm'd in night.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Beneath that banner, what exploit</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Can mount our glory higher,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Than to sustain the dreadful blow,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">When those we love expire?</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Go forth a moral Amazon;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Arm'd with undaunted thought;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The battle won, though costing dear,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">You'll think it cheaply bought:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The passive hero, who sits down</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Unactive, and can smile</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Beneath affliction's galling load,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Out-acts a Cæsar's toil:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The billows stain'd by slaughter'd foes</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Inferior praise afford;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Reason's a bloodless conqueror,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">More glorious than the sword.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor can the thunders of huzzas,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">From shouting nations, cause</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Such sweet delight, as from your heart</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Soft whispers of applause:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The dear deceas'd so fam'd in arms,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">With what delight he'll view</l> + +<pb n="253" /><anchor id="Pg253" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His triumphs on the main outdone,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Thus conquer'd, twice, by you.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Share his delight; take heed to shun</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Of bosoms most diseas'd</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That odd distemper, an absurd</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Reluctance to be pleas'd:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Some seem in love with sorrow's charms,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And that foul fiend embrace:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">This temper let me justly brand,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And stamp it with disgrace:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Sorrow! of horrid parentage!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Thou second-born of hell!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Against heaven's endless mercies pour'd</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">How dar'st thou to rebel?</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From black and noxious vapours bred,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And nurs'd by want of thought,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And to the door of phrensy's self</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">By perseverance brought,</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thy most inglorious, coward tears</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">From brutal eyes have ran:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Smiles, incommunicable smiles!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Are radiant marks of man;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They cast a sudden glory round</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Th' illumin'd human face;</l> + +<pb n="254" /><anchor id="Pg254" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And light in sons of honest joy</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Some beams of Moses' face:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Is resignation's lesson hard?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Examine, we shall find</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That duty gives up little more</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Than anguish of the mind;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Resign; and all the load of life</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">That moment you remove,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Its heavy tax, ten thousand cares</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Devolve on one above;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who bids us lay our burthen down</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">On his almighty hand,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Softens our duty to relief,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">To blessing a command.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For joy what cause! how every sense</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Is courted from above</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The year around, with presents rich,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The growth of endless love!</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But most o'erlook the blessings pour'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Forget the wonders done,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And terminate, wrapp'd up in sense,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Their prospect at the sun;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From that, their final point of view,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">From that their radiant goal,</l> + +<pb n="255" /><anchor id="Pg255" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">On travel infinite of thought,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Sets out the nobler soul,</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Broke loose from time's tenacious ties,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And earth's involving gloom,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To range at last its vast domain,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And talk with worlds to come:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They let unmark'd, and unemploy'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Life's idle moments run;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And doing nothing for themselves,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Imagine nothing done;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Fatal mistake! their fate goes on,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Their dread account proceeds,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And their not doing is set down</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Amongst their darkest deeds;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Though man sits still, and takes his ease;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">God is at work on man;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">No means, no moment unemployed,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">To bless him, if he can.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But man consents not, boldly bent</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">To fashion his own fate;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Man, a mere bungler in the trade,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Repents his crime too late;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Hence loud laments: let me thy cause,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Indulgent father! plead;</l> + +<pb n="256" /><anchor id="Pg256" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of all the wretches we deplore,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Not one by thee was made.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What is thy whole creation fair?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Of love divine the child;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Love brought it forth; and, from its birth,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Has o'er it fondly smil'd:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Now, and through periods distant far,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Long ere the world began,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Heaven is, and has in travail been,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Its birth the good of man;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Man holds in constant service bound</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The blustering winds and seas;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor suns disdain to travel hard</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Their master, man, to please:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To final good the worst events</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Through secret channels run;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Finish for man their destin'd course,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">As 'twas for man begun.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">One point (observ'd, perhaps, by few)</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Has often smote, and smites</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">My mind, as demonstration strong;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">That heaven in man delights:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What's known to man of things unseen,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Of future worlds, or fates?</l> + +<pb n="257" /><anchor id="Pg257" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">So much, nor more, than what to man's</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Sublime affairs relates;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What's revelation then? a list,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">An inventory just</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of that poor insect's goods, so late</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Call'd out of night and dust.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What various motives to rejoice!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">To render joy sincere,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Has this no weight? our joy is felt</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Beyond this narrow sphere:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Would we in heaven new heaven create,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And double its delight?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A smiling world, when heaven looks down,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">How pleasing in its sight!</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Angels stoop forward from their thrones</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">To hear its joyful lays;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As incense sweet enjoy, and join,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Its aromatic praise:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Have we no cause to fear the stroke</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Of heaven's avenging rod,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When we presume to counteract</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">A sympathetic God?</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">If we resign, our patience makes</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">His rod an armless wand;</l> + +<pb n="258" /><anchor id="Pg258" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">If not, it darts a serpent's sting,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Like that in Moses' hand;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Like that, it swallows up whate'er</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Earth's vain magicians bring,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whose baffled arts would boast below</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Of joys a rival spring.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Consummate love! the list how large</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Of blessings from thy hand!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To banish sorrow, and be blest,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Is thy supreme command.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Are such commands but ill obey'd?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Of bliss, shall we complain?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The man, who dares to be a wretch,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Deserves still greater pain.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Joy is our duty, glory, health;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The sunshine of the soul;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Our best encomium on the power</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Who sweetly plans the whole:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Joy is our Eden still possess'd:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Begone, ignoble grief!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Tis joy makes gods, and men exalts,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Their nature, our relief;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Relief, for man to that must stoop,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And his due distance know;</l> + +<pb n="259" /><anchor id="Pg259" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Transport's the language of the sides,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Content the style below.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Content is joy, and joy in pain</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Is joy and virtue too;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thus, whilst good present we possess,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">More precious we pursue:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of joy the more we have in hand,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The more have we to come;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Joy, like our money, interest bears,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Which daily swells the sum.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">"But how to smile; to stem the tide</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Of nature in our veins;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Is it not hard to weep in joy?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">What then to smile in pains?"</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Victorious joy! which breaks the clouds,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And struggles through a storm;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Proclaims the mind as great, as good</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And bids it doubly charm:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">If doubly charming in our sex,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">A sex, by nature, bold;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What then in yours? 'tis diamond there</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Triumphant o'er our gold.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And should not this complaint repress,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And check the rising sigh?</l> + +<pb n="260" /><anchor id="Pg260" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Yet farther opiate to your pain</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">I labour to supply.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Since spirits greatly damp'd distort</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Ideas of delight,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Look through the medium of a friend,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">To set your notions right:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As tears the sight, grief dims the soul;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Its object dark appears;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">True friendship, like a rising sun,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The soul's horizon clears.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A friend's an optic to the mind</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">With sorrow clouded o'er;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And gives it strength of sight to see</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Redress unseen before.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Reason is somewhat rough in man;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Extremely smooth and fair,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When she, to grace her manly strength,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Assumes a female air:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A friend<note place="foot"><p>Mrs. Montague.</p></note> you have, and I the same,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Whose prudent, soft address</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Will bring to life those healing thoughts</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Which died in your distress;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That friend, the spirit of my theme</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Extracting for your ease,</l> + +<pb n="261" /><anchor id="Pg261" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Will leave to me the dreg, in thoughts</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Too common; such as these:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Let those lament to whom full bowls</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Of sparkling joys are given;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That triple bane inebriates life,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Imbitters death, and hazards heaven:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Woe to the soul at perfect ease!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">'Tis brewing perfect pains;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Lull'd reason sleeps, the pulse is king;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Despotic body reigns;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Have you<note place="foot"><p>Mrs. Montague.</p></note> ne'er pitied joy's gay scenes,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And deem'd their glory dark?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Alas! poor envy! she's stone-blind,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And quite mistakes her mark:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her mark lies hid in sorrow's shades,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">But sorrow well subdu'd;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And in proud fortune's frown defied</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">By meek, unborrow'd good.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">By resignation; all in that</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">A double friend may find,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A wing to heaven, and, while on earth,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The pillow of mankind:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">On pillows void of down, for rest</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Our restless hopes we place;</l> + +<pb n="262" /><anchor id="Pg262" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When hopes of heaven lie warm at heart,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Our hearts repose in peace:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The peace, which resignation yields,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Who feel alone can guess;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Tis disbeliev'd by murmuring minds,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">They must conclude it less:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The loss, or gain, of that alone</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Have we to hope or fear;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That fate controls, and can invert</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The seasons of the year:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">O! the dark days, the year around,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Of an impatient mind!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thro' clouds, and storms, a summer breaks,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">To shine on the resign'd:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">While man by that of every grace,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And virtue, is possess'd;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Foul vice her pandæmonium builds</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">In the rebellious breast;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">By resignation we defeat</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The worst that can annoy;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And suffer, with far more repose,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Than worldlings can enjoy.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From small experience this I speak;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">O! grant to those I love</l> + +<pb n="263" /><anchor id="Pg263" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Experience fuller far, ye powers,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Who form our fates above!</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">My love were due, if not to those</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Who, leaving grandeur, came</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To shine on age in mean recess,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And light me to my theme!</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A theme themselves! A theme, how rare!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The charms, which they display,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To triumph over captive heads,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Are set in bright array:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With his own arms proud man's o'ercome,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">His boasted laurels die:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Learning and genius, wiser grown,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">To female bosoms fly.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">This revolution, fix'd by fate,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">In fable was foretold;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The dark prediction puzzled wits,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Nor could the learn'd unfold:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But as those ladies'<note place="foot"><p>Mrs. Montague. Mrs Carter.</p></note> works I read,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">They darted such a ray,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The latent sense burst out at once,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And shone in open day:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">So burst, full ripe, distended fruits,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">When strongly strikes the sun;</l> + +<pb n="264" /><anchor id="Pg264" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And from the purple grape unpress'd</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Spontaneous nectars run.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Pallas, ('tis said,) when Jove grew dull,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Forsook his drowsy brain;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And sprightly leap'd into the throne</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Of wisdom's brighter reign;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her helmet took; that is, shot rays</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Of formidable wit;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And lance,—or, genius most acute,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Which lines immortal writ;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And gorgon shield,—or, power to fright</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Man's folly, dreadful shone,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And many a blockhead (easy change!)</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Turn'd, instantly, to stone.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Our authors male, as, then, did Jove,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Now scratch a damag'd head,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And call for what once quarter'd there,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">But find the goddess fled.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The fruit of knowledge, golden fruit!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">That once forbidden tree,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Hedg'd-in by surly man, is now</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">To Britain's daughters free:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In Eve (we know) of fruit so fair</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The noble thirst began;</l> + +<pb n="265" /><anchor id="Pg265" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And they, like her, have caus'd a fall,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">A fall of fame in man:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And since of genius in our sex,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">O Addison! with thee</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The sun is set; how I rejoice</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">This sister lamp to see!</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">It sheds, like Cynthia, silver beams</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">On man's nocturnal state;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His lessen'd light, and languid powers,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">I show, whilst I relate.</l> +</lg> +</div> + +<div> +<index index="toc" /><index index="pdf" /> +<head rend="text-align: center">Part II.</head> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But what in either sex, beyond</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">All parts, our glory crowns?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">"In ruffling seasons to be calm,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And smile, when fortune frowns."</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Heaven's choice is safer than our own;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Of ages past inquire,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What the most formidable fate?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">"To have our own desire."</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">If, in your wrath, the worst of foes</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">You wish extremely ill;</l> + +<pb n="266" /><anchor id="Pg266" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Expose him to the thunder's stroke,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Or that of his own will.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What numbers, rushing down the steep</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Of inclination strong,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Have perish'd in their ardent wish!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Wish ardent, ever wrong!</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Tis resignation's full reverse,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Most wrong, as it implies</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Error most fatal in our choice,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Detachment from the skies.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">By closing with the skies, we make</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Omnipotence our own;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That done, how formidable ill's</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Whole army is o'erthrown!</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">No longer impotent, and frail,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Ourselves above we rise:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">We scarce believe ourselves below!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">We trespass on the skies!</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The Lord, the soul, and source of all,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Whilst man enjoys his ease,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Is executing human will,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">In earth, and air, and seas;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Beyond us, what can angels boast?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Archangels what require?</l> + +<pb n="267" /><anchor id="Pg267" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whate'er below, above, is done,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Is done as——we desire.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What glory this for man so mean,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Whose life is but a span!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">This is meridian majesty!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">This, the sublime of man!</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Beyond the boast of pagan song</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">My sacred subject shines!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And for a foil the lustre takes</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Of Rome's exalted lines.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">"All, that the sun surveys, subdued,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">But Cato's mighty mind."</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How grand! most true; yet far beneath</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The soul of the resign'd:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To more than kingdoms, more than worlds,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">To passion that gives law;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Its matchless empire could have kept</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Great Cato's pride in awe;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That fatal pride, whose cruel point</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Transfix'd his noble breast;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Far nobler! if his fate sustain'd</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And left to heaven the rest;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Then he the palm had borne away,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">At distance Cæsar thrown;</l> + +<pb n="268" /><anchor id="Pg268" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Put him off cheaply with the world,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And made the skies his own.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What cannot resignation do?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">It wonders can perform;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That powerful charm, "Thy will be done,"</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Can lay the loudest storm.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Come, resignation! then, from fields,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Where, mounted on the wing,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A wing of flame, blest martyrs' souls</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Ascended to their king.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who is it calls thee? one whose need</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Transcends the common size;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who stands in front against a foe</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">To which no equal rise:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In front he stands, the brink he treads</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Of an eternal state;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How dreadful his appointed post!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">How strongly arm'd by fate:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His threatening foe! what shadows deep</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">O'erwhelm his gloomy brow!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His dart tremendous!——at fourscore</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">My sole asylum, thou!</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Haste, then, O resignation! haste,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">'Tis thine to reconcile</l> + +<pb n="269" /><anchor id="Pg269" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">My foe, and me; at thy approach</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">My foe begins to smile:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">O! for that summit of my wish,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Whilst here I draw my breath,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That promise of eternal life,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">A glorious smile in death:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What sight, heaven's azure arch beneath,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Has most of heaven to boast?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The man resign'd; at once serene,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And giving up the ghost.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">At death's arrival they shall smile,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Who, not in life o'er gay,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Serious and frequent thought send out</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">To meet him on his way:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">My gay coevals! (such there are)</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">If happiness is dear;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Approaching death's alarming day</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Discreetly let us fear:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The fear of death is truly wise,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Till wisdom can rise higher;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And, arm'd with pious fortitude,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Death dreaded once, desire:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Grand climacteric vanities</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The vainest will despise;</l> + +<pb n="270" /><anchor id="Pg270" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Shock'd, when beneath the snow of age</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Man immaturely dies:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But am not I myself the man?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">No need abroad to roam</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In quest of faults to be chastis'd;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">What cause to blush at home?</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In life's decline, when men relapse</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Into the sports of youth,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The second child out-fools the first,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And tempts the lash of truth;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Shall a mere truant from the grave</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">With rival boys engage?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His trembling voice attempt to sing,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And ape the poet's rage?</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Here, madam! let me visit one,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">My fault who, partly, shares,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And tell myself, by telling him,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">What more becomes our years;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And if your breast with prudent zeal</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">For resignation glows,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">You will not disapprove a just</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Resentment at its foes.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In youth, Voltaire! our foibles plead</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">For some indulgence due;</l> + +<pb n="271" /><anchor id="Pg271" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When heads are white, their thoughts and aims</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Should change their colour too:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How are you cheated by your wit!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Old age is bound to pay,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">By nature's law, a mind discreet,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">For joys it takes away;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A mighty change is wrought by years,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Reversing human lot;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In age 'tis honour to lie hid,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">'Tis praise to be forgot;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The wise, as flowers, which spread at noon,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And all their charms expose,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When evening damps and shades descend,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Their evolutions close.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What though your muse has nobly soar'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Is that our truth sublime?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Ours, hoary friend! is to prefer</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Eternity to time:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Why close a life so justly fam'd</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">With such bold trash as this?<note place="foot"><p>Candide.</p></note></l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">This for renown? yes, such as makes</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Obscurity a bliss:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Your trash, with mine, at open war,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Is obstinately bent,<note place="foot"><p>Second Part.</p></note></l> + +<pb n="272" /><anchor id="Pg272" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Like wits below, to sow your tares</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Of gloom and discontent:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With so much sunshine at command,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Why light with darkness mix?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Why dash with pain our pleasure?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Your Helicon with Styx?</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Your works in our divided minds</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Repugnant passions raise,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Confound us with a double stroke,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">We shudder whilst we praise;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A curious web, as finely wrought</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">As genius can inspire,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From a black bag of poison spun,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">With horror we admire.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Mean as it is, if this is read</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">With a disdainful air,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">I can't forgive so great a foe</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">To my dear friend Voltaire:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Early I knew him, early prais'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And long to praise him late;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His genius greatly I admire,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Nor would deplore his fate;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A fate how much to be deplor'd!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">At which our nature starts;</l> + +<pb n="273" /><anchor id="Pg273" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Forbear to fall on your own sword.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">To perish by your parts:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">"But great your name"—To feed on air,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Were then immortals born?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nothing is great, of which more great,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">More glorious is the scorn.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Can fame your carcass from the worm</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Which gnaws us in the grave,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or soul from that which never dies,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Applauding Europe save?</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But fame you lose; good sense alone</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Your idol, praise, can claim;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When wild wit murders happiness,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">It puts to death our fame!</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor boast your genius, talents bright;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">E'en dunces will despise,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">If in your western beams is miss'd</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">A genius for the skies;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Your taste too fails; what most excels</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">True taste must relish most!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And what, to rival palms above,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Can proudest laurels boast?</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Sound heads salvation's helmet seek,<note place="foot"><p>Ephes. vi. 17.</p></note></l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Resplendent are its rays,</l> + +<pb n="274" /><anchor id="Pg274" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Let that suffice; it needs no plume,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Of sublunary praise.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">May this enable couch'd Voltaire</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">To see that—"All is right,"<note place="foot"><p>Which his romance ridicules.</p></note></l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His eye, by flash of wit struck blind,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Restoring to its sight;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">If so, all's well: who much have err'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">That much have been forgiven;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">I speak with joy, with joy he'll hear,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">"Voltaires are, now, in heaven."</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nay, such philanthropy divine,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">So boundless in degree,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Its marvellous of love extends</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">(Stoops most profound!) to me:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Let others cruel stars arraign,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Or dwell on their distress;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But let my page, for mercies pour'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">A grateful heart express:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Walking, the present God was seen,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Of old, in Eden fair;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The God as present, by plain steps</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Of providential care,</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">I behold passing through my life;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">His awful voice I hear;</l> + +<pb n="275" /><anchor id="Pg275" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And, conscious of my nakedness,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Would hide myself for fear:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But where the trees, or where the clouds,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Can cover from his sight?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Naked the centre to that eye,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">To which the sun is night.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As yonder glittering lamps on high</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Through night illumin'd roll;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">My thoughts of him, by whom they shine,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Chase darkness from my soul;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">My soul, which reads his hand as clear</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">In my minute affairs,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As in his ample manuscript</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Of sun, and moon, and stars;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And knows him not more bent aright</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">To wield that vast machine,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Than to correct one erring thought</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">In my small world within;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A world, that shall survive the fall</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Of all his wonders here;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Survive, when suns ten thousand drop,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And leave a darken'd sphere.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Yon matter gross, how bright it shines!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">For time how great his care!</l> + +<pb n="276" /><anchor id="Pg276" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Sure spirit and eternity</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Far richer glories share;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Let those our hearts impress, on those</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Our contemplation dwell;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">On those my thoughts how justly thrown,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">By what I now shall tell:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When backward with attentive mind</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Life's labyrinth I trace,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">I find him far myself beyond</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Propitious to my peace:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Through all the crooked paths I trod,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">My folly he pursued;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">My heart astray to quick return</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Importunately woo'd;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Due resignation home to press</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">On my capricious will,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How many rescues did I meet,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Beneath the mask of ill!</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How many foes in ambush laid</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Beneath my soul's desire!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The deepest penitents are made</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">By what we most admire.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Have I not sometimes (real good</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">So little mortals know!)</l> + +<pb n="277" /><anchor id="Pg277" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Mounting the summit of my wish,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Profoundly plung'd in woe?</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">I rarely plann'd, but cause I found</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">My plan's defeat to bless:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Oft I lamented an event;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">It turn'd to my success.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">By sharpen'd appetite to give</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">To good intense delight,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Through dark and deep perplexities</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">He led me to the right.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And is not this the gloomy path,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Which you are treading now?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The path most gloomy leads to light,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">When our proud passions bow:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When labouring under fancied ill,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">My spirits to sustain,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He kindly cur'd with sovereign draughts</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Of unimagin'd pain.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Pain'd sense from fancied tyranny</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Alone can set us free;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A thousand miseries we feel,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Till sunk in misery.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Cloy'd with a glut of all we wish,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Our wish we relish less;</l> + +<pb n="278" /><anchor id="Pg278" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Success, a sort of suicide,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Is ruin'd by success:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Sometimes he led me near to death,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And, pointing to the grave,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Bid terror whisper kind advice;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And taught the tomb to save:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To raise my thoughts beyond where worlds</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">As spangles o'er us shine,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">One day he gave, and bid the next</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">My soul's delight resign.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">We to ourselves, but through the means</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Of mirrors, are unknown;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In this my fate can you descry</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">No features of your own?</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And if you can, let that excuse</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">These self-recording lines;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A record, modesty forbids,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Or to small bound confines:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In grief why deep ingulf'd? You see</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">You suffer nothing rare;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Uncommon grief for common fate!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">That wisdom cannot bear.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When streams flow backward to their source,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And humbled flames descend,</l> + +<pb n="279" /><anchor id="Pg279" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And mountains wing'd shall fly aloft,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Then human sorrows end;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But human prudence too must cease,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">When sorrows domineer,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When fortitude has lost its fire,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And freezes into fear:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The pang most poignant of my life</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Now heightens my delight;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">I see a fair creation rise</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">From chaos, and old night:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From what seem'd horror, and despair,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The richest harvest rose;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And gave me in the nod divine</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">An absolute repose.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of all the plunders of mankind,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">More gross, or frequent, none,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Than in their grief and joy misplac'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Eternally are shown.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But whither points all this parade?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">It says, that near you lies</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A book, perhaps yet unperus'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Which you should greatly prize:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of self-perusal, science rare!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Few know the mighty gain;</l> + +<pb n="280" /><anchor id="Pg280" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Learn'd prelates, self-unread, may read</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Their Bibles o'er in vain:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Self-knowledge, which from heaven itself</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">(So sages tell us) came,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What is it, but a daughter fair</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Of my maternal theme?</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Unletter'd and untravel'd men</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">An oracle might find,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Would they consult their own contents,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The Delphos of the mind.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Enter your bosom; there you'll meet</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">A revelation new,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A revelation personal;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Which none can read but you.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">There will you clearly read reveal'd</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">In your enlighten'd thought,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">By mercies manifold, through life,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">To fresh remembrance brought,</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A mighty Being! and in him</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">A complicated friend,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A father, brother, spouse; no dread</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Of death, divorce, or end:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who such a matchless friend embrace,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And lodge him in their heart,</l> + +<pb n="281" /><anchor id="Pg281" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Full well, from agonies exempt,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">With other friends may part:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As when o'erloaded branches bear</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Large clusters big with wine,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">We scarce regret one falling leaf</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">From the luxuriant vine.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">My short advice to you may sound</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Obscure or somewhat odd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Though 'tis the best that man can give,—</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">"E'en be content with God."</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Through love he gave you the deceas'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Through greater took him hence;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">This reason fully could evince,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Though murmur'd at by sense.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">This friend, far past the kindest kind,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Is past the greatest great;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His greatness let me touch in points</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Not foreign to your state;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His eye, this instant, reads your heart;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">A truth less obvious hear;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">This instant its most secret thoughts</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Are sounding in his ear:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Dispute you this? O! stand in awe,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And cease your sorrow; know,</l> + +<pb n="282" /><anchor id="Pg282" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That tears now trickling down, he saw</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Ten thousand years ago;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And twice ten thousand hence, if you</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Your temper reconcile</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To reason's bound, will he behold</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Your prudence with a smile;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A smile, which through eternity</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Diffuses so bright rays,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The dimmest deifies e'en guilt,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">If guilt, at last, obeys:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Your guilt (for guilt it is to mourn</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">When such a sovereign reigns),</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Your guilt diminish; peace pursue;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">How glorious peace in pains!</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Here, then, your sorrows cease; if not,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Think how unhappy they,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who guilt increase by streaming tears,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Which guilt should wash away;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of tears that gush profuse restrain;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Whence burst those dismal sighs?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They from the throbbing breast of one</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">(Strange truth!) most happy rise;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Not angels (hear it, and exult!)</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Enjoy a larger share</l> + +<pb n="283" /><anchor id="Pg283" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Than is indulg'd to you, and yours,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Of God's impartial care;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Anxious for each, as if on each</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">His care for all was thrown;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For all his care as absolute,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">As all had been but one.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And is he then so near! so kind!—</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">How little then, and great,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That riddle, man! O! let me gaze</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">At wonders in his fate;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His fate, who yesterday did crawl</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">A worm from darkness deep,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And shall, with brother worms, beneath</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">A turf, to-morrow sleep;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How mean!—And yet, if well obey'd</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">His mighty Master's call,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The whole creation for mean man</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Is deem'd a boon too small:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Too small the whole creation deem'd</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">For emmets in the dust!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Account amazing! yet most true;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">My song is bold, yet just:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Man born for infinite, in whom</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Nor period can destroy</l> + +<pb n="284" /><anchor id="Pg284" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The power, in exquisite extremes,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">To suffer, or enjoy;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Give him earth's empire (if no more)</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">He's beggar'd, and undone!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Imprison'd in unbounded space!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Benighted by the sun!</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For what the sun's meridian blaze</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">To the most feeble ray</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Which glimmers from the distant dawn</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Of uncreated day?</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Tis not the poet's rapture feign'd</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Swells here the vain to please;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The mind most sober kindles most</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">At truths sublime as these;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They warm e'en me.—I dare not say,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Divine ambition strove</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Not to bless only, but confound,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Nay, fright us with its love;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And yet so frightful what, or kind,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">As that the rending rock,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The darken'd sun, and rising dead,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">So formidable spoke?</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And are we darker than that sun?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Than rocks more hard, and blind?</l> + +<pb n="285" /><anchor id="Pg285" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">We are;—if not to such a God</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">In agonies resigned.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Yes, e'en in agonies forbear</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">To doubt almighty love;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whate'er endears eternity,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Is mercy from above;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What most imbitters time, that most</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Eternity endears,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And thus, by plunging in distress,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Exalts us to the spheres;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Joy's fountain head! where bliss o'er bliss,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">O'er wonders wonders rise,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And an Omnipotence prepares</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Its banquet for the wise:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Ambrosial banquet! rich in wines</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Nectareous to the soul!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What transports sparkle from the stream,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">As angels fill the bowl!</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Fountain profuse of every bliss!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Good-will immense prevails;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Man's line can't fathom its profound</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">An angel's plummet fails.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thy love and might, by what they know,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Who judge, nor dream of more;</l> + +<pb n="286" /><anchor id="Pg286" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They ask a drop, how deep the sea!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">One sand, how wide the shore!</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of thy exuberant good-will,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Offended Deity!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The thousandth part who comprehends,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">A deity is he.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How yonder ample azure field</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">With radiant worlds is sown!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How tubes astonish us with those</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">More deep in ether thrown!</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And those beyond of brighter worlds</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Why not a million more?—</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In lieu of answer, let us all</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Fall prostrate, and adore.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Since thou art infinite in power,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Nor thy indulgence less;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Since man, quite impotent and blind,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Oft drops into distress;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Say, what is resignation? 'T is</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Man's weakness understood;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And wisdom grasping, with a hand</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Far stronger, every good.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Let rash repiners stand appall'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">In thee who dare not trust;</l> + +<pb n="287" /><anchor id="Pg287" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whose abject souls, like demons dark,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Are murmuring in the dust;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For man to murmur, or repine</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">At what by thee is done,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">No less absurd, than to complain</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Of darkness in the sun.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who would not, with a heart at ease,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Bright eye, unclouded brow,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Wisdom and goodness at the helm,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The roughest ocean plough?</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What, though I'm swallow'd in the deep?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Though mountains o'er me roar?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Jehovah reigns! as Jonah safe,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">I'm landed, and adore:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thy will is welcome, let it wear</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Its most tremendous form;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Roar, waves; rage, winds! I know that thou</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Canst save me by a storm.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From the immortal spirits born,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">To thee, their fountain, flow,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">If wise; as curl'd around to theirs</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Meandering streams below:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Not less compell'd by reason's call,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">To thee our souls aspire,</l> + +<pb n="288" /><anchor id="Pg288" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Than to thy skies, by nature's law,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">High mounts material fire;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To thee aspiring they exult,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">I feel my spirits rise,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">I feel myself thy son, and pant</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">For patrimonial skies;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Since ardent thirst of future good,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And generous sense of past,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To thee man's prudence strongly ties,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And binds affection fast;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Since great thy love, and great our want,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And men the wisest blind,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And bliss our aim; pronounce us all</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Distracted, or resigned;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Resign'd through duty, interest, shame;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Deep shame! dare I complain,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When (wondrous truth!) in heaven itself</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Joy ow'd its birth to pain?</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And pain for me! for me was drain'd</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Gall's overflowing bowl;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And shall one drop to murmur bold</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Provoke my guilty soul?</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">If pardon'd this, what cause, what crime</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Can indignation raise?</l> + +<pb n="289" /><anchor id="Pg289" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The sun was lighted up to shine,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And man was born to praise;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And when to praise the man shall cease,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Or sun to strike the view;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A cloud dishonors both; but man's</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The blacker of the two:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For oh! ingratitude how black!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">With most profound amaze</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">At love, which man belov'd o'erlooks,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Astonish'd angels gaze.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Praise cheers, and warms, like generous wine;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Praise, more divine than prayer;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Prayer points our ready path to heaven;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Praise is already there.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Let plausive resignation rise,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And banish all complaint;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">All virtues thronging into one,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">It finishes the saint;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Makes the man bless'd, as man can be;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Life's labours renders light;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Darts beams through fate's incumbent gloom,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And lights our sun by night;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'T is nature's brightest ornament,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The richest gift of grace,</l> + +<pb n="290" /><anchor id="Pg290" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Rival of angels, and supreme</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Proprietor of peace;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nay, peace beyond, no small degree</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Of rapture 't will impart;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Know, madam! when your heart's in heaven,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">"All heaven is in your heart."</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But who to heaven their hearts can raise?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Denied divine support,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">All virtue dies; support divine</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The wise with ardour court:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When prayer partakes the seraph's fire,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">'T is mounted on his wing,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Bursts thro' heaven's crystal gates, and</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Sure audience of its king:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The labouring soul from sore distress</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">That bless'd expedient frees;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">I see you far advanc'd in peace;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">I see you on your knees:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How on that posture has the beam</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Divine for ever shone!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">An humble heart, God's other seat!<note place="foot"><p>Isaiah lvii. 15.</p></note></l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The rival of his throne:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And stoops Omnipotence so low!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And condescends to dwell,</l> + +<pb n="291" /><anchor id="Pg291" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Eternity's inhabitant,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Well pleas'd, in such a cell?</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Such honour how shall we repay?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">How treat our guest divine?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The sacrifice supreme be slain!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Let self-will die: resign.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thus far, at large, on our disease;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Now let the cause be shown,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whence rises, and will ever rise,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The dismal human groan:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What our sole fountain of distress?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Strong passion for this scene;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That trifles make important, things</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Of mighty moment mean:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When earth's dark maxims poison shed</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">On our polluted souls,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Our hearts and interests fly as far</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Asunder, as the poles.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Like princes in a cottage nurs'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Unknown their royal race,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With abject aims, and sordid joys,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Our grandeur we disgrace;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">O! for an Archimedes new,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Of moral powers possess'd,</l> + +<pb n="292" /><anchor id="Pg292" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The world to move, and quite expel</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">That traitor from the breast.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">No small advantage may be reap'd</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">From thought whence we descend;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From weighing well, and prizing weigh'd</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Our origin, and end:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From far above the glorious sun</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">To this dim scene we came:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And may, if wise, for ever bask</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">In great Jehovah's beam:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Let that bright beam on reason rous'd</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">In awful lustre rise,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Earth's giant ills are dwarf'd at once,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And all disquiet dies.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Earth's glories too their splendour lose,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Those phantoms charm no more;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Empire's a feather for a fool,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And Indian mines are poor:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Then levell'd quite, whilst yet alive,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The monarch and his slave;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Not wait enlighten'd minds to learn</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">That lesson from the grave:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A George the Third would then be low</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">As Lewis in renown,</l> + +<pb n="293" /><anchor id="Pg293" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Could he not boast of glory more</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Than sparkles from a crown.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When human glory rises high</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">As human glory can;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When, though the king is truly great,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Still greater is the man;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The man is dead, where virtue fails;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And though the monarch proud</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In grandeur shines, his gorgeous robe</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Is but a gaudy shroud.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Wisdom! where art thou? None on earth,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Though grasping wealth, fame, power,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But what, O death! through thy approach,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Is wiser every hour;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Approach how swift, how unconfin'd!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Worms feast on viands rare,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Those little epicures have kings</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">To grace their bill of fare:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From kings what resignation due</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">To that almighty will,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Which thrones bestows, and, when they fail,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Can throne them higher still!</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who truly great? The good and brave,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The masters of a mind</l> + +<pb n="294" /><anchor id="Pg294" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The will divine to do resolv'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">To suffer it resign'd.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Madam! if that may give it weight,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The trifle you receive</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Is dated from a solemn scene,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The border of the grave;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Where strongly strikes the trembling soul</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Eternity's dread power,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As bursting on it through the thin</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Partition of an hour;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Hear this, Voltaire! but this, from me,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Runs hazard of your frown;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">However, spare it; ere you die,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Such thoughts will be your own.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In mercy to yourself forbear</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">My notions to chastise,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Lest unawares the gay Voltaire</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Should blame Voltaire the wise:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Fame's trumpet rattling in your ear,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Now, makes us disagree;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When a far louder trumpet sounds,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Voltaire will close with me:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How shocking is that modesty,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Which keeps some honest men</l> + +<pb n="295" /><anchor id="Pg295" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From urging what their hearts suggest,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">When brav'd by folly's pen.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Assaulting truths, of which in all</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Is sown the sacred seed!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Our constitution's orthodox,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And closes with our creed:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What then are they, whose proud conceits</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Superior wisdom boast?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Wretches, who fight their own belief,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And labour to be lost!</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Though vice by no superior joys</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Her heroes keeps in pay;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Through pure disinterested love</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Of ruin they obey!</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Strict their devotion to the wrong,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Though tempted by no prize;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Hard their commandments, and their creed</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">A magazine of lies</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From fancy's forge: gay fancy smiles</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">At reason plain, and cool;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Fancy, whose curious trade it is</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">To make the finest fool.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Voltaire! long life's the greatest curse</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">That mortals can receive,</l> + +<pb n="296" /><anchor id="Pg296" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When they imagine the chief end</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Of living is to live;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Quite thoughtless of their day of death,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">That birthday of their sorrow!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Knowing, it may be distant far,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Nor crush them till—to-morrow.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">These are cold, northern thoughts, conceiv'd</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Beneath an humble cot;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Not mine, your genius, or your state,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">No castle is my lot:<note place="foot"><p>Letter to Lord Lyttelton.</p></note></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But soon, quite level shall we lie;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And, what pride most bemoans,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Our parts, in rank so distant now,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">As level as our bones;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Hear you that sound? Alarming sound!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Prepare to meet your fate!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">One, who writes finis to our works,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Is knocking at the gate;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Far other works will soon be weigh'd;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Far other judges sit;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Far other crowns be lost or won,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Than fire ambitious wit:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Their wit far brightest will be prov'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Who sunk it in good sense;</l> + +<pb n="297" /><anchor id="Pg297" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And veneration most profound</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Of dread omnipotence.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Tis that alone unlocks the gate</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Of blest eternity;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">O! mayst thou never, never lose</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">That more than golden key!<note place="foot"><p>Alluding to Prussia.</p></note></l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whate'er may seem too rough excuse,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Your good I have at heart:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Since from my soul I wish you well;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">As yet we must not part:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Shall you, and I, in love with life,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Life's future schemes contrive,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The world in wonder not unjust,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">That we are still alive?</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What have we left? How mean in man</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">A shadow's shade to crave!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When life, so vain! is vainer still,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">'Tis time to take your leave:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Happier, than happiest life, is death,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Who, falling in the field</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of conflict with his rebel will,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Writes vici, on his shield;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">So falling man, immortal heir</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Of an eternal prize;</l> + +<pb n="298" /><anchor id="Pg298" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Undaunted at the gloomy grave,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Descends into the skies.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">O! how disorder'd our machine,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">When contradictions mix!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When nature strikes no less than twelve,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And folly points at six!</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To mend the moments of your heart,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">How great is my delight</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Gently to wind your morals up,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And set your hand aright!</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That hand, which spread your wisdom wide</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">To poison distant lands:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Repent, recant; the tainted age</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Your antidote demands;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To Satan dreadfully resign'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Whole herds rush down the steep</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of folly, by lewd wits possess'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And perish in the deep.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Men's praise your vanity pursues;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">'Tis well, pursue it still;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But let it be of men deceas'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And you'll resign the will;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And how superior they to those</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">At whose applause you aim;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How very far superior they</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">In number, and in name!</l> +</lg> +</div> + +<div rend="page-break-before: always"> +<pb n="299" /><anchor id="Pg299" /> +<head rend="text-align: center">Postscript.</head> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thus have I written, when to write</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">No mortal should presume;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or only write, what none can blame,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Hic jacet—for his tomb:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The public frowns, and censures loud</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">My puerile employ;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Though just the censure, if you smile,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The scandal I enjoy;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But sing no more—no more I sing</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Or reassume the lyre,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Unless vouchsaf'd an humble part</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Where Raphael leads the choir:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What myriads swell the concert loud!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Their golden harps resound</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">High as the footstool of the throne,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And deep as hell profound:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Hell (horrid contrast!) chord and song</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Of raptur'd angels drowns</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In self-will's peal of blasphemies,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And hideous burst of groans;</l> +</lg> + +<pb n="300" /><anchor id="Pg300" /> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But drowns them not to me; I hear</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Harmonious thunders roll</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">(In language low of men to speak)</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">From echoing pole to pole!</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whilst this grand chorus shakes the skies—</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">"Above, beneath the sun,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Through boundless age, by men, by gods,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Jehovah's will be done!"</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Tis done in heaven; whence headlong hurl'd</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Self-will with Satan fell;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And must from earth be banish'd too,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Or earth's another hell;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Madam! self-will inflicts your pains:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Self-will's the deadly foe</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Which deepens all the dismal shades,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And points the shafts of woe:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Your debt to nature fully paid,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Now virtue claims her due:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But virtue's cause I need not plead,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">'Tis safe; I write to you:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">You know, that virtue's basis lies</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">In ever judging right;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And wiping error's clouds away,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Which dim the mental sight:</l> +</lg> + +<pb n="301" /><anchor id="Pg301" /> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Why mourn the dead? you wrong the grave,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">From storm that safe resort;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">We still are tossing out at sea,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Our admiral in port.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Was death denied, this world, a scene</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">How dismal and forlorn!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To death we owe, that 'tis to man</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">A blessing to be born;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When every other blessing fails,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Or sapp'd by slow decay,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or, storm'd by sudden blasts of fate,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Is swiftly whirl'd away;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How happy! that no storm, or time,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Of death can rob the just!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">None pluck from their unaching heads</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Soft pillows in the dust!</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Well pleas'd to bear heaven's darkest frown,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Your utmost power employ;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Tis noble chemistry to turn</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Necessity to joy.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whate'er the colour of my fate,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">My fate shall be my choice:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Determin'd am I, whilst I breathe,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">To praise and to rejoice;</l> +</lg> + +<pb n="302" /><anchor id="Pg302" /> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What ample cause! triumphant hope!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">O rich eternity!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">I start not at a world in flames,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Charm'd with one glimpse of thee:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And thou! its great inhabitant!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">How glorious dost thou shine!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And dart through sorrow, danger, death,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">A beam of joy divine!</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The void of joy (with some concern</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The truth severe I tell)</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Is an impenitent in guilt,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">A fool or infidel!</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Weigh this, ye pupils of Voltaire!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">From joyless murmur free;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or, let us know, which character</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Shall crown you of the three.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Resign, resign: this lesson none</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Too deeply can instill;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A crown has been resign'd by more,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Than have resign'd the will;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Though will resign'd the meanest makes</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Superior in renown,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And richer in celestial eyes,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Than he who wears a crown;</l> +</lg> + +<pb n="303" /><anchor id="Pg303" /> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Hence, in the bosom cold of age,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">It kindled a strange aim</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To shine in song; and bid me boast</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The grandeur of my theme:</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But oh! how far presumption falls</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Its lofty theme below!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Our thoughts in life's December freeze,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And numbers cease to flow.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">First! greatest! best! grant what I wrote</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">For others, ne'er may rise</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To brand the writer! thou alone</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Canst make our wisdom wise;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And how unwise! how deep in guilt!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">How infamous the fault!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">"A teacher thron'd in pomp of words,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Indeed, beneath the taught!"</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Means most infallible to make</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The world an infidel;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And, with instructions most divine,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">To pave a path to hell;</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">O! for a clean and ardent heart,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">O! for a soul on fire,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thy praise, begun on earth, to sound</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Where angels string the lyre;</l> +</lg> + +<pb n="304" /><anchor id="Pg304" /> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How cold is man! to him how hard</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">(Hard, what most easy seems)</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">"To set a just esteem on that,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Which yet he—most esteems!"</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What shall we say, when boundless bliss</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Is offer'd to mankind,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And to that offer when a race</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Of rationals is blind?</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of human nature ne'er too high</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Are our ideas wrought;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of human merit ne'er too low</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Depress'd the daring thought.</l> +</lg> +</div> +</div> + +<div rend="page-break-before: right"> +<index index="toc" /><index index="pdf" /> +<pb n="305" /><anchor id="Pg305" /> +<head rend="text-align: center">On the Late Queen's Death, +And His Majesty's Accession to the Throne</head> + +<head rend="text-align: center" type="sub">Inscribed to Joseph Addison, Esq. Secretary to Their +Excellencies the Lords Justices.</head> + +<quote rend="display"> +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Gaudia curis.</l> +</lg> + +<p rend="text-align: right">—<hi rend="font-variant: small-caps">Hor.</hi></p> +</quote> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Sir, I have long, and with impatience, sought</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To ease the fulness of my grateful thought,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">My fame at once, and duty to pursue,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And please the public, by respect to you.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Though you, long since beyond Britannia known,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Have spread your country's glory with your own;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To me you never did more lovely shine,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Than when so late the kindled wrath divine</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Quench'd our ambition, in great Anna's fate,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And darken'd all the pomp of human state.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Though you are rich in fame, and fame decay,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Though rais'd in life, and greatness fade away,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Your lustre brightens: virtue cuts the gloom</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With purer rays, and sparkles near a tomb.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Know, sir, the great esteem and honour due,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">I chose that moment to profess to you,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When sadness reign'd, when fortune, so severe,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Had warm'd our bosoms to be most sincere.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And when no motives could have force to raise</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A serious value, and provoke my praise,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But such as rise above, and far transcend,</l> + +<pb n="306" /><anchor id="Pg306" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whatever glories with this world shall end,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Then shining forth, when deepest shades shall blot</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The sun's bright orb, and Cato be forgot.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">I sing—but ah! my theme I need not tell,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">See every eye with conscious sorrow swell:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who now to verse would raise his humble voice,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Can only show his duty, not his choice.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How great the weight of grief our hearts sustain!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">We languish, and to speak is to complain.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Let us look back, (for who too oft can view</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That most illustrious scene, for ever new!)</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">See all the seasons shine on Anna's throne,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And pay a constant tribute, not their own.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her summer's heats nor fruits alone bestow,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They reap the harvest, and subdue the foe;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And when black storms confess the distant sun,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her winters wear the wreaths her summers won.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Revolving pleasures in their turns appear,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And triumphs are the product of the year.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To crown the whole, great joys in greater cease,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And glorious victory is lost in peace.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Whence this profusion on our favour'd isle?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Did partial fortune on our virtue smile?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or did the sceptre, in great Anna's hand,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Stretch forth this rich indulgence o'er our land?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Ungrateful Britain! quit thy groundless claim,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thy queen and thy good fortune are the same.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Hear, with alarms our trumpets fill the sky;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Tis Anna reigns! the Gallic squadrons fly.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">We spread our canvass to the southern shore;</l> + +<pb n="307" /><anchor id="Pg307" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Tis Anna reigns! the south resigns her store.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her virtue smooths the tumult of the main,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And swells the field with mountains of the slain</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Argyll and Churchill but the glory share,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">While millions lie subdu'd by Anna's prayer.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">How great her zeal! how fervent her desire!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How did her soul in holy warmth expire!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Constant devotion did her time divide,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Not set returns of pleasure or of pride.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Not want of rest, or the sun's parting ray,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But finish'd duty, limited the day.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How sweet succeeding sleep! what lovely themes</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Smil'd in her thoughts, and soften'd all her dreams!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her royal couch descending angels spread,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And join'd their wings a shelter o'er her head.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Though Europe's wealth and glory claim'd a part,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Religion's cause reign'd mistress of her heart:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">She saw, and griev'd to see, the mean estate</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of those who round the hallow'd altar wait;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">She shed her bounty, piously profuse,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And thought it more her own in sacred use.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Thus on his furrow see the tiller stand,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And fill with genial seed his lavish hand;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He trusts the kindness of the fruitful plain,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And providently scatters all his grain.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">What strikes my sight? does proud Augusta rise</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">New to behold, and awfully surprise!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her lofty brow more numerous turrets crown,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And sacred domes on palaces look down:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A noble pride of piety is shown,</l> + +<pb n="308" /><anchor id="Pg308" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And temples cast a lustre on the throne.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How would this work another's glory raise!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But Anna's greatness robs her of the praise.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Drown'd in a brighter blaze it disappears,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who dried the widow's and the orphan's tears?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who stoop'd from high to succour the distrest</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And reconcile the wounded heart to rest?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Great in her goodness, well could we perceive,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whoever sought, it was a queen that gave.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Misfortune lost her name, her guiltless frown</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But made another debtor to the crown;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And each unfriendly stroke from fate we bore,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Became our title to the regal store.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Thus injur'd trees adopt a foreign shoot,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And their wounds blossom with a fairer fruit.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Ye numbers, who on your misfortunes thriv'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When first the dreadful blast of fame arriv'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Say what a shock, what agonies you felt,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How did your souls with tender anguish melt!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That grief which living Anna's love suppress'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Shook like a tempest every grateful breast,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A second fate our sinking fortunes tried!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A second time our tender parents died!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Heroes returning from the field we crown,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And deify the haughty victor's frown.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His splendid wealth too rashly we admire,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Catch the disease, and burn with equal fire:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Wisely to spend, is the great art of gain;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And one reliev'd transcends a million slain.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When time shall ask, where once Ramillia lay,</l> + +<pb n="309" /><anchor id="Pg309" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or Danube flow'd that swept whole troops away,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">One drop of water, that refresh'd the dry,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Shall rise a fountain of eternal joy.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">But ah! to that unknown and distant date</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Is virtue's great reward push'd off by fate;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Here random shafts in every breast are found,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Virtue and merit but provoke the wound.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">August in native worth and regal state,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Anna sate arbitress of Europe's fate;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To distant realms did every accent fly,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And nations watch'd each motion of her eye.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Silent, nor longer awful to be seen,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How small a spot contains the mighty queen!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">No throng of suppliant princes mark the place,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Where Britain's greatness is compos'd in peace:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The broken earth is scarce discern'd to rise,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And a stone tells us where the monarch lies.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Thus end maturest honours of the crown!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">This is the last conclusion of renown!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">So when with idle skill the wanton boy</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Breathes through his tube; he sees, with eager joy,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The trembling bubble, in its rising small;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And by degrees expands the glittering ball.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But when, to full perfection blown, it flies</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">High in the air, and shines in various dyes,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The little monarch, with a falling tear,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Sees his world burst at once, and disappear,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Tis not in sorrow to reverse our doom,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">No groans unlock th' inexorable tomb!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Why then this fond indulgence of our woe!</l> + +<pb n="310" /><anchor id="Pg310" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What fruit can rise, or what advantage flow!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Yes, this advantage; from our deep distress</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">We learn how much in George the gods can bless</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Had a less glorious princess left the throne,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But half the hero had at first been shown:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">An Anna falling all the king employs,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To vindicate from guilt our rising joys:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Our joys arise and innocently shine,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Auspicious monarch! what a praise is thine!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Welcome, great stranger, to Britannia's throne!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor let thy country think thee all her own.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of thy delay how oft did we complain!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Our hopes reach'd out, and met thee on the main.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With prayer we smooth the billows for thy fleet;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With ardent wishes fill thy swelling sheet;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And when thy foot took place on Albion's shore,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">We bending bless'd the gods, and ask'd no more.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What hand but thine should conquer and compose,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Join those whom interest joins, and chase our foes?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Repel the daring youth's presumptuous aim,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And by his rival's greatness give him fame?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Now in some foreign court he may sit down,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And quit without a blush the British crown.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Secure his honour, though he lose his store,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And take a lucky moment to be poor.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Nor think, great sir, now first, at this late hour,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In Britain's favour, you exert your power;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To us, far back in time, I joy to trace</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The numerous tokens of your princely grace.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whether you chose to thunder on the Rhine,</l> + +<pb n="311" /><anchor id="Pg311" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Inspire grave councils, or in courts to shine;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In the more scenes your genius was display'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The greater debt was on Britannia laid:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They all conspir'd this mighty man to raise,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And your new subjects proudly share the praise.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">All share; but may not we have leave to boast</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That we contemplate, and enjoy it most?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">This ancient nurse of arts, indulged by fate</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">On gentle Isis' bank, a calm retreat;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For many roiling ages justly fam'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Has through the world her loyalty proclaim'd;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And often pour'd (too well the truth is known!)</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her blood and treasure to support the throne!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For England's church her latest accents strain'd;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And freedom with his dying hand retain'd.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">No wonder then her various ranks agree</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In all the fervencies of zeal for thee.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">What though thy birth a distant kingdom boast,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And seas divide thee from the British coast?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The crown's impatient to enclose thy head:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Why stay thy feet? the cloth of gold is spread.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Our strict obedience through the world shall tell</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That king's a Briton, who can govern well!</l> +</lg> +</div> + +<div rend="page-break-before: right"> +<index index="toc" /><index index="pdf" /> +<pb n="312" /><anchor id="Pg312" /> +<head rend="text-align: center">The Instalment.</head> + +<head rend="text-align: center" type="sub">To the Right Hon. Sir Robert Walpole, Knight of the Most Noble Order of the Garter.</head> + +<quote rend="display"> +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Quæsitam meritis.</l> +</lg> + +<p rend="text-align: right">—<hi rend="font-variant: small-caps">Hor.</hi></p> +</quote> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With invocations some their breasts inflame;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">I need no muse, a Walpole is my theme.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Ye mighty dead, ye garter'd sons of praise!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Our morning stars! our boast in former days!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Which hovering o'er, your purple wings display,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Lur'd by the pomp of this distinguish'd day,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Stoop, and attend: by one, the knee be bound;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">One, throw the mantle's crimson folds around;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">By that, the sword on his proud thigh be plac'd;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">This, clasp the diamond girdle round his waist;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His breast, with rays, let just Godolphin spread;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Wise Burleigh plant the plumage on his head;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And Edward own, since first he fix'd the race,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">None press'd fair glory with a swifter pace.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">When fate would call some mighty genius forth</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To wake a drooping age to godlike worth,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or aid some favourite king's illustrious toil,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">It bids his blood with generous ardour boil;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His blood, from virtue's celebrated source,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Pour'd down the steep of time, a lengthen'd course;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That men prepar'd may just attention pay,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Warn'd by the dawn to mark the glorious day,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When all the scatter'd merits of his line</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Collected to a point, intensely shine.</l> + +<pb n="313" /><anchor id="Pg313" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">See, Britain, see thy Walpole shine from far,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His azure ribbon, and his radiant star;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A star that, with auspicious beams, shall guide</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thy vessel safe, through fortune's roughest tide.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">If peace still smiles, by this shall commerce steer</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A finish'd course, in triumph round the sphere;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And, gathering tribute from each distant shore,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In Britain's lap the world's abundance pour.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">If war's ordain'd, this star shall dart its beams</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Through that black cloud which, rising from the Thames,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With thunder, form'd of Brunswick's wrath, is sent</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To claim the seas, and awe the continent.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">This shall direct it where the bolt to throw,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A star for us, a comet to the foe.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">At this the muse shall kindle, and aspire:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">My breast, O Walpole, glows with grateful fire.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The streams of royal bounty, turn'd by thee,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Refresh the dry domains of poesy.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">My fortune shows, when arts are Walpole's care,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What slender worth forbids us to despair:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Be this thy partial smile from censure free;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Twas meant for merit, though it fell on me.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Since Brunswick's smile has authoris'd my muse,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Chaste be her conduct, and sublime her views.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">False praises are the whoredoms of the pen,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Which prostitute fair fame to worthless men:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">This profanation of celestial fire</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Makes fools despise, what wise men should admire.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Let those I praise to distant times be known,</l> + +<pb n="314" /><anchor id="Pg314" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Not by their author's merit, but their own.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">If others think the task is hard, to weed</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From verse rank flattery's vivacious seed,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And rooted deep; one means must set them free,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Patron! and patriot! let them sing of thee.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">While vulgar trees ignobler honours wear,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor those retain, when winter chills the year;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The generous orange, favourite of the sun,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With vigorous charms can through the seasons run;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Defies the storm with her tenacious green;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And flowers and fruits in rival pomp are seen:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Where blossoms fall, still fairer blossoms spring;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And midst their sweets the feather'd poets sing.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">On Walpole, thus, may pleas'd Britannia view</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">At once her ornament and profit too;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The fruit of service, and the bloom of fame,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Matur'd and gilded by the royal beam.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He, when the nipping blasts of envy rise</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Its guilt can pity, and its rage despise;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Lets fall no honours, but, securely great,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Unfaded holds the colour of his fate:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">No winter knows, though ruffling factions press;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">By wisdom deeply rooted in success;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">One glory shed, a brighter is display'd;<note place="foot"><p>Knight of the Bath, and then of the Garter.</p></note></l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And the charm'd muses shelter in his shade.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">O how I long, enkindled by the theme,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In deep eternity to launch thy name!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thy name in view, no rights of verse I plead,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But what chaste truth indites, old time shall read.</l> + +<pb n="315" /><anchor id="Pg315" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">"Behold! a man of ancient faith and blood,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Which, soon, beat high for arts, and public good;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whose glory great, but natural appears,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The genuine growth of services and years;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">No sudden exhalation drawn on high,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And fondly gilt by partial majesty:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">One bearing greatest toils with greatest ease,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">One born to serve us, and yet born to please:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whom, while our rights in equal scales he lays,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The prince may trust, and yet the people praise;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His genius ardent, yet his judgment clear,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His tongue is flowing, and his heart sincere,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His counsel guides, his temper cheers our isle,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And, smiling, gives three kingdoms cause to smile."</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Joy then to Britain, blest with such a son,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To Walpole joy, by whom the prize is won;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who nobly conscious meets the smiles of fate;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">True greatness lies in daring to be great.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Let dastard souls, or affectation, run</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To shades, nor wear bright honours fairly won;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Such men prefer, misled by false applause,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The pride of modesty to virtue's cause.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Honours, which make the face of virtue fair,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Tis great to merit, and 'tis wise to wear;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Tis holding up the prize to public view,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Confirms grown virtue, and inflames the new;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Heightens the lustre of our age and clime,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And sheds rich seeds of worth for future time.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Proud chiefs alone, in fields of slaughter fam'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of old, this azure bloom of glory claim'd,</l> + +<pb n="316" /><anchor id="Pg316" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As when stern Ajax pour'd a purple flood,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The violet rose, fair daughter of his blood.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Now rival wisdom dares the wreath divide,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And both Minervas rise in equal pride;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Proclaiming loud, a monarch fills the throne,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who shines illustrious not in wars alone.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Let fame look lovely in Britannia's eyes;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They coldly court desert, who fame despise.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For what's ambition, but fair virtue's sail?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And what applause, but her propitious gale?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When swell'd with that, she fleets before the wind</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To glorious aims, as to the port design'd;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When chain'd, without it, to the labouring oar,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">She toils! she pants! nor gains the flying shore,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From her sublime pursuits, or turn'd aside</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">By blasts of envy, or by fortune's tide:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For one that has succeeded ten are lost,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of equal talents, ere they make the coast.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Then let renown to worth divine incite,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With all her beams, but throw those beams aright.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Then merit droops, and genius downward tends,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When godlike glory, like our land, descends.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Custom the garter long confin'd to few,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And gave to birth, exalted virtue's due:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Walpole has thrown the proud enclosure down;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And high desert embraces fair renown.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Though rival'd, let the peerage smiling see</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">(Smiling, in justice to their own degree)</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">This proud reward by majesty bestow'd</l> + +<pb n="317" /><anchor id="Pg317" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">On worth like that whence first the peerage flow'd.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From frowns of fate Britannia's bliss'd to guard,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Let subjects merit, and let kings reward.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Gods are most gods by giving to excel,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And kings most like them, by rewarding well.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Though strong the twanging nerve, and drawn aright,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Short is the winged arrow's upward flight;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But if an eagle it transfix on high,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Lodg'd in the wound, it soars into the sky.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thus while I sing thee with unequal lays,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And wound perhaps that worth I mean to praise;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Yet I transcend myself, I rise in fame,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Not lifted by my genius, but my theme.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">No more: for in this dread suspense of fate,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Now kingdoms fluctuate, and in dark debate</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Weigh peace and war, now Europe's eyes are bent</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">On mighty Brunswick, for the great event,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Brunswick of kings the terror or defence!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who dares detain thee at a world's expense?</l> +</lg> +</div> + +<div rend="page-break-before: right"> +<index index="toc" /><index index="pdf" /> +<pb n="318" /><anchor id="Pg318" /> + +<head rend="text-align: center">And Epistle to the Right Hon. George Lord Lansdowne.</head> +<head rend="text-align: center" type="sub">1712.</head> + +<quote rend="display"> +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 24">Parnassia laurus</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Parva sub ingenti matris se subjicit umbra.</l> +</lg> + +<p rend="text-align: right">—<hi rend="font-variant: small-caps">Virg.</hi></p> +</quote> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When Rome, my lord, in her full glory shone,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And great Augustus rul'd the globe alone,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">While suppliant kings in all their pomp and state</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Swarm'd in his courts, and throng'd his palace gate;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Horace did oft the mighty man detain,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And sooth'd his breast with no ignoble strain;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Now soar'd aloft, now struck an humbler string;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And taught the Roman genius how to sing.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Pardon, if I his freedom dare pursue,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who know no want of Cæsar, finding you;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The muse's friend is pleas'd the muse should press</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Through circling crowds, and labor for access,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That partial to his darling he may prove,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And shining throngs for her reproach remove,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To all the world industrious to proclaim</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His love of arts, and boast the glorious flame.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Long has the western world reclin'd her head,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Pour'd forth her sorrow, and bewail'd her dead;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Fell discord through her borders fiercely rang'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And shook her nations, and her monarchs chang'd;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">By land and sea, its utmost rage employ'd;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor heaven repair'd so fast as men destroy'd.</l> + +<pb n="319" /><anchor id="Pg319" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In vain kind summers plentuous fields bestow'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In vain the vintage liberally flow'd;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Alarms from loaden boards all pleasures chas'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And robb'd the rich Burgundian grape of taste;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The smiles of Nature could no blessing bring,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The fruitful autumn, or the flowery spring;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Time was distinguish'd by the sword and spear,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Not by the various aspects of the year;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The trumpet's sound proclaim'd a milder sky,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And bloodshed told us when the sun was nigh.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">But now (so soon is Britain's blessing seen,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When such as you are near her glorious queen!)</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Now peace, though long repuls'd, arrives at last,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And bids us smile on all our labours past;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Bids every nation cease her wonted moan,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And every monarch call his crown his own:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To valour gentler virtues now succeed;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">No longer is the great man born to bleed;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Renown'd in councils, brave Argyle shall tell,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Wisdom and prowess in one breast may dwell:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Through milder tracts he soars to deathless fame,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And without trembling we resound his name.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">No more the rising harvest whets the sword,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">No longer waves uncertain of its lord;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who cast the seed, the golden sheaf shall claim,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor chance of battle change the master's name.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Each stream unstain'd with blood more smoothly flows;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The brighter sun a fuller day bestows;</l> + +<pb n="320" /><anchor id="Pg320" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">All nature seems to wear a cheerful face,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And thank great Anna for returning peace.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The patient thus, when on his bed of pain,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">No longer he invokes the gods in vain,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But rises to new life; in every field</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He finds Elysium, rivers nectar yield;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nothing so cheap and vulgar but can please,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And borrow beauties from his late disease.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Nor is it peace alone, but such a peace,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As more than bids the rage of battle cease.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Death may determine war, and rest succeed,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Cause nought survives on which our rage may feed:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In faithful friends we lose our glorious foes,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And strifes of love exalt our sweet repose.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">See graceful Bolingbroke, your friend, advance,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor miss his Lansdowne in the court of France;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">So well receiv'd, so welcome, so at home,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">(Blest change of fate,) in Bourbon's stately dome;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The monarch pleas'd, descending from his throne,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Will not that Anna call him all her own;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He claims a part, and looking round to find</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Something might speak the fulness of his mind,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A diamond shines, which oft had touch'd him near,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Renew'd his grief, and robb'd him of a tear;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Now first with joy beheld, well plac'd on one,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who makes him less regret his darling son;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">So dear is Anna's minister, so great,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Your glorious friend in his own private state.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">To make our nations longer two, in vain</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Does nature interpose the raging main:</l> + +<pb n="321" /><anchor id="Pg321" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The Gallic shore to distant Britain grows,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For Lewis Thames, the Seine for Anna flows:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From conflicts pass'd each other's worth we find,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And thence in stricter friendship now are join'd;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Each wound receiv'd, now pleads the cause of love,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And former injuries endearments prove.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What Briton but must prize th' illustrious sword,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That cause of fear to Churchill could afford?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who sworn to Bourbon's sceptre, but must frame</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Vast thoughts of him, that could brave Tallard tame?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thus generous hatred in affection ends,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And war, which rais'd the foes, completes the friends.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A thousand happy consequences flow</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">(The dazzling prospect makes my bosom glow);</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Commerce shall lift her swelling sails, and roll</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her wealthy fleets secure from pole to pole;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The British merchant, who with care and pain</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For many moons sees only skies and main;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When now in view of his loved native shore,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The perils of the dreadful ocean o'er,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Cause to regret his wealth no more shall find,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor curse the mercy of the sea and wind;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">By hardest fate condemn'd to serve a foe,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And give him strength to strike a deeper blow.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Sweet Philomela providently flies</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To distant woods and streams, for such supplies,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To feed her young, and make them try the wing,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And with their tender notes attempt to sing:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Meanwhile, the fowler spreads his secret snare,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And renders vain the tuneful mother's care.</l> + +<pb n="322" /><anchor id="Pg322" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Britannia's bold adventurer of late</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The foaming ocean plow'd with equal fate.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Goodness is greatness in its utmost height,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And power a curse, if not a friend to right:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To conquer is to make dissension cease,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That man may serve the King of kings in peace.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Religion now shall all her rays dispense,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And shine abroad in perfect excellence;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Else we may dread some greater curse at hand,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To scourge a thoughtless and ungrateful land:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Now war is weary, and retir'd to rest;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The meagre famine, and the spotted pest,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Deputed in her stead, may blast the day,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And sweep the relics of the sword away.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">When peaceful Numa fill'd the Roman throne,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Jove in the fulness of his glory shone;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Wise Solomon, a stranger to the sword,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Was born to raise a temple to the Lord.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Anne too shall build, and every sacred pile</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Speak peace eternal to Britannia's isle.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Those mighty souls, whom military care</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Diverted from their only great affair,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Shall bend their full united force, to bless</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Th' Almighty Author of their late success.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And what is all the world subdued to this?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The grave sets bounds to sublunary bliss;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But there are conquests to great Anna known,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Above the splendour of an earthly throne;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Conquests! whose triumph is too great, within</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The scanty bounds of matter to begin;</l> + +<pb n="323" /><anchor id="Pg323" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Too glorious to shine forth, till it has run</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Beyond this darkness of the stars and sun,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And shall whole ages past be still, still but begun.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Heroic shades! whom war has swept away,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Look down, and smile on this auspicious day:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Now boast your deaths; to those your glory tell,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who or at Agincourt or Cressy fell;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Then deep into eternity retire,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of greater things than peace or war inquire;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Fully content, and unconcern'd, to know</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What farther passes in the world below.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The bravest of mankind shall now have leave</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To die but once, nor piece-meal seek the grave:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">On gain or pleasure bent, we shall not meet</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Sad melancholy numbers in each street</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">(Owners of bones dispers'd on Flandria's plain,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or wasting in the bottom of the main);</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To turn us back from joy, in tender fear,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Lest it an insult of their woes appear,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And make us grudge ourselves that wealth, their blood</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Perhaps preserv'd, who starve, or beg for food.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Devotion shall run pure, and disengage</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From that strange fate of mixing peace with rage.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">On heaven without a sin we now may call,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And guiltless to our Maker prostrate fall;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Be Christians while we pray, nor in one breath</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Ask mercy for ourselves, for others death.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">But O! I view with transport arts restor'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Which double use to Britain shall afford;</l> + +<pb n="324" /><anchor id="Pg324" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Secure her glory purchas'd in the field,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And yet for future peace sweet motives yield:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">While we contemplate on the painted wall,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The pressing Briton, and the flying Gaul,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In such bright images, such living grace,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As leave great Raphael but the second place;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Our cheeks shall glow, our heaving bosoms rise,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And martial ardours sparkle in our eyes;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Much we shall triumph in our battles past,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And yet consent those battles prove our last;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Lest, while in arms for brighter fame we strive,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">We lose the means to keep that fame alive.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">In silent groves the birds delight to sing,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or near the margin of a secret spring:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Now all is calm, sweet music shall improve,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor kindle rage, but be the nurse of love.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">But what's the warbling voice, the trembling string,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or breathing canvass, when the muses sing?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The muse, my lord, your care above the rest,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With rising joy dilates my partial breast;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The thunder of the battle ceas'd to roar,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Ere Greece her godlike poets taught to soar;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Rome's dreadful foe, great Hannibal, was dead,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And all her warlike neighbours round her bled;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For Janus shut, her Iö Pæans rung,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Before an Ovid or a Virgil sung.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">A thousand various forms the muse may wear,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">(A thousand various forms become the fair;)</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But shines in none with more majestic mien,</l> + +<pb n="325" /><anchor id="Pg325" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Than when in state she draws the purple scene;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Calls forth her monarchs, bids her heroes rage,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And mourning beauty melt the crowded stage;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Charms back past ages, gives to Britain's use</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The noblest virtues time did e'er produce;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Leaves fam'd historians' boasted art behind;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They keep the soul alone, and that's confin'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Sought out with pains, and but by proxy speaks</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The hero's presence deep impression makes;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The scenes his soul and body reunite,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Furnish a voice, produce him to the sight;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Make our contemporary him that stood</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">High in renown, perhaps before the flood;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Make Nestor to this age advice afford,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And Hector for our service draw his sword.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">More glory to an author what can bring,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whence nobler service to his country spring,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Than from those labours, which, in man's despight,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Possess him with a passion for the right?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With honest magic make the knave inclin'd</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To pay devotion to the virtuous mind;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Through all her toils and dangers bid him rove,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And with her wants and anguish fall in love?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Who hears the godlike Montezuma groan,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And does not wish the glorious pain his own?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Lend but your understanding, and their skill</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Can domineer at pleasure o'er your will:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor is the short-liv'd conquest quickly past;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Shame, if not choice, will hold the convert fast.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">How often have I seen the generous bowl</l> + +<pb n="326" /><anchor id="Pg326" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With pleasing force unlock a secret soul,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And steal a truth, which every sober hour</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">(The prose of life) had kept within her power!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The grape victorious often has prevail'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When gold and beauty, racks and tortures, fail'd:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Yet when the spirit's tumult was allay'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">She mourn'd, perhaps, the sentiment betray'd;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But mourn'd too late, no longer could deny,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And on her own confession charge the lie.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Thus they, whom neither the prevailing love</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of goodness here, or mercy from above,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or fear of future pains, or human laws</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Could render advocates in virtue's cause,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Caught by the scene, have unawares resign'd</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Their wonted disposition of the mind:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">By slow degrees prevails the pleasing tale,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As circling glasses on our senses steal;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Till thoroughly by the muses' banquet warm'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The passions tossing, all the soul alarm'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They turn mere zealots flush'd with glorious rage,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Rise in their seats, and scarce forbear the stage,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Assistance to wrong'd innocence to bring,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or turn the poniard on some tyrant king.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How can they cool to villains? how subside</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To dregs of vice, from such a godlike pride?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To spoiling orphans how to day return,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who wept last night to see Monimia mourn?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In this gay school of virtue, whom so fit</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To govern, and control the world of wit,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As Talbot, Lansdowne's friend, has Britain known?</l> + +<pb n="327" /><anchor id="Pg327" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Him polish'd Italy has call'd her own;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He in the lap of elegance was bred,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And trac'd the muses to their fountain head:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But much we hope, he will enjoy at home</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What's nearer ancient than the modern Rome.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor fear I mention of the court of France,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When I the British genius would advance;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">There too has Shrewsbury improv'd his taste;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Yet still we dare invite him to our feast:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For Corneille's sake I shall my thoughts suppress</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of Oroonoko, and presume him less:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What though we wrong him? Isabella's woe</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Waters those bays that shall for ever grow.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Our foes confess, nor we the praise refuse,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The drama glories in the British muse.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The French are delicate, and nicely lead</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of close intrigue the labyrinthian thread;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Our genius more affects the grand, than fine,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Our strength can make the great plain action shine:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They raise a great curiosity indeed,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From his dark maze to see the hero freed;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">We rouse th' affections, and that hero show</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Gasping beneath some formidable blow:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They sigh; we weep: the Gallic doubt and care</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">We heighten into terror and despair;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Strike home, the strongest passions boldly touch,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor fear our audience should be pleas'd too much.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What's great in nature we can greatly draw,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor thank for beauties the dramatic law.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The fate of Cæsar is a tale too plain</l> + +<pb n="328" /><anchor id="Pg328" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The fickle Gallic taste to entertain;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Their art would have perplex'd, and interwove</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The golden arras with gay flowers of love:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">We know heaven made him a far greater man</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Than any Cæsar, in a human plan,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And such we draw him, nor are too refin'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To stand affected with what heaven design'd.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To claim attention, and the heart invade,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Shakespeare but wrote the play th' Almighty made.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Our neighbour's stage-art too bare-fac'd betrays,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Tis great Corneille at every scene we praise;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">On nature's surer aid Britannia calls,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">None think of Shakespeare till the curtain falls;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Then with a sigh returns our audience home,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From Venice, Egypt, Persia, Greece, or Rome.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">France yields not to the glory of our lines,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But manly conduct of our strong designs;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That oft they think more justly we must own,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Not ancient Greece a truer sense has shown:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Greece thought but justly, they think justly too;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">We sometimes err by striving more to do.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">So well are Racine's meanest persons taught,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But change a sentiment, you make a fault;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor dare we charge them with the want of flame:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When we boast more, we own ourselves to blame.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">And yet in Shakespeare something still I find,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That makes me less esteem all human kind;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He made one nature, and another found,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Both in his page with master strokes abound:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His witches, fairies, and enchanted isle.</l> + +<pb n="329" /><anchor id="Pg329" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Bid us no longer at our nurses smile;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of lost historians we almost complain,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor think it the creation of his brain.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who lives, when his Othello's in a trance?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With his great Talbot<note place="foot"><p>An ancestor of the Duke of Shrewsbury, who conquered +France, drawn by Shakespeare.—Young.</p></note> too he conquer'd France.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Long we may hope brave Talbot's blood will run</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In great descendants, Shakespeare has but one;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And him, my lord, permit me not to name,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But in kind silence spare his rival's shame:—</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Yet I in vain that author would suppress,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What can't be greater, cannot be made less:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Each reader will defeat my fruitless aim,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And to himself great Agamemnon name.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Should Shakespeare rise unbless'd with Talbot's smile,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">E'en Shakespeare's self would curse this barren isle:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But if that reigning star propitious shine,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And kindly mix his gentle rays with thine;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">E'en I, by far the meanest of your age,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Shall not repent my passion for the stage.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Thus did the will almighty disallow,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">No human force could pluck the golden bough,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Which left the tree with ease at Jove's command,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And spar'd the labour of the weakest hand.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Auspicious fate! that gives me leave to write</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To you, the muses' glory and delight;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who know to read, nor false encomiums raise,</l> + +<pb n="330" /><anchor id="Pg330" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And mortify an author with your praise:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Praise wounds a noble mind, when 'tis not due,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But censure's self will please, my lord, from you;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Faults are our pride and gain, when you descend</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To point them out, and teach us how to mend.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What though the great man set his coffers wide,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That cannot gratify the poet's pride;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whose inspiration, if 'tis truly good,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Is best rewarded, when best understood.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The muses write for glory, not for gold,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Tis far beneath their nature to be sold:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The greatest gain is scorn'd, but as it serves</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To speak a sense of what the muse deserves;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The muse which from her Lansdowne fears no wrong,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Best judge, as well as subject, of her song.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Should this great theme allure me further still,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And I presume to use your patience ill,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The world would plead my cause, and none but you</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Will take disgust at what I now pursue:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Since what is mean my muse can't raise, I'll choose</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A theme that's able to exalt my muse.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">For who, not void of thought, can Granville name,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Without a spark of his immortal flame?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whether we seek the patriot, or the friend,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Let Bolingbroke, let Anna recommend;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whether we choose to love or to admire,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">You melt the tender, and th'ambitious fire.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Such native graces without thought abound,</l> + +<pb n="331" /><anchor id="Pg331" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And such familiar glories spread around,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As more incline the stander by to raise</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His value for himself, than you to praise.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thus you befriend the most heroic way,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Bless all, on none an obligation lay;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">So turn'd by nature's hand for all that's well,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Tis scarce a virtue when you most excel.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Tho' sweet your presence, graceful is your mien,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">You to be happy want not to be seen;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Though priz'd in public, you can smile alone,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor court an approbation but your own:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In throngs, not conscious of those eyes that gaze</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In wonder fix'd, though resolute to please;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">You, were all blind, would still deserve applause;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The world's your glory's witness, not its cause;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That lies beyond the limits of the day,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Angels behold it, and their God obey.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">You take delight in others' excellence;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A gift, which nature rarely does dispense:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of all that breathe 'tis you, perhaps, alone</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Would be well pleas'd to see yourself outdone.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">You wish not those, who show your name respect,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">So little worth, as might excuse neglect;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor are in pain lest merit you should know;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor shun the well deserver as a foe;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A troublesome acquaintance, that will claim</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To be well us'd, or dye your cheek with shame.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">You wish your country's good; that told so well</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Your powers are known, th' event I need not tell.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When Nestor spoke, none ask'd if he prevail'd;</l> + +<pb n="332" /><anchor id="Pg332" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That god of sweet persuasion never fail'd:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And such great fame had Hector's valour wrought,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who meant he conquer'd, only said he fought.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">When you, my lord, to sylvan scenes retreat,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">No crowds around for pleasure, or for state,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">You are not cast upon a stranger land,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And wander pensive o'er the barren strand;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor are you by receiv'd example taught,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In toys to shun the discipline of thought;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But unconfin'd by bounds of time and place,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">You choose companions from all human race;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Converse with those the deluge swept away,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or those whose midnight is Britannia's day.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Books not so much inform, as give consent</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To those ideas your own thoughts present;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Your only gain from turning volumes o'er,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Is finding cause to like yourself the more:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In Grecian sages you are only taught</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With more respect to value your own thought:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Great Tully grew immortal, while he drew</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Those precepts we behold alive in you:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Your life is so adjusted to their schools,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">It makes that history they meant for rules.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What joy, what pleasing transport, must arise</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Within your breast, and lift you to the skies,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When, in each learned page that you unfold,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">You find some part of your own conduct told!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">So pleas'd, and so surpris'd, Æneas stood,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And such triumphant raptures fir'd his blood,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When far from Trojan shores the hero spied</l> + +<pb n="333" /><anchor id="Pg333" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His story shining forth in all its pride;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Admir'd himself, and saw his actions stand</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The praise and wonder of a foreign land.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">He knows not half his being, who's confin'd</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In converse, and reflection on mankind:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Your soul, which understands her charter well,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Disdains imprison'd by those skies to dwell;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Ranges eternity without the leave</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of death, nor waits the passage of the grave.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">When pains eternal, and eternal bliss,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When these high cares your weary thoughts dismiss,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In heavenly numbers you your soul unbend,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And for your ease to deathless fame descend.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Ye kings! would ye true greatness understand,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Read Seneca grown rich in Granville's hand.<note place="foot"><p>See his lordship's tragedy entitled "Heroic Love." +—Young.</p></note></l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Behold the glories of your life complete!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Still at a flow, and permanently great;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">New moments shed new pleasures as they fly,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And yet your greatest is, that you must die.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Thus Anna saw, and rais'd you to the seat</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of honour, and confess'd her servant great;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Confess'd, not made him such; for faithful fame</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Her trumpet swell'd long since with Granville's name;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Though you in modesty the title wear,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Your name shall be the title of your heir;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Farther than ermine, make his glory known,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And cast in shades the favour of a throne.</l> + +<pb n="334" /><anchor id="Pg334" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From thrones the beam of high distinction springs;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The soul's endowments from the King of kings,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Lo! one great day calls forth ten mighty peers!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Produce ten Granvilles in five thousand years;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Anna, be thou content to fix the fate</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of various kingdoms, and control the great;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But O! to bid thy Granville brighter shine!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To him that great prerogative resign,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who the sun's height can raise at pleasure higher,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His lamp illumine, set his flames on fire.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Yet still one bliss, one glory, I forbear,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A darling friend whom near your heart you wear;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That lovely youth, my lord, whom you must blame,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That I grow thus familiar with your name.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">He's friendly, open, in his conduct nice,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor serve these virtues to atone for vice:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Vice has he none, or such as none wish less,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But friends indeed, good-nature in excess.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">You cannot boast the merit of a choice,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In making him your own, 'twas nature's voice,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Which call'd too loud by man to be withstood,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Pleading a tie far nearer than of blood;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Similitude of manners, such a mind</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As makes you less the wonder of mankind.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Such ease his common converse recommends,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As he ne'er felt a passion, but his friend's;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Yet fix'd his principles, beyond the force</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of all beneath the sun, to bend his course.<note place="foot"><p>His lordship's nephew, who took orders.—Young.</p></note></l> + +<pb n="335" /><anchor id="Pg335" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thus the tall cedar, beautiful and fair,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Flatters the motions of the wanton air;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Salutes each passing breeze with head reclin'd:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The pliant branches dance in every wind:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But fix'd the stem her upright state maintains,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And all the fury of the north disdains.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">How are you bless'd in such a matchless friend!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Alas! with me the joys of friendship end;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">O Harrison! I must, I will complain;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Tears soothe the soul's distress, tho' shed in vain;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Didst thou return, and bless thy native shore</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With welcome peace, and is my friend no more?—</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thy task was early done, and I must own</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Death kind to thee, but ah! to thee alone.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But 'tis in me a vanity to mourn,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The sorrows of the great thy tomb adorn;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Strafford and Bolingbroke the loss perceive,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They grieve, and make thee envied in thy grave.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">With aching heart, and a foreboding mind,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">I night to day in painful journey join'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When first inform'd of his approaching fate;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But reach'd the partner of my soul too late:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Twas past, his cheek was cold; that tuneful tongue,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Which Isis charm'd with its melodious song,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Now languish'd, wanted strength to speak his pain,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Scarce rais'd a feeble groan, and sunk again:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Each art of life, in which he bore a part,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Shot like an arrow through my bleeding heart.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To what serv'd all his promis'd wealth and power,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But more to load that most unhappy hour?</l> + +<pb n="336" /><anchor id="Pg336" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Yet still prevail'd the greatness of his mind;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That, not in health, or life itself confin'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Felt through his mortal pangs Britannia's peace,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Mounted to joy, and smil'd in death's embrace.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">His spirit now just ready to resign,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">No longer now his own, no longer mine,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He grasps my hand, his swimming eyeballs roll,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">My hand he grasps, and enters in my soul:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Then with a groan—Support me, O! beware</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of holding worth, however great, too dear!<note place="foot"><p>The author here bewails that most ingenious gentleman, +Mr. William Harrison, fellow of New-College, Oxon.—Young. +[See a more particular account of him in the Supplement to +Swift.]</p></note></l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Pardon, my lord, the privilege of grief,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That in untimely freedom seeks relief;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To better fate your love I recommend,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">O! may you never lose so dear a friend!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">May nothing interrupt your happy hours;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Enjoy the blessings peace on Europe showers:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor yet disdain those blessings to adorn;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To make the muse immortal, you was born.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Sing; and in latest time, when story's dark,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">This period your surviving fame shall mark;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Save from the gulf of years this glorious age,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And thus illustrate their historian's page.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The crown of Spain in doubtful balance hung,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And Anna Britain sway'd, when Granville sung:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That noted year Europa sheath'd her sword,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When this great man was first saluted lord.</l> +</lg> +</div> + +<div rend="page-break-before: right"> +<index index="toc" /><index index="pdf" /> +<pb n="337" /><anchor id="Pg337" /> +<head rend="text-align: center">Two Epistles to Mr. Pope</head> +<head rend="text-align: center" type="sub">Concerning the Authors of the Age. 1730.</head> +<p></p> + +<div rend="page-break-before: always"> +<index index="toc" /><index index="pdf" /> +<head rend="text-align: center">Epistle I.</head> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whilst you at Twickenham plan the future wood,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or turn the volumes of the wise and good,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Our senate meets; at parties, parties bawl,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And pamphlets stun the streets, and load the stall;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">So rushing tides bring things obscene to light,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Foul wrecks emerge, and dead dogs swim in sight;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The civil torrent foams, the tumult reigns,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And Codrus' prose works up, and Lico's strains.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Lo! what from cellars rise, what rush from high,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Where speculation roosted near the sky;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Letters, essays, sock, buskin, satire, song,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And all the garret thunders on the throng!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">O Pope! I burst; nor can, nor will, refrain;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">I'll write; let others, in their turn, complain:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Truce, truce, ye Vandals! my tormented ear</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Less dreads a pillory than a pamphleteer;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">I've heard myself to death; and, plagu'd each hour,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Shan't I return the vengeance in my power?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For who can write the true absurd like me?——</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thy pardon, Codrus! who, I mean, but thee?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Pope! if like mine, or Codrus', were thy style,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The blood of vipers had not stain'd thy file;</l> + +<pb n="338" /><anchor id="Pg338" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Merit less solid, less despite had bred;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They had not bit, and then they had not bled.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Fame is a public mistress, none enjoys,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But, more or less, his rival's peace destroys;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With fame, in just proportion, envy grows;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The man that makes a character, makes foes:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Slight, peevish insects round a genius rise,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As a bright day awakes the world of flies;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With hearty malice, but with feeble wing,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">(To show they live) they flutter, and they sting:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But as by depredations wasps proclaim</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The fairest fruit, so these the fairest fame.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Shall we not censure all the motley train,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whether with ale irriguous, or champaign?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whether they tread the vale of prose, or climb,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And whet their appetites on cliffs of rhyme;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The college sloven, or embroider'd spark;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The purple prelate, or the parish clerk;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The quiet quidnunc, or demanding prig;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The plaintiff tory, or defendant whig;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Rich, poor, male, female, young, old, gay, or sad;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whether extremely witty, or quite mad;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Profoundly dull, or shallowly polite;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Men that read well, or men that only write;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whether peers, porters, tailors, tune the reeds,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And measuring words to measuring shapes succeeds;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For bankrupts write, when ruin'd shops are shut,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As maggots crawl from out a perish'd nut.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His hammer this, and that his trowel quits,</l> + +<pb n="339" /><anchor id="Pg339" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And, wanting sense for tradesmen, serve for wits.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">By thriving men subsists each other trade;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of every broken craft a writer's made:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thus his material, paper, takes its birth</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From tatter'd rags of all the stuff on earth.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Hail, fruitful isle! to thee alone belong</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Millions of wits, and brokers in old song:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thee well a land of liberty we name,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Where all are free to scandal and to shame;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thy sons, by print, may set their hearts at ease,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And be mankind's contempt, whene'er they please;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Like trodden filth, their vile and abject sense</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Is unperceiv'd, but when it gives offence:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Their heavy prose our injur'd reason tires;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Their verse immoral kindles loose desires:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Our age they puzzle, and corrupt our prime,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Our sport and pity, punishment and crime.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">What glorious motives urge our authors on,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thus to undo, and thus to be undone?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">One loses his estate, and down he sits,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To show (in vain!) he still retains his wits:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Another marries, and his dear proves keen;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He writes as an hypnotic for the spleen:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Some write, confin'd by physic; some, by debt;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Some, for 'tis Sunday; some, because 'tis wet;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Through private pique some do the public right,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And love their king and country out of spite:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Another writes because his father writ,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And proves himself a bastard by his wit.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Has Lico learning, humour, thought profound?</l> + +<pb n="340" /><anchor id="Pg340" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Neither: why write then? He wants twenty pound:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His belly, not his brains, this impulse give;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He'll grow immortal; for he cannot live:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He rubs his awful front, and takes his ream,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With no provision made, but of his theme;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Perhaps a title has his fancy smit,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or a quaint motto, which he thinks has wit:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He writes, in inspiration puts his trust,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Tho' wrong his thoughts, the gods will make them just;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Genius directly from the gods descends,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And who by labour would distrust his friends?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thus having reason'd with consummate skill,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In immortality he dips his quill:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And, since blank paper is denied the press,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He mingles the whole alphabet by guess:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In various sets, which various words compose,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of which, he hopes, mankind the meaning knows.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">So sounds spontaneous from the sibyl broke,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Dark to herself the wonders which she spoke;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The priests found out the meaning, if they could;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And nations star'd at what none understood.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Clodio dress'd, danc'd, drank, visited, (the whole</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And great concern of an immortal soul!)</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Oft have I said, "Awake! exist! and strive</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For birth! nor think to loiter is to live!"</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As oft I overheard the demon say,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who daily met the loit'rer in his way,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">"I'll meet thee, youth, at White's:" the youth replies,</l> + +<pb n="341" /><anchor id="Pg341" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">"I'll meet thee there," and falls his sacrifice;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His fortune squander'd, leaves his virtue bare</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To ev'ry bribe, and blind to ev'ry snare:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Clodio for bread his indolence must quit,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or turn a soldier, or commence a wit.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Such heroes have we! all, but life, they stake;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How must Spain tremble, and the German shake!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Such writers have we! all, but sense, they print;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Ev'n George's praise is dated from the mint.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In arms contemptible, in arts profane,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Such swords, such pens, disgrace a monarch's reign.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Reform your lives before you thus aspire,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And steal (for you can steal) celestial fire.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">O the just contrast! O the beauteous strife!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Twixt their cool writings, and pindaric life:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They write with phlegm, but then they live with fire;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They cheat the lender, and their works the buyer.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">I reverence misfortune, not deride;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">I pity poverty, but laugh at pride:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For who so sad, but must some mirth confess</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">At gay Castruchio's miscellaneous dress?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Though there's but one of the dull works he wrote,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">There's ten editions of his old lac'd coat.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">These, nature's commoners, who want a home,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Claim the wide world for their majestic dome;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They make a private study of the street;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And, looking full on every man they meet,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Run souse against his chaps; who stands amaz'd</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To find they did not see, but only gaz'd.</l> + +<pb n="342" /><anchor id="Pg342" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How must these bards be rapt into the skies!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">you need not read, you feel their ecstasies.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Will they persist? 'Tis Madness; Lintot, run,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">See them confin'd—"O that's already done."</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Most, as by leases, by the works they print,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Have took, for life, possession of the mint.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">If you mistake, and pity these poor men,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">est Ulubris, they cry, and write again.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Such wits their nuisance manfully expose,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And then pronounce just judges learning's foes;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">O frail conclusion; the reverse is true;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">If foes to learning, they'd be friends to you:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Treat them, ye judges! with an honest scorn,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And weed the cockle from the generous corn:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">There's true good nature in your disrepect;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In justice to the good, the bad neglect:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For immortality, if hardships plead,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">It is not theirs who write, but ours who read.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">But, O! what wisdom can convince a fool,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But that 'tis dulness to conceive him dull?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Tis sad experience takes the censor's part,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Conviction, not from reason, but from smart.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">a virgin author, recent from the press,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The sheets yet wet, applauds his great success;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Surveys them, reads them, takes their charms to bed,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Those in his hand, and glory in his head;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Tis joy too great; a fever of delight!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His heart beats thick, nor close his eyes all night:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But rising the next morn to clasp his fame,</l> + +<pb n="343" /><anchor id="Pg343" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He finds that without sleeping he could dream:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">So sparks, they say, take goddesses to bed,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And find next day the devil in their stead.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">In vain advertisements the town o'erspread;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They're epitaphs, and the work is dead.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who press for fame, but small recruits will raise;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Tis volunteers alone can give the bays.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">A famous author visits a great man,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of his immortal work displays the plan,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And says, "Sir, I'm your friend; all fears dismiss;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Your glory, and my own, shall live by this;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Your power is fixt, your fame thro' time convey'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And Britain Europe's queen—if I am paid."</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A statesman has his answer in a trice:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">"Sir, such a genius is beyond all price;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What man can pay for this?"—Away he turns;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His work is folded, and his bosom burns:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His patron he will patronize no more;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But rushes like a tempest out of door.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Lost is the patriot, and extinct his name!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Out comes the piece, another, and the same;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For A, his magic pen evokes an O,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And turns the tide of Europe on the foe:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He rams his quill with scandal, and with scoff;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But 'tis so very foul, it wont go off:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Dreadful his thunders, while unprinted, roar;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But when once publish'd, they are heard no more.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thus distant bugbears fright, but, nearer draw,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The block's a block, and turns to mirth your awe.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Can those oblige, whose heads and hearts are such?</l> + +<pb n="344" /><anchor id="Pg344" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">No; every party's tainted by their touch.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Infected persons fly each public place;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And none, or enemies alone, embrace:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To the foul fiend their every passion's sold:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They love, and hate, extempore, for gold:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What image of their fury can we form?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Dulness and rage, a puddle in a storm.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Rest they in peace? If you are pleas'd to buy,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To swell your sails, like Lapland winds, they fly:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Write they with rage? The tempest quickly flags;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A state Ulysses tames 'em with his bags;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Let him be what he will, Turk, Pagan, Jew:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For Christian ministers of state are few.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Behind the curtain lurks the fountain head,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That pours his politics through pipes of lead,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Which far and near ejaculate, and spout</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">O'er tea and coffee, poison to the rout:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But when they have bespatter'd all they may,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The statesman throws his filthy squirts away!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">With golden forceps, these, another takes,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And state elixirs of the vipers makes.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The richest statesman wants wherewith to pay</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A servile sycophant, if well they weigh</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How much it costs the wretch to be so base;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor can the greatest powers enough disgrace,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Enough chastise, such prostitute applause,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">If well they weigh how much it stains their cause.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">But are our writers ever in the wrong?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Does virtue ne'er seduce the venal tongue?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Yes; if well brib'd, for virtue's self they fight;</l> + +<pb n="345" /><anchor id="Pg345" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Still in the wrong, tho' champions for the right:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whoe'er their crimes for interest only quit,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Sin on in virtue, and good deeds commit.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Nought but inconstancy Britannia meets,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And broken faith in their abandon'd sheets;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From the same hand how various is the page!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What civil war their brother pamphlets wage!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Tracts battle tracts, self-contradictions glare;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Say, is this lunacy?—I wish it were.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">If such our writers, startled at the sight,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Felons may bless their stars they cannot write!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">How justly Proteus' transmigrations fit</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The monstrous changes of a modern wit!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Now, such a gentle stream of eloquence</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As seldom rises to the verge of sense;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Now, by mad rage, transform'd into a flame,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Which yet fit engines, well applied, can tame;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Now, on immodest trash, the swine obscene,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Invites the town to sup at Drury Lane;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A dreadful lion, now he roars at power,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Which sends him to his brothers at the Tower;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He's now a serpent, and his double tongue</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Salutes, nay licks, the feet of those he stung;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What knot can bind him, his evasion such?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">One knot he well deserves, which might do much.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The flood, flame, swine, the lion, and the snake,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Those fivefold monsters, modern authors make:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The snake reigns most; snakes, Pliny says, are bred</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When the brain's perish'd in a human head.</l> + +<pb n="346" /><anchor id="Pg346" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Ye grov'ling, trodden, whipt, stript, turncoat things,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Made up of venom, volumes, stains, and stings!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thrown from the tree of knowledge, like you, curst</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To scribble in the dust, was snake the first.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">What if the figure should in fact prove true!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">It did in Elkenah, why not in you?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Poor Elkenah, all other changes past,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For bread in Smithfield dragons hist at last,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Spit streams of fire to make the butchers gape,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And found his manners suited to his shape:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Such is the fate of talents misapplied;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">So liv'd your prototype; and so he died.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Th' abandon'd manners of our writing train</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">May tempt mankind to think religion vain;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But in their fate, their habit, and their mien,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That gods there are is eminently seen:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Heaven stands absolv'd by vengeance on their pen,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And marks the murderers of fame from men:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Through meagre jaws they draw their venal breath,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As ghastly as their brothers in Macbeth:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Their feet through faithless leather meet the dirt,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And oftener chang'd their principles than shirt.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The transient vestments of these frugal men,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Hastens to paper for our mirth again:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Too soon (O merry melancholy fate!)</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They beg in rhyme, and warble through a grate:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The man lampoon'd forgets it at the sight;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The friend through pity gives, the foe through spite;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And though full conscious of his injur'd purse,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Lintot relents, nor Curll can wish them worse.</l> + +<pb n="347" /><anchor id="Pg347" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">So fare the men, who writers dare commence</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Without their patent, probity, and sense.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">From these, their politics our quidnuncs seek,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And Saturday's the learning of the week:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">These labouring wits, like paviours, mend our ways,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With heavy, huge, repeated, flat essays;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Ram their coarse nonsense down, though ne'er so dull;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And hem at every thump upon your skull:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">These staunch bred writing hounds begin the cry,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And honest folly echoes to the lie.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">O how I laugh, when I a blockhead see,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thanking a villain for his probity;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who stretches out a most respectful ear,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With snares for woodcocks in his holy leer:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">It tickles thro' my soul to hear the cock's</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Sincere encomium on his friend the fox,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Sole patron of his liberties and rights!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">While graceless Reynard listens—till he bites.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">As when the trumpet sounds, th' o'erloaded state</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Discharges all her poor and profligate;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Crimes of all kinds dishonour'd weapons wield,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And prisons pour their filth into the field;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thus nature's refuse, and the dregs of men,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Compose the black militia of the pen.</l> +</lg> +</div> + +<div rend="page-break-before: always"> +<index index="toc" /><index index="pdf" /> +<pb n="348" /><anchor id="Pg348" /> +<head rend="text-align: center">Epistle II.</head> +<head rend="text-align: center" type="sub">From Oxford.</head> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">All write at London; shall the rage abate</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Here, where it most should shine, the muses' seat?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Where, mortal or immortal, as they please,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The learn'd may choose eternity, or ease?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Has not a <note place="foot"><p>His late majesty's benefaction for modern languages.</p></note>royal patron wisely strove</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To woo the muse in her Athenian grove?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Added new strings to her harmonious shell,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And given new tongues to those who spoke so well?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Let these instruct, with truth's illustrious ray,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Awake the world, and scare our owls away.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Meanwhile, O friend! indulge me, if I give</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Some needful precepts how to write, and live!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Serious should be an author's final views;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who write for pure amusement, ne'er amuse.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">An author! 'tis a venerable name!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How few deserve it, and what numbers claim!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Unblest with sense above their peers refin'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who shall stand up, dictators to mankind?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nay, who dare shine, if not in virtue's cause?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That sole proprietor of just applause.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Ye restless men, who pant for letter'd praise,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With whom would you consult to gain the bays?—</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With those great authors whose fam'd works you read?</l> + +<pb n="349" /><anchor id="Pg349" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Tis well: go, then, consult the laurell'd shade.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What answer will the laurell'd shade return?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Hear it, and tremble! he commands you burn</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The noblest works his envied genius writ,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That boast of nought more excellent than wit.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">If this be true, as 'tis a truth most dread,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Woe to the page which has not that to plead!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Fontaine and Chaucer, dying, wish'd unwrote,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The sprightliest efforts of their wanton thought:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Sidney and Waller, brightest sons of fame,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Condemn the charm of ages to the flame:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And in one point is all true wisdom cast,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To think that early we must think at last.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Immortal wits, ev'n dead, break nature's laws,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Injurious still to virtue's sacred cause;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And their guilt growing, as their bodies rot,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">(Revers'd ambition!) pant to be forgot.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Thus ends your courted fame: does lucre then,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The sacred thirst of gold, betray your pen?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In prose 'tis blameable, in verse 'tis worse,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Provokes the muse, extorts Apollo's curse:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His sacred influence never should be sold:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Tis arrant simony to sing for gold:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Tis immortality should fire your mind;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Scorn a less paymaster than all mankind.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">If bribes you seek, know this, ye writing tribe!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who writes for virtue has the largest bribe:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">All's on the party of the virtuous man;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The good will surely serve him, if they can;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The bad, when interest, or ambition guide,</l> + +<pb n="350" /><anchor id="Pg350" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And 'tis at once their interest and their pride:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But should both fail to take him to their care,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He boasts a greater friend, and both may spare.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Letters to man uncommon light dispense;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And what is virtue, but superior sense?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In parts and learning you who place your pride,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Your faults are crimes, your crimes are double dyed.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What is a scandal of the first renown,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But letter'd knaves, and atheists in a gown?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">'Tis harder far to please than give offence;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The least misconduct damns the brightest sense;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Each shallow pate, that cannot read your name,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Can read your life, and will be proud to blame.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Flagitious manners make impressions deep</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">On those, that o'er a page of Milton sleep:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor in their dulness think to save your shame,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">True, these are fools; but wise men say the same.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Wits are a despicable race of men,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">If they confine their talents to the pen;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When the man shocks us, while the writer shines,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Our scorn in life, our envy in his lines.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Yet, proud of parts, with prudence some dispense,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And play the fool, because they're men of sense.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What instances bleed recent in each thought,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of men to ruin by their genius brought!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Against their wills what numbers ruin shun,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Purely through want of wit to be undone!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nature has shown, by making it so rare,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That wit's a jewel which we need not wear.</l> + +<pb n="351" /><anchor id="Pg351" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of plain sound sense life's current coin is made;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With that we drive the most substantial trade.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Prudence protects and guides us; wit betrays;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A splendid source of ill ten thousand ways;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A certain snare to miseries immense;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A gay prerogative from common sense;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Unless strong judgment that wild thing can tame,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And break to paths of virtue and of fame.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">But grant your judgment equal to the best,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Sense fills your head, and genius fires your breast;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Yet still forbear: your wit (consider well)</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Tis great to show, but greater to conceal;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As it is great to seize the golden prize</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of place or power; but greater to despise.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">If still you languish for an author's name,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Think private merit less than public fame,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And fancy not to write is not to live;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Deserve, and take, the great prerogative.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But ponder what it is; how dear 'twill cost,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To write one page which you may justly boast.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Sense may be good, yet not deserve the press;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who write, an awful character profess;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The world as pupil of their wisdom claim,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And for their stipend an immortal fame:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nothing but what is solid or refin'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Should dare ask public audience of mankind.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Severely weigh your learning, and your wit:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Keep down your pride by what is nobly writ:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">No writer, fam'd in your own way, pass o'er;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Much trust example, but reflection more:</l> + +<pb n="352" /><anchor id="Pg352" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">More had the ancients writ, they more had taught;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Which shows some work is left for modern thought.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">This weigh'd, perfection know; and known, adore;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Toil, burn for that; but do not aim at more;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Above, beneath it, the just limits fix;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And zealously prefer four lines to six.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Write, and re-write, blot out, and write again,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And for its swiftness ne'er applaud your pen.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Leave to the jockeys that Newmarket praise,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Slow runs the Pegasus that wins the bays.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Much time for immortality to pay,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Is just and wise; for less is thrown away.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Time only can mature the labouring brain;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Time is the father, and the midwife pain:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The same good sense that makes a man excel,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Still makes him doubt he ne'er has written well.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Downright impossibilities they seek;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What man can be immortal in a week?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Excuse no fault; though beautiful, 'twill harm;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">One fault shocks more than twenty beauties charm.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Our age demands correctness; Addison</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And you this commendable hurt have done.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Now writers find, as once Achilles found,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The whole is mortal, if a part's unsound.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">He that strikes out, and strikes not out the best,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Pours lustre in, and dignifies the rest:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Give e'er so little, if what's right be there,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">We praise for what you burn, and what you spare:</l> + +<pb n="353" /><anchor id="Pg353" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The part you burn, smells sweet before the shrine,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And is as incense to the part divine.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Nor frequent write, though you can do it well;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Men may too oft, though not too much, excel.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A few good works gain fame; more sink their price;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Mankind are fickle, and hate paying twice:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They granted you writ well, what can they more,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Unless you let them praise for giving o'er?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Do boldly what you do, and let your page</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Smile, if it smiles, and if it rages, rage.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">So faintly Lucius censures and commends,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That Lucius has no foes, except his friends.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Let satire less engage you than applause;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">It shows a gen'rous mind to wink at flaws:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Is genius yours? be yours a glorious end,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Be your king's, country's, truth's, religion's friend;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The public glory by your own beget;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Run nations, run posterity, in debt.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And since the fam'd alone make others live,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">First have that glory you presume to give.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">If satire charms, strike faults, but spare the man</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Tis dull to be as witty as you can.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Satire recoils whenever charg'd too high;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Round your own fame the fatal splinters fly.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As the soft plume gives swiftness to the dart,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Good breeding sends the satire to the heart.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Painters and surgeons may the structure scan;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Genius and morals be with you the man:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Defaults in those alone should give offence!</l> + +<pb n="354" /><anchor id="Pg354" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who strikes the person, pleads his innocence.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">My narrow minded satire can't extend</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To Codrus' form; I'm not so much his friend:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Himself should publish that (the world agree)</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Before his works, or in the pillory.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Let him be black, fair, tall, short, thin, or fat,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Dirty or clean, I find no theme in that.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Is that call'd humour? It has this pretence,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Tis neither virtue, breeding, wit, or sense.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Unless you boast the genius of a Swift,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Beware of humour, the dull rogue's last shift.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Can others write like you? Your task give o'er,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Tis printing what was publish'd long before.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">If nought peculiar through your labours run,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They're duplicates, and twenty are but one.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Think frequently, think close, read nature, turn</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Men's manners o'er, and half your volumes burn;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To nurse with quick reflection be your strife,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thoughts born from present objects, warm from life:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When most unsought, such inspirations rise,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Slighted by fools, and cherish'd by the wise:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Expect peculiar fame from these alone;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">These make an author, these are all your own.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Life, like their Bibles, coolly men turn o'er;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Hence unexperienc'd children of threescore.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">True, all men think of course, as all men dream;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And if they slightly think, 'tis much the same.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Letters admit not of a half renown;</l> + +<pb n="355" /><anchor id="Pg355" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They give you nothing, or they give a crown.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">No work e'er gain'd true fame, or ever can,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But what did honour to the name of man.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Weighty the subject, cogent the discourse,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Clear be the style, the very sound of force;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Easy the conduct, simple the design,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Striking the moral, and the soul divine:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Let nature art, and judgment wit, exceed;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">O'er learning reason reign; o'er that, your creed:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thus virtue's seeds, at once, and laurel's, grow;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Do thus, and rise a Pope, or a Despreau:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And when your genius exquisitely shines,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Live up to the full lustre of your lines:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Parts but expose those men who virtue quit;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">A fallen angel is a fallen wit;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And they plead Lucifer's detested cause,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who for bare talents challenge our applause.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Would you restore just honours to the pen?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From able writers rise to worthy men.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">"Who's this with nonsense, nonsense would restrain?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who's this (they cry) so vainly schools the vain?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who damns our trash, with so much trash replete?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As, three ells round, huge Cheyne rails at meat?"</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Shall I with Bavius then my voice exalt,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And challenge all mankind to find one fault?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With huge examens overwhelm my page,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And darken reason with dogmatic rage?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">As if, one tedious volume writ in rhyme,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In prose a duller could excuse the crime:</l> + +<pb n="356" /><anchor id="Pg356" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Sure, next to writing, the most idle thing</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Is gravely to harangue on what we sing.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">At that tribunal stands the writing tribe,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Which nothing can intimidate or bribe:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Time is the judge; time has nor friend nor foe;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">False fame must wither, and the true will grow.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Arm'd with this truth, all critics I defy;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For if I fall, by my own pen I die;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">While snarlers strive with proud but fruitless pain</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To wound immortals, or to slay the slain.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Sore prest with danger, and in awful dread</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of twenty pamphlets levell'd at my head,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thus have I forg'd a buckler in my brain,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Of recent form, to serve me this campaign:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And safely hope to quit the dreadful field</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Delug'd with ink, and sleep behind my shield;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Unless dire Codrus rouses to the fray</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In all his might, and damns me—for a day.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">As turns a flock of geese, and, on the green,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Poke out their foolish necks in awkward spleen,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">(Ridiculous in rage!) to hiss, not bite,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">So war their quills, when sons of dulness write.</l> +</lg> +</div> +</div> + +<div rend="page-break-before: right"> +<index index="toc" /><index index="pdf" /> +<pb n="357" /><anchor id="Pg357" /> +<head rend="text-align: center">An Epistle to the Right Honourable Sir Robert Walpole.</head> +<head rend="text-align: center" type="sub">By Mr. Doddington, Afterwards Lord Melcombe.</head> + +<quote rend="display"> +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">—Quæ censet amiculus, ut si</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Cæcus iter monstrare velit</l> +</lg> + +<p rend="text-align: right">—<hi rend="font-variant: small-caps">Hor.</hi></p> +</quote> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Though strength of genius, by experience taught,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Gives thee to sound the depths of human thought,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To trace the various workings of the mind,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And rule the secret springs, that rule mankind;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">(Rare gift!) yet, Walpole, wilt thou condescend</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To listen, if thy unexperienc'd friend</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Can aught of use impart, though void of skill,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And win attention by sincere good-will;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For friendship, sometimes, want of parts supplies,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The heart may furnish what the head denies.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">As when the rapid Rhone, o'er swelling tides,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To grace old ocean's court, in triumph rides,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Tho' rich his source, he drains a thousand springs,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor scorns the tribute each small rivulet brings.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">So thou shalt, hence, absorb each feeble ray,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Each dawn of meaning, in thy brighter day;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Shalt like, or, where thou canst not like, excuse,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Since no mean interest shall profane the muse,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">No malice, wrapt in truth's disguise, offend,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor flattery taint the freedom of the friend.</l> + +<pb n="358" /><anchor id="Pg358" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When first a generous mind surveys the great,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And views the crowds that on their fortune wait;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Pleas'd with the show (though little understood)</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He only seeks the power, to do the good;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thinks, till he tries, 'tis godlike to dispose,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And gratitude still springs, where bounty sows;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That every grant sincere affection wins,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And where our wants have end, our love begins:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But those who long the paths of state have trod,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Learn from the clamours of the murmuring crowd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Which cramm'd, yet craving still, their gates besiege,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Tis easier far to give, than to oblige.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">This of thy conduct seems the nicest part,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The chief perfection of the statesman's art,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To give to fair assent a fairer face,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or soften a refusal into grace:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But few there are that can be truly kind,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or know to fix their favours on the mind;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Hence, some, whene'er they would oblige, offend,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And, while they make the fortune, lose the friend;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Still give, unthank'd; still squander, not bestow;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For great men want not, what to give, but how.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The race of men that follow courts, 'tis true,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Think all they get, and more than all, their due;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Still ask, but ne'er consult their own deserts,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And measure by their interest, not their parts:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From this mistake so many men we see</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But ill become the thing they wish'd to be;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Hence discontent, and fresh demands arise,</l> + +<pb n="359" /><anchor id="Pg359" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">More power, more favour in the great man's eyes;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">All feel a want, though none the cause suspects,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But hate their patron, for their own defects;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Such none can please, but who reforms their hearts,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And, when he gives them places, gives them parts.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">As these o'erprize their worth, so sure the great</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">May sell their favour at too dear a rate;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When merit pines, while clamour is preferr'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And long attachment waits among the herd;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When no distinction, where distinction 's due,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Marks from the many the superior few;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When strong cabal constrains them to be just,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And makes them give at last—because they must;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What hopes that men of real worth should prize,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What neither friendship gives, nor merit buys?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The man who justly o'er the whole presides,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His well-weigh'd choice with wise affection guides;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Knows when to stop with grace, and when advance,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor gives through importunity or chance;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But thinks how little gratitude is ow'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When favours are extorted, not bestow'd.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">When, safe on shore ourselves, we see the crowd</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Surround the great, importunate, and loud;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Through such a tumult, 'tis no easy task</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To drive the man of real worth to ask:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Surrounded thus, and giddy with the show,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Tis hard for great men rightly to bestow;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From hence so few are skill'd, in either case,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To ask with dignity, or give with grace.</l> + +<pb n="360" /><anchor id="Pg360" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Sometimes the great, seduc'd by love of parts,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Consult our genius, and neglect our hearts;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Pleas'd with the glittering sparks that genius flings,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They lift us, towering on their eagle's wings,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Mark out the flights by which themselves begun,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And teach our dazzled eyes to bear the sun;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Till we forget the hand that made us great,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And grow to envy, not to emulate:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To emulate, a generous warmth implies,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To reach the virtues, that make great men rise;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But envy wears a mean malignant face,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And aims not at their virtues—but their place.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Such to oblige, how vain is the pretence!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When every favour is a fresh offence,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">By which superior power is still implied,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And, while it helps their fortune, hurts their pride.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Slight is the hate, neglect or hardships breed;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But those who hate from envy, hate indeed.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">"Since so perplex'd the choice, whom shall we trust?"</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Methinks I hear thee cry—The brave and just;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The man by no mean fears or hopes controll'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Who serves thee from affection, not for gold.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">We love the honest, and esteem the brave,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Despise the coxcomb, but detest the knave;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">No show of parts the truly wise seduce,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To think that knaves can be of real use.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">The man, who contradicts the public voice,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And strives to dignify a worthless choice,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Attempts a task that on that choice reflects,</l> + +<pb n="361" /><anchor id="Pg361" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And lends us light to point out new defects.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">One worthless man, that gains what he pretends,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Disgusts a thousand unpretending friends:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And since no art can make a counterpass,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or add the weight of gold to mimic brass,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When princes to bad ore their image join,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">They more debase the stamp, than raise the coin.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Be thine the care, true merit to reward</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And gain the good—nor will that task be hard;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Souls form'd alike so quick by nature blend,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">An honest man is more than half thy friend.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Him, no mean views, or haste to rise, shall sway,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thy choice to sully, or thy trust betray:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Ambition, here, shall at due distance stand</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor is wit dangerous in an honest hand:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Besides, if failings at the bottom lie,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">We view those failings with a lover's eye;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Though small his genius, let him do his best,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Our wishes and belief supply the rest.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Let others barter servile faith for gold,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">His friendship is not to be bought or sold:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Fierce opposition he, unmov'd, shall face,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Modest in favour, daring in disgrace,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To share thy adverse fate alone, pretend;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In power, a servant; out of power, a friend.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Here pour thy favours in an ample flood,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Indulge thy boundless thirst of doing good:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor think that good to him alone confin'd;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Such to oblige, is to oblige mankind.</l> + +<pb n="362" /><anchor id="Pg362" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">If thus thy mighty master's steps thou trace,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The brave to cherish, and the good to grace;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Long shalt thou stand from rage and faction free,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And teach us long to love the king, through thee:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Or fall a victim dangerous to the foe,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And make him tremble when he strikes the blow;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">While honour, gratitude, affection join</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To deck thy close, and brighten thy decline;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">(Illustrious doom!) the great, when this displac'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With friendship guarded, and with virtue grac'd,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In awful ruin, like Rome's senate, fall,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The prey and worship of the wondering Gaul.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">No doubt, to genius some reward is due,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">(Excluding that, were satirizing you;)</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But yet, believe thy undesigning friend,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When truth and genius for thy choice contend,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Tho' both have weight when in the balance cast,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Let probity be first, and parts the last.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">On these foundations if thou dar'st be great,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And check the growth of folly and deceit;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When party rage shall droop thro' length of days,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And calumny be ripen'd into praise,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Then future times shall to thy worth allow</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That fame, which envy would call flattery now.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thus far my zeal, though for the task unfit,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Has pointed out the rocks where others split;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">By that inspir'd, though stranger to the Nine,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And negligent of any fame—but thine,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">I take the friendly, but superfluous part;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">You act from nature what I teach from art.</l> +</lg> +</div> + +<div rend="page-break-before: right"> +<index index="toc" /><index index="pdf" /> +<pb n="363" /><anchor id="Pg363" /> +<head rend="text-align: center">The Old Man's Relapse.</head> +<head rend="text-align: center" type="sub">Verses Occasioned by the Foregoing Epistle.</head> + +<quote rend="display"> +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Sopitos suscita ignes.</l> +</lg> + +<p rend="text-align: right">—<hi rend="font-variant: small-caps">Virg.</hi></p> +</quote> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">From man's too curious and impatient sight,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The future, Heaven involves in thickest night.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Credit gray hairs: though freedom much we boast,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Some least perform, what they determine most.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What sudden changes our resolves betray!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To-morrow is the satire on to-day,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And shows its weakness. Whom shall men believe,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When constantly themselves, themselves deceive?</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Long had I bid my once-loved muse adieu;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">You warm old age; my passion burns anew.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">How sweet your verse! how great your force of mind!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">What power of words! what skill in dark mankind!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Polite the conduct; generous the design;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And beauty files, and strength sustains, each line.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Thus Mars and Venus are, once more, beset;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Your wit has caught them in its golden net.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">But what strikes home with most exalted grace</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Is, haughty genius taught to know its place;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And, where worth shines, its humbled crest to bend,</l> + +<pb n="364" /><anchor id="Pg364" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">With zeal devoted to that godlike end.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When we discern so rich a vein of sense,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Through the smooth flow of purest eloquence;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Tis like the limpid streams of Tagus roll'd</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">O'er boundless wealth, o'er shining beds of gold.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">But whence so finish'd, so refin'd a piece?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The tongue denies it to old Rome and Greece;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The genius bids the moderns doubt their claim,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And slowly take possession of the fame.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But I nor know, nor care, by whom 'twas writ,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Enough for me that 'tis from human wit;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That soothes my pride: all glory in the pen</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Which has done honour to the race of men.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">But this have others done; a like applause</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">An ancient and a modern Horace draws.<note place="foot"><p>Boileau.</p></note></l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But they to glory by degrees arose,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Meridian lustre you at once disclose.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Tis continence of mind, unknown before,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">To write so well, and yet to write no more.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">More bright renown can human nature claim,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Than to deserve, and fly immortal fame?</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Next to the godlike praise of writing well,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Is on that praise with just delight to dwell.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">O, for some God my drooping soul to raise!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">That I might imitate, as well as praise;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For all commend: e'en foes your fame confess;</l> + +<pb n="365" /><anchor id="Pg365" /> + +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Nor would Augustus' age have priz'd it less;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">An age, which had not held its pride so long,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">But for the want of so complete a song.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">A golden period shall from you commence:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Peace shall be sign'd 'twixt wit and manly sense;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Whether your genius or your rank they view,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The muses find their Halifax in you.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Like him succeed! nor think my zeal is shown</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For you; 'tis Britain's interest, not your own;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">For lofty stations are but golden snares,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Which tempt the great to fall in love with cares.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">I would proceed, but age has chill'd my vein,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">'Twas a short fever, and I'm cool again.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Though life I hate, methinks I could renew</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Its tasteless, painful course, to sing of you.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When such the subject, who shall curb his flight?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">When such your genius, who shall dare to write?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">In pure respect, I give my rhyming o'er,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And, to commend you most, commend no more.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 4">Adieu, whoe'er thou art! on death's pale coast</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Erelong I'll talk thee o'er with Dryden's ghost;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">The bard will smile. A last, a long farewell!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Henceforth I hide me in my dusky cell;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">There wait the friendly stroke that sets me free,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">And think of immortality and thee—</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">My strains are number'd by the tuneful Nine;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Each maid presents her thanks, and all present thee mine.</l> +</lg> +</div> + +<div rend="page-break-before: right"> +<index index="toc" level1="Verses sent by Lord Melcombe to Dr. Young" /><index index="pdf" /> +<pb n="366" /><anchor id="Pg366" /> +<head rend="text-align: center">Verses</head> +<head rend="text-align: center" type="sub">Sent by Lord Melcombe to Dr. Young, Not Long Before His Lordship's Death.<note place="foot"><p>A Poetical Epistle from the late Lord Melcombe to the +Earl of Bute, with corrections by the author of the Night +Thoughts, was published in 4to, 1776.</p></note></head> + +<lg> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Kind companion of my youth,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Lov'd for genius, worth, and truth!</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Take what friendship can impart,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Tribute of a feeling heart;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Take the muse's latest spark,<note place="foot"><p>See Mr. Cust's Life of Young.</p></note></l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Ere we drop into the dark.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">He, who parts and virtue gave,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Bad thee look beyond the grave</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Genius soars, and virtue guides;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Above, the love of God presides.</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">There's a gulf 'twixt us and God;</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Let the gloomy path be trod:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Why stand shivering on the shore?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Why not boldly venture o'er?</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Where unerring virtue guides,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Let us have the winds and tides:</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Safe, through seas of doubts and fears,</l> +<l rend="margin-left: 2">Rides the bark which virtue steers.</l> +</lg> + +<p rend="text-align: center">The End</p> +</div> + +</body> +<back rend="page-break-before: right"> +<div> +<pgIf output="pdf"> + <then> + <div> + <divGen type="pgfooter" rend="page-break-before: right" /> + </div> + </then> + <else> + <div> + +<head rend="text-align: center">Footnotes</head> + <divGen type="footnotes" /> + </div> + + <div> + <divGen type="pgfooter" rend="page-break-before: right" /> + </div> + </else> +</pgIf> +</div> +</back> +</text> +</TEI.2> + +<!-- +A WORD FROM PROJECT GUTENBERG + + +This file should be named 18827-tei.tei. + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + + + http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/8/2/18827/ + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one — the old editions will be +renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no one +owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation (and +you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without permission +and without paying copyright royalties. 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