15

" Lest stiff, and stately, void of fire or force, " You limp, like Blackmore on a Lord Mayor's

"horse."

Farewell then Verse, and Love, and ev'ry Toy, The Rhymes and Rattles of the Man or Boy; What right, what true, what fit we justly call, Let this be all my care- for this is All : To lay this harvest up, and hoard with haste What ev'ry day will want, and most, the last. But ask not, to what Doctors I apply?

20

Sworn to no Master, of no Sect am I :
As drives them storm, at any door I knock:
And house with Montagne now, or now with Locke.

25

Sometimes a Patriot, active in debate,
Mix with the World, and battle for the State,

Free as young Lyttelton, her Cause pursue,
Still true to Virtue, and as warm as true:

30

Sometimes with Aristippus, or St. Paul,
Indulge my candor, and grow all to all;
Back to my P native Moderation flide,
And win my way by yielding to the tide.

9 Long, as to him who works for debt, the day, 35 Long as the Night to her whose Love's away,

NOTES.

and not strong; stately and yet dull, like the sober and flow-paced Animal generally employed to mount the Lord Mayor: and therefore here humourously opposed to Pegasus. P.

* G

1

Lenta videtur opus debentibus : ut piger annus

A

Pupillis, quos dura premit custodia matrum :

Sic mihi tarda fluunt ingrataque tempora, quae fpem

Confiliumque morantur agendi gnaviter s id, quod

Aeque pauperibus prodeft, locupletibus aeque,
Aeque neglectum pueris, fenibusque nocebit.

t Reftat, ut his ego me ipfe regam solerque ele

mentis :

w Non possis oculo quantum contendere Lynceus;

Non tamen idcirco contemnas lippus inungi:
Nec, quia desperes invicti membra Glyconis,
Nodosa corpus nolis prohibere cheragra.

Eft quadam prodire * tenus, fi non datur ultra.
✓ Fervet Avaritia, miseroque cupidine pectus?

NOTES.

VER. 45. can no wants endure;] i. e. Can want nothing. Badly expressed.

VER. 51. I'll do what Mead-] Mr. Pope highly esteemed and loved this worthy man, whore unaffected humanity and benevolence have stifled much of that envy which his eminence in his profeffion would otherwise have drawn out.

Long as the Year'sidull circle seems to run,
When the brifk Minor pants for twenty-one:
So flow th' unprofitable moments roll,
That lock up all the Functions of my foul;
That keep me from myself; and still delay
Life's instant bufsiness to a future day:
That s task, which as we follow, or despise,
The eldest is a fool, the youngest wife.
Which done, the poorest can no wants endure;
And which not done, the richest must be poor.
Late as it is, I put myself to school,
And feel fome comfort, not to be a fool.
w Weak tho' I am of limb, and short of fight,
Far from a Lynx, and not a Giant quite;
I'll do what Mead and Chefelden advise,

To keep these limbs, and to preserve these eyes.
Not to * go back, is somewhat to advance,

And men must walk at least before they dance.
Say, does thy blood rebel, thy bosom move
With wretched Av'rice, or as wretched Love?

NOTES.

40

45

50

55

Speaking of his obligations to this great Physician and others of the Faculty, in a Letter to Mr. Allen, about a month before his death, he says, "There is no end of my kind treatment from the Faculty. They are in general the most amiable companions, and the best friends, as well as the most learned Men I know."

66

Sunt verba et voces, quibus hunc lenire dolorem

Poffis, et magnam morbi deponere partem.

Laudis amore tumes? sunta certa piacula, quae te Ter pure lecto poterunt recreare libello.

Invidus, iracundus, iners, vinosus, amator, Nemo & adeo ferus eft, ut non mitescere poffit, Si modo culturae patientem commodet aurem. • Virtus est, vitium fugere; et sapientia prima, Stultitia caruisse. vides, quae maxima credis Esse mala, exiguum censum, turpemque repulsam,

Quanto devites animi, capitisque labore.

Impiger extremos curris mercator ad Indos,

NOTES.

VER. 58. Between the fits-) The sense of magnam morbi deponere partem

is here very happily expressed. And Ter pure lecto etc.

in the following line, as happily varied. But the whole passage, which describes the use and efficacy of fatire, is admirably imitated.

VER. 70. Scar'd at the Spectre of pale Poverty!] Tho

Know, there are Words, and Spells, which can con

troll

* Between the Fits this Fever of the foul:

Know, there are Rhymes, which fresh and fresh

apply'd

Will cure the arrant'st Puppy of his Pride.
Be furious, envious, slothful, mad, or drunk,
• Slave to a Wife, or Vassal to a Punk,
A Switz, a High-dutch, or a Low-dutch & Bear;
All that we ask is but a patient Ear.

• 'Tis the first Virtue, Vices to abhor;
And the first Wisdom, to be Fool no more.
But to the world not bugbear is so great,
As want of figure, and a small Estate.
To either India see the Merchant Ay,
Scar'd at the spectre of pale Poverty!
See him, with pains of body, pangs of foul,
Burn through the Tropic, freeze beneath the Pole!

Wilt thou do nothing for a nobler end,

Nothing, to make Philosophy thy friend?

NOTES.

60

65

70

this has all the spirit, it has not all the imagery of the Original; where Horace makes Poverty puriue, and keep

pace with the Mifer in his flight.

Per mare Pauperiem fugiens, per faxa, per ignes.

But what follows,

Wilt thou do nothing, etc.

far furpasses the Original.