Diruit, aedificat, mutat quadrata rotundis ? * Insanire putas solennia me, neque rides, Nec medici credis, nec curatoris egere A praetore dati; rerum* tutela mearum Cum sis, et prave sectum stomacheris ob unguem, De te pendentis, te refpicientis amici. L Ad summam, sapiens uno minor est Jove, dives, Liber, honoratus, pulcher, rex denique regum; Praecipue fanus, nifi cum pituita molesta est. I plant, root up; 1 build, and then confound; 171 Yet hang your lip, to see a Seam awry! 175 Kind to my dress, my figure, not to Me. Who ought to make me (what he can, or none,) That Man divine whom Wisdom calls her own; 180 Great without Title, without Fortune bless'd; Richy ev'n when plunder'd, honour'd while op press'd; Lov'da without youth, and follow'd without pow'r; e *Η EPISTOLA VI. NIL IL admirari, prope res est una, Numici, Solaque quae poffit facere et servare beatum. Hunc folem, et stellas, et decedentia certis Tempora momentis, funt qui formidine nulla Quid, maris extremos Arabas ditantis et Indos? NOTES. VER. 3. Dear MURRAY] This piece is the most finished of all his imitations, and executed in that high manner the Italian Painters call con amore. By which they mean, the exertion of that principle, which puts the faculties on the stretch, and produces the fupreme degree of excellence. For the Poet had all the warmth of affection for the great Lawyer to whom it is addressed, and indeed no man ever more deserved to have a Poet for his friend. In the obtaining of which as neither vanity, party, or fear had any share, so he supported his title to it by all the offices of true friendship, VER. 4. Creech)] From whose tranflation of Horace the two first lines are taken. P VER. 8. trust the Ruler with the skies, To him commit the hour,] Our Author, in these imitations, has been all along careful to correct the loofe morals, and absurd divinity of his Original. |