O magnus pofthac inimicis rifus! uterne

. Ad cafus dubios fidet fibi certius? hic, qui Pluribus affuêrit mentem corpufque fuperbum;

An qui contentus parvo metuenfque futuri,

In pace, ut fapiens, aptarit idonea bello?

Quo magis his credas: puer hunc ego parvus

Ofellum

Integris opibus novi non latius ufum,

W

Quam nunc accifis. Videas, metato in agello,

Cum pecore et gnatis, fortem mercede colonum,
Non ego, narrantem, temere edi luce profesta
Quidquam, praeter *olus fumofae cum pede pernac
Ac mihi feu longum poft tempus venerat hofpes,
Sive operum vacuo gratus conviva per imbrem
Vicinus; bene erat, non pifcibus urbe petitis,

Sed pullo atque hoedo: tum2 penfilis uva fecundas

Who thinks that Fortune cannot change her

mind,

Prepares a dreadful jeft for all mankind.

And who ftands fafeft? tell me, is it he
That spreads and fwells in puff'd Prosperity,
Or bleft with little, whose preventing care
In peace provides fit arms against a war?

125

"Thus BETHEL fpoke, who always speaks his thought, And always thinks the very thing he ought:

His equal mind I copy what I can,

And as I love, would imitate the Man.

In South-fea days not happier, when furmis'd The Lord of Thousands, than if now" Excis'd;

In foreft planted by a Father's hand,

Than in five acres now of rented land.

Content with little I can piddle here

On brocoli and mutton, round the year;

But ancient friends (tho' poor, or out of play)

That touch my bell, I cannot turn away.

'Tis true, no Turbots dignify my boards,

130

135

149

But gudgeons, flounders, what my Thames affords:

Et nux ornabat menfas, cum duplice ficu.

Poft hoc ludus erat cuppa potare magiftra:

Ac venerata Ceres, ita culmo furgeret alto,

Explicuit vino contractae feria frontis.

Saeviat atque novos moveat Fortuna tumultus?

Quantum hinc imminuet? quanto aut ego parcius,

aut vos,

O pueri, nituiftis, ut huc nous incala, venit?

d

Nam propriae telluris herum natura. neque illum,

T

Nec me, nec quemquam ftatuit. nos expulit ille;

To Hounslow heath I point and Bansted-down, Thence comes your mutton, and these chicks my

own:

• From yon old walnut-tree a show'r shall fall; 145 And grapes, long ling'ring on my only wall, And figs from ftandard and efpalier join;

The dev'l is in you if you cannot dine:

b

Then chearful healths (your Miftrefs shall have place)

And, what's more rare, a Poet shall fay Grace. 150

Fortune not much of humbling me can boast: Tho' double tax'd, how little have I loft? My Life's amufements have been just the fame, Before, and after Standing Armies came. My lands are fold, my father's house is gone; I'll hire another's, is not that And yours, my friends? thro' whofe free-op'ning gate. None comes too early, none departs too late ; (For I, who hold fage Homer's rule the beft, Welcome the coming, fpeed the going guest.)

66

my own,

160

Pray heav'n it laft! (cries SWIFT !) as you go on; "I wish to God this houfe had been your own:

Pity! to build, without a fon or wife:

"Why, you'll enjoy it only all your life."

Well, if the ufe be mine, can it concern one; 165 Whether the name belong to Pope or Vernon ?

d

What's Property? dear Swift! you fee it alter

From you to me, from me to Peter Walter;

Illum aut nequities aut vafri infcitia juris,

Poftremum expellet certe vivacior beres.

Nunc ager Umbreni sub nomine, nuper Ofelli

Dictus erat: nulli proprius; fed cedit in ufum
Nunc mihi, nunc alii. quocirca vivite fortes,

Fortiaque adverfis opponite pectora rebus.

VER. 177. proud Buckingham's etc.] Villers Duke of Buckingham.

VER. 179. Let lands and boufes etc.] The turn of his imitation,