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THE

FIRST EPISTLE

OF THE

FIRST BOOK

OF

HORACE.

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Non eadem eft aetas, non mens. Veianius, armis

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VER. 3. Sabbath of my days?] i. e. The 49th year, the age of the Author.

VER. 8. Hang their old Trophies o'er the Garden gates,] An occafional stroke of Satire on ill-placed ornaments. He has more openly ridiculed them in his Epistle on Tafte,

EPISTLE İ

ST

To L. BOLINGBROKE.

. JOHN, whofe love indulg'd my labours past, Matures my present, and shall bound Why 'will

you

my last!

break the Sabbath of my days?

Now fick alike of Envy and of Praise.

Public too long, ah let me hide my Age!

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See Modeft Cibber now has left the Stage:

d

Our Gen'rals now, retir'd to their Eftates,

Hang their old Trophies o'er the Garden gates, In Life's cool Ev'ning fatiate of Applause,

Nor fond of bleeding, ev'n in BRUNSWICK'S

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A Voice there is, that whispers in my ear, ('Tis Reafon's voice, which fometimes one can

hear)

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"Friend Pope! be prudent, let your Muse take

"breath,

"And never gallop Pegafus to death;

NOTES.

"Load fome vain Church with old theatric state,
"Turn Arcs of Triumph to a garden gate."

VER. 10. ev'n in Brunfwick's caufe.] In the former Editions it was Britain's caufe. But the terms are fynonimous.

Nunc itaque et verfus, et caetera ludicra pono: Quid verum atque decens, curo et rogo, et omnis in hoc fum:

*Condo, et compono, quae mox depromere poffim. Ac ne forte roges, 'quo me duce, quo Lare tuter: Nullius addictus jurare in verba magiftri,

ות

Quo me cunque rapit tempeftas, deferor hofpes. Nunc agilis fio, et merfor "civilibus undis, Virtutis verae cuftos, rigidufque fatelles :

NOTES.

VER. 16. You limp, like Blackmore on a Lord Mayor's horse.] The fame of this heavy Poet, however problematical elfewhere, was univerfally received in the City of London. His verfification is here exactly defcribed: ftiff, and not ftrong; ftately and yet dull, like the fober and flow-paced Animal generally employed to mount the Lord Mayor: and therefore here humouroufly opposed to Pegasus.

P.

VR. 26. And hufe with Montagne now, or now with Locke.. Chufe either an active or a contemplative life, as is moft fitted to the feafon and circumftances For he regarded thefe Writers as the best Schools to form a man for the world; or to give him a knowledge of himfelf: Montagne excelling in his obfervations on focial and civil life; and Locke, in developing the faculties, and explaining the operations of the human mind.

"Left ftiff, and stately, void of fire or force, 15 "You limp, like Blackmore on a Lord Mayor's "horfe."

Farewel then Verfe, 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:

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20

To lay this harvest up, and hoard with haste What ev'ry day will want, and most, the last.

But afk not, to what 'Doctors I apply?

Sworn to no Mafter, of no Sect am I :

As drives the " ftorm, at any door I knock: 25 And house with Montagne now, or now with

Locke.

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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:

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NOTES.

30

VER. 30. Still true to Virtue-with Ariftippus, or St. Paul,] It was the Poet's purpose in this place to give us the picture of his own mind, not that of Horace's; who tells us, he fometimes went with Zeno, and fometimes with Aristippus; the extremes of whofe different Systems, Tully thus juftly cenfures: "Ut quoniam Aristippus, quafi animum nullum habeamus, corpus folum tuetur; Zeno, quafi corporis fimus expertes, animum folum complectitur." But neither Truth nor Decency would suffer our Poet to fay, that, to fuit himself to the times, he went into either of thefe follies. To

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