And never gallop Pegasus to death;

15

Lest stiff, and stately, void of fire or force, You limp, like Blackmore on a Lord Mayor's horse." 1

Farewell, then, verse, and love, and every toy,

20

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 every day will want, and most, the last.
But ask not, to what doctors I apply?
Sworn to no master, of no sect am I :

25

As drives the storm, at any door I knock :
And house with Montaigne now, or now with
Locke;

Sometimes a patriot, active in debate,
Mix with the world, and battle for the state,
Free as young Lyttelton,2 her cause pursue,
Still true to virtue, and as warm as true;
Sometimes, with Aristippus, or St. Paul,3
Indulge my candour, and grow all to all;
Back to my native moderation slide,
And win my way by yielding to the tide.

30

Long, as to him who works for debt, the day, Long as the night to her whose love's away, 36*

1 The fame of this heavy poet, however problematical elsewhere, was universally received in the city of London. His versification is here exactly described: stiff and not strong: stately and yet dull, like the sober and slow-paced animal generally employed to mount the Lord Mayor: and therefore here humorously opposed to Pegasus.—P.

2 George, first Lord Lyttelton. He wrote Poems, Dialogues of the Dead, a Dissertation on the Conversion of St. Paul, &c.

3 Omnis Aristippum decuit color, et status, et res.-P.

40

Long as the year's dull circle seems to run,
When the brisk minor pants for twenty-one;
So slow the unprofitable moments roll,
That lock up all the functions of my soul;
That keep me from myself; and still delay
Life's instant business to a future day:
That task, which as we follow or despise,
The eldest is a fool, the youngest wise:
Which done, the poorest can no wants endure;
And which not done, the richest must be poor. 46
Late as it is, I put myself to school,
And feel some comfort, not to be a fool.
Weak though I am of limb, and short of sight,
Far from a lynx, and not a giant quite;
I'll do what Mead1 and Cheselden 2 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.

50

Say, does thy blood rebel, thy bosom move 55 With wretched avarice, or as wretched love? Know, there are words, and spells, which can control

Between the fits this fever of the soul:

Know, there are rhymes, which, fresh and fresh applied,

Will cure the arrant'st puppy of his pride. 60 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 no bugbear is so great,
As want of figure, and a small estate.

1 See Moral Essays, iv. 10.

65

2 Dr. Cheselden, a celebrated surgeon, and friend of Pope.

70

To either India see the merchant fly,
Scared at the spectre of pale poverty!
See him, with pains of body, pangs of soul,
Burn through the tropic, freeze beneath the
pole!

Wilt thou do nothing for a nobler end,
Nothing, to make philosophy thy friend?
To stop thy foolish views, thy long desires, 75
And ease thy heart of all that it admires ?
Here, Wisdom calls: "Seek Virtue first, be
bold!

As gold to silver, virtue is to gold."

There, London's voice: "Get money, money still!

1

80

And then let Virtue follow, if she will."
This, this the saving doctrine, preached to all,
From low St. James's up to high St. Paul!
From him whose quills stand quivered at his ear,
To him who notches sticks 2 at Westminster.
Barnard in spirit, sense, and truth abounds;
"Pray, then, what wants he? Fourscore
thousand pounds;

3

86

A pension, or such harness for a slave
As Bug now has, and Dorimant would have.*
Barnard, thou art a cit, with all thy worth;
But Bug and D*1, their honours, and so forth. 90
Yet every child another song will sing,
"Virtue, brave boys! 'tis virtue makes a king.”

1 Low Church opinions were prevalent at the Court at St. James's, while High Church doctrines were preached at St. Paul's.

2 Exchequer tallies.-Warburton.

3 Sir John Barnard, Lord Mayor of London.

4 It cannot now be discovered to whom these names belong-so soon does satire become unintelligible.— Warton. Croker, however, thought that Bug stood for the Duke of Kent, K.G., and Dorimant_and_D*1 for the Earl of Deloraine. See Courthope.

True, conscious honour is to feel no sin,
He's armed without that's innocent within;
Be this thy screen, and this thy wall of brass; 95
Compared to this a minister's an ass.

And say, to which shall our applause belong,
This new Court-jargon, or the good old song? ?
The modern language of corrupted peers,
Or what was spoke at Cressy and Poitiers? 100
Who counsels best? who whispers, "Be but
great,

With praise or infamy leave that to fate;
Get place and wealth-if possible with grace;
If not, by any means, get wealth and place.
For what? to have a box where eunuchs sing,'
And foremost in the circle eye a king.

106

Or he, who bids thee face with steady view Proud fortune, and look shallow greatness through:

And, while he bids thee, sets the example too?
If such a doctrine, in St. James's air,
Should chance to make the well-dressed rabble

stare;

2

If honest S*z2 take scandal at a spark,

IIO

That less admires the palace than the park:
Faith I shall give the answer Reynard gave :
“I cannot like, dread sir, your royal cave: 115
Because I see, by all the tracks about,

Full many a beast goes in, but none come out."

1

Referring to the Italian Opera, which was in full Vogue at this time.

Augustus Schutz, "the elder of two sons of Baron Schutz, a German, who came over with George I., and settled his family in England. Augustus had been Equerry to George II., when Prince, and became Master of the Robes and Privy Purse to the king, with whom he was in great personal favour."--Note by Croker to Lord Hervey's Memoirs, quoted by Car ruthers.

120

Adieu to Virtue, if you're once a slave:
Send her to Court, you send her to her grave.
Well, if a king's a lion, at the least
The people are a many-headed beast:
Can they direct what measures to pursue,
Who know themselves so little what to do?
Alike in nothing but one lust of gold,

Just half the land would buy, and half be

sold:

125

Their country's wealth our mightier misers drain,1

Or cross, to plunder provinces, the main; The rest, some farm the poor-box,3 some the pews;

Some keep assemblies, and would keep the stews; Some with fat bucks on childless dotards 130

fawn;

135

Some win rich widows by their chine and brawn;
While with the silent growth of ten per cent.,
In dirt and darkness, hundreds stink content.
Of all these ways, if each pursues his own,
Satire, be kind, and let the wretch alone:
But show me one who has it in his power
To act consistent with himself an hour.
Sir Job sailed forth, the evening bright and still,
"No place on earth (he cried) like Greenwich-
hill!"

Up starts a palace, lo, the obedient base

140

Slopes at its foot, the woods its sides embrace,
The silver Thames reflects its marble face.
Now let some whimsy, or that devil within
Which guides all those who know not what they

mean,

1 The undertakers for advancing loans to the public on the Funds.- Warburton.

2 Alluding probably to the "Charitable Corporation."-Bowles. See Moral Essays, iii. 100, note.