To this the session seem'd to give consent,
Much lik'd the war, but dreaded much th' event.
At length, the growing difference to compose,
Two brothers, nam'd Ascarides 4, arose.
Both had the volubility of tongue,
In meaning faint, but in opinion strong.
To speak, they both assum'd a like pretence; 260
The elder gain'd his just pre-eminence.
Thus he: "Tis true, when privilege and right
Are once invaded, honour bids us fight.
But ere we once engage in honour's cause,
First know what honour is, and whence it was.
"Scorn'd by the base, 'tis courted by the brave,
The hero's tyrant, and the coward's slave;
Born in the noisy camp, it lives on air,
And both exists by hope and by despair:
Angry whene'er a moment's ease we gain,
And reconcil'd at our returns of pain.
It lives, when in death's arms the hero lies:
But when his safety he consults, it dies.
Bigoted to this idol, we disclaim
Where Bentley 1, by old writers, wealthy grew,
And Briscoe lately was undone by new;
There triumphs a physician of renown,
To none, but such as rust in health, unknown.
None e'er was plac'd more fitly, to impart
His known experience, and his healing art.
When Burgess deafens all the listening press
With peals of most seraphic emptiness;
Or when mysterious Freeman mounts on high,
To preach his parish to a lethargy;
This Esculapius waits hard by, to ease
The martyrs of such Christian cruelties.
Long has this darling quarter of the town,
For lewdness, wit, and gallantry, been known.
All sorts meet here, of whatsoe'er degree,
To blend and justle into harmony.
270 The critiès each adventurous author scan,
And praise or censure as they like the man.
The weeds of writings for the flowers they cull;
So nicely tasteless, so correctly dull!
The politicians of Parnassus prate,
And poets canvass the affairs of state;
The cits ne'er talk of trade and stock, but tell
How Virgil writ, how bravely Turnus fell.
The country-dames drive to Hippolito's,
First find a spark, and after lose a nose.
The lawyer for lac'd coat the robe does quit,
He grows a madman, and then turns a wit.
And in th' cloister pensive Strephon waits,
Till Cloe's hackney comes, and then retreats;
And if th' ungenerous nymph a shaft lets fly,
More fatally than from a sparkling eye,
Mirmillo 2, that fam'd Opifer, is nigh.
Rest, health, and ease, for nothing but a name.
"Then let us, to the field before we move,
Know, if the gods our enterprise approve.
Suppose th' unthinking faculty unveil
What we, through wiser conduct, would conceal:
Is 't reason we should quarrel with the glass 280
That shows the monstrous features of our face?
Or grant some grave pretenders have of late
Thought fit an innovation to create ;
Soon they'll repent what rashly they begun :
Though projects please, projectors are undone.
All novelties must this success expect,
When good, our envy; and when bad, neglect;
If reason could direct, ere now each gate
Had born some trophy of triumphal state;
The trading tribe oft, thither throng to dine,
And want of elbow-room supply in wine.
Cloy'd with variety, they surfeit there,
Temples had told how Greece and Belgia owe 290 Whilst the wan patients on thin gruel fare,
Troy and Namur to Jove and to Nassau.
"Then, since no veneration is allow'd,
Or to the real, or th' appearing good;
The project that we vainly apprehend
Must, as it blindly rose, as vilely end.
Some members of the faculty there are,
Who interest prudently to oaths prefer.
Our friendship with feign'd airs they poorly court,
And boast, their politics are our support:
Them we'll consult about this enterprise,
And boldly execute what they advise."
But from below, while such resolves they took,
Some Aurum Fulminans the fabric shook.
The champions, daunted at the crack, retreat,
Regard their safety, and their rage forget.
So when at Bathos Earth's big offspring strove
To scale the skies, and wage a war with Jove;
Soon as the ass of old Silenus bray'd,
The trembling rebels in confusion fled.
NOT far from that frequented theatre,
Where wandering punks each night at five repair;
Where purple emperors in buskins tread,
And rule imaginary worlds for bread;
Ver. 288. If things of use were valued, there had been
Some workhouse where the Monument is seen.
4 The Pearces, apothecaries.
"Twas here the champions of the party met,
Of their heroic enterprise to treat.
Each hero a tremendous air put on,
And stern Mirmillo in these words begun :
""Tis with concern, my friends, I meet you here;
No grievance you can know, but I must share.
'Tis plain, my interest you 've advanc'd so long,
Each fee, though I was mute, would find a tongue.
And, in return, though I have strove to rend
Those statutes, which on oath I should defend;
Such arts are trifles to a generous mind:
Great services, as great returns should find.
And you'll perceive, this hand, when glory calls,
Can brandish arms as well as urinals.
"Oxford and all her passing-bells can tell,
By this right-arm what mighty numbers fell.
Whilst others meanly ask'd whole months to slay,
I oft dispatch'd the patient in a day:
With pen in hand I push'd to that degree,
I scarce had left a wretch to give a fee.
Some fell by laudauum, and some by steel,
And death in ambush lay in every pill,
For, save or slay, this privilege we claim,
Though credit suffers, the reward's the same.
"What though the art of healing we pretend,
He that designs it least, is most a friend.
Into the right we err, and must confess
To oversights we often owe success.
Thus Bessus got the battle in the play;
His glorious cowardice restor❜d the day.
Two booksellers.
2 Dr. Gibbons..
So the fam'd Grecian piece ow'd its desert
To chance, and not the labour'd strokes of art.
<< Physicians, if they're wise, should never think
Of any arms but such as pen and ink:
But th' enemy, at their expense, shall find
When honour calls, I'll scorn to stay behind.”
He said and seal'd th' engagement with a kiss,
Which was return'd by younger Ascaris 3;
Who thus advanc'd: "Each word, Sir, you impart,
Has something killing in it, like your art. 80
How much we to your boundless friendship owe,
Our files can speak, and your prescriptions show.
Your ink descends in such excessive showers,
'Tis plain, you can regard no health but ours.
Whilst poor pretenders puzzle o'er a case,
You but appear, and give the coup de grace.
O that near Xanthus banks you had but dwelt,
When Ilium first Achaian fury felt!
The horned river then had curs'd in vain [slain:
Young Peleus' arm, that chok'd his stream with
No trophies you had left for Greeks to raise; 91
Their ten years toil, you'd finish'd in ten days.
Fate smiles on your attempts; and, when you list,
In vain the cowards fly, or brave resist.
Then let us arm, we need not fear success;
No labours are too hard for Hercules.
Our military ensigns we'll display;
Conquest pursues, where courage leads the way."
To this design shrill Querpo 4 did agree,
A zealous member of the faculty;
His sire's pretended pious steps he treads,
And where the doctor fails, the saint succeeds.
A conventicle flesh'd his greener years,
And his full age the righteous rancour shares.
Thus boys hatch game-eggs under birds of prey,
To make the fowl more furious for the fray.
Slow Carus next discover'd his intent,
With painful pauses muttering what he meant.
His sparks of life, in spite of drugs, retreat,
So cold, that only calentures can heat.
In his chill veins the sluggish puddle flows,
And loads with lazy fogs his sable brows.
Legions of lunatics about him press;
His province is, lost reason to redress.
So when perfumes their fragrant scent give o'er,
Nought can their odour, like a jakes, restore.
When for advice the vulgar throng, he's found
With lumber of vile books beseig'd around.
The gazing throng acknowledge their surprise,
And, deaf to reason, still consult their eyes. 120
Well he perceives, the world will often find,
To catch the eye is to convince the mind.
Thus a weak state by wise distrust inclines
To numerous stores, and strength in magazines.
So fools are always most profuse of words,
And cowards never fail of longest swords.
Abandon'd authors here a refuge meet,
And from the world to dust and worms retreat.
Here dregs and sediment of auctions reign,
Refuse of fairs, and gleanings of Duck-lane.
And up these walls much Gothic lumber climbs,
With Swiss philosophy, and Rhunic rhymes.
Hither, retriev'd from cooks and grocers, come
Mede's works entire, and endless reams of Blome.
Where would the long neglected Collins fly,
If bounteous Carus should refuse to buy?
But each vile scribbler's bappy on this score:
He'll find some Carus still to read him o'er.
3 Mr. Parrot. 4 Dr. Howe. 5 Dr. Tyson.
Nor must we the obsequious Umbra spare,
Who soft by nature, yet declar'd for war.
But when some rival power invades a right,
Flies set on flies, and turtles turtles fight.
Else courteous Umbra to the last had been
Demurely meek, insipidly serene.
With him, the present still some virtues have;
The vain are sprightly; and the stupid grave;
The slothful, negligent; the foppish, neat;
The lewd are airy; and the sly, discreet;
A wren, an eagle; a baboon, a beau;
Colt, a Lycurgus; and a Phocion, Rowes. 150
Heroic ardour now th' assembly warms,
Each combatant breathes nothing but alarms.
For future glory while the scheme is laid,
Fam'd Horoscope thus offers to dissuade :
"Since of each enterprise th' event's unknown,
We'll quit the sword, and hearken to the gown.
Nigh lives Vagellius, one reputed long
For strength of lungs, and pliancy of tongue.
For fees, to any form he moulds a cause,
The worst has merits, and the best has flaws. 160
Five guineas make a criminal to-day;
And ten to morrow wipe the stain away.
Whatever he affirms is undeny'd,
Milo's the letcher, Clodius th' homicide;
Cato pernicious, Cataline a saint,
Orford suspected, Duncomb innocent.
To law then, friends, for 'tis by Fate decreed,
Vagellius, and our money, shall succeed.
Know, when I first invok'd disease by charms
To prove propitious to our future arms,
Ill omens did the sacrifice attend,
Nor would the Sybil from her grot ascend.".
As Horoscope urg'd farther to be heard,
He thus was interrupted by a bard':
"In vain your magic mysteries you use,
Such sounds the Sibyl's sacred ears abuse.
These lines the pale divinity shall raise,
Such is the power of sound, and force of lays.
Arms meet with arms, fauchions with fauchions clash,"
And sparks of fire struck out from armour flash.
Thick clouds of dust contending warriors raise,
3 And hideous war o'er all the region brays.
Some raging ran with huge Herculean clubs,
Some massy balls of brass, some mighty tubs
Of cinders bore.-
Naked and half-burnt hills with hideous wreck
Affright the skies, and fry the ocean's back."
As he went rumbling on, the fury straight
Crawl'd in, her limbs could scarce support her
A rueful ra her meagre forehead bound,
And faintly her furr'd lips these accents sound:
'Mortal, how dar'st thou with such lines address
My awful seat, and trouble my recess?
In Essex marshy hundreds is a cell,
Where lazy Fogs and drizzling Vapours dwell:
Thither raw Damps on drooping wings repair,
And shivering Quartans shake the sickly air.
There, when fatigu'd, some silent hours I pass,
And substitute physicians in my place.
Then dare not, for the future, once rehearse 200
The dissonance of such untuneful verse;
But in your lines let energy be found,
And learn to rise in sense and sink in sound.
Harsh words, though pertinent, uncouth appear;
None please the fancy, who offend the car.
In sense and numbers if you would excel,
Read Wycherley, consider Dryden well.
In one, what vigorous turns of fancy shine!
In th' other, Syrens warble in each line.
If Dorset's sprightly Muse but touch the lyre,
The Smiles and Graces melt in soft desire,
And little Loves confess their amorous fire.
The gentle Isis claims the ivy crown,
To bind th' immortal brows of Addison.
As tuneful Congreve tries his rural strains,
Pan quits the woods, the listening Fawns the
plains;
And Philomel, in notes like his, complains,
And Britain, since Pausanias 7 was writ,
Knows Spartan virtue, and Athenian wit.
When Stepney paints the godlike acts of kings,
Or, what Apollo dictates, Prior sings;
The banks of Rhine a pleas'd attention show,
And silver Sequana forg ts to flow.
"Such just examples carefully read o'er, Slide without falling; without straining soar. Oft though your strokes surprise, you should not A theme so inighty for a virgin Muse. Long did Apelles his fam'd piece decline; His Alexander was his last design. 'Tis Montague's rich vein alone must prove, None but a Phidias should attempt a Jove." The fury paus'd, till with a frightful sound A rising whirlwind burst th' unhallow'd ground. Then she-"The deity we Fortune call, Though distant, rules and influences all. Straight for her favour to her court repair; Important embassies ask wings of air." Each wondering stood; but Horoscope's great soul,.
That dangers ne'er alarm, nor doubts control, Rais'd on the pinions of the bounding wind, 240 Out-flew the rack, and left the hours behind.
The evening now with blushes warms the air,
The steer resigns the yoke, the hind his care.
The clouds above with golden edgings glow,
And falling dews refresh the earth below.
The bat with sooty wings flits through the grove,
The reeds scarce rustle, nor the aspines move,
And all the feather'd folks forbear their lays of
love.
Through the transparent region of the skies,
Swift as a wish, the missionary flies:
With wonder he surveys the upper air,
And the gay gilded meteors sporting there;
How lambent jellies, kindling in the night,
Shoot through the ether in a trail of light;
How rising steams in th' azure fluid blend,
Or fleet in clouds, or soft in showers descend;
After ver. 212, these lines are omitted:
The Tiber now no gentle Gallus sees, But smiling Thames enjoys her Normanbys. Ver. 332. The Fury said; and vanishing from sight,
Cry'd out, to arms; so left the realms of light. The combatants to th' enterprize consent, And the next day smil'd on the great event.
Pausanias, written by Mr. Norton.
Or, if the stubborn rage of cold prevail,
In flakes they fly, or fall in moulded hail;
How honey-dews embalm the fragrant morn,
And the fair oak with luscious sweets adorn; 260
How heat and moisture mingle in a mass,
Or beleh in thunder, or in lightning blaze;
Why nimble corruscations strike the eye,
And bold tornados bluster in the sky;
Why a prolific aura upwards tends,
Ferments, and in a living shower descends;
How vapours hanging on the towering bills
In breezes sigh, or weep in warbling rills;
Whence infant winds their tender pinions try,
And river-gods their thirsty urns supply.
The wondering sage pursues his airy flight, And braves the chill unwholesome damps of night: He views the tracts where luminaries rove, To settle seasons here, and fates above; To bleak Arcturus still forbid the seas, The stormy Kids the weeping Hyades; The shining lyre with strains attracting more Heaven's glittering mansions now than Hell's Glad Cassiopeia circling in the sky, [before; And each fair Churchill of the galaxy. 280
Aurora, on Etesion breezes borne,
With blushing lipsbreathes out the sprightly morn:
Each flower in dew their short-liv'd empire weeps,
And Cynthia with her lov'd Endymion sleeps.
As through the gloom the magus cuts his way
Imperfect objects tell the doubtful day;
Dim he discerns majestic Atlas rise,
And bend beneath the burden of the skies;
His towering brows aloft no tempests know,
Whilst lightning flies, and thunder rolls below.290
Distant from hence beyond a waste of plains,
Proud Teneriff, his giant brother, reigns;
With breathing fire his pitchy nostrils glow,
As from his sides he shakes the fleecy snow.
Around this hoary prince, from watery beds,
His subject islands raise their verdant heads;
The waves so gently wash each rising hill,
The land seems floating, and the ocean still.
Eternal spring with smiling verdure here Warms the mild air, and crowns the youthful year. From crystal rocks transparent rivulets flow; 301 The tuberose ever breathes, and violets blow; The vine undress'd her swelling clusters bears, The labouring hind the mellow olive cheers; Blossoms and fruit at once the citron shows, And, as she pays, discovers still she owes. The orange to her sun her pride displays, And gilds her fragrant apples with his rays. No blasts e'er discompose the peaceful sky, The springs but murmur, and the winds but sigh. The tuneful swans on gliding rivers float, And warbling dirges die on every note. Where Flora treads, her zephyr garlands flings, And scatters odours from his purple wings;[groves Whilst birds from woodbine bowers and jasmine Chant their glad nuptials, and unenvy'd loves. Mild seasons, rising hills, and silent dales, Cool grottos, silver brooks, and flowery vales, Groves fill'd with balmy shrubs, in pomp appear, And scent with gales of sweets the circling year.320 These happy isles, where endless pleasures wait, Are styl'd by tuneful bards-the Fortunate. On high, where no hoarse winds nor clouds resort, The hoodwink'd goddess keeps her partial court: Upon a wheel of amethyst she sits,
Gives and resumes, and smiles and frowns by fits.
In this still labyrinth, around her lie
Spells, philters, globes, and schemes of palmistry:
A sigil in this hand the gipsy bears,
In th' other a prophetic sieve and sheers.
Have I made South and Sherlock disagree,
And puzzle truth with learn'd obscurity?
And does the faithful Ferguson profess
His ardour still for animosities?
Have I, Britannia's safety to ensure,
Expos'd her naked to be most secure?
Have I made parties opposite, unite,
In monstrous leagues of amicable spite,
To curse their country, whilst the common cry
Is freedom; but their aim the ministry?
40
And shall a dastard's cowardice prevent
The war, so long I've labour'd to foment?
No, 'tis resolv'd, he either shall comply,
340 Or I'll renounce my wan divinity."
The dame, by divination, knew that soon
The magus would appear-and then begun:
"Hail sacred seer! thy embassy I know:
Wars must ensue, the Fates will have it so.
Dread feats shall follow, and disasters great,
Pills charge on pills, and bolus bolus mect:
Both sides shall conquer, and yet both shall fail;
The mortar now, and then the urinal.
"To thee alone my influence I owe;
Where Nature has deny'd, my favours flow,
"Tis 1 that give, so mighty is my power,
Faith to the Jew, complexion to the Moor.
I am the wretch's wish, the rook's pretence,
The sluggard's case, the coxcomb's providence.
Sir Scrape-quill, once a supple smiling slave,
Looks lofty now, and insolently grave;
Builds, settles, purchases, and has each hour
Caps from the rich, and curses from the poor.
Spadillio, that at table serv'd of late,
Drinks rich tockay himself, and eates in plate; 350
Has levees, villas, mistresses in store,
And owns the racers which he rubb'd before.
"Souls heavenly born my faithless boons defy;
The brave is to himself a deity.
Though blest Astrea's gone, some soil remains
Where Fortune is the slave, and Merit reigns,
"The Tiber boasts his Julian progeny,
Thames his Nassau, the Nile his Ptolemy.
Iberia, yet for future sway design'd,
Shall, for a Hesse, a greater Mordaunt find.
Thus Ariadne in proud triumph rode;
She lost a hero, and she found a god."
With that, the hag approach'd Mirmillo's bed,
And, taking Querpo's meagre shape, she said:
"At noon of night I hasten, to dispel
Those tumults in your pensive bosom dwell.
I dreamt but now I heard your heaving sighs,
Nay, saw the tears debating in your eyes.
O that 't were but a dream! but threats I find
Lour in your looks, and rankle in your mind.
Speak, whence it is this late disorder flows,
| That shakes your soul and troubles your repose.
Mistakes in practice scarce could give you pain;
Too well you know the dead will ne'er complain.
"What looks discover, said the homicide,
Would be a fruitless industry to hide.
My safety first I must consult, and then
I'll serve our suffering party with my pen."
"All should," reply'd the hag, "their talent The most attempting oft the least discern. [learn; Let Peterborough speak, and Vanbrugh write, 360 Soft Acon court, and rough Cæcinna fight:
WHEN the still Night, with peaceful poppies
crown'd,
Had spread her shady pinions o'er the ground;
And slumbering chiefs of painted triumphs dream,
While groves and streams are the soft virgin's
The surges gently dash against the shore, [theme;
Flocks quit the plains, and galley-slaves the oar;
Sleep shakes its downy wings o'er mortal eyes;
Marmillo is the only wretch it flies;
He finds no respite from his anxious grief;
Then seeks from this soliloquy relief.
"Long have I reign'd unrival'd in the town,
Oppress'd with fees, and deafen'd with renown.
"None e'er could die with due solemnity,
Unless his passport first was sign'd by me.
My arbitrary bounty's undeny'd ;
I give reversions, and for heirs provide.
None could the tedious nuptial state support,
But I, to make it easy, make it short.
I set the discontented matrons free,
And ransom husbands from captivity.
Shall one of such importance then engage
In noisy riot and in civil rage?
No: I'll endeavour straight a peace, and su
Preserve my character and person too."
Such must succeed; but when th' enervate aim
Beyond their force, they still contend for shame,
Had Coldbatch printed nothing of his own,
He had not been the Saffold of the town.
Asses and owls, unseen, their kind betray,
If these attempt to boot, or those to bray.
Had Wesley never aim❜d in verse to please,
We had not rank'd him with our Ogilbys.
Still censures will on dull pretenders fall;
A Codrus should expect a Juvenal.
Il lines, but like ill paintings, are allow'd,
To set off, and to recommend the good.
So diamonds, take a lustre from their foil;
And to a Bentley 't is we owe a Boyle.
"Consider weil the talent you possess;
To strive to make it more, would make it less: 80
And recollect what gratitude is due,
To those whose party you abandon now.
To them you owe your odd maguificence,
But to your stars your magazine of sense.
Haspt in a tombril, awkward have you shin'd,
With one fat slave before, and none behind.
Then haste and join your true intrepid friends,
Success on vigour and dispatch depends."
Labouring in doubts Mirmillo stood; then said, 20 "T is hard to undertake, if gain dissuade; 90
But Discord, that still haunts with hideous mien
Those dire abodes where Hymen once hath been,
O'erheard Mirmillo's anguish; then begun
In peevish accents to express her own:
Have I so often banish'd lazy peace
From her dark solitude, and lov'd recess?
'My dread resolves," he cry'd “I'll straight pur30 The fury, satisfy'd, in smiles withdrew. [sue;"
What fool for noisy feuds large fees would leave?
Ten harvests more would all I wish for give."
"True man!" reply'd the elf; "by choice dis-
Ever contriving pain, and never pleas'd. [eas'd,
A present good they slight, an absent choose;
And what they have, for what they have not, lose.
False prospects all their true delights destroy,
Resoly'd to want, yet labouring to enjoy.
In restless hurries thoughtlessly they live,
Though gods themselves engage, a Diomed
With ease could show a deity can bleed.
The truest rubbish fills a trench the best.
"But war's rough trade should be by fools profest,
Or dropsies drown, and gout and colics rack;
Let quinsies throttle, and the quartan shake, 165
Let sword and pestilence lay waste, while we
Wage bloodless wars, and fight in theory.
Who wants not merit, needs not arm for fame;
At substance oft unmov'd, for shadows grieve. 100 The dead I raise, my chivalry proclaim;
Children at toys, as men at titles, aim;
And in effect both covet but the same.
This Philip's son prov'd in revolving years;
And first for rattles, then for worlds shed tears."
The fury spoke; then in a moment fir'd
The hero's breast with tempests, and retir'd.
In boding dreams Mirmillo spent the night,
And frightful phantoms danc'd before his sight,
Till the pale Pleiads clos'd their eyes of light.
At length gay morn glows in the eastern skies, 110
The larks in raptures through the ether rise,
The azure mists scud o'er the dewy lawns,
The chanter at his early matins yawns,
The amaranth opes its leaves, the lys its bells,
And Progne her complaint of Tereus tells.
Diseases baffled, and lost health restor'd,
In Fame's bright list my victories record.
More lives from me their preservation own,
Than lovers lose if fair Cornelia frown."
"Your cures, shrill Querpo cry'd, aloud you tell,
But wisely your miscarriages conceal.
Zeno, a priest, in Samothrace of oid,
Thus reason'd with Philopidas the bold:
To what concerns the state of human kind.
'Immortal gods you own, but think them blind
Either they hear not, or regard not prayer;
That argues want of power, and this of care.
Allow that wisdom infinite must know;
Power infinite must act.' I grant it so.'
Haste straight to Neptune's fane; survey with zeal
The walls.' What then?' reply'd the infidel.
'Observe those numerous throngs, in effigy,
The gods have sav'd from the devour ng sea.'
But where are theirs that perish'd in the deep?
"Tis true, their pictures that escap'd you keep,
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"Vaunt now no more the triumph of your skill,
But though unfee'd, exert your arm, and kill.
Our scouts have learn'd the posture of the foe;
In war, surprises surest conduct show."
But Fame, that neither good nor bad conceals,
That Pembroke's worth, and Ormond's valour tells;
How truth in Burnet, how in Cavendish, reigns,
Varro's magnificence with Maro's strains;
But how at church and bar all gape and stretch
130 If Winnington but plead, or South or Only preach;
On nimble wings to Warwick-lane repairs,
And what the enemy intends, declares.
Confusion in each countenance appear'd,
A council's call'd, and Stentor first was heard;
His labouring lungs the thron'd prætorium rent,
Addressing thus the passive president :
As bold Mirmillo the grey dawn descries,
Arm'd cap-a-pee, where honour calls, he flies,
And finds the legions planted at their post;
Where mighty Querpo fill'd the eye the most.
His arms were made, if we may credit fame,
By Muleiber, the mayor of Birmingham.
Of temper'd stibium the bright shield was cast,
And yet the work the metal far surpass'd.
A foliage of the vulnerary leaves,
Gray'd round the brim, the wondering sight de-
Around the centre Fate's bright trophies lay,
Probes, saws, incision-knives, and tools to slay.
Embost upon the field, a battle stood
Of leeches spouting hæmorrhoidal blood.
The artist too express'd the solemn state
Of grave physicians at a consult met;
About each symptom how they disagree,
But how unanimous in case of fee.
Whilst each assassin his learn'd colleague tires
With learn'd impertinence, the sick expires.
Beneath this blazing orb bright Querpo shone,
Himself an Atlas, and his shield a moon.
A pestal for his truncheon led the van,
And his high helmet was a close-stool pan.
His crest an ibis, brandishing her beak,
And winding in loose folds her spiral neck.
This when the young Querpoïdes beheld,
His face in nurse's breast the boy conceal'd;
Then peept, and with th' effulgent helm would play,
And as the monster gap'd, would shrink away.
Thus sometimes joy prevail'd, and sometimes fear;
And tears and smiles alternate passions were.
"Machaon, whose experience we adore,
Great as your matchless merit, is your power.
At your approach, the baffled tyra Death[teeth.
140 Breaks his keen shafts, and grinds his clashing
To you we leave the conduct of the day;
What you command your vassals must obey.
We'll send to treat, and stifle the design.
If this dread enterprise you would decline,
To humble our audacious foes, or die:
But, if my arguments had force, we'd try
Our spite, they 'll find, to their advantage leans;
The end is good, no matter for the means.
So modern casuists their talents try,
Uprightly for the sake of truth to lie."
He bad not finish'd, till th' out-guards descry'd
Bright columns move in formidable pride;
As Querpo towering stood in martial might,
Pacific Carus sparkled on the right.
An oran outang o'er his shoulders hung,
His plume confess'd the capon whence it sprung.
His motly mail scarce could the hero bear,
Haranguing thus the tribunes of the war:
"Fam'd chiefs,
For present triumphs born, design'd for more,
Your virtue I admire, your valour more.
If battle be resolv'd, you 'll find this hand
Can deal out destiny, and fate command.
Our foes in throngs shall hide the crimson plain,
And their Apollo interpose in vain.
Ver. 205.-True to extremes, yet to dull forms a
He's always dully gay, or vainly grave.
With indignation, and a daring air,
He paus'd awhile, and thus address'd the chair,
'Dr. Goodall. * Sir Thomas Millington.
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