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"Secure, the radiant weapons wield;
This golden lance shall guard Desert,
And if a Vice dares keep the field,

This steel shall stab it to the heart."

Aw'd, on my bended knees I fell,
Receiv'd the weapons of the sky;
And dipt them in the sable Well,
The Fount of Fame or Infamy.

"What Well? what Weapon? (Flavia cries) A standish, steel and golden pen!

It came from Bertrand's*, not the skies;

I

gave it you to write again.

"But, Friend, take heed whom you attack; You'll bring a House (I mean of Peers) Red, Blue, and Green, nay white and black, Land all about your ears.

"You'd write as smooth again on glass,

And run, on ivory, so glib,

As not to stick at fool or asst,
Nor stop at Flattery or Fib‡.

"Athenian Queen! and sober charms!
I tell ye, fool, there's nothing in't:
'Tis Venus, Venus gives these arms* ;
In Dryden's Virgil see the prints.

"Come, if you'll be a quiet soul,
That dares tell neither Truth nor Liest,
I'll list you in the harmless roll

Of those that sing of these poor eyes."

NOTES.

* Such toys being the usual presents from lovers to their mistresses.

+ When she delivers Æneas a suit of heavenly armour.

W.

i. e. If you have neither the courage to write Satire, nor the application to attempt an Epic Poem.-He was then meditating on such a work.

W.

I shall here present the Reader with a valuable Literary Curiosity, a Fragment of an unpublished Satire of Pope, entitled, ONE THOUSAND SEVEN HUNDRED AND FORTY; communicated to me by the kindness of the learned and worthy Dr. Wilson, formerly fellow and librarian of Trinity College, Dublin; who speaks of the Fragment in the following terms:

"This Poem I transcribed from a rough draft in Pope's own hand. He left many blanks for fear of the Argus Eye of those who, if they cannot find, can fabricate treason; yet, spite of his precaution, it fell into the hands of his enemies. To the hieroglyphics, there are direct allusions, I think, in some of the notes on the Dunciad. It was lent me by a grandson of Lord Chetwynd, an intimate friend of the famous Lord Bolingbroke, who gratified his curiosity by a boxful of the rubbish and sweepings of Pope's study, whose executor he was, in conjunction with Lord Marchmont."