Points out the place of either yew; 175 VERSES ON THE DEATH OF DOCTOR SWIFT. OCCASIONED BY READING THE FOLLOWING MAXIM IN ROCHFOUCAULT: Dans l'adverfité de nos meilleurs amis nous trouvons toujours quelque chofe, qui ne nous déplaift pas. WRITTEN BY HIMSELF: NOV. 1731. As s Rochfoucault his maxims drew This maxim more than all the reft Is thought too base for human breaft: "In all diftreffes of our friends 5 "We first confult our private ends; Let reafon and experience prove. Our equal rais'd above our size. If in a battle you should find One whom you love of all mankind, A champion kill'd, or trophy won; 15 20 25 Lies rack'd with pain, and you without: How patiently you hear him groan! How glad, the case is not your own! What poet would not grieve to fee His brother write as well as he? But, rather than they should excel, 30 Her end when emulation miffes, She turns to envy, ftings, and hiffes: Vain human-kind! fantastick race! Their empire in our hearts divide. 40 Give others riches, power, and station; 'Tis all on me an ufurpation. I have no title to aspire; Yet, when you fink, I seem the higher. In Pope I cannot read a line, 45 But with a figh I wish it mine: 50 Which I was born to introduce ; 55 Refin'd it first, and fhew'd its use. St. John, as well as Pultney,+ knows That I had fome repute for profe; Viscount Bolingbroke. + William Pulteney, efq; afterward earl of Bath. And, till they drove me out of date, If with fuch talents heav'n hath bleft 'em, To all my foes, dear Fortune, fend 60 65 I tamely can endure the first ; But this with envy makes me burst, Thus much may serve by way of proem; Proceed we therefore to our poem. The time is not remote, when I Muft by the course of nature dye; When, I foresee, my fpecial friends Will try to find their private ends. And, tho' 'tis hardly understood Which way my death can do them good, 70 75 Yet thus, methinks, I hear them speak: Plies you with ftories o'er and o'er; Who, for his wine, will bear his jokes. For poetry, he's past his prime; And then their tenderness appears By adding largely to my years: 100 He's older than he would be reckon❜d, 105 And well remembers Charles the second. He hardly drinks a pint of wine; And that, I doubt, is no good fign. His ftomach too begins to fail: Laft year we thought him strong and hale; I wish he may hold out till spring. They hug themselves, and reason thus ; |