Be virtuous, and he happy for your pains.

2 But art thou one, whom new opinions sway, One who believes as Tindal leads the way, Who virtue and a church alike disowns,

Thinks that but words, and this but brick and stones?
Fly 3 then on all the wings of wild desire,
Admire whate'er the maddest can admire:
Is wealth thy passion? Hence! from pole to pole,
Where winds can carry, or where waves can roll,
For Indian spices, for Peruvian gold,

Prevent the greedy, or outbid the bold:

4

* Advance thy golden mountain to the skies;
On the broad base of fifty thousand rise,
Add one round hundred, and (if that's not fair)
Add fifty more, and bring it to a square.
For, mark th' advantage; just so many score,
Will gain a wife with half as many more,
Procure her beauty, make that beauty chaste,
And then such friends-as cannot fail to last.
A man of wealth is dubb'd a man of worth,
Venus shall give him form, and Anstis birth.
(Believe me, many a German prince is worse,
Who proud of pedigree is poor of purse)
His wealth brave Timon gloriously confounds;
Ask for a groat, he gives a hundred pounds;
Or if three ladies like a luckless play,
Takes the whole house upon the poet's day.
10 Now, in such exigencies not to need,
Upon my word, you must be rich indeed;
A noble superfluity it craves,

Not for yourself, but for your fools and knaves;
Something, which for your honour they may cheat,
And which it much becomes you to forget.

11 If wealth alone then make and keep us blest,
Still, still be getting, never, never rest.

12 But if to power and place your passion lie,
If in the pomp of life consist the joy;
Then 13 hire a slave, or (if you will) a lord,
To do the honours, and to give the word;
Tell at your levee,
To whom 14 to nod,

as the crouds approach,
whom take into your coach

Quare fugam morbi. 1vis recte vivere quis non?
Si virtus hoc una potest dare, fortis omissis
Hoc age deliciis.

2 virtutem verba putes, et
Lucum ligna? 3 cave ne portus occupet alter;
Ne Cibyratica, ne Bithyna negotia perdas :
* Mille talenta rotundentur, totidem altera, porro et
Tertia succedant, et quæ pars quadret acervum.
Scilicet uxorem cuin dote, fidemque, et amicos,
Et genus, et formam, regina Pecunia donat;
Ac bene nummatum decorat Suadela, Venusque.
Mancipiis locuples, eget æris Capadocum rex :
Ne fueris hic tu. 9 chlamydes Lucullus, ut aiunt,
Si posset centum scenæ præbere rogatus, [habebo
Qui possum tot? ait: tamen et quaram, et quot
Mittam: post paulo scribit, sibi millia quinque
Esse domi chlamydum: partem, vel tolleret omnes.
10 Exilis domus est, ubi non et multa supersunt,
Et dominum fallunt, et prosunt furibus. ergo,
Si res sola potest facere et servare beatum,
Hoc primus repetas opus, hoc postremus omittas.
12 Si fortunatum species et gratia præstat,
13 Mercemur servum, qui dictet nomina, lævum
Qui fodicet latus, et cogat trans pondera dex-

tram

14

11

Who rules in Cornwall, or who rules in Berks :
"This may be troublesome, is near the chair:
That makes three members, this can chuse a mayor."
Instructed thus, you bow, embrace, protest,
Adopt him son, or cousin at the least,
Then turn about, and laugh at your own jest.
Or if your life be one continued treat,

2

3

If 4 to live well means nothing but to eat;
Up, up! cries Gluttony, 'tis break of day,
Go drive the deer, and drag the finny prey;
With hounds and horns go hunt an appetite-
So Russel did, but could not eat at night;
Call'd happy dog! the beggar at his door,
And envy'd thirst and hunger to the poor.
Or shall we 6 every decency confound;
Through taverns, stews, and bagnio's take our round;
Go dine with Chartres, in each vice outdo
'K--I's lewd cargo, or Ty-y's crew;

From Latian syrens, French Circæan feasts,
Return well travell'd, and transform'd to beasts;
Or for a titled punk, or foreign flame,

8

Renounce our country and degrade our name?
If, after all, we must with Wilmot own,
The cordial drop of life is love alone,

And Swift cry wisely, "Vive la bagatelle!"
The man that loves and laughs, must sure do well.
10 Adieu-if this advice appear the worst,
E'en take the counsel which I gave you first:
Or better precepts if you can impart,

Why do, I'll follow them with all my heart.

1

3

Porrigere: ' Hic multum in Fabia valet ille Velina:
Cui libet, is faces dabit; eripietque curule,
Cui volet, importunus ebur: 2 Frater, Pater, adde:
Ut cuique est ætas, ita quemque facetus adopta.
Si bene qui cœnat, bene vivit; lucet: eamus
Quo ducit gula: piscemur, venemur, ut olim
Gargilius: qui mane plagas, venabula, servos,
Ditiertum transire forum populumque jubebat,
Unus ut e multis populo spectante referret
Emptum mulus aprum. crudi, tumidique lavemur,
Quid deceat, quid non, obliti; Cærite cera
Digni; remigium vitiosum Ithacensis Ulyssei;
Cui potior patria fuit interdicta voluptas.
"Si, Mimnermus uti censet, sine amore jocisque
Nil est jucundum; vivas in amore jocisque.
10 Vive, vale. si quid novisti rectius istis,
Candidus imperti; si non, his utere mecum.

a

"Who lasts a' century can have no flaw; I hold that wit a classic, good in law."

Suppose he wants a year, will you compound? And shall we deem him2 ancient right and sound, Or damn to all eternity at once,

At ninety-nine, a modern aud a dunce?

"We shall not quarrel for a year or two; By courtesy of England, he may do."

Then, by the rule that made the horse-tail bare, I pluck out year by year as hair by hair,

5

6

And melt down ancients like a heap of snow :
While you, to measure merits, look in Stowe,
And, estimating authors by the year,
Bestow a garland only on a 'bier.

[bill

8 Shakespeare (whom you and every playhouse
Style the divine, the matchless, what yon will)
For gain, not glory, wing'd his roving flight,
And grew immortal in his own despite.
Ben, old and poor, as little scem'd to heed
The life to come in every poet's creed.
Who now reads 10 Cowley? if he pleases yet,
His moral pleases, not his pointed wit;
Forgot his epic, nay pindaric art,
But still "I love the language of his heart.
"Yet surely, 12 surely, these were famous men!
What boy but hears the saying of old Ben?
In all 13 debates where critics bear a part,
Not one but nods, and talks of Jonson's art,
Of Shakespeare's nature, and of Cowley's wit;
How Beaumont's judgment check'd what Fletcher
writ;

How Shadwell hasty, Wycherley was slow;
But, for the passions, Southerne, sure, and Rowe.
These, 14 only these, support the crowded stage,
From eldest Heywood down to Cibber's age."

All this may be; "the peoples voice is odd,
It is, and it is not, the voice of God.
To 16 Gammer Gurton if it give the bays,
And yet deny the Careless Husband praise,

Scriptor ab hinc annos centum qui decidit, inter
Perfectos veteresque referri debet, an inter
Viles atque novos? excludat jurgia finis.
Est vetus atque probus, ' centum qui perficit annos.
Quid? qui deperiit minor uno mense vel anno,
Inter quos referendus erit? 2 veteresne poetas,
An quos et præsens et postera respuat ætas ?
Iste quidem veteres inter ponetur honeste,
Qui vel mense brevi, vel toto est junior anno.
Utor permisso, caudæque pilos ut equinæ
Paulatim vello: et demo unum, demo et item
Dum cadat elusus ratione 'ruentis acervi, [unum;
Qui redit in fastos, et virtutem æstimat aunis,
Miraturque nihil, nisi quod Libitina saeravit.

7

Or say our fathers never broke a rule;
Why then, I say, the public is a fool.
But let them own, that greater faults than we
They had, and greater virtues, I'll agree.
Spenser himself affects the obsolete,

And Sydney's verse halts ill on Roman feet:
Milton's strong pinion now not Heaven can bound,
Now serpent-like in 'prose he sweeps the ground,
In quibbles, angel and archangel join,
And God the father turns a school-divine.

Not that I'd lop the beauties from his book,
Like slashing Bently with his desperate hook,
Or dann all Shakespeare, like th' affected fool
At court, who hates what 'er he read at school.
But for the wits of either Charles's days,
The mob of gentlemen who wrote with case;
Sprat, Carew, Sedley, and a hundred more,
(Like twinkling stars the miscellanies o'er)
One simile, that solitary shines
In the dry desert of a thousand lines,
Or lengthen'd thought that gleams through many
Has sanctify'd whole poems for an age. [a page,
'I lose my patience, and I own it too,
When works are censur'd, not as bad, but new ;
While, if our elders break all reason's laws,
These fools demand not pardon, but applause.

9

10 On Avon's bank, where flowers eternal blow, If I but ask if any weed can grow; One tragic sentence if I dare deride, Which "Betterton's grave action dignify'd, Or well-mouth'd Booth with emphasis proclaims, (Though but, perhaps, a muster-roll of names) How will our fathers rise up in a rage, And swear, all shame is lost in George's age! You'd think 12 no fools disgrac'd the former reign, Did not some grave examples yet remain, Who scorn a lad should teach his father skill, And having once been wrong, will be so still. He, who to seem more deep than you or I, Extols old bards, 13 or Merlin's prophecy, Mistake him not; he envies, not admires, And to debase the sons, exalts the sires.

Ut nihil anteferat, nihil illis comparet; errat: Si quædam nimis 'antique, si pleraque dure Dicere credit eos, ignave multa fatetur ;

4

Et sapit, et mecum facit, et Jove judicat æquo.
* Non equidem insector, delendaque carmina Livi
Esse reor, memini quæ plagosum mihi parvo
Orbiliun dictare;

sed emendata videri
Pulchraque, et exactis minimum distantia, miror ;
Inter quæ verbum emicuit si forte decorum,
Si versus paulo concinnior unus et alter;
Injuste totum ducit venditque poema.

Indignor quidquam reprehendi, non quia crasse Compositum, illepideve putetur, sed quia nuper; Nec veniam antiquis, sed honorem et præmia posci.

10 Recte neene crocum floresque perambulet Atta Fabula, si dubitem; clamant periisse pudorem Cuncti pene patres: ea cun reprehendere coner, Quæ gravis Esopus, quæ doctus Roscius egit. Vel quia nil rectuma, nisi quod placuit sibi,

ducunt;

Vel quia turpe putant parere minoribus, et quæ
Imberbi didicerè, senes perdenda fateri.
Jan Saliare Nunæ carmen qui laudat, et illud,
Quod mecum ignorat, solus vult scire videri;
Ingeniis non ille favet plauditque sepultis,
Nostra sed impugnat, nos nostraque lividus odit.

'Had ancient times conspir'd to disallow
What then was new, what had been ancient now?
Or what remain'd, so worthy to be read
By learned critics, of the mighty dead?

2 In days of ease, when now the weary sword
Was sheath'd, and luxury with Charles restor❜d;
In every taste of foreign courts improv'd,
"All, by the king's example, liv'd and lov'd."
Then peers grew proud 'in horsemanship t' excel,
Newmarket's glory rose, as Britain's fell;
The soldier breath'd the gallantries of France,
And every flowery courtier writ romance.
Then marble, soften'd into life, grew warm,
And yielding metal flow'd to human form:
Lely on animated canvas stole

The sleepy eye, that spoke the melting soul.
No wonder then, when all was love and sport,
The willing Muses were debauch'd at court:
On each enervate string they taught the note
To pant or tremble through an eunuch's throat.
But Britain, changeful as a child at play,
Now calls in princes, and now turns away.
Now Whig, now Tory, what we lov'd we hate;
Now all for pleasure, now for church or state;
Now for prerogative, and now for laws;
Effects unhappy! from a noble cause.

Time was, a sober Englishman would knock His servants up, and rise by five o'clock, Instruct his family in every rule,

And send his wife to church, his son to school.
To worship like his fathers, was his care;
To teach their frugal virtues to his heir;
To prove that luxury could never hold;
And place, on good 10 security, his gold.
Now times are chang'd, and one " poetic itch
Has seiz'd the court and city, poor and rich:
Sous, sires, and grandsires, all will wear the

bays,

Our wives read Milton, and our daughters plays,
To theatres and to rehearsals throng,
And all our grace at tables is a song.
I, who so oft renounce the Muses, 12 lie,
Not's self e'er tells more fibbs than I;

1 Quod si tam Græcis novitas invisa fuisset, Quam nobis; quid nunc esset vetus? aut quid haberet,

3

Quod legeret tereretque viritim publicus usus? 2 Ut primum positis nugari Græcia bellis Cœpit, et in vitium fortuna labier æqua; Nunc athletarum studiis, nunc arsit equorum: * Marmoris aut eboris fabros aut æris amavit; Suspendit picta vultum mentemque tabella; Nunc tibicinibus, nunc est gavisa tragœdis: 7 Sub nutrice puella velut si luderet infans, Quod cupide petiit, mature plena reliquit. Quid placet, aut odio est, quod non mutabile credas?

Hoc paces habuere bonæ, ventique secundi.

Rome dulce diu fuit et solemne, reclusa Mane domo vigilare, clienti promere jura ; Scriptos nominibus rectis expendere nummos ; 12 Majores audire, minori dicere, per quæ Crescere res posset minui damnosa libido Mutavit mentem populus levis, "et calet uno Scribendi studio: puerique patresque severi Fronde comas vincti cœnant, et carmina dictant. Ipse ego, qui nullos me affirmo scribere versus, Invenior Parthis mendacior; et prius orto Sole vigil, calamum et chartas et scrinia posco. VOL. XII.

When sick of Muse, our follies we deplore,
And promise our best friends to rhyme no more;
We wake next morning in a raging fit,
And call for pen and ink to show our wit.

'He serv'd a 'prenticeship, who sets up shop;
Ward try'd on puppies, and the poor, his drop;
Ev'n Radcliffe's doctors travel first to France,
Nor dare to practise till they've learn'd to dance.
Who builds a bridge that never drove a pile?
(Should Ripley venture, all the world would smile)
But those who cannot write, and those who can,
All rhyme, and scrawl, and scribble, to a man.
Yet, sir, reflect, the mischief is not great;
These madmen never hurt the church or state:
Sometimes the folly benefits mankind;,

4

And rarely avarice taints the tuneful mind, Allow him but his plaything of a pen,

6

Of little use the man you may suppose, Who says in verse what others say in prose: Yet let me show, a poet 's of some weight, And (10 though no soldier) useful to the state. 11 What will a child learn sooner than a song? What better teach a foreigner the tongue? What's long or short, each accent where to place, And speak in public with some sort of grace. I scarce can think him such a worthless thing, Unless he praise some monster of a king: Or virtue, or religion turn to sport, To please a lewd or unbelieving court. Unhappy Dryden !-In all Charles's days, Roscommon only boasts unspotted bays; And in our own (excuse some courtly stains) No whiter page than Addison remains; He 12 from the taste obscene rcelains our youth, And sets the passions on the side of Truth, Forms the soft bosom with the gentlest art, And pours each human virtue in the heart. Let Ireland tell, how wit upheld her cause, Her trade supported, and supplied her laws; And leave on Swift this grateful verse engrav'd, "The rights a court attack'd, a poet sav'd." Behold the hand that wrought a nation's cure, Stretch'd to 13 relieve the idiot and the poor,