And not to ev'ry one that comes,
Just as a Scotchman does his plums.
"Pray take them, Sir-enough's a feast :

"Eat fome, and pocket up the rest."

What, rob your boys? those pretty rogues!

No, Sir, you'll leave them to the hogs."
Thus fools with compliments befiege ye,

Contriving never to oblige ye.
Scatter your favours on a fop,

Ingratitude's the certain crop;
And 'tis but just, I'll tell you wherefore,
You give the things you never care for.

A wife man always is or shou'd

Be mighty ready to do good;
But makes a diff'rence in his thought
Betwixt a guinea and a groat.

Now this I'll fay, You'll find in me
A fafe companion, and a free;
But if you'd have me always near-
A word, pray, in your Honour's ear:
I hope it is your refolution
To give me back my conftitution!
The sprightly wit, the lively eye,
Th' engaging fmile, the gaiety

Non, quo more pyris vefci Calaber jubet hofpes,
Tu me fecifti locupletem. Vefcere fodes.
Jam fatis eft. At tu quantumvis tolle. Benigne.
Non invisa feres pueris munuscula parvis.
Tam teneor dono, quam fi dimittar onuftus.
Ut libet: hæc porcis hodie comedenda relinques.
Prodigus et stultus donat quæ spernit et odit :
Hæc feges ingratos tulit, et feret omnibus annis.,
Vir bonus et fapiens, dignis ait effe paratum;
Nec tamen ignorat quid distent æra lupinis.
Dignum præstabo me etiam pró laude merentis.
Quod fi me noles ufquam difcedere; reddes
Forte latus, nigros angufta fronte capillos:
Reddes dulce loqui: reddes ridere decorum, et
Inter vina fugam Cynare mærere protervæ.

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That laugh'd down many a summer fun,
And kept you up fo oft' till one,
And all that voluntary vein,
As when Belinda rais'd my strain.

A weafel once made shift to flink
In at a corn-loft thro' a chink;
But having amply stuff'd his skin,
Could not get out as he got in;
Which one belonging to the house
('Twas not a man, it was a Moufe)
Observing, cry'd, "You 'scape not fo :
"Lean as you came, Sir, you must go."

Sir, you may spare your application,

I'm no fuch beast, nor his relation,
Nor one that temperance advance,
Cramm'd to throat with ortolans;
Extremely ready to refign

All that may make me none of mine.
South-fea fubfcriptions take who please,
Leave me but liberty and ease.
'Twas what I faid to Craggs and Child,
Who prais'd my modefty, and smil'd.
Give me, I cry'd, (enough for me,)
My bread and independency !
So bought an annual rent or two,
And liv'd-jufst as you fee I do;
Near fifty, and without a wife,
I trust that sinking-fund my life.

Forte per anguftam tenuis vulpecula rimam
Repferat in cumeram frumenti; pastaque, rurfus
Ire foras pleno tendebat corpore fruftra.
Cui mustela procul, Si vis, ait, effugere istinc,
Macra cavum repetes arctum, quem macra subisti
Hac ego fi compellor imagine, cuncta refigno;
Nec fomnum plebis laudo fatur altilium, nec
Otia divitiis Arabum liberrima muto.
Sæpe verecundum laudatti: Rexque, Paterque
Audisti coram, nec verbo parcius abfens.
Inspice fi poffum donata reponere lætus.

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Can I retrench? Yes, mighty well,
Shrink back to my paternal cell,
A little house with trees a-row,
And, like its master, very low :
There dy'd my father, no man's debtor,
And there I'll die, nor worse nor better.

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To fet this matter full before ye. Our old friend Swift will tell his story.

Parvum parva decent. mihi jam non regia Roma,
Sed vacuum Tibur placet, aut imbelle Tarentum.
Strenuus et fortis, causisque Philippus agendis
Clarus, &c.

84 IMITATED.

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THE reflections of Horace, and the judgments paffed in his Epistle to Augustus, seemed so seasonable to the present times, that I could not help applying them to the use of my own country. The author thought them confiderable enough to addrets them to his prince, whom he paints with all the great and good qualities of a monarch upon whom the Romans depended for the increase of an abfolute empire : but to make the Poem entirely English, I was willing to add one or two of those which contribute to the hap-piness of a free people, and are more confiftent with the welfare of our neighbours.

This Epiftle will shew the learned world to have fallen into two mistakes: one, that Augustus was a patron of Poets in general; whereas he not only prohibited all but the best writers to name him, but recommended that care even to the civil magiftrate; Admonebat prætores, ne puterentur nomen fuum obfolefieri, &c. the other, that this Piece was only a general discourse of poetry; whereas it was an apology for the poets, in order to render Augustus more their patron. Horace here pleads the cause of his contemporaries; first, against the taste of the town, whose humour it was to magnify the authors of the preceding age; fecondly, against the court and nobility, who encouraged only the writers for the theatre; and, lastly, against the Emperor himself, who had conceived them of little use to the government. He shews (by a view of the progress of learning, and the change of tafte among the Romans) that the introduction of the polite arts of Greece had given the writers of his time great advantages over their predeceffors; that their morals were much improved, and the licence of those ancient poets restrained; that Satire and Comedy were be

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come more just and useful; that whatever extravagancies were left on the stage were owing to the ill tafte of the nobility; that Poets, under due regulations, were in many respets ueful to the state, and concludes, that it was upon them the Emperor himself must depend for his same with pofteritv.

We may further learn from this Epistle, that Horace made his court to this great Prince, by writing with a decent freedom towards him, with a just contempt of his low flatterers, and with a manly regard to his own character.-P.