Recovering hardly what he loft before,
His right endears it much; his purchase more.
Inur'd to fuffer ere he came to reign,
No rafh procedure will his actions stain:
To business ripen'd by digeftive thought,
His future rule is into method brought:
As they, who first proportion understand,
With eafy practice reach a master's hand.
Well might the ancient poets then confer
On night the honour'd name of Counseller,
Since ftruck with rays of profperous fortune blind,
We light alone in dark afflictions find.
In fuch adverfities to fcepters train'd,
The name of Great his famous grandfire gain'd:
Who yet a king alone in name and right,
With hunger, cold, and angry Jove did fight;
Shock'd by a cov'nanting league's vaft pow'rs,
As holy and as catholic as our's:
Till fortune's fruitless spite had made it known,
Her blows not fhook but riveted his throne.
Some lazy ages, loft in fleep and ease,
No action leave to bufy chronicles :
Such, whofe fupine felicity but makes
In ftory chafms, in epocha mistakes;
O'er whom Time gently shakes his wings of down, "Till with his filent fickle they are mown.
Such is not Charles' too too active age,
Which, govern'd by the wild diftemper'd rage
Of some black star infecting all the skies,
Made him at his own coft like Adam wife.
Tremble ye nations, which secure before,
Laugh'd at those arms that 'gainst our selves we
Rouz'd by the lash of his own stubborn tail,
Our lion now will foreign foes affail.
With alga who the facred altar ftrews?
To all the fea gods Charles an off'ring owes:
A bull to thee, Portunus, fhall be flain,
A lamb to you, ye tempefts of the main :
For those loud ftorms that did against him roar,
Have caft his fhipwreck'd veffel on the shore.
Yet as wife artists mix their colours fo,
That by degrees they from each other go;
Black steals unheeded from the neighb'ring white,
Without offending the well-cozen'd fight:
So on us ftole our bleffed change; while we
Th' effect did feel, but fcarce the manner fee.
Frosts that constrain the ground, and birth deny
To flow'rs that in its womb expecting lie,
Do feldom their ufurping pow'r withdraw,
But raging floods pursue their hafty thaw.
Our thaw was mild, the cold not chas'd away,
But loft in kindly heat of lengthned day.
Heaven would no bargain for its bleffings drive,
But what we could not pay for, freely give.
The Prince of peace would like himself confer
A gift unhop'd, without the price of war:
Yet, as he knew his bleffing's worth, took care,
That we should know it by repeated pray'r;
Which storm'd the skies, and ravish'd Charles
from thence,
As heav'n itself is took by violence.
Booth's forward valour only ferv'd to show,
He durft that duty pay we all did owe:
Th' attempt was fair; but heav'n's prefixed hour
Not come fo like the watchful traveller
That by the moon's mistaken light did rise,
Lay down again, and clos'd his weary eyes.
"Twas Monk, whom Providence defign'd to loofe
Those real bonds false freedom did impose.
The bleffed faints, that watch'd this turning scene,
Did from their stars with joyful wonder lean,
To fee small clues draw vastest weights along,
Not in their bulk but in their order strong.
Thus pencils can by one flight touch restore
Smiles to that changed face that wept before.
With ease such fond chimaeras we pursue,
As fancy frames for fancy to fubdue:
But when ourselves to action we betake,
It fhuns the mint like gold that chemists make. How hard was then his tafk! at once to be What in the body natural we fee?
Man's architect distinctly did ordain
The charge of mufcles, nerves, and of the brain,
Through viewless conduits spirits to dispense;
The springs of motion from the feat of sense.
"Twas not the hafty product of a day,
But the well-ripen'd fruit of wife delay.
He, like a patient angler, ere he ftrook,
Would let him play a while upon the hook.
Our healthful food the ftomach labours thus,
At first embracing what it straight doth crush.
Wife leaches will not vain receipts obtrude,
While growing pains pronounce the humours
crude:
Deaf to complaints they wait upon the ill,
'Till fome fafe crifis authorize their skill.
Nor could his acts too close a vizard wear,
To 'scape their eyes whom guilt had taught to fear,
And guard with caution that polluted nest,
Whence legion twice before was difpoffeft:
Once facred house; which when they enter'd in,
They thought the place could fanctify a sin ;
Like thofe that vainly hop'd kind heav'n wouldwink,
While to excess on martyrs tombs they drink.
And as devouter Turks firft warn their fouls
To part, before they tafte forbidden bowls :
So these, when their black crimes they went about,
First timely charm'd their useless conscience out.
Religion's name against itself was made;
The shadow ferv'd the substance to invade :
Like zealous miffions, they did care pretend
Of fouls in fhew, but made the gold their end.
Th' incensed pow'rs beheld with scorn from high
An heaven fo far distant from the sky,
Which durft, with horfes hoofs that beat the ground,
And martial brafs, bely the thunder's found.
'Twas hence at length juft vengeance thought it fit
To fpeed their ruin by their impious wit.
Thus Sforza, curs'd with a too fertile brain,
Loft by his wiles the pow'r his wit did gain.
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