In fancy'd want, (a wretch compleat),
He ftarves,, and yet he dares not eat.
The next to fudden honours grew;
The thriving art of courts he knew:
He reach'd the height of power and place;
Then fell, the victim of difgrace.
Beauty with early bloom supplies
His daughter's cheek, and points her eyes.
The vain coquette each fuit difdains,
And glories in her lover's pains.
With age. fhe fades, each lover flies,
Contemn'd, forlorn, fhe pines and dies.
When Jove the father's grief survey'd,
And heard him Heav'n and Fate upbraid,
Thus fpoke the God. By outward fhow,
Men judge of happiness and woe:
Shall ignorance of good and ill
Dare to direct th' eternal will ?
Seek virtue; and of that possest,,
To Providence refign the rest..
FABLE XLVII.
The COURT of DEATH
DEATH, on a folemn night of state,
Th' attendants of his gloomy reign,
Diseases dire, a ghaftly train,
Crowd the vast court. With hollow tone
A voice thus thunder'd from the throne.
This night our minifter we name,
Let ev'ry fervant fpeak his claim;
Merit shall bear this ebon wand.
All, at the word, stretch'd forth their hand..
Bb 3
Fever
Fever, with burning heat possest,
Advanc'd, and for the wand addreft.
I to the weekly bills appeal,
Let those express my fervent zeal;
On ev'ry flight occafion near,
With violence I perfevere.
Next Gout appears with limping pace,
Pleads how he fhifts from place to place;
From head to foot how swift he flies,
And ev'ry joint and finew plys;
Still working when he feems fuppreft;
A most tenacious ftubborn guest.
A haggard spectre from the crew
Crawls forth, and thus afferts his due.
'Tis I who taint the sweetest joy,
And in the shape of love deftroy:
My fhanks, funk eyes, and nofelefs face,
Prove my pretenfion to the place.
Stone urg'd his ever-growing force.
And, next, Confumption's meagre corfe,
With feeble voice, that fcarce was heard,
Broke with short coughs, his fuit preferr'd.
Let none object my ling'ring way,
I gain, like Fabius, by delay;
Fatigue and weaken ev'ry foe
By long attack, fecure though flow.
Plague reprefents his rapid power,
Who thinn'd a nation in an hour.
All spoke their claim, and hop'd the wand.
Now expectation hufh'd the Band,
When thus the monarch from the throne.
Merit was ever modeft known.
What, no phyfician fpeak his right!
None here? But fees their toils requite.
Let then Intemp'rance take the wand,
Who fills with gold their zealous hand.
You, Fever, Gout, and all the reft,
(Whom wary men, as foes, deteft),
Forego your claim; no more pretend:.
Intemp'rance is esteem'd a friend;
He shares their mirth, their focial joys,
And, as a courted gueft, deftroys.
The charge on him most justly fall,
Who finds employment for you all.
The H ER MIT.
[By Dr. THOMAS PARNELL.]
AR in a wild, unknown to public view,
From youth to age a rev'rend Hermit grew;
The mofs his bed, the cave his humble cell,
His food the fruits, his drink the chryftal well:
Remote from man, with God he pafs'd the days,
Pray'r all his bus'nefs, all his pleasure praise.
A life fo facred, fuch ferene repofe,
Seem'd heav'n itfelf; 'till one fuggestion rofe,
That vice fhou'd triumph, virtue vice obey,
This sprung fome doubt of providence's fway:
His hopes no more a certain profpect boaft,
And all the tenour of his foul is loft:
So when a smooth expanfe receives impreft
Calm nature's image on its watry breaft,
Down bend the banks, the trees depending
grow,
And fkies beneath with anfw'ring colours.
glow:
But if a ftone the gentle fcene divide,
Swift ruffling circles curl on ev'ry fide,
And glimmering fragments of a broken fun,
Banks, trees, and fkies, in thick diforder run.
To
To clear this doubt, to know the world by fight,
To find if books, or fwains, report it right; (For yet by fwains alone the world he knew, Whofe feet came wand'ring o'er the nightly dew)
He quits his cell; the pilgrim-staff he bore, And fix'd the fcallop in his hat before;. Then with the fun a rifing journey went, Sedate to think, and watching each event.
The morn was wafted in the pathlefs grafs, And long and lonefome was the wild to pafs; But when the fouthern fun had warm'd the day, A youth came pofting o'er a croffing way; His raiment decent, his complexion fair, And foft in graceful ringlets wav'd his hair. Then near approaching, Father, hail! he cry'd, And hail, my fon, the rev'rend Sire reply'd; Words follow'd words, from queftion anfwer flow'd,
And talk of various kind deceiv'd the road;
'Till each with other pleas'd, and loth to part,
While in their age they differ, join in heart:
Thus ftands an aged elm in ivy bound,
Thus youthful ivy clafps an elm around.
Now funk the fun; the clofing hour of day Came onward, mantled o'er. with fober grey; Nature in filence bid the world repofe: When near the road a ftately palace rofe: There by the moon thro' ranks of trees they
pafs,
Whofe verdure crown'd their floping fides of grafs.
It chanc'd the noble mafter of the dome, Still made his houfe the wand'ring ftranger's home:
Yet ftill the kindness, from a thirst of praise,
Prov'd the vain flourish of expenfive eafe.
The pair arrive the liv'ry'd fervants wait;
Their lord receives them at the pompous gate.
The table groans with coftly piles of food,
And all is more than hofpitably good.
Then led to reft, the day's long toil they
drown,
Deep funk in fleep, and filk, and heaps of down.
At length 'tis morn, and, at the dawn of day,
Along the wide canals the Zephyrs play;
Fresh o'er the gay parterres the breezes creep,
And shake the neighb'ring wood to banish
fleep.
Up rife the guests, obedient to the call:
An early banquet deck'd the fplendid hall;
Rich lufcious wine a golden goblet grac'd,
Which the kind mafter forc'd the guests to
tafte.
Then pleas'd and thankful, from the porch they go;
And, but the landlord, none had caufe of
woe;
His cup was vanish'd; for in fecret guise
The younger guest purloin'd the glitt'ring
prize.
As one who fpies a ferpent in his way,
Glift'ning and basking in the fummer ray,
Disorder'd ftops to fhun the danger near,
Then walks with faintnefs on, and looks with
fear:
So feem'd the Sire; when far upon the road,
The fhining spoil his wiley partner show'd.
He
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