I'm stopp'd by all the fools I meet, 'You, Mr Dean, frequent the great ; "Tis one to me―Then tell us, pray, I know no more than my Lord Mayor, Thus in a sea of folly toss'd, Those cares that haunt the court and town. A neighbour's madness, or his spouse's, 111 120 130 140 But something much more our concern, Whether we ought to choose our friends, Our friend Dan Prior told (you know) Knew what was handsome, and would do 't, He brought him bacon (nothing lean); 145 150 160 170 Then spend your life in joy and sport, May yield, God knows, to strong temptation. Our courtier walks from dish to dish, Tells all their names, lays down the law, Que ça est bon! Ah goutez ça! That jelly 's rich, this malmsey healing, Pray, dip your whiskers and your tail in.' He stuffs and swills, and stuffs again. 179 190 200 1Tips with silver: ' occurs also in the famous moonlight scene in the IliadTips with silver every mountain's head.' No sooner said, but from the hall A crust of bread, and liberty!' 210 220 BOOK IV. ODE I. TO VENUS. AGAIN? new tumults in my breast? Ah, spare me, Venus! let me, let me rest! I am not now, alas! the man As in the gentle reign of my Queen Anne. Ah, sound no more thy soft alarms, Nor circle sober fifty with thy charms. Mother too fierce of dear desires! Turn, turn to willing hearts your wanton fires, To Number Five direct your doves, There spread round Murray all your blooming loves: Noble and young, who strikes the heart With every sprightly, every decent part; Equal, the injured to defend, To charm the mistress, or to fix the friend. He, with a hundred arts refined, Shall stretch thy conquests over half the kind; To him each rival shall submit, Make but his riches equal to his wit. 11 Then shall thy form the marble grace, (Thy Grecian form) and Chloe lend the face: His house, embosom'd in the grove, Sacred to social life and social love, Shall glitter o'er the pendant green, Where Thames reflects the visionary scene: Thither, the silver-sounding lyres 19 Shall call the smiling Loves, and young Desires; There, every Grace and Muse shall throng, Exalt the dance, or animate the song; There, youths and nymphs, in consort gay, Shall hail the rising, close the parting day. With me, alas! those joys are o'er ; For me, the vernal garlands bloom no more. Adieu !1 fond hope of mutual fire, The still believing, still-renew'd desire; Adieu! the heart-expanding bowl, And all the kind deceivers of the soul! But why? ah, tell me, ah, too dear! Steals down my cheek th' involuntary tear? Why words so flowing, thoughts so free, Stop, or turn nonsense, at one glance of thee? Thee, dress'd in fancy's airy beam, Absent I follow through th' extended dream ; Now, now I seize, I clasp thy charms, 30 41 And now you burst (ah, cruel!) from my arms; And swiftly shoot alang the Mall, Or softly glide by the canal, Now shown by Cynthia's silver ray, And now on rolling waters snatch'd away. Adieu!' how like Burns's lines, beginning "But when life's day draws near the gloaming, |