Pars hominum geftit conducere publica: funt qui

d Cruftis et pomis viduas venentur avaras,

C

Excipiantque fenes, quos in vivaria mittant:

* Multis occulto crefcit res fenore.

f

verum

Efto, aliis alios rebus ftudiifque teneri:

Iidem eadem poffunt horam durare probantes?

6 Nullus in orbe finus Baiis prælucet amœnis,

Si dixit dives; lacus et mare fentit amorem

VER. 124. Alike in nothing but one Luft of Gold, Just baif the land would buy, and half be fold:] Here the argument suffers a little for the fake of the fatire. The reafon why the People fhould not be followed is because

Belua multorum eft capitum. nam quid fequar, aut quem? they are fo divers in their purfuits (fays Horace) that one cannot follow this man without being condemned by that. The imitator fays, they all go on one common principle, the luft of

1

Alike in nothing but one Luft of Gold,

с

Juft half the land would buy, and half be fold: 125 Their Country's wealth our mightier Mifers drain, Or crofs, to plunder Provinces, the Main;

d

The reft, fome farm the Poor-box, fome the Pews;
Some keep Affemblies, and would keep the Stews,
Some with fat Bucks on childless dotards fawn;
Some win rich Widows by their Chine and Brawn;
While with the filent growth of ten per cent,
In dirt and darkness, h hundreds ftink content.
Of all these ways,
if each purfues his own,
Satire, be kind, and let the wretch alone :
But fhew me one who has it in his pow'r
To act confiftent with himself an hour,
Sir Job fail'd forth, the ev'ning bright and ftill,
"No place on earth (he cry'd) like Greenwich hill!"
Up ftarts a Palace, lo, th' obedient bafe
Slopes at its foot, the woods its fides embrace,
The filver Thames reflects its marble face,

g

135

}

140

gold. This inaccuracy, tho' Horace has a little of it, yet he has however artfully disguised it, by fpeaking of the various objects of this one Paffion, avarice, as of fo many various paffions, Pars hominum geftit conducere publica: funt qui, etc. Cruftis et pomis

Multis occulto, etc.

but his imitator has unwarily drawn them to a point, by the introductory addition of the two lines above,

Alike in nothing, etc.

Feftinantis heri: cui fi vitiofa libido

Fecerit aufpicium; cras ferramenta Teanum

Tolletis, fabri. lectus genialis in aula eft?

Nil ait effe prius, melius nil coelibe vita:

1307.

m

'Si non eft, jurat bene folis effe maritis.

11

Quo teneam vultus mutantem Protea nodo?

Quid "pauper? ride: mutat coenacula, lectos,

Balnea, tonfores; conducto navigio aeque

Ja.

Naufeat, ac locuples quem ducit priva triremis.

Si curatus inaequali tonfore capillos

Fecerit aufpicium

VER. 143. Now let fome whimfy, etc.] This is very fpirited, but much inferior to the elegance of the original,

Cui fi vitiofa Libido.

which alluding to the religious manners of that time, no modern imitation can reach,

Now let fome whimfy, or that Dev'l within Which guides all those who know not what they

mean,

66

146

But give the Knight (or give his Lady) spleen;
Away, away! take all your scaffolds down,
"For Snug's the word: My dear! we'll live in Town."
At am'rous Flavio is the * ftocken thrown?

k

That very night he longs to lie alone.

151

m

1 The Fool, whose Wife elopes fome thrice a quarter,
For matrimonial folace dies a martyr.
Did ever Proteus, Merlin, any witch,
Transform themselves fo strangely as the Rich?
Well, but the " Poor--The Poor have the fame itch;
They change their weekly Barber, weekly News,155
Prefer a new Japanner, to their fhoes,

0

Discharge their Garrets, move their beds, and run (They know not whither) in a Chaise and one ; They hire their fculler, and when once aboard, Grow fick, and damn the climate-like a Lord. 160 4 You laugh, half Beau, half Sloven if I ftand, My wig all powder, and all fnuff my band;

VER. 155. They change their weekly Barber, etc.] These fix lines much more fpirited than the original. In Horace, the people's inconftancy of temper is fatirized only in a fimple expofure of the cafe. Here the ridicule on the folly is heightened by an humourous picture of the various objects of that incon

S

Occurro; rides. fi forte subucula pexae
Trita fubeft tunicae, vel fi toga diffidet impar;
Rides. quid, 'mea cum pugnat fententia fecum;
Quod petiit, fpernit; repetit quod nuper omifit;
Aeftuat, et vitae disconvenit ordine toto;
Diruit, aedificat, mutat quadrata rotundis?
*Infanire putas folennia me, neque rides,
Nec medici credis, nec curatoris egere
A praetore dati; rerum tutela mearum
Cum fis, et prave fectum ftomacheris ob unguem,
De te pendentis, te refpicientis amici.

X

Ad fummam, Sapiens uno minor eft Jove, dives, Liber, 'honoratus, pulcher, rex denique regum ; Praecipue fanus, nifi cum pituita molesta est.

C

VER. 182. when plunder'd] i. e. By the Public; which has arely her revenge on her plunderers; and when the has, more rarely knows how to use it.