Then bear your fortune in the golden mean,
Not every man is born to be a dean.
I'll bear your jeers, if ever I am known
To feek two cures, when scarce I merit one.
Riches, 'tis true, fome fervice may afford,
But oftner play the tyrant o'er their lord.
Money I fcorn, but keep a little still,
To pay my doctor's, or my lawyer's bill.
From Encombe's foft romantick scenes I write,
Deep funk in ease, in pleasure and delight:
Yet, tho' her gen'rous lord himself is here,
"Twould be one pleasure more, could you appear,
An EPISTLE to a FRIEND at COURT.
F you can leave for books the crouded court,
And generous Bourdeaux for a glass of Port,
To these sweet folitudes without delay
Break from the world's impertinence away.
Soon as the fun the face of nature gilds,
For health and pleasure will we range the fields;
O'er her gay scenes and op'ning beauties run,
While all the vaft creation is our own.
But when his golden globe with faded light
Yields to the folemn empire of the night;.
And in her fober majefty the moon
With milder glories mounts her filver throne;
Amidst ten thousand orbs with splendour crown'd,
That pour their tributary beams around;
Thro' the long levell'd tube our strengthen'd fight
Shall mark diftinct the fpangles of the night;
From world to world shall dart the boundless eye,
And stretch from ftar to far, from sky to sky.
The buzzing infect families appear,
When funs unbind the rigour of the year;
Quick glance the myriads round the ev'ning bow'r,
Hofts of a day, or nations of an hour.
Aftonish'd we fhall fee th' unfolding race,
Stretch'd out in bulk, within the polifh'd glass ;
Thro' whose small convex a new world we spy,
Ne'er feen before, but by a Seraph's eye!
So long in darkness shut from human kind
Lay-half God's wonders to a point confin'd!
But in one peopled drop we now survey
In pride of pow'r fome little monfter play;
Oe'r tribes invifible he reigns alone,
And struts a tyrant of a world his own.
Now will we study HOMER's awful page,
Now warm our fouls with PINDAR's noble rage';
To English lays fhall FLACCUS' lyre be strung,
And lofty VIRGIL speak the British tongue.
Immortal VIRGIL! at thy facred name
I tremble now, and now I pant for fame;
With eager hopes this moment I aspire
To catch or emulate thy glorious fire;
The next pursue the rafh attempt no more,
But drop the quill, bow, wonder, and adore;
By thy ftrong genius overcome and aw'd!
That fire from heav'n! that spirit of a God!
Pleas'd and tranfported with thy name I tend
Beyond my theme, forgetful of my friend;
And from my first design by rapture led,
Neglect the living poet for the dead.
ITH meek humility and fear
The mighty name of God revere,
Ye monarchs brave and wife:
His be all honour, glory, praise;
To him let ev'ry altar blaze;
To him all incense rise.
Where'er his voice in dreadful strain
Extends, the wild tempeftuous main
Repeats the horrid found;
In rattling peals loud thunders break,
(If but the great JEHOVAH speak)
And shake the ocean round.
Majestick, folemn, deep, and full,
His mighty thund'rings mingled roll,
And rend the rocky brow;
Each cedar ftrong, each lofty pine,
At once their riven trunks recline,
And stoop their honours low.
Thine, Libanus, king of mountains tall,
And Sirion's craggy fummits fall,
Shook to their bafes wide;
Their deep foundations loofen'd hop,
Light as the herds that graze their top,
Or range their cavern'd fide.
Keen light'nings flash in livid blaze;
Trembles the favage wilderness ;
Loud roars each haunted den
The cattle teem in mute furprize;
The heart in humbled horrour lies
Of all the fons of men,
God is our king: in him diftreft **
His people find untroubled raft,
Their ease no harms annoy;
From him sweet plenty, health, and peace,
In fure fucceffion still increase,
And never-fading joy.
LL men, like watches, various periods share,
From thirty hours unto threescore year:
And which more true or good, 'tis hard to fay,
An horofcope of gold, or one of clay.
Falfe and imperfect both alike we find ;
In that the spring's in fault, in this the mind:
In their mechanic powers both agree;
Reason's a ballance, wifdom a fufee:
But if in either the main springs should fail
Or over-act, these powers nought avail,
Thus if the will be strong, the fabrick weak,
The constitution then of courfe must break;
Or if the paffions move or high or low,
The animal machine's too faft or flow.
But when its active fprings are duely coil'd,
And not an appetite or sense is spoil'd;
When all life's movements mutually agree,
And foul with body acts in harmony;
This human trinket then may go as true,
As any fuch like kindred trinkets do.
And when at length each hath run out their chain,
Quite filent and inactive they remain,
And with this difference revive again :
An human hand fhall thofe awhile reftore,
These one almighty, and for evermore.
Tranflated from PRIOR by Mr. LOVELING.
E nuper focio tumulos peragravit arenæ
CELIA, quà liquidi marmoris arva patent.
Littora inauravit decedens lumine Titan
Integro, at flammâ languidiore nitens :
Summa leves tantùm ftrinxerunt æquora venti,
Et vix, & nè vix abfuit alta quies.
Naturæ vultum referebat Nympha ferenum,
Tranquillùm ridens, & fine nube micans.
Molliter e rofeo ceciderunt ore loquellæ,
Molliùs haud nemorum ventilat aura comas.
Dicentem audivi tacitâ dulcedine lætus,
(Et memini voces, & meminiffe juvat,)
"Nulla dies iret, quâ non frueretur amæno
"Profpectu pelagi, deliciifque viæ."
Vertitur at rerum facies! cava flamina furgunt,
Nubilaque involvunt jam ruitura Jovem ;
Fulgura crebra volant, tonitruque remugit Olympus,
Littus & attonitum verberat unda tumens.
Non tulit hanc fpeciem perculfa timore Puella,
Sed caput avertit, præcipitatque fugam :
Intremit, atque actæ haud iterum ftat credere plantas ;
Haud iterum ad falfas lumina flectet aquas.
Sifte gradus faltem, dixi, vultumque retorque;
Hoc patet in SPECULO vera figura tui.
Mens ubi compofita eft, placidâque in fronte renidet,
Et leni ratio te ditione regit;
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