Though so to pray may seem an easy task, But, had like virtue shin'd in that fair Greek,
We curse ourselves when thus inclin'd we ask. The amorous shepherd had not dar'd to seek,
This prayer to use, we ought with equal care Or hope for pity, but, with silent moan,
Our souls, as to the sacrament, prepare.

And better fate, had perished alone.
The noblest worship of the Power above,
Is to extol, and imitate, his love:
Not to forgive our enemies alone,

OF A LADY WHO WRIT IN PRAISE OF MIRA. But use our bounty that they may be won. While she pretends to make the graces known

VI. Guard us from all temptations of the foe: Of matchless Mira, she reveals her own; And those we may in several stations know:

And, when she wonld another's praise indite,
The rich and poor in slippery places stand:

Is by her glass instructed how to write.
Give us enough! but with a sparing hand!
Not ill-persuading want; nor wanting wealth ;
But what proportion'd is to life and health.

TO ONE MARRIED TO AN OLD MAN.
For not the dead, but living, sing thy praise;
Exalt thy kingdom, and thy glory raise.

Since thou wouldst needs (bewitch'd with some ill

charms !) Favete linguis!......

Be bury'd in those monumental arins: Virginibus puerisque canto. Horat. All we can wish, is-May that earth lie light

Upon thy tender limbs! and so good night!

ON THE

FOREGOING DIVINE POEMS6,
When we for age could neither read nor write,
The subject made us able to indite :
The soul, with nobler resolutions deck'd,
The body stooping, does herself erect:
No mortal parts are requisite to raise
Her, that unbody'd can her Maker praise.

The seas are quiet, when the winds give o'er :
So, calm are we, when passions are no more!
For then we know how vain it was to boast
Of fleeting things, so certain to be lost.
Clouds of affection from our younger eyes
Conceal that emptiness, which age descries.

The soul's dark cottage, batter'd and decay'd,
Lets in new light, through chinks that time has made:
Stronger by weakness, wiser men become,
As they draw near to their eternal home:
Leaving the old, both worlds at once they view,
That stand upon the threshold of the new.

...... Miratur limen Olympi. Virg.

AN EPIGRAM ON A PAINTED LADY WITH ILL

TEETH.
Were men so dull they could not see
That Lycé painted; should they flee,
Like simple birds, into a net,
So grossly woven, and ill set;
Her own teeth would undo the knot,
And let all go that she had got.
Those teeth fair Lycé must not show,
If she would bite :, her lovers, though
Like birds they stoop at seeming grapes,
Are disabus'd when first she gapes;
The rotten bones discover'd there
Show 'tis a painted sepulchre.

EPIGRAM UPON THE GOLDEN MEDAL.
Our guard upon the royal side!
On the reverse, our beauty's pride!
Here we discern the frown and smile;
The force and glory of our isle.
In the rich medal, both so like
Immortals stand, it seems antique;
Carv'd by some master, when the bold
Greeks made their Jove descend in gold;
And Danaë wondering at that shower,
Which, falling, storm'd her brazen tower.
Britannia there, the fort in vain
Had batter'd been with golden rain;
Thunder itself had fail'd to pass :
Virtue's a stronger guard than brass,

EPIGRAMS, EPITAPIS, AND FRAG

MENTS.

EPIGRAM 7.
Sedibus emigrans solitis, comitatus inermi

Rex turbâ, simplex et diadema gerens,
Ecce redit bino Carolus diademate cinctus;
Hæc ubi nuda dedit pompa; quid arma dabunt ?

Ed. Waller, Armiger, Coll. Regal.

WRITTEN ON A CARD THAT HER MAJESTY 9

TORE AT OMBRE.
The cards you tear in value rise,
So do the wounded by your eyes.
Who to celestial things aspire,
Are by that passion rais'd the higher.'

UNDER A LADY'S PICTURE.
Srce Helen was! and who can blame the boy 8
That in so bright a fiame consum'd his Troy?

6 See, in Duke's Poems, an elegant compliment TO MR. GRANVILLE (AFTERWARDS LORD LANDA, to Mr. Waller, on this his last production. N.

DOWN) ON HIS VERSES TO KING JAMES II. 7 From Rex Redux; being Cambridge verses on An early plant! which such a blossom bears, the return of Charles I. from Scotland, after his And shows a genius so beyond his years; coronation there in 1633. * Paris.

9 Queen Catharine. VOL VIII.

G

A judgment ! that could make so fair a choice;
So high a subject, to employ his voice:

PRIDE.
Still as it grows, how sweetly will he sing

Nor the brave Macedonian youth' alone,
The growing greatness of our matchless king!

But base Caligula, when on the throne,
Boundless in power, would make himself a god;

As if the world depended on his nod.
LONG AND SHORT LIFE.

The Syrian king ? to beasts was headlong thrown, Circles are prais'd, not that abound

Ere to himself he could be mortal known. In largeness, but th' exactly round:

The meanest wretch, if Heaven should give him line, So life we praise, that does excel

Would never stop, till he were thought divine:
Not in much time, but acting well.

All might within discern the serpent's pride,
If from ourselves nothing ourselves did hide.

Let the proud peacock his gay feathers spread,
TRANSLATED OUT OF SPANISH.

And woo the female to his painted bed:

Let winds and seas together rage and swell: Though we may seem importunate,

This Nature teaches, and becomes them well. While your compassion we implore:

Pride was not made for men 3: a conscious sense They, whom you make too fortunate,

Of guilt and folly, and their consequence,
May with presumption vex you more.

Destroys the claim: and to beholders tells,
Here nothing but the shape of manhood dwells

TRANSLATED OUT OF FRENCH. Fade, flowers, fade; Nature will have it so;

EPITAPH ON SIR GEORGE SPEKE. "Tis but what we must in our autumn do! And, as your leaves lie quiet on the ground,

UNDER this stone lies virtue, youth, The loss alone by those that lov'd them found:

Unblemish'd probity, and truth : So, in the grave, shall we as quiet lie,

Just unto all relations known, Miss'd by some few that lov'd our company.

A worthy patriot, pious son: But some so like to thorns and nettles live,

Whom neighbouring towns so often sent,
That none for them can, when they perish, grieve. To give their sense in parliament;

With lives and fortunes trusting one,
Who so discreetly us'd his own.
Sober he was, wise, temperate ;

Contented with an old estate,
SOME VERSES OF AN IMPERFECT COPY, DESIGNED Which no foul avarice did increase,
FOR A FRIEND,

Nor wanton luxury make less.
ON HIS TRANSLATION OF Ovid's FASTI.

While yet but young, his father dy'd,

And left him to an happy guide: Rome's holy days you tell, as if a guest

Not Lemuel's mother with more care With the old Romans you were wont to feast. Did counsel or instruct ber heir; Numa's religion, by themselves believ'd,

Or teach with more success her son Excels the true, only in show receiv'd.

The vices of the time to shun. They made the nations round about them bow, An heiress, she, while yet alive, With their dictators taken from the plough: All that was hers to him did give: Such power has justice, faith, and honesty ! And he just gratitude did show The world was conquer'd by morality.

To one that had oblig'd him so: Seeming devotion does but gild a knave,

Nothing too much for her he thought, That's neither faithful, honest, just, nor brave: By whom he was so bred and taught, But, where religion does with virtue join,

So (early made that path to tread,
It makes a hero like an angel shine.

Which did his youth to honour lead)
His short life did a pattern give,
How neighbours, husbands, friends, should live.

The virtues of a private life
ON THE STATUE OF KING CHARLES THE FIRST, Exceed the glorious noise and strife
AT CIIARING-CROSS.

Of battles won: in those we find

The solid interest of mankind.
IN THE YEAR 1674.

Approv'd by all, and lov'd so well,
That the first Charles does here in triumph ride, Though young, like fruit that's ripe, he fell.
See his son reign, where he a martyr dy'd,
And people pay that reverence, as they pass,
(Which then be wanted !) to the sacred brass,

EPITAPH ON COLONEL CHARLES CAVENDISH. Is not th' effect of gratitude alone,

Here lies Charles Ca'ndish: let the marble stone, To which we owe the statue and the stone :

That hides his ashes, make his virtue known. But Heaven this lasting monument has wrought, Reauty and valour did his short life grace ; That mortals may eternally be taught,

The grief and glory of his noble race! Rebellion, though successful, is but vain;

Early abroad he did the world survey,
And kings so kill'd rise conquerors again.

As if he knew he had not long to stay :
This truth the royal image does proclaim,
Loud as the trumpet of surviving Fame.

Alexander. 2 Nebuchadnezzar. 3 Ecclus. X. 18.

Saw what great Alexander in the East
And mighty Julius conquer'd in the West.

EPITAPH TO BE WRITTEN UNDER THE LATIN Then, with a mind as great as theirs, he came

INSCRIPTION UPON THE TOMB OF THE ONLY To find at home occasion for his fame :

SON OF THE LORD ANDOVER.
Where dark confusion did the nations hide,
And where the juster was the weaker side.

'Tis fit the English réader should be told,
Two loyal brothers took their sovereign's part, In our own language, what this tomb does hold.
Employ'd their wealth, their courage, and their art: 'Tis not a noble corpse alone does lie
The elder + did whole regiments afford ;

Under this stone, but a whole family: The younger brought his conduct and his sword.

His parents' pious care, their name, their joy, Born to command, a leader he begun,

And all their hope, lies buried with this boy: And on the rebels lasting honour won:

This lovely youth! for whom we all made moan, The horse, instructed by their general's worth, That knew his worth, as he had been our own. Still made the king victorious in the North:

Had there been space and years enough allow'd, Where Ca’ndish fought, the royalists prevail'd; His courage, wit, and breeding to have show'd, Neither his courage nor his judgment fail'd: We had not found, in all the numerous roll The current of his victories found no stop,

Of his fam'd ancestors, a greater soul: Till Cromwell came, his party's chiefest prop His early virtues to that ancient stock Equal success had set these champions high, Gave as much honour, as from thence he took. And both resolv'd to conquer or to die:

Like buds appearing ere the frosts are past, Virtue with rage, fury with valour, strove;

To become man be made such fatal haste, But that must fall which is decreed above! And to perfection labour'd so to climb, Cromwell, with odds of number and of Fate,

Preventing slow experience and time, Remov'd this balwark of the church and state:

That 'tis no wonder Death our hopes beguild: Which the sad issue of the war declar'd,

He's seldom old, that will not be a child.
And made his task, to ruin both, less hard.
So when the bank, neglected, is o'erthrown,
The boundless torrent does the country drorn.
Thus fell the young, the lovely, and the brave;

EPITAPH, UNFINISHED.
Strew bays and flowers upon his honour'd grave!

Great soul! for whom Death will no longer stay,
But sends in haste to snatch our bliss away.

O cruel Death! to those you take more kind,
EPITAPH ON THE LADY SEDLEY,

Than to the wretched mortals left behind! HERE lies the learned Savil's heir ;

Here beauty, youth, and noble virtue shin'd; So early wise, and lasting fair!

Free from the clouds of pride that shade the mind. That none, except her years they told,

Inspir'd verse may on this marble live,
Thought her a child, or thought her old.

But can no honour to thy ashes give.
All that her father knew, or got,
His art, his wealth, fell to her lot:
And she so well improv'd that stock,
Both of his knowledge and his flock,

EPITAPH ON HENRY DUNCH, ESQ.
That Wit and Fortune, reconcil'd

IN NEWINGTON CHURCH IN OXFORDSHINE, 1686. In her, upon each other smil'd. While she to every well-tanght mind

Here lies the prop and glory of his race, Was so propitionsly inclin'd,

Who, that no time his memory may deface, And gave such title to her store,

His grateful wife, under this speaking stone That none, but th' ignorant, were poor.

His ashes hid, to make his merit known. The Muses daily found supplies,

Sprung from an opulent and worthy line, Both from her hands and from her eyes;

Whose well-us'd fortune made their virtues shine, Her bounty did at once engage,

A rich example his fair life did give, And matchless beanty warm their rage.

How others should with their relations live. Such was this dame in calmer days,

A pious son, a husband, and a friend, Her nation's ornament and praise !

To neighbours too his bounty did extend But, when a storin disturb'd our rest,

So far, that they lamented when he died, The port and refuge of th' opprest.

As if all to him had been near allied. This made her fortune understood,

His curious youth would men and manners know, And look'd on as some public good;

Which made him to the southern nations go. So that (her person and her state

Nearer the Sun, though they more civil seem, Exempted from the common fate)

Revenge and luxury have their esteem; In all our civil fury she

Which well observing, he return'd with inore Stood, like a sacred temple, free.

Value for England, than he had before; May here her monument stand so,

Her true religion, and her statutes too, To credit this rude age! and show

He practised not less than seek'd to know; To future times, that even we

And the whole country gricv'd for their ill fate, Some patterns did of virtue see:

To lose so good, so just a magistrate. And one sublime example had

To shed a tear may readers be inclin'd, Of good, among so many bad.

And pray for one he only left behind,

Till she, who does inherit his estate, 4 William earl of Devonshire.

May virtue love like him, and vices hate.

REESE

THE

SEMPER POPULO CHARUS, PRINCIPIBUS
IN DELICIIS, ADMIRATIONI OMNIBUS.

HIC CONDITUR TUMULO SUB EODEM
EPITAPH

RARA VIRTUTE ET MULTA PROLE

NOBILIS UXOR, MARIA EX BRESSYORUM MR. WALLER'S MONUMENT,

FAMILIA, CUM EDMUNDO WAILER,

CONJUGE CHARISSIMO: QUEM TER ET IN BECONSFIELD CHURCH-YARD, IN BUCKING DECIES LÆTUM FECIT PATREM, V FI. HAMSHIRE;

LIIS, FILIABUS VIII; QUOS MUNDO WETIEN BY MR. RYMER, LATE HISTORIOGRAPHER-ROYAL.. DEDIT, ET IN COELUM REDIIT.

ON

On the West end.
EDMUNDI WALLER HIC JACET ID
QUANTUM MORTI CESSIT; QUI INTER

PCETAS SUI TEMPORIS FACILE
PRINCEPS, LAUREAM, QUAM MERUIT
ADOLESCENS, OCTOGENARIUS HAUD
ABDICAVIT. HUIC DEBET PATRIA

LINGUA QUOD CREDAS, SI GRÆCE LATINEQUE INTERMITTERENT, MUS.E

LOQUI AMARENT ANGLICE.

On the East end.
EDMUNDUS WALLER CUI HOC MARMOR
SACRUM EST, COLESHILL NASCENDI

LOCUM HABUIT; CANTABRIGIAM
STUDENDI; PATREM ROBERTUM ET

EX HAMPDENA STIRPE MATREM:
COEPIT VIVERE III” MARTII, A. D. MDCV.

PRIMA UXOR ANNA EDWARDI BANKS
FILIA UNICA HÆRES. EX PRIMA BIS

PATER FACTUS; EX SECUNDA
TREDECIES; CUI ET DUO LUSTRA
SUPERSTES, OBIIT XXI OCTOB.

A. D. MDCLXXXVII.

On the South side.
HEUS, VIATOR! TUMULATUM VIDES

EDMUNDUM WALLER, QUI TANTI
NOMINIS POETA, ET IDEM AVITIS
OPIBUS, INTER PRIMOS SPECTABILIS,

MUSIS SE DERIT, ET PATRIÆ,
NONDUM OCTODECENNALIS, INTER
ARDUA REGNI TRACTANTES SEDEM
HABUIT, A' BURGO DE AGMONDESHAM

MISSUS. HIC VITÆ CURSUS; NEC
ONERI DEFUIT SENEX; VLXITQUE

On the North side.
HOC MARMORE EDMUNDO WALLER

MARIÆQUE EX SECUNDIS NUPTIIS
CONJUGI, PIENTISSIMIS PARENTIBUS,

PIISSIME PARENTAVIT EDMUNDUS FILIUS HONORES BENE-MERENTIBUS EXTREMOS DEDIT QUOS IPSE FUGIT. EL W. I. F. H. G. EX TESTAMENTO

H. M. P. IN JUL. MDCC.

THE

POEMS

ор

SAMUEL BUTLER.