In Mem'ry's temple chaunts my name?__29
One blissful moment whilst we live
Weighs more than ages of renown;
What then do Potentates receive
Of good, peculiarly their own?
Sweet Ease and unaffected Joy,
Domestic Peace, and sportive Pleasure,
The regal throne and palace fly,
And, born for liberty, prefer
Soft silent scenes of lovely leisure,
To, what we Monarchs buy so dear, 39
The thorny pomp of scepter'd care.
My pain or bliss shall neʼer depend
On fickle Fortune's casual flight,
For, whether she's my foe or friend,
In calm repose I'll pass the night;
And ne'er by watchful homage own
I court her smile, or fear her frown.
But from our stations we derive

Unerring precepts how to live,

And certain deeds each rank calls forth, 4

By which is measur'd human worth.
Voltaire, within his private cell,

In realms where ancient honesty

Is patrimonial property,

And sacred Freedom loves to dwell, peace of mind,

May give up all his

Guided by Plato's deathless page,
In silent solitude resign'd,

To the mild virtues of a Sage;

But I, 'gainst whom wild whirlwinds wage
Fierce war with wreck-denouncing wing,
Must be, to face the tempest's rage,

In thought, in life, in death, a king.

END OF ETHIC EPISTLES.

NOTES

ON THE

ETHIC EPISTLES.

Page 7.

EPISTLE 1.

WHAT reason contradicts, or cannot reach.] It

is apprehended that genuine christianity requires not the belief of any such propositions.

S. J.

Mr. Jenyns was, latterly, of the contrary opinion, as

is evident from his " Disquisitions."

ib. And censure those, who nearer to the right,

Think Virtue is but to dispense delight.] These lines mean only, that censoriousness is a vice more odious than unchastity; this always proceeding from malevolence, that sometimes from too much good-nature and compliance. S. J.

EPISTLE II.

Page 9. The Gentleman to whom this Epistle is addressed, was author of "Philemon to Hydaspes." The Epistle itself was first printed in 1735, Mr. Coventry died in 1752.

10. Had, fair Astraea! been thy TALBOT's choice,] The Lord Chancellor Talbot, is the person here referred to.

ib. Nor thou, sweet Bard! who "turn'dst the tuneful

POPE.

II.

art,

"From sound to sense, from fancy to the heart,"]

-virtuous Falkland-] Of this excel

lent person a labored character may be read in Cla rendon's "History of the Rebellion."

15.

-great Ashley, gen'rous sage,

Plan'd in sweet leisure his instructive page.] The "Characteristicks;" particularly the "Inquiry concerning Virtue," and "The Moralists," of Antony Ashley Cooper, third Earl of Shaftsbury.

EPISTLE III.

Page 20. Mr. Rolle, the author of this Epistle, was a member of New College, Oxford.

EPISTLE V.

Page 27. The Writer of this Epistle was born on the 5th of November 1715, at Rothbury in Northumberland, of which parish his father, a native of Scotland, was at that time curate. Having been instructed in the languages at Wigton in Cumberland, he was sent thence to St. John's College, Cambridge.