OF A SPEECH OF AQUILEIO, IN THE ADRIANO OF

GROWN old in courts, thou surely art not one
Who keeps the rigid rules of ancient honour;
Well skill'd to sooth a foe with looks of kindness,

To sink the fatal precipice before him,

And then lament his fall, with seeming friendship:

• The character of Cali, in Irene, is a masterly sketch of the old and prac tised dissembler of a despotic court.-ED.

Open to all, true only to thyself,

Thou know'st those arts, which blast with envious praise,
Which aggravate a fault, with feign'd excuses,

And drive discountenanc'd virtue from the throne;
That leave the blame of rigour to the prince,
And of his ev'ry gift usurp the merit ;
That hide, in seeming zeal, a wicked purpose,
And only build upon another's ruin.

This ode originally appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1743. See Boswell's Life of Johnson, under that year. It was afterwards printed in Mrs. Williams's Miscellanies, in 1766, with several variations, which are pointed out,

below.-J. B.

*Parent of rage and hot desires.—Mrs. W.

* Inflames alike with equal fires.

With bright, but oft destructive, gleam,
Alike, o'er all his lightnings fly;
Thy lambent glories only beam
Around the fav'rites of the sky.

Thy gentle flows of guiltless joys
On fools and villains ne'er descend;
In vain for thee the tyrant sighs,
And hugs a flatt'rer for a friend.

Directress of the brave and just2,

O! guide us through life's darksome way!
And let the tortures of mistrust

On selfish bosoms only prey.

Nor shall thine ardours cease to glow",
When souls to blissful climes remove:
What rais'd our virtue here below,
Shall aid our happiness above.

ON SEEING A BUST OF MRS. MONTAGUE.

HAD this fair figure, which this frame displays,
Adorn'd in Roman time the brightest days,
In every dome, in every sacred place,

Her statue would have breath'd an added grace,
And on its basis would have been enroll'd,
"This is Minerva, cast in virtue's mould."

y In vain for thee the monarch sighs.

z This stanza is omitted in Mrs. Williams's Miscellanies, and instead of it, we have the following, which may be suspected, from internal evidence, not to have

been Johnson's:

When virtues, kindred virtues meet,
And sister-souls together join,
Thy pleasures permanent, as great,
Are all transporting-all divine.

a O! shall thy flames then cease to glow.

EPITAPHS.

AT LICHFIELD.

H. S. E.

MICHAEL JOHNSON,

VIR impavidus, constans, animosus, periculorum immemor, laborum patientissimus; fiducia christiana fortis, fervidusque; paterfamilias apprime strenuus; bibliopola admodum peritus; mente et libris et negotiis exculta; animo ita firmo, ut, rebus adversis diu conflictatus, nec sibi nec suis defuerit; lingua sic temperata, ut ei nihil quod aures vel pias vel castas læsisset, aut dolor vel voluptas unquam expresserit.

Natus Cubleiæ, in agro Derbiensi, anno MDCLVI; obijt

MDCCXXXI.

Apposita est SARA, conjux,

Antiqua FORDORUM gente oriunda; quam domi sedulam, foris paucis notam; nulli molestam, mentis acumine et judicii subtilitate præcellentem; aliis multum, sibi parum indulgentem: æternitati semper attentam, omne fere virtutis nomen commendavit.

Nata Nortoniæ Regis, in agro Varvicensi, anno MDCLXIX; obijt MDCCLIX.

Cum NATHANAELE, illorum filio, qui natus MDCCXII. cum vires et animi et corporis multa pollicerentur, anno MDCCXXXVII. vitam brevem pia morte finivit.

IN BROMLEY CHURCH.

HIC conduntur reliquiæ
ELIZABETHÆ

Antiqua JARVISIORUM gente
Peatlinga, apud Leicestrenses, ortæ ;