21

s soon as I enter at my country door,
My mind resumes the thread it dropt before;
Thoughts, which at Hyde-park-corner I forgot,
Meet and rejoin me, in the penfive Grot.
There all alone, and compliments apart,
I ask these fober questions of my heart. .

* If, when the more you drink, the more you crave,
You tell the Doctor ; when the more you have,
The more you want, why not with equal ease
Confess as well your Folly, as Disease?

215 The heart refolves this matter in a trice, “ Men only feel the Smart, but not the Vice."

v When golden Angels cease to cure the Evil,
You give all royal Witchcraft to the Devil:
When servile Chaplains cry, that birth and place 220
Indue a Peer with honour, truth, and grace,
Look in that breast, most dirty D-! be fair,
Say, can you find out one such lodger there?
Yet still, not heeding what your heart can teach,
You go to church to hear these Flatt'rers preach. 225

Indeed, could wealth bestow or wit or merit,
A grain of courage, or a spark of spirit,
The wiseft man might blush, I must agree,
If D*** lov'd fixpence, more than he.

Notes.
Ver. 2 20. When servile Chaplains cry,] Dr. Ken-t.

VER. 229. lov'd fixpence,] Avarice, and the contempt of it, is well expressed in these words,

* Si proprium eft, quod quis libra mercatus et aere

est,
Quaedam (fi credis consultis) mancipat ufus :
Qui te pascit ager, tuus eft; et villicus Orbi,
Cum segetes occat tibi mox frumenta daturas,
Te dominum sentit.

* das nummos; accipis uvam,
Pullos, ova, cadum temeti: nempe modo isto
Paulatim mercaris agrum, fortafle trecentis,
Aut etiam supra nummorum millibus emtum.
Quid refert, vivas numerato nuper, an olim?

y Emtor Aricini quondam, Veientis et arvi, Emtum coenat olus, quamvis aliter putat; emtis Sub noctem gelidam lignis calefactat ahenum. Sed vocat ufque fuum, qua populus adsita certis Limitibus vicina refigit jurgia : tanquam 2 Sit proprium quidquam, puncto quod mobilis korae, Nunc prece, nunc pretio, nunc vi, nunc morte su

prema, Permutet dominos, et cedat in altera jura.

Sic, quia perpetuus nulli datur ufus, et haeres Haeredem alterius, velut unda fupervenit undam:

Notes.

VI2. 232. delig?tful sbs.court] A farm over-against Hamp:on-Court

VER. 248. bang in Fortune's pow'r, Loose on the point

w If there be truth in Law, and Use can give 230 A Property, that's yours on which you live. Delightful Abs-court, if its fields afford Their fruits to you, confesses you its lord : All * Worldly's hens, nay partridge, fold to town, His Ven’son too, a guinea makes your own : 235 He bought at thousands, what with better wit You purchase as you want, and bit by bit ; Now, or long since, what diff'rence will be found? You pay a penny, and he paid a pound.

y Heathcote himself, and such large-acred men, 240 Lords of fat E’sham, or of Lincoln fen, Buy every stick of wood that lends them heat, Buy every Pullet they afford to eat. . Yet these are Wights, who fondly call their own Half that the Dev'lo'erlooks from Lincoln town. 245 The Laws of God, as well as of the land, Abhor, a perpetuity should stand : Estates have wings, and hang in Fortune's pow'r z Loofe on the point of ev'ry wav'ring hour, Ready, by force, or of your own accord, 250 By sale, at least by death, to change their lord. Man? and for ever? wretch ! what wou'dft thou have? Heir urges heir, like wave impelling wave.

Notes. of ev'ry wav'ring hour.] A modern idea (the magnetic needle) here supplied the Imitator with expression much fuperior to his Original. Vol. IV.

* N4

a Gemmas, marmor, ebur, Tyrrhena sigilla, ta

bellas,

Argentum, veftes Gaetulo murice tinctas,

Sunt qui non habeant; est qui non curat habere.

• Cur alter fratrum cesare, et ludere, et ungi

Praeferat Herodis palmetis pinguibus ; alter

Dives et importunus, ad umbram lucis ab ortu

Silvestrem flammis et ferro mitiget agrum :

Notes.

Ver. 273 All Townshend's Turnips.] Lord Townshend, Secretary of State to George the First and Second. When this great Statesman retired from business, he amused

All vast possessions (just the same the case
Whether you call them Villa, Park, or Chace) 255
Alas, my BATHURST! what will they avail ?
Join Cotswood hills to Saperton's fair dale,
Let rising Granaries and Temples here,
There mingled farms and pyramids appear,
Link towns to towns with avenues of oak, 260
Enclosc whole downs in walls, 'tis all a joke!
Inexorable Death shall level all,
And trees, and stones, and farms, and farmer fall.

Gold, Silver, Iv'ry, Vases sculptur'd high,
Paint, Marble, Gems, and robes of Persian dye, 265
There are who have not-and thank heav'n there are,
Who, if they have not, think not worth their care.
Talk what you will of Taste, my friend, you'll

find,
Two of a face, as soon as of a mind.
Why, of two brothers, rich and restless one

270
Plows, burns, manures, and toils from sun to sun;
The other flights, for women, sports, and wines,
All Townshend's Turnips, and all Grovenor's mines :
Why one like Bu-- with pay and fcorn content,
Bows and votes on, in Court and Parliament;

275

b

Notes.

himself in Husbandry; and was particularly fond of that kind of rural improvement which arises from Turnips ; it was the favourite subject of his conversation.