* Who thinks that fortune cannot change her mind, Prepares a dreadful jest for all mankind.

130 And u who stands safest ? tell me, is it he That spreads and swells in puff’d Prosperity, Or blest with little, whose preventing care In peace provides fit arms against a war? Thus Bethel spoke, who always speaks his thought,

135 And always thinks the very thing he ought : His equal mind I copy what I can, And as I love, would imitate the Man. In South-sea days not happier, when surmis'd The Lord of Thousands, than if now w Excis'd; 140 In forest planted by a Father's hand, Than in five acres now of rented land. Content with little, I can piddle here On brocoli and mutton, round the year; But y ancient friends (tho' poor, or out of play) That touch my bell, I cannot turn away. 'Tis true, no 2 Turbots dignify my boards, But gudgeons, flounders, what my Thames affords:

Notes. apology for this liberty, in the preceding line, where he pays a fine compliment to Auguftus:

quare

uare Templa ruunt antiqua Deum? which oblique Panegyric the Imitator has very properly turned into a jult itroke of satire.

O pueri, nituistis, ut huc novus incola venit ?

Notes. Ver. 156. And, what's more rare, a Poet shall say Grace.] The pleasantry of this line consists in the supposed rarity of a Poet's having a table of his own; or a sense of gratitude for the bleflings he receives. But it contains,

2

To Hounslow-heath I point and Bansted-down, Thence comes your mutton, and these chicks my own:

150 * From yon old walnut-tree a show'r shall fall; And grapes, long ling'ring on my only wall, And figs from standard and espalier join ; The dev'l is in you if you cannot dine: Then chearful healths (your Miftress shall have place) And, what's more rare, a Poet shall say Grace. 156

Fortune not much of humbling me can boast; Tho' double tax'd, how little have I lost? My Life's amusements have been just the fame, Before, and after © Standing Armies came. 160 My lands are sold, my father's house is gone; I'll hire another's; is not that my own, And yours, my friends ? thro' whose free-opening gate None comes too early, none departs too late; (For I, who hold fage Homer's rule the best, 165 Welcome the coming, speed the going guest.)

Pray heav’n it last! (cries SWIFT!) as you go on; " I wish to God this house had been your own: « Pity! to build, without a son or wife: “ Why, you'll enjoy it only all your life.” 170 Well, if the use be mine, can it concern one, Whether the name belong to Pope or Vernon?

Notes. too, a sober reproof of People of Condition, for their unmanly and brutal disuse of 10 natural a duty.

Nam propriae telluris herum natura neque illum,

Nec me, nec quemquam ftatuit. nos expulit ille;

Illum aut e nequities aut f vafri inscitia juris,

Poftremum expellet certe 5 vivacior heres.

* Nunc ager Umbreni fub nomine, nuper Ofelli

Dictus erat: nulli proprius; sed cedit in usum

Nunc mihi, nunc alii, i quocirca vivite fortes,

Fortiaque adverfis opponite pectora rebus.

Notes.

VER. 183. proud Buckingham's etc.] Villers Duke of Buckingham. 'P.

VER. 185. Let lands and houses etc.] The turn of his

What's « Property ? dear Swift! you see it alter
From you to me, from me to · Peter Walter ;
Or, in a mortgage, prove a Lawyer's share;

175
Or, in a jointure, vanish from the heir ;
Or in pure f equity (the case not clear)
The Chanc'ry takes your rents for twenty year :
At beft, it falls to fome ungracious son,
Who cries, “My father's damn'd, and all's my own.
h Shades, that to Bacon could retreat afford, 181
Become the portion of a booby Lord;
And Hemsley, once proud Buckingham's delight,
Slides to a Scriv'ner or a city Knight.
i Let lands and houses have what Lords they will,
Let Us be fix’d, and our own masters still.

Notes. imitation, in the concluding part, obliged him to diverfify the sentiment. They are equally noble: but Horace's is expressed with the greater force.