Sell their presented partridges, and fruits, 55 y He knows to live, who keeps the middle tate, And neither leans on this fide, nor on that; Nor å stops, for one bad cork, his butler's pay, Swears, like Albutius, a good cook away; Nor lets, like Nævius, ev'ry error pass, 65 The mufty wine, foul cloth, or greasy glass. Now hear what bleffings Temperance can bring: (Thus faid our friend, and what he said I fing) * Firf Health : the stomach (cramm'd from ev'ry difh, A tomb of boild and roaft, and flesh and fish, 70 Where bile, and wind, and phlegm, and acid jar. And all the man is one inteftine war) Remembers oft" the School-boy's fimple fare, The temp’rate sleeps, and spirits light as air. 74 How pale, each Worshipful and Rev'rend guef Rise from a Clergy, or a City feaft! What life in all that ample body, fay? What heav'nly particle inspires the clay? f % Alter, ubi di&to citius curata sopori Membra dedit, vegetus praescripta ad munia furgit. Hic tamen ad melius poterit transcurrere quon dam; Sive diem feftum rediens advexerit annus, natus inter Heroas natum tellus me prima tulisset. m Das aliquid famae, quae carmine gratior aurem Occupet humanam ? grandes rhombi, patinæque VER. 79, 80. The Soul subfides, and wickedly inclines-To seem but mortal ev’n in found Divines.) Horace was an Epicurean, and laughed at the immortality of the foul. He therefore describes that languor of the mind proceeding from intemperance, on the idea, and in the Terms of Plato, affigit humo divinae particulam aurae. To this his ridicule is pointed. Our Poet, with more sobriety word judgment, has turned the ridicule, from the Doctrine, which ke believed, upon those Preachers of it, whole feasts and com The Soul subfides, and wickedly incliness 8 On morning wings how active springs the Mind 85 Or tir'd in search of Truth, or search of Rhyme; Ill health some just indulgence may engage, And more the sickness of long life, Old age; i For fainting Age what cordial drop remains, If our intemp’rate Youth the veffel drains ? 90 k Our fathers prais'd rank Ven'son. You suppote, Perhaps, young men! our fathers had no nose. Not so: a Buck was then a week's repast, And 'twas their point, I ween, to make it last; 94 More pleas`d to keep it till their friends could come, Than eat the sweetest by themselves at home. 'Why had not I in those good times my birth, Ere coxcomb-pyes or coxcombs were on earth? Unworthy he, the voice of Fame to hear, * That sweetest music to an honeft ear ; 100 potations in Taverns did not edify him: and so has added furprizing humour and spirit to the easy elegance of the Original. VER. 81. On morning wings, etc.] Much happier and nobler than the original. VER. 86. Or vir’d in search of Truth, or search of Rhyme. ] A fine ridicule on the extravagance of human pursuits; where the moft triting and moft important concerns of life succeed one saother, indifferently. 3 Grande ferunt una cum damno dedecus, adde Juré, inquit, Traufius iftis VER. 117, 118. Ob Impudence of wealth! with all tby fore, How darf ibou let one wortby man be poor >] Cur eget indignus quisquam, te divite? is here admirably paraphrased. And it is observable in these Imitations, that where our Poet keeps to the sentiments of Horace he rather piques himself in excelling the most finished touches of his Original, than in correcting or improving the more inferios parts. Of this elegance of ambition all his Writings bear fuch marks, that it gave countenance to an invidious imputation, as if his chief talent lay in copying finely. Buç if ever there was an inventive genius in Poetry it was Pope's. But his fancy was So corrected by his judgment, and his imitation so fpirited by his genius, that what he improved struck the vulgar eye more ftrongly than what he invented. VER. 122. As M**o's was, etc.) I think this light ftroke of Satire ill placed; and hurts the dignity of the preceding morality Horace was very serious, and properly so, when he said, cur, Improbe ! carae Non aliquid patriae tanto emeriris acervo. He remembered, and hints with just indignation at those luxu. siqus Patricians of his old party; who, when they had agreed to establish a fund in the cause of Freedom, under the conduct (For 'faith, Lord Panny! you are in the wiong, 110 4 « Right, cries his Lordship, for a rogue in need 6. To have a Taste is insolence. indeed : • In me 'tis noble, suits my birth and state, « My wealth unwieldy, and my heap too grcar." Then, like the Sun, let' Bounty spread her ray, 11$. And thine that superfluity away. Oh Impudence of wealth! with all thy store, How dar'ft thou let one worthy man be poor? Shall half the new-built churches round thee fall Make Keys, build Bridges, or repair White-hall: Or to thy Country let that heap be lone, 191 As M **o's was, but not at five per cent. of Brutus, could never be persuaded to withdraw from their expensive pleasures what was sufficient for the support of fo great a cause. He had prepared his apology for this liberty, in the preceding line, where he pays a fine compliment to Augustus : qoare Templa ruunt antiqua Deûm? which oblique Panegyric thc Imitacor has very properly turned into a jurt troke of satirc. VOL. IV. F |