Sell their prefented partridges, and fruits, 'One half-pint bottle ferves them both to dine, But on fome w lucky day (as when they found 55 A loft Bank bill, or heard their Son was drown'd) At such a feast, * old vinegar to spare, Is what two fouls fo gen'rous cannot bear : 60 " He knows to live, who keeps the middle ftate, And neither leans on this fide, nor on that; Nor ftops, for one bad cork, his butler's pay, Swears, like Albutius, a good cook away; Nor lets, like Nævius, ev'ry error país, The mufty wine, foul cloth, or greasy glass. 65 < Now hear what bleffings Temperance can bring: (Thus faid our friend, and what he said I fing) * First Health: the stomach (cramm'd from ev'ry difh, A tomb of boil'd and roast, and flesh and fish, Where bile, and wind, and phlegm, and acid jar. And all the man is one inteftine war) e Remembers oft the School-boy's fimple fare, The temp❜rate fleeps, and spirits light as air. 70 74 f How pale, each Worshipful and Rev'rend guest Rife from a Clergy, or a City feast! Alter, ubi dicto citius curata fopori Membra dedit, vegetus praefcripta ad munia furgit. "Hic tamen ad melius poterit tranfcurrere quon dam; Sive diem feftum rediens advexerit annus, Seu recreare volet tenuatum corpus: ubique *Rancidum aprum antiqui laudabant: non quia nafus Illis nullus erat; fed, credo, hac mente, quod hofpes Tardius adveniens vitiatum commodius, quam Integrum edax dominus confumeret. hos utinam inter Heroas natum tellus me prima tuliffet. "Das aliquid famae, quae carmine gratior aurem Occupet humanam ? grandes rhombi, patinæque VER. 79, 80. The Soul fubfides, 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 langucr 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 fobriety and judgment, has turned the ridicule, from the Doctrine, which he believed, upon thofe Preachers of it, whofe feafs and com The Soul fubfides, and wickedly inclines To feem but mortal, ev'n in found Divines. 80 On morning wings how active springs the Mind That leaves the load of yesterday behind? How eafy ev'ry labour it pursues ? How coming to the Poet ev'ry Mufe? Not but we may exceed, fome holy time, 85 Or tir'd in fearch of Truth, or fearch of Rhyme; 90 k Our fathers prais'd rank Ven'fon. You fuppofe, Perhaps, young men! our fathers had no nose. Not fo: a Buck was then a week's repaft, And 'twas their point, I ween, to make it laft; 94 100 potations in Taverns did not edify him: and fo has added furprizing humour and fpirit to the eafy elegance of the Original. VER. 81. On morning wings, etc.] Much happier and nobler than the original. VER. 86. Or tir'd in fearch of Truth, or fearch of Rhyme ] A fine ridicule on the extravagance of human purfuits; where the moft trifling and most important concerns of life fucceed one n Grande ferunt una cum damno dedecus. adde 9 Jure, inquit, Traufius iftis VER. 117, 118. Ob Impudence of wealth! with all thy ftora, How dar'ft thou let one worthy man be poor ?] Cur eget indignus quifquam, te divite? is here admirably paraphrased. And it is obfervable in these Imitations, that where our Poet keeps to the fentiments of Horace he rather piques himself in excelling the moft finished touches of his Original, than in correcting or improving the more inferior 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. But if ever there was an inventive genius in Poetry it was Pope's. But his fancy was fo corrected by his judgment, and his imitation fo fpirited by his genius, that what he improved ftruck the vulgar eye more frongly than what he invented. VER. 122. As M**o's was, etc.] I think this light stroke of fatire 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 emetiris acervo. He remembered, and hints with juft indignation, at those luxu rious 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 Fanny! you are in the wrong, When Luxury has lick'd up all thy pelf, 105 Curs'd by thy neighbours, thy trustees, thyfelf, 110 9" Right, cries his Lordship, for a rogue in need "To have a Tafte is infolence. indeed: "In me 'tis noble, fuits my birth and state, Oh Impudence of wealth! with all thy store, As M** o's was, but not at five per cent. of Brutus, could never be perfuaded to withdraw from their ex penfive pleasures what was fufficient for the support of so greas a caufe. He had prepared his apology for this liberty, in the pres ceding line, where he pays a fine compliment to Augustus: qifare Templa ruunt antiqua Deûm ? which oblique Panegyric the Imitator has very properly turned into a juft ftroke of fatire. |