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"Left stiff, and ftately, void of fire or force,

15

"You limp, like Blackmore on a Lord Mayor's

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Farewell then Verfe, and Love, and ev'ry Toy, The Rhymes and Rattles of the Man or Boy; What right, what true, what fit we justly call, Let this be all my care-for this is All:

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To lay this harveft up, and hoard with hafte
What ev'ry day will want, and most, the last.

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But ask not, to what Doctors I apply?

Sworn to no Mafter, of no Sect am I :

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As drives the ftorm, at any door I knock:

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25

And house with Montagne now, or now with Locke. Sometimes a Patriot, active in debate,

n

Mix with the World, and battle for the State,
Free as young Lyttelton, her Caufe pursue,

Still true to Virtue, • and as warm as true:
Sometimes with Ariftippus, or St. Paul,
Indulge my candor, and grow all to all;
Back to my native Moderation flide,
And win my way by yielding to the tide.

30

a Long, as to him who works for debt, the day, 35 Long as the Night to her whose Love's away,

NOTES.

and not ftrong; ftately and yet dull, like the fober and flow-paced Animal generally employed to mount the Lord Mayor and therefore here humourously opposed to Pegafus. P.

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*

Confiliumque morantur agendi gnaviter & id, quod

Aeque pauperibus prodeft, locupletibus aeque,

Aeque negle&tum pueris, fenibufque nocebit.

t

* Reftat, ut his ego me ipfe regam folerque ele

mentis:

Non poffis oculo quantum contendere Lynce us;
Non tamen idcirco contemnas lippus inungi :

Nec, quia defperes invicti membra Glyconis,
Nodofa corpus nolis prohibere cheragra.

Eft quadam prodire * tenus, fi non datur ultra.
y Fervet Avaritia, miferoque cupidine pectus?

NOTES.

VER. 45. can no wants endure;} i, e. Can want nothing. Badly expreffed.

VER.51. I'll do what Mead-] Mr. Pope highly efteemed and loved this worthy man, whole unaffected humanity and benevolence have ftifled much of that envy which his eminence in his profeffion would otherwise have drawn out.

Long as the Year's dull circle seems to run,
When the brifk Minor pants for twenty-one:

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So flow th' unprofitable moments roll,

That lock up all the Functions of my foul;
That keep me from myself; and still delay
Life's inftant bufinefs to a future day:

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That talk, which as we follow, or defpife,

The eldeft is a fool, the youngest wise.

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Which done, the poorest can no wants endure; 45 And which not done, the richest must be poor.

Late as it is, I put myself to school,

And feel fome v comfort, not to be a fool.
* Weak tho' I am of limb, and short of fight,
Far from a Lynx, and not a Giant quite;
I'll do what Mead and Chefelden advife,
To keep thefe limbs, and to preferve these eyes.
Not to go back, is somewhat to advance,
And men muft walk at least before they dance.

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Say, does thy blood rebel, thy bofom move With wretched Av'rice, or as wretched Love?

NOTES.

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55

Speaking of his obligations to this great Phyfician and others of the Faculty, in a Letter to Mr. Allen, about a month before his death, he says, "There is no end of my kind treatment from the Faculty. They are in "general the moft amiable companions, and the beft friends, as well as the most learned Men I know."

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Laudis amore tumes? funt certa piacula, quae te

Ter

pure lecto poterunt recreare libello.

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Invidus, iracundus, iners, vinofus, amator,

d

Nemo adeo ferus eft, ut non mitefcere poffit,

Si modo culturae patientem commodet aurem.

e Virtus eft, vitium fugere; et fapientia prima, Stultitia caruiffe. vides, quae maxima credis

Effe mala, exiguum cenfum, turpemque repulfam,

Quanto devites animi, capitifque labore.

Impiger extremos curris mercator ad Indos,

NOTES.

VER. 58. Between the fits-] The sense of magnam morbi deponere partem

is here very happily expreffed. And

Ter pure lecto etc.

in the following line, as happily varied. But the whole paffage, which defcribes the ufe and efficacy of fatire, is admirably imitated.

VER. 70. Scar'd at the Spectre of pale Poverty!] Tho'

Know, there are Words, and Spells, which can con

troll

z Between the Fits this Fever of the foul:

Know, there are Rhymes, which fresh and fresh apply'd

Will cure the arrant'ft Puppy of his Pride.

Be furious, envious, flothful, mad, or drunk,
Slave to a Wife, or Vaffal to a Punk,

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A Switz, a High-dutch, or a Low-dutch Bear;
All that we ask is but a patient Ear.

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'Tis the first Virtue, Vices to abhor;

And the first Wisdom, to be Fool no more.
But to the world no 'bugbear is fo great,
As want of figure, and a fmall Eftate.
To either India fee the Merchant fly,
Scar'd at the spectre of pale Poverty!
See him, with pains of body, pangs of soul,

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65

Burn through the Tropic, freeze beneath the Pole!

Wilt thou do nothing for a nobler end,

Nothing, to make Philosophy thy friend?

NOTES.

7༠

this has all the spirit, it has not all the imagery of the Original; where Horace makes Poverty purfue, and keep pace with the Mifer in his flight.

Per mare Pauperiem fugiens, per faxa, per ignes. But what follows,

Wilt thou do nothing, etc.

far furpaffes the Original.

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