There liv'd in primo Georgii (they record)
A worthy member, no small fool, a Lord; 185
Who, tho' the House was up, delighted fate,
Heard, noted, answer'd, as in full debate :
In all but this, a man of sober life,
Fond of his Friend, and civil to his Wife;
Not quite a mad-man, tho' a pasty fell, 190
And much too wife to walk into a well.
Him, the damn'd Doctors and his Friends immur'd,
They bled, they cupp'd, they purg'd; in Dort, they

cur’d: Whereat the gentleman began to ftareMy Friends ! he cry'd, p-x take you for your care!

That from a Patriot of distinguish'd note, 196 Have bled and purg'd me to a simple Vote.

-Well, on the whole, plain Prose must be my fate: Wisdom (curse on it) will come foon or late. There is a time when Poets will grow dull: 200 I'll e'en leave verses to the boys at school: To rules of Poetry no more confin'd, I learn to smooth and harmonize my Mind, Teach ev'ry thought within its bounds to roll, And keep the equal measure of the Soul. 205

Notes. Horace's madman took, agrees better with the subject of his Epiftle, which is Poetry; and doubtless there were other beauties in it, which time has deprived us of.

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s Ac non verba sequi fidibus modulanda Latinis,
Sed verae numerofque modofque ediscere vitae.
Quocirca mecum loquor haec, tacitufque recordor :

Si tibi nulla fitim finiret copia lymphae,
Narrares medicis: quod quanto plura parasti,
Tanto plura cupis, nulline faterier audes ?

v Si vulnus tibi monstrata radice vel herba Non fieret levius, fugeres radice vel herba

Proficiente nihil curarier: audieras, cui

Rem Dî donarint, illi decedere pravam
Stultitiam; et, cum fis nihilo fapientior, ex quo

Plenior 'es, tamen uteris monitoribus isdem?

At fi divitiae prudentem reddere poffent,

Si cupidum timidumque minus te ; nempe ruberes, Viveret in terris te fi quis avarior uno.

i Notes. Ver. 218. When golden Angels, etc.] This illuftration is much happier than that employed in his original ; as by raising pecuniary ideas, it prepares the mind for that moTality it is brought to illustrate.

215

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 pensive Grot.
There all alone, and compliments apart,

210 I ask these sober 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
Confefs as well your Folly, as Disease ?
The heart resolves 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 wisest man might blush, I must agree,
If D*** lov'd sixpence, more than he.

Notęs,
. Ver. 220. When fervile Chaplains cry,] Dr. Ken-ta

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

w Si proprium est, quod quis libra mercatus et aere

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

das nummos; accipis uvam,
Pullos, ova, cadum temeti: nempe modo isto
Paulatim mercaris agrum, fortasse 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 usque fuum, qua populus adfita 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 supervenit undam:

er Notes. Ver. 232. delightful Abs-court) A farm over-against Hampion-Court. ; VER, 248. bang in Fortune's pow'r, Loefe on the point " 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, sold 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’lham, .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'l o'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 a Loose 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’dst thou have? Heir urges heir, like wave impelling wave.

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

Vol. IV.

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