May ev'ry God his friendly aid afford;
Pan guard thy flock, and Ceres blefs thy board,

;

But, if by chance the series of thy joys
Permit one thought lefs chearful to arise
Piteous transfer it to the mournful fwain,
Who loving much, who not belov'd again,
Feels an ill-fated paffion's laft excefs;
And dies in woe, that thou may'ft live in peace,

TO

TO

A L A D Y:

HE REFUSING TO CONTINUE A DISPUTE WITH ME, AND LEAVING ME IN THE ARGUMENT.

SPARE, gen'rous Victor, spare the slave,

Who did unequal war pursue ;
That more than triumph he might have,
In being overcome by you.

II.

In the difpute whate'er I faid,

My heart was by my tongue bely'd And in my looks you might have read, How much I argu'd on your fide.

III.

You, far from danger as from fear,

Might have fuftain'd an open fight:

For feldom your opinions err;

Your eyes are always in the right,
E 2

IV. Why,

IV.

Why, fair one, would you not rely.
On Reafon's force with Beauty's join'd
Could I their prevalence deny,

I must at once be deaf and blind.

V.

Alas! not hoping to fubdue,
I only to the fight afpir'd:
To keep the beauteous foe in view
Was all the glory I defir'd.
VI.

But fhe, howe'er of vict'ry fure,

Contemns the wreath too long delay'd; And, arm'd with more immediate pow'r,, Calls cruel filence to her aid.

VII.

Deeper to wound, fhe fhuns the fight:
She drops her arms, to gain the field:
Secures her conqueft by her flight;

And triumphs, when she seems to yield.
VIII..

So when the Parthian turn'd his steed,

And from the hoftile camp withdrew ; With cruel skill the backward reed He fent; and as he fled, he flew

OUT from the injur'd canvas, Kneller, strike
Ουτ

These lines too faint: the picture is not like.
Exalt thy thought, and try thy toil again :
Dreadful in arms, on Landen's † glorious plain

James Duke of Ormond, eldest fon of Thomas Earl of Offory. He fucceeded his grandfather in title and eftate in the year 1688; was bred at Christ Church in the university of Oxford, and after holding many confiderable pofts during the reigns of King William and Queen Anne, was in the beginning of the reign of George the First, attainted of high treafon on account of his being concerned in the unpopular measures of the last four years of Queen Anne's reign. He died in Exile in the year 1745, in a very advanced age.

† At the battle of Landen the Duke of Ormond was taken prifoner after his horse was shot under him, and he had received many wounds. Mr. Dryden, in his dedication prefixed to his Fables in the year 1699, fays,

"Yet

not to be wholly filent of all your charities, I must stay

Place Ormond's duke: impendent in the air
Let his keen fabre, comet-like, appear,
Where-e'er it points, denouncing death: below
Draw routed fquadrons, and the num❜rous foe
Falling beneath, or flying from his blow:

}

'Till

& a little on one action, which preferred the relief of others "to the confideration of your felf. When, in the battle "of Landen, your heat of courage (a fault only pardon"able to your youth) had transported you so far before "your friends, that they were unable to follow, much less to fuccour you; when you were not only dangerously, " but in all appearance mortally wounded, when in that "defperate condition you were made prisoner, and carried "to Namur, at that time in poffèffion of the French ✯ then it was, my Lord, that you took a considerable part of what was remitted to you of your own revenues, and as a memorable inftance of your heroic charity, put "it into the hands of Count Guifcard, who was Go

vernor of the place, to be diftributed among your fel "low-prifoners. The French commander, charmed with "the greatness of your foul, accordingly configned it to "the use for which it was intended by the donor: by "which means the lives of fo many miferable men were "faved, and a comfortable provision made for their fub« fistence, who had otherwise perished, had not you been "the companion of their misfortune: or rather fent by "Providence, like another Jofeph, to keep out famine from invading thofe, whom in humility you called your brethren. How happy was it for thofe poor creatures, that your grace was made their fellow-fufferer ? and

"how