What late he call'd a bleffing, now was wit,
And God's good providence a lucky hit.

Things change their titles as our manners turn;
His compting-house employ'd the Sunday morn:
Seldom at church, ('twas fuch a bufy life)
But duly fent his family and wife.

There (fo the devil ordain'd) one Christmas-tide
My good old lady catch'd a cold, and dy'd.

A nymph of quality admires our knight;
He marries, bows at court, and grows polite:
Leaves the dull cits, and joins (to please the fair)
The well-bred cuckolds in St. James's air.

First for his fon a gay commiffion buys,

t

Who drinks, whores, fights, and in a duel dies.
His daughter flaunts a viscount's tawdry wife;
She bears a coronet and

p-x

for life.

In Britain's fenate he a feat obtains,

And one more penfioner St. Stephen gains.
My lady falls to play: fo bad her chance,
He must repair it; takes a bribe from France.
The house impeach him, Coningsby harangues;
The court forfake him, and Sir Balaam hangs.
Wife, fon, and daughter, Satan! are thy own;
His wealth, yet dearer, forfeit to the crown:
The devil and the king divide the prize,
And fad Sir Balaam curfes God and dies,

W

AVARO AND AMANDA.

A TALE.

BY MR. DUCK.

WHAT ills from want of education flow,

From avarice what cruel fcenes of woe,

I mean to fing; except the tuneful maid

Neglect my numbers, and refuse her aid.
Say, goddess, firft, what made the youth explore
A foreign clime, and quit his native shore?
Say, too, how on the barb'rous ifle he came;
What mov'd the kindness of the Negro dame?
What could provoke a faithlefs youth to fell
A friend, whofe only crime was loving well?
Now had Avaro twenty winters pais'd
His blooming features ev'ry beauty grac'd;
In filver rings, his loosely flowing hair
Hung o'er his shoulders with a comely air;
Robuft his limbs, and daring was his foul,
And vigour crown'd the well-proportion'd whole;
His graceful charms the ladies oft furvey'd,
And oft their eyes an am'rous fignal made;
But never could the tender paffion move,
The stubborn youth was still averse to love;
Yet, tho' his breaft was proof to Cupid's dart,
A more ignoble god enflav'd his heart.

No myfteries of faith difturb'd his head;
For myfteries of faith he feldom read;
That moral law, which Nature had impreft,
He blotted from the volume of his breast;
Yet in his mind his father's precepts bears,
Who often rung this leffon in his ears:

• Would

Would you, my fon, to happiness afpire,
Know, Gold alone can happiness acquire;
He that has Gold, is pow'rful as a king,
Has valour, virtue, wifdom, ev'ry thing!
This to obtain, your utmost skill beftow;
And if you gain it, be not careful how:
If in the court, or camp, you take delight,
Then dare to flatter there, or here to fight;
'Or, fhould the merchant's life your fancy please,
'Be bold, and bravely venture on the feas;

Many by merchandize have gain'd renown,
And made the Indies wealth become their own.”
The youth imbib'd the precepts of his tongue,
Neglecting ev'ry law of right and wrong;
Taught by his fire to court deftructive gain,
He burns to try his fortune on the main.
While other youths, by wit or pleasure sway'd,
Frequent the play, the ball, or mafquerade;
Avaro, ftudious, in his chamber ftays,

Careless of balls, of mafquerades, and plays;
There adds, fubtracts, and, with unweary'd pain,
Learns all the rules of intereft, lofs, and gain.
Next, from an old astronomer, he tries

To learn the planets journey thro' the skies;
With him, at night, when heav'n ferene appears,
He points the quadrant at the fhining spheres:
The Hyades, and frozen pole furveys,
Which guide the failor o'er the distant feas;
Then maps and models of our globe prepares,
And carefully infpects both hemifpheres.
From east to west he views the fpacious round,
Pleas'd with the modern world Columbus found:
In hope elate, the youth impatient ftands,
And seems to grafp both Indies in his hands.
This fees the fire, and hastily provides
A veffel, proof against the winds and tides.

The

The youth embarks, the foft propitious gales
Arife, and foon expand the fwelling fails;
The ship glides swiftly o'er the liquid plain,
And Neptune fmiles, and courts him on the main.
But fee, how mortals are the sport of fate!
How oft unhappy, ftriving to be great!.
Ere Cynthia twice her monthly race had run,
An omen of the fatal ftorm begun:
The murm'ring wind arifes by degrees,
And rocks the fhip, and fweeps the curling feas.
Now louder, with impetuous force it roars,
And fhoves the fwelling furges to the shores;
Till rapid rain, and flakes of bick'ring flame,
With dreadful thunder vex th' ethereal frame.
Struck with furprize, the tim'rous merchant ftands,
Nor knows what he forbids, or what commands:
Nor fafely back, nor can he forwards go;
But trembling waits, and fears the fatal blow.
Long time the failors work against the wind,
With fruitless toil, to gain the port affign'd;
Till courage, hope, and all provisions fail'd,
And fear, defpair, and want, their fouls affail'd.

Forc'd by the form into a winding bay,

Their joyful eyes an Indian ifle furvey;

When straight they quit their fhip, and gain the shore,
And for recruits the favage land explore.

Adjoining to the dreary beach, there stood
Wild fhrubs and trees, that form'd a gloomy wood;
Where, close obfcur'd, the crafty natives lay,
And watch'd the wand'ring crew, remote from sea:
Then forth they rush, and straight their bows prepare.
Too late the failors fee th' approaching war!

In vain the brave engage, or tim❜rous fly;

The tim'rous and the brave promifcuous die:
The barb'rous fields are ftain'd with purple gore,
And dreadful groanings echo to the shore.

Our

Our youthful merchant 'fcapes, and flies alone;
His fear impels, and fafety prompts him on:
Thro' dusky woods he takes his trembling flight,
The dusky woods conceal him from their fight;
Till in the devious wilds, remote from foes,
Then on the ground he weeping vents his woes;
Oft curs'd his hapless fate, and often thought
On what the hoary ftar-monger had taught:
How, at our birth, as diff'rent planets rule,
They form a wit, or conftitute a fool;
How, in the maze of life, we act, as they
Attract, retard, or force us in the

way. And, as he these uncertain cenfures made, Against the stars he thus exclaiming said:

The planets, fure, fome noxious pow'r difplay,
And rule my life with arbitrary fway;

• Elfe had I ne'er forfook my native home,
'Nor in this baleful defart met my doom-
And yet, when I reflect, I cannot fee,
'How globes infenfible fhould influence me:
I chufe my actions; when the choice is made,
'I nor invoke, nor yet confult their aid.
When mortals act according to their will,
'Can Heaven be call'd the author of their ill?
Too late I find, the ftars are not in fault;

But 'tis that golden with my fire has taught:

Enticing Gold, that damn'd deceiving guide,
Induc'd me firft to ftem the foaming tide;

• Fallacious charm! that led me from repose,
Now leaves me in a labyrinth of woes.

So, when compacted vapours, in the night, 'Skim o'er the fields, with a delusive light, The injudicious traveller furveys

Th' alluring fcene, and courts the glift'ring blaze;

Till, tempted o'er a rock's impending brow,

'He falls to fome tremendous gulph below!'

Thus