Villain, faid Zeno to his pilfering flave,
What frugal Nature needs, I freely gave;
With thee my treasure I depos'd in trust,
What could provoke thee now to prove unjust?
Sir, blame the stars, felonious culprit cry'd :
We'll by the ftatute of the stars be try'd.
If their strong influence all our actions urge,
Some are foredoom'd to steal-and fome to fcourge:
The beadle muft obey the Fates' decree,
As powerful Destiny prevail'd with thee.

This heathen logic feems to bear too hard
On me, and many a harmless modern bard :
The critics hence may think themselves decreed
To jerk the wits, and rail at all they read;

Foes to the tribe from which they trace their clan,
As monkies draw their pedigree from man;

To which (though by the breed our kind 's disgrac'd) We grant fuperior elegance of taste :

But in their own defence the wits obferve

That, by impulfe from heaven, they write and starve;

Their patron-planet, with refistless power,

Irradiates every poet's natal hour;

Engendering in his head a folar heat

For which the college has no fure receipt,
Elfe from their garrets would they foon withdraw
And leave the rats to revel in the ftraw.

Nothing fo much intoxicates the brain

As Flattery's smooth infinuating bane :
She on th' unguarded ear employs her art,
While vain felf-love unlocks the yielding heart;

And

And Reafon oft fubmits when both invade,
Without affaulted, and within betray'd.
When Flattery's magic mifts fuffufe the fight,
The don is active, and the boor polite;

Her mirror fhews perfection through the whole,
And ne'er reflects a wrinkle or a mole;
Each character in gay confufion lies,

And all alike are virtuous, brave, and wife:
Nor fail her fulfome arts to footh our pride,
Though praife to venom turns if wrong apply'd.
Me thus fhe whifpers while I write to you:
"Draw forth a banner'd hoft in fair review!
"Then every Mufe invoke thy voice to raife,
"Arms and the man to fing in lofty lays :
"Whofe active bloom heroic deeds employ,
"Such as the fon of Thetis fung at Troy;
"When his high-founding lyre his valour rais'd
"To emulate the demi-gods he prais'd.

"Like him the Briton, warm at honour's call,
"At fam'd Blaragnia quell'd the bleeding Gaul;
"By France the genius of the fight confeft,
"For which our patron faint adorns his breaft.".

--

Is this my friend, who fits in full content,
Jovial, and joking with his men of Kent,
And never any fcene of flaughter saw,
But thofe who fell by phyfic or the law?
Why is he for exploits in war renown'd,
Deck'd with a star, with bloody laurels crown'd?

* Iliad ix.

O often

O often prov'd, and ever found sincere !
Too honeft is thy heart, thy fenfe too clear,
On thefe encomiums to vouchsafe a fmile,
Which only can belong to great Argyll.

But most among the brethren of the bays,
The dear enchantrefs all her charms difplays,
In the fly commerce of alternate praise.
If, for his father's fins condemn'd to write,
Some young half-feather'd poet takes a flight,
And to my touchftone brings a puny ode,

Which Swift, and Pope, and Prior would explode ;
Though every fianza glitters thick with stars,
And goddeffes defcend in ivory cars :
Is it for me to prove in every part
The piece irregular by laws of art?
His genius looks but aukward, yet his fate
May raife him to be premier bard of state;
I therefore bribe his fuffrage to my fame,
Revere his judgment, and applaud kis flame;
Then cry, in feeming tranfport, while I speak,
'Tis well for Pindar that he dealt in Greek!
He, confcious of defert, accepts the praife,
And courteous, with increase the debt repays:
Boileau's a mushroom if compar'd to me,
And, Horace, I difpute the palm with thee!
Both ravish'd, fing Te Phœbum for success ;
Rife fwift, ye laurels! boy! befpeak the prefs.---
Thus on imaginary praise we feed ;

Each writes till all refufe to print or read :

}

From.

From the records of fame condemn'd to pass

*

To Brifquet's calendar, a rubrick afs.

Few, wondrous few! are eagle-ey'd to find A plain difeafe, or blemish in the mind:

Few can, though wisdom should their health infure,
Difpaffionate and cool attend a cure.

In youth difus'd to obey the needful rein,
Well pleas'd a favage liberty to gain,
We fate the kind defire of every sense,
And lull our age in thoughlefs indolence :
Yet all are Solons in their own conceit,
Though, to fupply the vacancy of wit,
Folly and Pride, impatient of control,
The fifter-twins of Sloth, poffefs the foul.
By Kneller were the gay Pumilio drawn,
Like great Alcides, with a back of brawn:
I fcarcely think his picture would have power
To make him fight the champions of the Tower:
Though lions there are tolerably tame,

And civil as the court from which they came.
But yet, without experience, fenfe, or arts,
Pumilio boasts fufficiency of parts :

Imagines he alone is amply fit

To guide the state, or give the stamp to wit:
Pride paints the mind with an heroic air,
Nor finds he a defect of vigour there.

*Brifquet, Jefter to Francis I. of France, kept a calendar of fools.

When

When Philomel of old effay'd to fing,
And in his rofy progress hail'd the spring,
Th' aerial fungsters listening to the lays,
By filent ecftafy confeft her praise.
At length, to rival her enchanting note,
The peacock ftrains the difcord of his throat,
In hope his hideous fhrieks would grateful provė,
But the nice audience hoot him through the
Conscious of wanted worth, and juft difdain,
Lowering his creft, he creeps to Juno's fane:
To his protectress there reveals the cafe ;
And for a fweeter voice devoutly prays.

grove.

Then thus reply'd the radiant goddess, known
By her fair rolling eyes and rattling tone :
My favourite bird! of all the feather'd kind,
Each species had peculiar gifts affign'd:
The towering eagles to the realms of light
By their strong pounces claim a regal right;
The fwan, contented with an humbler fate,
Low on the fishy river rows in state :
Gay ftarry plumes thy length of train bedeck,
And the green emerald twinkles on thy neck;
But the poor nightingale, in mean attire,
Is made chief warbler of the woodland choir.
These various bounties were difpos'd above,
And ratify'd th' unchanging will of Jove :
Difcern thy talent, and his laws adore;
Be what thou wert design'd, nor aim at more.

ΤΟ