Of her beholds, in whose pure mind arose

Th' ætherial fource from whence this current flows!
When prodigies appear, our reafon fails,
And fuperftition o'er philofophy prevails.
Some heavenly minister we ftrait conclude,
Some angel-mind with female form endued,
To make a short abode on earth, was fent,
(Where no perfection can be permanent)
And, having left her bright example here,
Was quick recall'd, and bid to disappear.
Whether around the throne, eternal hymns
She fings, amid the choir of feraphims;

Or fome refulgent ftar informs, and guides,
Where the, the bleft intelligence, prefides;
Is not for us to know who here remain;
For 'twere as impious to enquire, as vain:
And all we ought, or can, in this dark state,
Is, what we have admir'd, to imitate.

E PIT A PH

Upon ROBERT HUNTINGDON, of Stanton Harcourt, Efq. and ROBERT his Son.

HIS peaceful tomb does now contain

THI

Father and fon, together laid;

Whofe living virtues fhall remain,

When they, and this, are quite decay'd.

What man fhould be, to ripeness grown,
And finifh'd worth fhould do, or fhun,
At full was in the father fhown;

What youth could promise, in the son.

But death obdurate, both destroy'd

The perfect fruit, and opening bud : First feiz'd thofe fweets we had enjoy'd, Then robb'd us of the coming good.

TO MR.

DRYDEN,

ON HIS TRANSLATION OF PERSIUS.

S when of old heroic ftory tells

A of knights imprison'd long by magic spells,

Till future time the deftin'd hero fend,

By whom the dire enchantment is to end :
Such feems this work, and fo referv'd for thee,
Thou great revealer of dark poefy.

Those fullen clouds, which have, for ages past,
O'er Perfius' too-long fuffering Muse been cast,
Difperfe, and fly before thy facred pen,

And, in their room, bright tracks of light are feen.
Sure Phoebus' felf thy fwelling breast inspires,

The god of mufic, and poetic fires :

Elfe, whence proceeds this great furprize of light! How dawns this day, forth from the womb of night! Our wonder now does our past folly show,

Vainly contemning what we did not know:

So,

So, unbelievers impiously defpife

The facred oracles, in myfteries.

Perfius, before, in fmall efteem was had,
Unlefs, what to antiquity is paid;
But like Apocrypha, with scruple read,
(So far our ignorance our faith misled)
Till you, Apollo's darling prieft, thought fit
To place it in the poet's facred writ.

As coin, which bears fome awful monarch's face,
For more than its intrinfic worth will pass;
So your bright image, which we here behold,
Adds worth to worth, and dignifies the gold,
To you, we all this following treasure owe,
This Hippocrene, which from a rock did flow.
Old ftoick virtue, clad in rugged lines,
Polish'd by you, in modern brilliant fhines;
And as before, for Perfius, our esteem
To his antiquity was paid, not him :
So now, whatever praife from us is due,
Belongs not to old Perfius, but the new.
For ftill obfcure, to us no light he gives ;
Dead in himself, in you alone he lives.

So ftubborn flints their inward heat conceal, Till art and force th' unwilling sparks reveal ;' But through your skill, from those fmall feeds of fire, Bright flames arife, which never can expire.

THE ELEVENTH

SATIRE

THE

OF JUVENAL.

ARGUMENT.

The defign of this Satire is to expofe and reprehend all manner of intemperance and debauchery; but more particularly that exorbitant luxury used by the Romans in their feafting. The Poet draws the occafion from an invitation, which he here makes to his Friend to dine with him; very artfully preparing him with what he was to expect from his treat, by beginning the Satire with a particular invective against the vanity and folly of fome perfons, who, having but mean fortunes in the world, attempted to live up to the height of men of great eftates and quality. He fhews us the miferable end of fuch spendthrifts and gluttons, with the manner and courfes which they took to bring themselves to it; advifing men to live within bounds, and to proportion their inclinations to the extent of their fortune. He gives his Friend a bill of fare of the entertainment he has provided for him; and from thence he takes occafion to reflect upon the temperance and frugality of the greatest men in former ages to which he opposes the riot and intemperance of the prefent; attributing to the latter a vifible remiffness in the care of heaven over the Roman ftate. He inftances fome lewd practices at feasts, and, by the bye, touches the nobility with making vice

and

and debauchery confift with their principal pleasures. He concludes with a repeated invitation to his Friend; advising him (in one partcular fomewhat freely) to a neglect of all cares and difquiets for the prefent, and a moderate use of pleasures for the future.

F noble Atticus make splendid feasts,

IF

And with expensive food indulge his guests;
His wealth and quality support the treat :
Nor is it luxury in him, but state.

But when poor Rutilus fpends all he's worth,
In hopes of fetting one good dinner forth;
'Tis downright madness: for what greater jests,
Than begging gluttons, or than beggars' feasts?
But Rutilus is now notorious grown,

And proves the common theme of all the town.

A man in his full tide of youthful blood,
Able for arms, and for his country's good
Urg'd by no power, restrain'd by no advice,
But following his own inglorious choice :
'Mongst common fencers practises the trade,
That end debafing for which arms were made;
Arms which to man ne'er-dying fame afford,
But his difgrace is owing to his fword.
Many there are of the fame wretched kind,
Whom their defpairing creditors may find
Lurking in fhambles; where with borrow'd coin
They buy choice meats, and in cheap plenty dine;
Such, whofe fole blifs is eating; who can give

But that one brutal reason why they live.