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There oftentimes Love's quiver-bearing boy

Prepares his bow and arrows to destroy :
While the fpectator gazes on the fight,
And fees them wound each other with delight;
While he his pretty mistress entertains,

And wagers with her who the conquest gains ;
Slily the God takes aim, and hits his heart,
And in the wounds he fees he bears his part.

ENGRAVED ON A COLUMN
In the Church of HALSTEAD in ESSEX;
The Spire of which, burnt down by Lightning, was
rebuilt at the Expence of Mr. SAMUEL FISKE, 1717.

IEW not this fpire by measure given

VIE

To buildings rais'd by common hands :
That fabrick rifes high as Heaven,

Whose bafis on devotion ftands.

While yet we draw this vital breath,
We can our Faith and Hope declare :

But Charity beyond our death

Will ever in our works appear.
Beft be he call'd among good men,
Who to his GOD this column rais'd :
Though lightning ftrike the dome again;
The man, who built it, fhall be prais'd,
Yet fpires and towers in duft shall lie,

The weak efforts of human pains;
And Faith and Hope themselves shall die;
While deathlefs Charity remains.

ALMA:

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Πάνα γέλως, καὶ πάντα κόνις, καὶ πάντα τὸ μηδέν
Πάνα γὰρ ἐξ ἀλόγων εσὶ τὰ γιγνόμενα.

Incert. ap. Stobæum.

CANTO I.

MATTHEW* met Richard +, when or where

From story is not mighty clear:

Of many knotty points they spoke;
And pro and con by turns they took.
Rats half the manuscript have eat:
Dire hunger! which we still regret.
O! may they ne'er again digeft
The horrors of fo fad a feaft!

Yet lefs our grief, if what remains,
Dear Jacob, by thy care and pains

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Shall be to future times convey'd.

It thus begins:

****

Here Matthew faid:

Alma in verse, in profe the Mind,
By Aristotle's pen defin❜d,
Throughout the body fquat or tall,
Is, bona fide, all in all.

And yet, flap-dash, is all again
In every finew, nerve, and vein :

Runs here and there, like Hamlet's ghost:
While every where the rules the roaft.

This fyftem, Richard, we are told,
The men of Oxford firmly hold.
The Cambridge wits, you know, deny
With ipfe dixit to comply.

They fay (for in good truth they speak
With fmall refpe&t of that old Greek),
That, putting all his words together,
"Tis three blue beans in one blue bladder.
Alma, they ftrenuously maintain,
Sits cock-horse on her throne the brain;
And from that feat of thought difpenfes
Her fovereign pleafure to the fenfes.
Two optic nerves, they fay, the ties,
Like fpectacles, across the eyes;
By which the fpirits bring her word,
Whene'er the balls are fix'd or stirr'd,
How quick at park and play they strike;
The duke they court; the toast they like;

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And

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And at St. James's turn their grace
From former friends now out of place.

Without these aids, to be more serious,
Her power, they hold, had been precarious :
The eyes might have confpir'd her ruin;
And the not known what they were doing.
Foolish it had been, and unkind,
That they fhould fee, and fhe be blind.
Wife Nature likewise, they suppose,
Has drawn two conduits down our nose :

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Could Alma else with judgement tell,

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When cabbage ftinks, or roses smell?
Or who would afk for her opinion
Between an oyster and an onion?
For from most bodies, Dick, you know,
. Some little bits afk leave to flow;
And, as through thefe canals they roll,
Bring up a fample of the whole;
Like footmen running before coaches,
To tell the Inn, what Lord approaches.
By nerves about our palate plac'd,
She likewife judges of the taste.
Elfe (difmal thought!). our warlike men
Might drink thick port for fine champagne;
And our ill-judging wives and daughters
Miftake fmall-beer for citron-waters.

Hence too, that she might better hear,
She fets a drum at either ear;

And, loud or gentle, harfh or fweet,
Are but th' alarums which they beat.

VOL. II.

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Laft,

Laft, to enjoy her fenfe of feeling
(A thing the much delights to deal in),
A thousand little nerves fhe fends
Quite to our toes, and fingers' ends;
And thefe in gratitude again
Return their fpirits to the brain;
In which their figure being printed
(As juft before, I think, I hinted),
Alma inform'd can try the cafe,
As the had been upon the place.

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Thus, while the Judge gives different journies So To country counsel and attornies,

He on the bench in quiet fits,

Deciding, as they bring the writs.

The Pope thus prays and fleeps at Rome,
And very feldom firs from home:

Yet, fending forth his holy spies,
And having heard what they advise,
He rules the church's bleft dominions,
And fets men's faith by his opinions.

The scholars of the Stagyrite,

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Who for the old opinion fight,

Would make their modern friends confefs

The difference but from more to lefs.

The Mind, fay they, while you sustain
To hold her ftation in the brain;
You grant, at leaft, fhe is extended :
Ergo the whole difpute is ended.
For till to-morrow thould you plead,
From form and ftructure of the head;.

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The

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