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Dope. Caefar himself might whifper, he was beat. Why rif'k the world's great empire for a punk? Caefar perhaps might anfwer, he was drunk. But, fage Hiftorians! 'tis your talk to prove One Action conduct, one, heroic love.

'Tis from high life high characters are drawn;
A faint in crape is twice a faint in lawn:
A judge is juft, a chanc'llor jufter still;
A gownman learn'd; a bifhop what you will:
Wife if a minifter; but if a king

More wife, more learn'd, more juft, more ev'ry
thing.

Court-virtues bear, like gems, the highest rate,
Born where Heav'n's influence fcarce can penetrate,
In life's low vale, the foil the virtues like,
They please as beauties, here as wonders strike:
Tho' the fame fun with all-diffufive rays
Blush in the rofe, and in the di'mond blaze,
We prize the stronger effort of his pow'r,
And justly fet the gem above the flow'r.

'Tis education forms the common mind;
Juft as the twig is bent the tree's inclin'd.
Boaftful and rough, your first son is a' fquire,
The next a tradesman, meek, and much a liar:
Tom ftruts a foldier, open, bold, and brave;
Will fneaks a feriv'ner, an exceeding knave.
Is he a Churchman? then he's fond of powr;
A Quaker? fly; a Presbyterain? four;
A fmart Freethinker? all things in an hour.
Afk men's opinion; Scoto now fhall tell,
How trade increafes, and the world goes well;
Strike off his penfion by the fetting fun;
And Britain, if not Europe, is undone.

That gay Freethinker, a fine talker once,
What turns him now a ftupid filent dunce?

}

Some

Some god or fpirit he has lately found,
Or chanc'd to meet a minifter that frown'd.

Judge we by Nature? habit can efface,
Int'reft o'ercome, or policy take place,
By actions? thofe uncertainly divides.
By paffions? thefe diffimulation hides.
Opinions? they ftill take a wider range,
Find, if you can, in what you cannot change,

Manners with fortunes, humours turn with cli

mes

Tenets with books, and principles with times.

Wal

Pope.

Waller.

Waller.

(Der große Werth von Pope's Lehrgedichten wird noch sichtbarer, wenn man mit ihnen selbst die besten Versuche früherer englischer Dichter in dieser Gattung vergleicht. Zu diesen geheren einige Stücke von Waller, (S. oben S. 34.) nämlich unter seinen so genannten Divine Poems, ein Gedicht über die göttliche Liebe, in sechs, eins über die Furcht Gottes, in zwei, und eins über die heilige Poesie, gleichs falls in zwei Gesängen. Sie haben seinen Lebensbeschreiber, Dr. Johnson, (Vol. I. p. 413 ff.) zu einigen sehr scharffinnigen Bemerkungen veranlaßt, welche die geistliche Poesie überhaupt betreffen. Der Ausdruck in diesen Gedichten hat mehr Anmuth als Stärke. Von den sechs kurzen Gefängen des ersten Gedichts enthalten die beiden folgenden eine Schilderung der Glückseligkeit, die aus einer allgemein verbreite: ten Liebe Gottes entstehen würde, und Ermunterungen zu der Pflicht, sich die dadurch erweckten Empfindungen immerz fort lebhaft und gegenwärtig zu erhalten.)

OF DIVINE LOVE.

Canto V. VI.

THIS iron age, (fo fraudulent, and bold!)
Touch'd with this love, would be an age of gold:
Not, as they feign'd, that oaks fhould honey drop,
Or land neglected bear an unfown crop:
Love would make all things eafy, fafe and cheap;
None for himself would either fow, or reap:
Our ready help, and mutual love would yield
A nobler harveft, than the richest field.
Famine, and death, confin'd to certain parts,
Extended are by barrennefs of hearts.
Some pine for want, where others furfeit now;
But then we fhould the use of Plenty know;
Love would betwixt the rich, and needy, ftand;
And spread heav'n's bounty with an equal hand:

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At once the givers, and receivers, blefs,
Increase their joy, and make their fuff'rings lefs.
Who for himself no miracle would make,
Difpens'd with fev'ral for the people's fake:
He that, long-fafting, would no wonder fhow,
Made loaves and fishes, as they eat them, grow,
Of all his pow'r, which boundless was above,
Here he us'd none, but to exprefs his love:
And fuch a love would make our joy exceed,
Not when our own, but other mouths, we feed.

Laws would be ufelefs, which rude nature awe :
Love, changing nature, would prevent the law:
Tigers and lions, into dens we thrust;

But milder creatures with their freedom trust.
Devils are chain'd, and tremble; but the spouse
No force, but love, nor bond, but bounty, knows.
Men, (whom we now fo fierce, and dang'rous
fee,)

Would Guardian-Angels to each other be:

Such wonders can this migthy love perform;
Vultures to doves, wolves into lambs transform!
Love what ISAIAH prophefy'd, can do,

Exalt the valleys, lay the mountains low;
Humble the lofty, the dejected raife,

Smooth and make ftraight, our rough and crook

ed ways.

Love, ftrong as death, and like it, levels all;
With that poffeft, the great in title fall:
Themselves efteem but equal to the least,
Whom heav'n with that high character has bleft.
This love, the center of our union, can
Alone beftow complete repofe on man:
Tame his wild appetite, make inward peace,
And foreign ftrife among the nations cease.
No martial trumpet fhould difturb our reft,
Nor Princes arm, tho' to fubdue the east;
Where for the tomb fo many Heroes (taught
By thofe that guided their devotion) fought.

Thrice

Waller.

Waller.Thrice-happy we, could we like ardor have
To gain his love, as they to win his grave!
Love as he lov'd! A love fo unconfin'd,

With arms extended would embrace mankind.
Self-love would ceafe, or be dilated, when
We fhould behold as many felfs, as men:
All of one family, in blood ally'd,

His precious blood, that for our raniom dy'd!

THO' the creation (fo divinely taught!)
Prints fuch a lively image on our thought,
That the firft fpark of new-created light,
From Chaos ftrook, affects our prefent fight!
Yet, the firft Christians did esteem more bleft
The day of rifing, than the day of reft;
That ev'ry week might new occafion give,
To make his triumph in their mem'ry live.
Then, let our Mufe compofe a facred charm,
To keep his blood, among us, ever warm:
And finging, as the Bleffed do above,
With our laft breath dilate this flame of love.
But, on fo vaft a fubject, who can find
Words that may reach th' ideas of his mind?
Our language fails: or, if it could fupply,
What mortal thought can raise itself so high?
Defpairing here, we might abandon art,
And only hope to have it in our heart.
But, tho' we find this facred task too hard,
Yet the defign, th' endeavour, brings reward.
The contemplation does fufpend our woe,
And make a truce with all the ills we know.
AS SAUL'S afflicted fpirit, from the found
Of DAVID'S harp a prefent fölace found:
So, on this theme while we our Muse engage,
No wounds are felt, of fortune, or of age.

On

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