WHO

MORAL.

HO puts off Death, to the last moments
driv❜n,

Is near the grave, but very far from Heav'n 31.
He who repents, and gains the wish'd reprieve,
Was fit to die, and is more fit to live.
Chuse a good convoy in an hostile course;
Right foresight never makes a danger worse.

THE COURTIER AND PRINCE.

A FABLE.

Casually lucky, fortunately great,
Ten times his planet overcame his fate.
Riches flow'd in; and accidents were kind;
Health join'd her opium to delude the mind;
Whilst pride was gratify'd in ev'ry view,
And pow'r had scarce an object to pursue;
Cramm'd to the throat with happiness and ease,
Till nature's self could do no more to please.-
Vain-glorious mortal, to profusion blest!
And almost by prosperity distrest!

Whilst poets, the worst panders of the age,
Hymn'd his no-virtues in each flatt'ring page:
True parasitic plants 8, which only grow
Upon their patron trees, like miscelto:
So pella-mountain on the flax appears,
And thyme, th' epíthĭmy 9, (her bastard) rears

Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of Just so th' agáric from the larix springs,
man, in whom there is no help.

Psalm cxlvi, v. 3. Now behold, thou trusteth upon the staff of a bruised reed-on which if a man lean, it will go through his hand and pierce it: so is Pharaoh, king of Egypt, unto all that trust in him.

2 Kings, ch. xviii, v. 21.

WITH diffidence, O Muse, awake the string!
Proba', herself a Muse, commands to sing:
Divest thyself of thy pretended bays, [lays:
And crown'd with short-liv'd flow'rs present thy
From female archives stol'n, a tale disclose,
Verse tortur'd into rhymes from honest prose.
Short fables may with double grace be told;
So smallest glasses sweetest essence hold.
Antonia somewhere 2 does a tale report,
Of no small use to rising inen at court:
(Who seek promotion in the worldly road,
And make their titles and their wealth their

god;)

Antonia! who the Hermit's Story fram'd 3:
A tale to prose-men known 4, by verse-men
fam'd 5.

A courtier, of the lucky, thriving sort,
Rose like a meteor, and eclips'd the court;
By chance or cunning ev'ry storm outbraves:
Topmost he rode, midst shoals of fools and
knaves,

Triumphant, like an eygre, o'er the waves:

31 A saying of pious Jeremy Taylor.

And fav'rites fatten on perspiring kings.—
More might be said; but this we leave untold,
That better things their proper place may hold.
Our mirror of good luck, whom chance had
claim'd

As her own offspring, was Amariel nam'd.
At his first horoscope the goddess smil'd,
And wrapp'd in her own mantle her own child;
Then, as a wit upon th' occasion said,
(Not less a wit, we hope, for being dead,)
"Gave him her blessing, put him in a way,
Set up the farce, and laugh'd at her own play."
Fortune, the inistress of the young and bold,
Espous'd him early, but caress'd him old;
Duteous and faithful as an Indian wife,
She made appearance to be true for life:
And kept her love alive, and like to last,
Beyond the date her Pompey was disgrac'd.
But nothing certain (as the wise man 1o found)
Is to be deem'd on sublunary ground.

7 "Prosperous health and uninterrupted ease are often the occasion of some fatal misfortune. Thus a long peace makes men unguarded, and sometimes unmindful, in matters of war: it being observed, that the most signal overthrow is usually given us, when an unexpected enemy surpriseth us in the deep sleep of peace and security," St. Gregor, the Great.

8 Parasitical plants, according to the language of botanists, will not grow in the common matrix of the earth, but their seeds, being dispers. ed by winds, take root in the excrementitious 1 A Roman young lady of quality and a Chris- parts of a decayed tree, or arise as an excrestian convert. She afterwards married Adelphus, cence from the exsudations of some tree or who was a proconsul in the reign of Honorius plant. Thus the dodder (cuscuta), formerly and Theodosius junior. She composed an His-called pella-mountain, grows usually on flax; and tory of the Old and New Testament in verse. therefore the Italian peasant calls it podagra di Her epitaph on her husband is much admired. | linio. Both pieces were printed at Francfort in 1541. Her name at length was Proba Valeria Falconia.

2 Trai é sur la Pieté solide. Epit. xx, par Madame Antoinette de Bourignon.

Epit. de Bourignon. Partie seconde, Epit. xvii

Dr. Patrick's Farable of the Pilgrim. 5 Parnelle's Hermit.

6 The tenth wave, when rivers are swollen by floods, or agitated by storms, is called in some parts of England an eygre.

See Dryden's Threnod. August.

9 The Arabians and Italians (imitating the Greek word w.vior) call this adscititious plant efitimo and epithimo; but very few of our English botanists make mention of it. As far as I have hitherto seen, only one of our herbalists has touched upon it, namely, Peter Treveris, who flourished about the reign of Henry VII. He calls it epithimy. For my own part, not caring to invent new words in poetry, I have thought proper to retain the word which he (Treveris) has used, as it is well-sounding, and not inelegant.

10 Son of Sirach.

Join'd to good fortune, 'twas our courtier's lot | So, in the daily work she labours at,

To serve a prince who ne'er his friends forgot:
Humane, discreet, compassionate, and brave;
Not milder when he lov'd, than when forgave.
Gen'rous of promise, punctual in the deed;
Grac'd with more candour than most monarchs
need.

A milkiness of blood his heart possess'd;
With grief be punish'd, and with transport
bless'du.

As noblest metals are most ductile found,
Great souls with mild compassion most abound.
The golden dye with soft complacence takes
Each speaking lineament th' engraver makes,
And wears a faithful image for mankind,
True to the features, truer to the mind:
Whilst stubborn iron (like a barren soil
To lab'ring hinds) cludes the artist's toil;
To ev'ry stroke ungrateful and unjust,
Corrodes itself, or hardens into rust.

Good-nature, in the language from above12,
Is universal charity and love:
Patient of wrongs, and enemy to strife;
Basis of virtue, and the staff of life!
Whilst av'rice, private censure, public rage,
Are th' old man's hobby-horse, and crutch of age.
Party conducts us to the meanest ends;
Party made Herod and a Pilate friends 13.
Scorn'd be the bard, and banish'd ev'n from
schools,

Who first immortaliz'd man-killing fools;
Blockheads in council, bloody in command:
Warriors-not of the head, but of the hand;
True brethren of the iron-pated Suede14:
They fight like Ajax, and like Ajax read.

Of all the great and harmless things below,
Only an elephant is truly so.

(Thus writes a wit15, well known a cent❜ry past;
Forgotten now; yet still his fame shall last.)
Kings have their follies; statesmen have their
arts;
[hearts;

Wealth spoils the great; beauty ensnares our
And wits are doubly dup'd by having parts.
Some have ten times the parts they ought to use;
"A great wit's greatest work is to refuse 16!"
Never, O bards, the warning voice despise ;-
To add is dang'rous, to retrench is wise.
Poets instead of saying what they could,
Must only say the very thing they should.
This mighty EYPHKA reserv'd for few,
Virgil and Boileau, Pope and Dryden knew.
(Thus by the way.) Now, Muse, resume thy

The swallow toils, and rises with a gnat.—

It chanc'd as through his groves our monarch
stray'd,

T enjoy the coolness of a summer shade,
Wrapt up in virtuous schemes of means and ends,
To reconcile his foes, or bless his friends,
He spy'd a figure, which by shape he knew,
In a lone grotto half conceal'd from view:
Thither the prudent wand'rer had retir'd,
As modesty and well bred sense requir'd:
Studious of manners, fearful to intrude
On precious hours of royal solitude.
"Amariel," cry'd the prince, "I know thee
Invelop'd in the umbrage of a cell: [well,

;

I like thy modesty, with manuers fraught ;-
But, as my spirits ask a pause from thought,
Walk with thy master, and with him inhale
The cooling freshness of the western gale.
Amariel," added he, and gently smil'd,
"This grove's my kingdom, and each tree my
child:

66

(Forgive the vanity, which thus compares
My self to Cyrus, and his rural cares 17;)
My ready pencil sketch'd the first design,
These eyes adjusted ev'ry space and line;
These hands have fixt th' inoculated shoots,
Train'd the louse branches, and reform'd the
roots.

Happy the monarch of the town and field,
Where vice to laws, and weeds to culture yield
"My human realms a tenfold care demand,
Reluctant is the staples of the land:
Sour are the juices, churlish is the soil,
Of rule impatient, and averse to toil.
In vain I cherish, and in vain replace;
Th' ungrateful branch flies back, and wounds my
Courtiers are like th' hyena, never tame :
No bounties üx them, and no arts reclaim:
Frontless they run the muck 19 through thick and
thin;

[face.

Not poorer, if they lose ;-and they may win.
Patriots of their own int'rest, right or wrong:
Foes to the feeble, flatt'rers to the strong.
Stiff complaisance thro' their best homage
spreads,
[heads.
So turn-soles 20 court the Sun with 'wry-neck'd
True as a dial, when their patrons shine;
But blank, if the said patrons pow'r resign.
Like good sir Martin 29, when he lost his mau,
They grieve-and get another as they can.
Yet, (though small real comfort is enjoy'd
Where man the ruler is, and men employ'd,)
Of all my friends and servants, you alone
Have pleas'd me best, and most reliev'd the
throne.

17 Xenophout. Oeconomic. c. iv, &c.

18 The staple of the soil, in an husbandrysense, is the upper earth, which lies within the reach of the plough and influence of the atmosphere.

Thus we call wool, with relation to England a staple commodity.

19 Dryden's Hind and Panther.

20 The heliotrope, or Sun-flower, called, by the Italians, orologio dei cortegiani.

21 Sir Martin Marr-all, in a comedy of Dryden's writing.

Who live unthinking, and obdurate die,
Nor heed their own or children's leprosy 32.
Sin-born and blind! Who change, protest, and

swear,

With the same ease they draw the vital air.
Proud of the wit, and heedless of the sin,
They strip, and sell the Christian to the skin 33.
Charms irresistible the dupes behold

In vineyards, farms, and all-compelling gold.
Others (still weaker) set their truth to sale
For a mere sound, and cut off Heav'n's entail:
Whilst he, who never fails his imps, supplies
Prompt treachery, and fresh-created lies.-
Time-servers are at ev'ry man's command
For loaves and fish on Dalmanutha's strand 34 ̧”
He spoke and, with a flood of tears oppress'd,
Gave anguish vent, and felt a moment's rest.
Heav'n with compassion heard the sick man
grieve;

And Hezekiah gain'd the wish'd reprieve 35.
Once more his blood with equal pulses flow'd,
And health's contentment on his visage glow'd.
Places and honours be with joy resign'd;
(Peace-off'rings to procure a tranquil mind 36!)
Gave all his riches to the sick and poor,
And made one patriarch-farm his only store.
To groves and brooks our new Elijah ran,
Far from the monster world, and traitor man.
Thus he surviv'd the tempest of the day,
And ev❜ning-sunshine shot a glorious ray.
Diseases, sickness, disappointments, sorrow,
All lend us comfort, whilst they seem to borrow.
Here I might paint him in a life retir'd,
Ennobled by the virtues he acquir'd;
But the true transports of the wise and good
Are best by implication understood;
Except the Muse with Dryden's strength could

soar:

Me, humble Prudence whispers37 to give o'er.

Bad bards, worse critics!-Thus we multiply
Poems and rules, but write no poetry.
Ev'n Pope, like Charlemagne, with all his fire
Made Paladins-but not an host entire 9.
Far as its pow'rs could go, thy genius went :
Good sense still kept thee in thy own extent40.
Rare wisdom! both t' enjoy and know thy
store;-

Most wits, like misers, always covet more.
Leave me, lov'd bard, instructor of my youth,
Leave me the sounds of verse, and voice of truth;
So when Elias dropp'd his mantle, ran
Elisha, and a prophet's life began 4'.

Add, that the Muses, nurst in various climes,
Yield diff'rent produce, and at diff'rent times.
Italian plants, in nature's hot-bed plac'd,
Bear fruits in spring, and riot into waste.
French flow'rs less early, (and yet early,) blow;
Their pertness is a green-house from the snow.
Cold northern wits demand a longer date;
Our genius, like our climate, ripens late.
The fancy's solstice is at forty o'er,

The tropic of our judgment sees three-score.
Thus summer codlings yield a poignant draught,
Which frisks the palate, but ne'er warms the
thought:

cast,)
Rough cackagées, (four months behind them
Take all bad weathers, and through autumn last:
Mellow'd from wild austerity, at length
They taste like nectar, and adopt its strength.

THE ENCHANTED REGION:

OR, MISTAKEN PLEASURES.
The mistress of witchcrafts.

Nahum, ch. iii, v. 4.

A safe retreat; plann'd and perform'd with care, Draw near hither, ye sons of the sorceress.
Stands for a vict'ry in poetic war.

So when the warbling lark has mounted high
With upright flight, and gain'd upon the sky,
Grown giddy, she contracts her flick'ring wings:
Thrids her descending course in spiral rings,
Less'ning her voice; but to the ground she sings;
Resolving, on a more auspicious day,
Higher to mount, and chant a better lay 3.

How few can still their reader's minds en-
gage?-

One Pope is the slow child-birth of one age. Others write verses, but they write unblest; Some few good lines stand sponsors for the rest: They miss wit's depth, and on the surface skim; (He who seeks pearls, must dive, as well as swim.)

32 Ibid. v. ult.

33.

Isaiah, ch. Ivii, v. 3.

According to their pasture, so were they filled: they were filled, and their heart was exalted: Therefore they have forgotten me.

Hosea, ch. xiii, v. 6.

39 An answer made by Boccace, when it was objected to him, that some of his novels had not the spirit of the rest.

40 Amongst Mr. Pope's great intellectual abilities, good sense was his most distinguishing character: for he knew precisely, and as it were by a sort of intuition, what he had power to do,

and what he could not do.

He often used to say, that for ten years together he firmly resisted the importunity of friends and flatterers, when they solicited him to under

They pull off the robe with the garment." take a translation of Virgil after Dryden. Nor

did he ever mistake the extent of his talents, but
in the following trivial instance; and that was,
when he writ his Ode to Music on St. Cecilia's day,
induced perhaps by a secret ambition of rivalling
the inimitable Dryden. In which case, if he
hath not exceeded the original, (for there is al-
ways some advantage in writing first) he hath at
least surpassed (and perhaps ever will surpass)
those that come after him, and attempt to make
the same experiment.
41 2 Kings, ch. ii.