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Join'd to good fortune, 'twas our courtier's lot 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'di.

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 stubboru iron (like a barren soil To lab'ring hinds) eludes the artist's toil; To ev'ry stroke ungrateful and unjust, Corrodes itself, or hardens into rust.

Good-nature, in the language from above1?, 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 ETPHKA reserv'd for few,
Virgil and Boileau, Pope and Dryden knew.
(Thus by the way.) Now, Muse, resume thy

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| So, in the daily work she labours at,
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:
Studions 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 manners 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:

(Forgive the vanity, which thus compares
My self to Cyrus, and his rural cares ;)
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 loose 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 staple 18 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' hyéna, never tame :
No bounties fix them, and no arts reclaim:
Frontless they run the muck through thick and
thin;

19

[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 20, when he lost his man,
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 Xenophont. 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.

Whatever then my bounty can provide;
Whatever by my friendship be supply'd;
As far as faith can bind, or speech can say,
Ask, and I meet thy wishes half the way."

The servant bow'd, and gratitude express'd;
Such gratitude as dwells in courtier's breast:
Pleas'd to the height of transport he retir'd;
His fears were calm'd, and his ambition fir'd.
Unhappy man, in both his objects wrong;
The weak he trusted, and forgot the strong!

Six years were past, when lo, by slow degrees, A fever did his limbs and spirits seize : Advancing gently, no alarm it makes, [brakes:) (Like murd'ring Indians gliding through the But, having mark'd her sure approaches well, She storms, and nothing can her force repell. Instant, a liquid fire inflames the blood, Whilst spasms impede the self-refining flood: Petechial spots th' approach of Death proclaim, Redd'ning like comets with vindictive flame; Whilst wand'ring talk, and mopings wild, presage Moon-struck illusion, and conclude in rage. Inevitable Death alarins the heart: Nature stands by, and bids her aim the dart. The sick man, stupify'd with fear and woe, Had hardly words to speak, or tears to flow; At length in broken sounds was heard to cry, "Grant me to see my master, e'er I die.' The master came. "Ah, prince," Amariel said, "Now keep thy promise, and extend thy aid; Unfurl my tangled thread of human breath, And call me back one year, before my death.” The prince (for he was wise, and good withall,) Stood like a statue mortis'd to the wall: At length recov'ring from amazement, broke An awful silence, and thus gravely spoke : "Amaricl, sure thy pangs disturb thy brain: The boon you ask is blasphemous and vain : Am I a god, to alter Death's decree? That's the prerogative of Heav'n, not me."

"Then," cry'd Amariel, with an hasty tone, "Gain me a week, three days, or gain me one."

"Impossible!" agen the prince reply'd ; "Sure thy disease to madness is ally'd : Ask me for riches-freely I resign

A third, or half, and bid thee make them thine. Whate'er the world can human greatness call, Pow'r, rank, grants, titles, I'll bestow them all. Then die in peace, or with contentment live, Nor ask a gift no mortal pow'r can give."

With eyes that flash'd with eagerness and fire The sick man then propos'd a new desire: "As Death's dread tyranny has no control, Can you ensure the safety of my soul? Anxious and doubtful for my future state, I read the danger, but I read too late." The prince stood mute; compassion and amaze Tore his divided heart ten thousand ways: And, having rightly weigh'd the sick man's

pray'r,

Thus he reply'd in sorrow and despair:

"Salvation of the soul by grace is giv'n ;Unalienable is the grace of Heav'n.

I tremble at the rash request you make,
Which is not mine to grant, or yours to take."
Amariel then, with disappointment spent,
Turn'd from his prince in mournful discontent,
And, lifting up to Heav'n his hands and eyes,
Thus in a flood of tears obtests the skies:

"Wretch that I am, unworthy of my breath; Deceiv'd when living, and deceiv'd in death! Why did I waste my strength, my cares, my To serve a master-master but in name? [fame, An ethnic idol, for delusion made;

Eyes without sight, protection without aid?
Unable to bestow the good we want,
And ready, what avails us not, to grant!
Deceitful, impotent, unuseful pow'r;
Which can give di'monds, but not give an hour!
At Rimmon's shrine no longer will I bow,
But thus to th' all-pow'rful king address my vow:
"O thou, the only great, and good, and wise,
Ruler of Earth, and monarch of the skies;
Thou, whom th' intents of virtuous actions
please;
[ease 22:
Whose laws are freedom, and whose service
Whose mercy waits th' offender to the grave,
Willing to hear; omnipotent to save!
Who ne'er forgot one meritorious deed,
Nor left a servant in the hour of need;
To mercy and to equity inclin'd;
Who mind'st the heart, and tenour of the mind.
Forgive my errour, and my life restore;
Thee will I serve alone, and thee adore!
Farewell Earth's deities and idols all;
Moloch and Mammon, Chiun 24, Dagon, Baal:
Whose chemarims 25 tread their fantastic rounds
O'er Aven's 26 plains, and dance to Tyrian
sounds.

"Hence, false Astarte 27, who the world suborns,
Life's lambent meteor glist'ring round her horns.
Let Thammuz moan his self-inflicted pain,
And Sidon's stream run purple to the main.

"No star of Remphan 28 shall attract my sight, Shorn of its beams, and gleaming sickly light: Malignaut orb! which tempts bewilder'd swains To gulphs, to quicksands, and waste trackless By thee the false Achitophel was led ; [plains! And Haman 29 dy'd aloft, and made a cloud his bed.

"From worldly hopes and false dependance freed,

I'll seek no safety from a splinter'd reed; Which causes those to fall, who wish to stand; Or, if it aids the steps, gangrenes the hand 3°.

"How vain is all the chymic wealth of pow'r; Sought for an age, and squander'd in an hour! Full late we learn, in sickness, pains, and woe, What in high health 'twas possible to know.

"Two ages may have two Elishas seen; Groups of Gehazis 31 choke the space between :

22 Idcirco servi sumus, ut liberi esse possimus. Cicero.

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

swear,

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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 he 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.
A safe retreat; plann'd and perform'd with care,
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 38.
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

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 extent4°.
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,

thought:

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

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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 abi, lities, 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

Mic. ch. ii, v. 8.

34 Mark ch. viii, v. 10,

35 2 Kings, ch. xx.

26 Tranquil mind. Shakespeare,

27 Me, mea Calliope, cura leviore vagantem,
Jam revocat, parvoque jubet decurrere gyro.
Columell. de Hortis, L. 10.
nostra fatiscit,
Laxaturque chelys: vires instigat, alitque;
Tempestiva quies; major post otia virtus.
Sylv. L, 4.

did he ever mistake the extent of his talents, but
in the following trivial instance; and that was,
when he writ his Ode toMusic 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,

380

EMPTY, illusory life,

Pregnant with fraud, in mischiefs rife ';
Form'd to ensnare us, and deceive us :
Nahum's enchantress! which beguiles
With all her harlotry of wiles !—
First she loves, and then she leaves us!

Erring happiness beguiles

The wretch that strays o'er Circe's isles;
All things smile, and all annoy him;
The rose has thorns, the doves can bite;
Riot is a fatigue till night,
Sleep an opium to destroy him.

Louring in the groves of death
Yew-trees breathe funereal breath,
Brambles and thorns perplex the shade;
Asphaltic waters creep and rest;
Birds, in gaudy plumage drest,
Scream unmeaning through the glade'.'

Earth fallacious herbage yields,
And deep in grass its influence shields;
Acrid juices, scent annoying;-
Corrosive crow-feet choke the plains,
And hemloc strip'd with lurid stains,
And luscious mandrakes, life-destroying.

Gaudy bella-donna blowing,
Or with glossy berries glowing,
Lures th' unwise to tempt their doom:
Love's apples masks the fruit of death;
Sick hen-bane murders with her breath,
Actea with an harlot's bloom.

One plant alone is wrapt in shade;
Few eyes its privacy invade ;
Plant of joy, of life, and health!
More than the fabled lotos fam'd
Which (tasted once) mankind reclaim'd
From parents, country, pow'r, and wealth 8.

On yonder Alp I see it rise,
Aspiring to congenial skies,

But cover'd half with ivy-walls;~
There, where Eusebio 9 rais'd a shrine,
Snatch'd from the gulf by Pow'r Divine,
Where Reiga's tumbling torrent falls '*.
Compar'd with thee, how dimly shows
Poor Anacreon's life-less rose?
What is Homer's plant to thee?-
In vain the Mantuan poet try'd
To paint Amellus' starry 12 pride,
Emblem of wit's futility!

Men saw, alas, and knew not thee,
Mystic evangelic tree!

Thou hadst no charms for paynim-eyes;
Till, guided by the lamp of Heav'n,
To chaste Urania pow'r was giv❜n
To see, t'admire, and moralize.

All-beauteous flow'r, whose centre glows
With studs of gold; thence streaming flows.
Ray-like effulgence. Next is seen
A rich expanse of varying hue,
Enfring'd with an empurpled-blue,

And streak'd with young Pomona's green 13.

High o'er the pointal, deck'd with gold, (Emblem mysterious to behold,)

The baron De Bottoni.

10 This alludes to a well-known fact in the dutchy of Carniola, where the present ode was written.

About the year 1675, a nobleman was riding at night upon a road which goes near the edge of the precipice here mentioned. Mistaking his way (and that for a few steps only) his horse stopped short, and refused to go on; upon which the rider, who in all probability was heated with liquor, (otherwise he ought to have known the precipice better, it being not far from his own castle) lost both his temper and prudence, and spurred the horse with great anger; upon which the poor beast took a desperate leap, intending, as was imagined, to have reached another angle of the precipice on the same side which the road tay. The horse fell directly into the torrent, two or three hundred feet beneath, and was hur

"Art thou arrived to maturity of life? Look back and thou shalt see the frailty of thy youth, the folly of thy childhood, and the senseless dis-ried away with such rapidity that the body was sipation of thy infancy!-Look forward and thou shalt behold the insincerity of the world and cares of life, the diseases of thy body and the troubles of thy mind."

Annon. Vet.

"In this world death is every-where, grief every-where, and desolation every-where. The world flieth us, and yet we follow it; it falleth, and we adhere to it, and fall with it, and attempt to enjoy it falling."

St. Gregor. Hom.

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never found. The nobleman was discovered next day in an opening of the rock, about half way down, where a few bushes grew; and, as the saddle was found not far from him, it was supposed that the horse, by the violence of the effort he made, burst the saddle-girths. The rider lived many years after this wonderful escape, and, out of gratitude to God, erected a beautiful chapel on the edge of the precipice, dedicated (if I mistake not) to St. Anthony of Padua.

I made a drawing of the chapel, precip'ee, torrent, and nobleman's castle; of which a copy was taken afterwards by the celebrated drafts man Visentini, at Venice, in 1750.

"Moly. Homer's Odyssey, 1. XI, v. 305. 12 Aster Atticus, or (purple Italian) star-wort, Georg. IV, v. 271. 13 Alluding to that particular species of green called by the French pomme-verte, or applegreen.

A radiant cross its form expands ;-
Its opening arms appear t' embrace
The whole collective human race,
Refuge of all men in all lands!

Grant me, kind Heav'n, in prosp'rous hour
To pluck this consecrated flow'r,
And wear it thankful on my breast;
Then shall my steps securely stray,
No pleasures shall pervert my way 14,
No joys seduce, no cares molest.

Like Tobit (when the hand, approv'd

By Heav'n, th' obstructing films remov'd 15)
I now see objects as I ought:
Ambition's to hideous; pleasure vain;
Av'rice 16 is but a blockhead's gain,
Possessing all, bestowing nought.

Passions and frauds surround us all,
Their empire is reciprocal:
Shun their blandishments and wiles;
Riches but serve to steel the heart;
Want has its meanness and its art;
Health betrays, and strength beguiles.

In highest stations snares misguide;
Midst solitude they nurture pride,
Breeding vanity in knowledge;
A poison in delicious meat,

Midst wines a fraud, midst mirth a cheat,
In courts, in cabinet, and college.

The toils are fixt, the sportsmen keen:
Abroad unsafe, betray'd within,
Whither, O mortal! art thou flying?
Thy resolutions oft are snares,
Thy doubts, petitions, gifts, and pray'rs ;-
Alas, there may be snares in dying!

It

14" My heart is a vain and wandering heart, whenever it is led by its own determinations. is busy to no purpose, and occupied to no end, whenever it is not guided by divine influence: it seeketh rest and findeth none: it agreeth not with itself: it alters resolutions, changeth judgment, frames new thoughts, and suppresses old ones; pulls down every thing, and re-buildeth nothing; in short, it never continueth in the same state." St. Bernard. Meditat.

"Seest thou the luminary of the greater world in the highest pitch of meridian glory; where it continueth not, but descends in the same proportion as it ascended? Look next and consider if the light of this lower world is more permanent? Continuance is the child of Eternity, and not of Time." Ex. Vet. Ascet.

15 Tobit, ch. iii, v. 17. 16" All vices wax old by age: covetousness (and ambition) alone grow young."

Ex. Vet. Ascet. "Why are earth and ashes proud? There is not a more wicked thing than a covetous man: for such an one setteth his own soul to sale, because, while he liveth, he casteth away his bowels;" i. e. is a stranger to compassion.

Ecclus. ch. x, v. 9.

Deceiving none, by none ensnar'd,
O Paraclete 17, be thou my guard,
Patron of ev'ry just endeavour!

The cross of Christ is man's reward 19:
No heights obstruct, no depths retard;
Christian joys are joys for ever!

EULOGIUS; OR, THE CHARITABLE MASON.

AN HISTORICAL FABLE.

TAKEN FROM THE GREEK OF PAULUS SYLLOGUS,

LIB. III.

Nos, vilis turba, caducis

Deservire bonis, semperque optare parati, Spargimur in casus. Stat. Sylvæ, L. II. God gives us what he knows our wants require, And better things than those which we desire. Dryd. Palam. & Arc.

Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: Lest I be full and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord? Or lest I be poor and steal, and take the name of my God in vain. Agur's Prayer. Prov. ch. xxx, v. 8, 9.

INTRODUCTION.

PERMIT me, Stanhope', as I form'd thy youth
To classic taste and philosophic truth,
Once more, thy kind attention to engage,
And, dying, leave thee comfort for old-age;
This hist'ry may eternal truths suggest:
I've seen thee learned, and would leave thee
One grain of piety avails us more .[blest !.
Than Prussia's laurels, or Potosi's store.

How blindly to our misery we run; [done! Dup'd by false hopes, and by our pray'rs unWe want, we wish, we change, we change agen; Yet know not how to ask, nor what, nor when. They know they have a road, but miss their way; Just so, misled by liquor, drunkards stray,

Th' existence of their home admits no doubt;

Th' uncertainty-is where to find it out 2.

17 ПAPAKAHTO2: The Comforter; the John, ch. xiv, v. 16-26. Holy Spirit.

Dryden first introduced the word Paraclete into the English language, in his translation of the Hymn Veni Creator Spiritus: as also in his Britannia Rediviva:

Last solemn Sabbath saw the church attend;
The Paraclete in fiery pomp descend.
But, when his wond'rous octave roll'd again—
18 Rom. ch. viii, v. 39.

'Philip Stanhope, esq. late member of parliament for St. German's in Cornwall, and at present envoy extraordinary to the court of Dresden and the circle of Lower Saxony, &c. The natural son of lord Chesterfield, to whom his celebrated letters were addressed.

2 Væ tempori illi quando non deum cognovimus! August. Soliloq. c. 31.

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