Should Reason guide thee with her brightest ray, And

pour on misty Doubt resistless day;
Should no false kindness lure to loose delight,
Nor praise relax, nor difficulty fright;
Should tempting Novelty thy cell refrain,
And Sloth effuse her opiate fumes in vain;
Should Beauty blunt on fops her fatal dart,
Nor claim the triumph of a letter'd heart;
Should no disease thy torpid veins invade,
Nor Melancholy's phantoms haunt thy shade;
Yet hope not life from grief or danger free,
Nor think the doom of man revers'd for thee:
Deign on the passing world to turn thine eyes,
And
pause

awhile from Letters, to be wise;
There mark what ills the scholars life assail,
Toil, envy, want, the patron, and the gaol,
See nations, slowly wise and meanly just,
To buried merit raise the tardy, bust.
If dreams yet flatter, once again attend,
Hear Lydiat's life, and Galileo's end .

Nor deem, when Learning her last prize bestows,
The glitt'ring eminence exempt from foes;
See, when the vulgar 'scapes, despis’d or aw'd,
Rebellion's vengeful talons seize on Laud.
From meaner minds, though smaller fines content
The plunder'd palace, or sequester'd rent;
Mark'd out by dang'rous parta, he meets the shock,
And fatal Learning leads him to the block:
Around his tomb let Art and Genius

weep, But hear his death, ye blockheads, hear and sleep.

+ The festal blazes, the triumphal show, The ravish'd standard, and the captive foe, * See Gent. Mag. Vol. LXVIII, p. 951, 1023.

+ Ver. 133-146

The senate's thanks, the Gazette's pompous tale,
With force resistless o'er the brave prevail.
Such bribes the rapid Greek o'er Asia whirld,
For such the steady Romans shook the world;
For such in distant lands the Britons shine,
And stain with blood the Danubė or the Rhine;

This pow'r has praise, that virtue scárce can warm
Till Fame supplies the universal charm.
Yet reason frowns on War's unequal game,
Where wasted nations raise a single name;
And mortgag'd states their grandsites' wreaths re-

gret, From age to age in everlasting debt; Wreaths which at last the dear-bought right convey To rust on medals, or on stones decay.

* On what foundation stands the warrior's pride, How just his hopes, let Swedish Charles decide; A frame of adamant, a soul of fire, No dangers fright him, and no labours tire; O’er love, o'er fear, extends his wide domain, Unconquer'd lord of pleasure and of pain; No joys to him pacific sceptres yield, War sounds the trump, he rushes to the field; Behold surrounding kings their pow'rs combine, And one capitulate, and one resign; Peace courts his hand, but spreads her charmsin vain; “ Think nothing gain'd,” he cries, “till nought re

o main,

“ On Moscow's walls till Gothic standards fly, “ And all be mine beneath the polar sky." The march begins in military state, And nations on his eye suspended wait; Stern Famine guards the solitary coast, And winter barricades the realms of Frost;

• Ver. 147-167

He comes, nor want nor cold his course delay:
Hide, blushing Glory, hide Pultowa's day :
The vanquish”d hero leaves his broken bands,
And shews his miseries in distant lands;
Condemn'd a needy supplicant to wait,
While ladies interpose, and slaves debate.
But did not Chance at length her error mend?
Did no subverted empire mark his-end?
Did rival monarchs give the fatal wound?
Or hostile millions press him to the ground?
His fall was destin'd to a barren strand,
A petty fortress, and a dubious hand

; He left the name, at which the world grew pale, To point a moral, or adorn a tale.

*All times their scenes of pompous woes afford, From Persia's tyrant to Bavaria's lord. In gay hostility and barb'rous pride, With half mankind embattled at his side, Great Xerxes comes to seize the certain prey, And starves exhausted regions in his way ; Attendant Flatt'ry, counts his myriads o’er, Till counted myriadssooth his pride no more ; Fresh praise is try'd till madness fires his mind, The waves he lashes, and enchains the wind, New pow'rs are claim'd, new pow'rs are still be

stow'd, Till rude resistance lops the spreading god; The daring Greeks deride the martial show, And heap their vallies with the gaudy foe; Th’ insulted sea with humbler thought he gains, A single skiff to speed his fight remains ; The incumber'd oar scarce leaves the dreaded coast Through purple billows and a floating host.

The bold Bavarian, in a luckless hour, Tries the dread summits of Cæsarean pow'r, With unexpected legions bursts away, And sees defenceless realms receive his sway; Short sway!fairAustriaspreads hermournfulcharms, The queen, the beauty, sets the world in arms; From hill to hill the beacon's rousing blaze Spreads wide the hope of plunder and of praise ; The fierce Croatian, and the wild Hussar, With all the sons of ravage crowd the war ; The baffled prince, in honour's flatt’ring bloom Of hasty greatness, finds the fatal doom; His foes derision, and his subjects blame, And steals to death from anguish and from shame.

* Enlarge my life with multitude of days! In health, in sickness, thus the suppliant prays; Hides from himself his state, and shuns to know, That life protracted is protracted woe. Time hovers o'er, impatient to destroy, And shuts up all the passages of joy: In vain their gifts the bounteous seasons pour, The fruit autumnal, and the vernal flow'r; With listless eyes the dotard views the store, He views, and wonders that they please no more; Now pall the tasteless meats, and joyless wines, And Luxury with sighs her slave resigns. Approach, ye minstrels, try the soothing strain, Diffuse the tuneful lenitives of pain: No sounds, alas ! would touch th' impervious ear, Though dancing mountains witness'a Orpheus near; Nor lute nor lyre his feeble pow'rs attend, Nor sweeter musick of a virtuous friend;

* Ver. 188-288. stoor

But everlasting dictates crowd his tongue,
Perversely grave, or positively wrong.
The still returning tale, and lingʻring jest,
Perplex the fawning niece and pamper'd guest,
While growing hopes scarce awe thegath’ring sneer,
And scarce a legacy can bribe to hear;
The watchful guests still hint the last offence ;
The daughter's petulance, the son's expence,
Improve his heady rage with treach'rous skill,
And mould his passions till they make his will.

Unnumber'd maladies his joints invade,
Lay siege to life, and press the dire blockade;
But, unextinguish’d, Av’rice still remains,
And dreaded losses aggravate his pains;
He turns, with anxious heart and crippled hands,
His bonds of debt, and mortgages of lands;
Or views his coffers with suspicious eyes,
Unlocks his gold, and counts it till he dies.

But grant, the virtues of a temp’rate prime
Bless with an age exempt from scorn or crimic;
An age that melts with unperceiv'd decay,
And glides in modest innocence away;
Whose peaceful day Benevolence endears,
Whose night congratulating Conscience cheers;
The gen’ral fav’rite as the gen'ral friend :
Such

age there is, and who shall wish its end?
Yet ev'n on this her load Misfortune Alings,
To press the weary minutes' flagging wings;
New sorrow rises as the day returns,
A sister sickens, or a daughter mourns.
Now kindred Merit fills the sable bier,
Now lacerated Friendship claims a tear ;
Year chases year, decay pursues decay,
Still drops some joy from with’ring life away;