To John Hartopp, Efq. now Sir John Hartopp, Bart.

Cafimire, Book I. Ode 4. imitated.

Vive jucundæ metuens juventæ, &c. July 1700.

I.

LIVE, my dear Hartopp! live to-day,

Nor let the fun look down and fay
"Inglorious here he lies:"

Shake off your eafe, and fend your name
To immortality and fame

By ev'ry hour that flies.

II.

Youth's a foft scene, but truft her not;
Her airy minutes swift as thought

Slide off the flipp'ry sphere:

Moons with their months make hafty rounds,

The fun has pafs'd his vernal bounds,

And whirls about the year.

III.

Let Folly drefs in green and red,
And gird her waist with flowing gold,

Knit blushing roses round her head,
Alas! the gaudy colours fade,
The garment waxes old.

Hartopp! mark the with'ring rofe,

And the pale gold how dim it shows!

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10

IS

IV.

Bright and lafting bliss below

Is all romance and dream,

Only the joys celestial flow

In an eternal stream.

The pleasures that the smiling day
With large right hand bestows
Falfely her left conveys away
And fhuffles in our woes.
So have I feen a mother play
And cheat her filly child;
She gave and took a toy away,
The infant cry'd and fmil'd.

V.

Airy Chance and iron Fate

Hurry and vex our mortal state,
And all the race of ills create;

Now fiery joy, now fullen grief,

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Commands the reins of human life,

The wheels impetuous roll;

The harness'd hours and minutes strive,
And days with ftretching pinions drive-
Down fiercely on the goal.

VI.

Not half fo faft the galley flies

O'er the Venetian fea

When fails, and oars, and lab'ring skies,
Contend to make her way.

40

Swift wings for all the flying hours

The God of time prepares,

The reft lie ftill yet in their neft

And grow for future years.

45

To Thomas Gunfton, Efq. Happy folitude, 1700.

Cafimire, Book IV. Ode 12. imitated.

Quid me latentem, Fe,

I.

THE noify world complains of me

That I fhould fhun their fight and flee
Vifits, and crowds, and company.
Gunfton! the lark dwells in her neft
Till the afcend the skies,

And in my closet I could rest
Till to the heav'ns I rife.

11.

Yet they will urge "This private life

"Can never make you bleft,

"And twenty doors are ftill at ftrife

"T' engage you for a guest.”

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10

Friend! fhould the tow'rs of Windsor or Whitehall

Spread open their inviting gates

To make my entertainment gay
I would obey the royal call,
But fhort fhould be my stay,

Since a diviner service waits

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T'employ my hours at home and better fill the day.

III.

When I within myself retreat
I fhut my doors against the great,
My bufy eyeballs inward roll,
And there with large furvey I fee
All the wide theatre of Me,

And view the various fcenes of my retiring foul;
There I walk o'er the mazes I have trod,
While hope and fear are in a doubtful ftrife
Whether this opera of life

Be acted well to gain the plaudit of my God.
IV.

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25

There's a day haft’ning ('t is an awful day!)
When the Great Sov'reign fhall at large review 30
All that we speak and all we do,

The fev'ral parts we act on this wide stage of clay :
These he approves and those he blames,

And crowns perhaps a porter and a prince he damns.
O if the Judge from his tremendous feat
Shall not condemn what I have done

I fhall be happy tho' unknown,

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Nor heed the gazing rabble nor the shouting street.

V.

I hate the glory, Friend! that springs

From vulgar breath and empty found:

Fame mounts her upward with a flatt'ring gale

Upon her airy wings

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Volume VI.

H

Till Envy fhoots and Fame receives the wound,

Then her flagging pinions fail,

Or if fociety be due

To keep our taste of pleasure new,
Gunfton! I'd live and die with you,
For both our fouls are one.

VI.

Here we could fit and pass the hour,

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And pity kingdoms and their kings,

And smile at all their fhining things,

Their toys of state and images of pow'r :
Virtue should dwell within our feat,

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Virtue alone could make it fweet;

Nor is herself fecure but in a clofe retreat.
While fhe withdraws from publick praife,

Envy perhaps would cease to rail,

Envy itself may innocently gaze

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At Beauty in a vail;

But if he once advance to light

Her charms are loft in Envy's fight,

And Virtue stands the mark of univerfal fpite. 69

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