With weekly libels and septennial ale, 100 In full-blown dignity, see Wolsey stand, Grief aids disease, remember'd folly stings, Speak thou, whose thoughts at humble peace repine, Shall Wolsey's wealth with Wolsey's end be thine? Or liv'st thou now, with safer pride content, The wisest justice on the banks of Trent? For why did Wolsey near the steeps of fate, On weak foundations raise th' enormous weight? Why but to sink beneath Misfortune's blow, What gave great Villiers to th' assassin's knife, And fix'd disease on Harley's closing life? What murder'd Wentworth, and what exil'd Hyde, By kings protected, and to kings ally'd? 130 What but their wish indulg’d in courts to shine, And pow'r too great to keep, or to resign? When first the college rolls receive his name, The young enthusiast quits his ease for fame; Through all his veins the fever of renown Spreads from the strong contagion of the gown; O'er Bodley's dome his future labors spread, And Bacon's mansion trembles o'er his head. Are these thy views? proceed, illustrious youth, And Virtue guard thee to the throne of Truth! 40 Yet should thy soul indulge the gen`rous heat, Till captive Science yields her last retreat ; 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 reins invade, Nor Melancholy's phantoms haunt thy shade; Yet hope not life from grief or danger free, Nor deem, when Learning her last prize bestows, From meaner minds, though smaller fines content The festal blazes, the triumphal show, And stain with blood the Danube or the Rhine ; 15. This pow' Yet reason frowns on War's unequal game, Where wasted nations raise a single name, And mortgag'd states their grandsires' wreaths regret, Wreaths which at last the dear-bought right convey On what foundation stands the warrior's pride, No dangers fright him, and no labors tire; War sounds the trump, he rushes to the field; And one capitulate, and one resign'; 190 Peace courts his hand, but spreads her charms in vain ; "Think nothing gain'd, he cries, 'till nought remain, 200 "On Moscow's walls till Gothic standards fly, "And all be mine beneath the polar sky." The march begins in military state, And winter barricades the realm of Frost; And shews his miseries in distant lands; 2/0 He left the name at which the world grew pale, 220 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 on 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 myriads sooth his pride no more; Fresh praise is try'd till madness fires his mind, The waves he lashes, and enchains the wind;_239 New pow'rs are claim'd, new pow'rs are still bestow'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 thoughts he gains, Th' incumber'd oar scarce leaves the dreaded coast |