O'er love, o'er fear extends his wide domain,
Unconquer'd lord of pleasure and of pain;
No joys to him pacific scepters yield,

War founds the trump, he rushes to the field;
Behold furrounding kings their pow'r combine,
And one capitulate, and one refign;

Peace courts his hand, but spreads her charms in vain ;
"Think nothing gain'd, he cries, till nought remain,
"On Mofcow'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 folitary coast,

And Winter barricades the realm of Froft;

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He comes, not want and cold his courfe delay ;-
Hide, blushing Glory, hide Pultowa's day:
The vanquish'd hero leaves his broken bands,
And fhews his miferies in distant lands;
Condemn'd a needy fupplicant to wait,
While ladies interpofe, and flaves debate.
But did not Chance at length her error mend?
Did no fubverted empire mark his end?
Did rival monarchs give the fatal wound?
Or hoftile millions prefs him to the ground?
His fall was destin'd to a barren strand,

A petty fortrefs, and a dubious hand;

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

All

All times their scenes of pompous woes afford,

From Perfia's tyrant to Bavaria's lord.

In gay hoftility, and barb'rous pride,
With half mankind embattled at his fide,
Great Xerxes comes to feize the certain prey,
And ftarves exhausted regions in his way;
Attendant Flatt'ry counts his myriads o'er,
"Till counted myriads footh 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 bestow'd,
"Till rude refiftance lops the spreading god;
The daring Greeks deride the martial show,
And heap their vallies with the gaudy foe;
Th' infulted fea with humbler thoughts he gains,
A single skiff to speed his flight remains ;

Th' incumber'd oar fcarce leaves the dreaded coaft
Thro' purple billows and a floating host.

The bold Bavarian, in a luckless hour,

Tries the dread fummits of Cesarean pow'r,
With unexpected legions burfts away,

And fees defenceless realms receive his fway;

Short fway! fair Auftria spreads her mournful charms,
The queen, the beauty, fets the world in arms;
From hill to hill the beacons roufing blaze
Spreads wide the hope of plunder and of praise;

k Ver. 168-187.

VOL. IV.

L

The

The fierce Croatian, and the wild Huffar,
And all the fons of ravage crowd the war;
The baffled prince in honour's flatt'ring bloom
Of hafly greatnefs finds the fatal doom,

His foes derifion, and his fubjects blame,

And steals to death from anguish and from shame.

Enlarge my life with multitude of days,

In health, in ficknefs, thus the fuppliant prays;
Hides from himself his state, and fhuns to know,

That life protracted is protracted woe.

Time hovers o'er, impatient to destroy,

And shuts up all the paffages of joy :

In vain their gifts the bounteous seasons pour,
The fruit autumnal, and the vernal flow'r,
With liftless 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 fighs her flave refigns.

Approach, ye minstrels, try the foothing strain,
And yield the tuneful lenitives of pain:
No founds alas would touch th' impervious ear,
Tho' dancing mountains witnefs Orpheus near,
Nor lute nor lyre his feeble pow'rs attend,
Nor fweeter mufick of a virtuous friend,
But everlasting dictates crowd his tongue,
Perversely grave or pofitively wrong.

1 Ver. 188

-288.

The

The ftill returning tale, and ling'ring jeft,
Perplex the fawning niece and pamper'd gueft,
While growing hopes fcarce awe the gath'ring fneer,
And scarce a legacy can bribe to hear;

The watchful guests ftill hint the laft offence,
The daughter's petulance, the fon's expence,
Improve his heady rage with treach'rous skill,
And mould his paffions 'till they make his will.
Unnumber'd maladies his joints invade,
Lay fiege to life and prefs the dire blockade;
But unextinguish'd Av'rice ftill remains,

And dreaded loffes aggravate his pains;

He turns, with anxious heart and cripled hands,
His bonds of debt, and mortgages of lands;
Or views his coffers with fufpicious 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 crime
An age that melts in unperceiv'd decay,
And glides in modeft innocence away;
Whose peaceful day Benevolence endears,
Whofe night congratulating Confcience chears;
The gen'ral fav'rite, as the gen'ral friend;
Such age there is, and who could with its end?

Yet ev'n on this her load Misfortune flings,
To prefs the weary minutes flagging wings:
New forrow rifes as the day returns,

A sister fickens, or a daughter mourns.
L 2

Now

Now kindred Merit fills the fable bier,
Now lacerated friendship claims a tear.
Year chafes year, decay pursues decay,
Still drops fome joy from with'ring life away;
New forms arife, and diff'rent views engage,
Superfluous lags the vet'ran on the stage,

'Till pitying Nature signs the last release,
And bids afflicted worth retire to peace.

But few there are whom hours like these await, Who fet unclouded in the gulphs of Fate. From Lydia's monarch fhould the fearch defcend, By Solon caution'd to regard his end,

In life's last scene what prodigies surprise,

Fears of the brave, and follies of the wife?

From Marlb'rough's eyes the ftreams of dotage flow, And swift expires a driv❜ler and a show.

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The teeming mother, anxious for her race,

Begs for each birth the fortune of a face:

Yet Vane could tell what ills from beauty spring;
And Sedley curs'd the form that pleas'd a king.
Ye nymphs of rofy lips and radiant eyes,
Whom Pleasure keeps too busy to be wife,
Whom Joys with soft varieties invite,

By day the frolick, and the dance by night,
Who frown with vanity, who smile with art,
And afk the latest fashion of the heart,

Ver. 289-345.