ARG U MEN T.
THE poet's defign, in this divine fatire, is to reprefent the various withes and defires of mankind; and to fet out the folly of them. He runs through all the feveral heads of riches, honours, eloquence, fame for martial atchievements, long life, and beauty; and gives instances, in each, how frequently they have proved the ruin of thofe that owned them. He concludes therefore, that fince we generally chufe fo ill for ourselves, we fhould do better to leave it to the gods, to make the choice for us. All we can fafely afk of heaven, lies within a very
pafs. It is but health of body and mind.
And if we have thefe, it is not much matter what we want befides; for we have already enough to make us happy.
LOOK round the habitable world, how few
Know their own good; or, knowing it, purfue. How void of reafon are our hopes and fears! What in the conduct of our life appears
So well defign'd, fo luckily begun,
But, when we have our wish, we wish undone ?
Whole houses, of their whole defires poffeft,
Are often ruin'd, at their own request.
In wars, and peace, things hurtful we require,
When made obnoxious to our own defire.
With laurels fome have fatally been crown'd;
Some, who the depths of eloquence have found,
In that unnavigable stream were drown'd.
The brawny fool, who did his vigour boast;
In that prefuming confidence was lost :
But more have been by avarice oppreft,
And heaps of money crowded in the cheft:
Unwieldy fums of wealth, which higher mount
Than files of marshal'd figures can account.
To which the ftores of Crofus, in the scale,
Would look like little dolphins, when they fail
In the vast fhadow of the British whale.
For this, in Nero's arbitrary time,
When virtue was a guilt, and wealth a crime,
A troop of cut-throat guards were sent to seize
The rich mens' goods, and gut their palaces :
The mob, commiffion'd by the government,
Are feldom to an empty garret fent.
The fearful paffenger, who travels late,
Charg'd with the carriage of a paltry plate,
Shakes at the moonshine shadow of a rush ;
And fees a red-coat rise from every bush :
The beggar fings, ev'n when he sees the place
Befet with thieves, and never mends his pace.
Of all the vows, the first and chief request Of each, is to be richer than the rest:
And yet no doubts the poor man's draught control,
He dreads no poison in his homely bowl,
Then fear the deadly drug, when gems divine
Enchafe the cup, and sparkle in the wine.
Will you not now the pair of fages praise,
Who the fame end purfued, by feveral ways
One pity'd, one contemn'd, the woeful times:
One laugh'd at follies, one lamented crimes :
Laughter is eafy; but the wonder lies,
What store of brine fupply'd the weeper's eyes.
Democritus could feed his fpleen, and shake
His fides and fhoulders till he felt them ake;
Though in his country-town no lictors were,
Nor rods, nor ax, nor tribune, did appear:
Nor all the foppish gravity of show,
Which cunning magistrates on crowds bestow.
What had he done, had he beheld, on high,
Our prætor feated, in mock majefty;
His chariot rolling o'er the dusty place,
While, with dumb pride, and a set formal face,
He moves, in the dull ceremonial track,
With Jove's embroider'd coat upon his back :
A fuit of hangings had not more oppreft
His shoulders, than that long, laborious vest :
A heavy gewgaw (call'd a crown) that spread
About his temples, drown'd his narrow head:
And would have crufh'd it with the mafly freight,
But that a fweating flave fuftain'd the weight:
A flave in the fame chariot feen to ride,
To mortify the mighty madman's pride.
And now th' imperial eagle, rais'd on high;
With golden beak (the mark of majesty)
Trumpets before, and on the left and right,
A cavalcade of nobles, all in white :
In their own natures false and flattering tribes,›
But made his friends, by places and by bribes.
In his own age, Democritus could find
Sufficient cause to laugh at human-kind :
Learn from fo great a wit; a land of bogs
With ditches fenc'd, a heaven made fat with fogs,
May form a spirit fit to fway the state;
And make the nighbouring monarchs fear their fate.
He laughs at all the vulgar cares and fears;
At their vain triumphs, and their vainer tears :
An equal temper in his mind he found,
When Fortune flatter'd him, and when the frown'd. 'Tis plain, from hence, that what our vows request, Are hurtful things, or useless at the best.
Some ask for envy'd power; which public hate
Purfues, and hurries headlong to their fate :
Down go the titles; and the statue crown'd,
Is by bafe hands in the next river drown'd.
The guiltless horfes and the chariot wheel,
The same effects of vulgar fury feel :
The smith prepares his hammer for the stroke,
While the lung'd bellows hiffing fire provoke ;
Seianus, almoft firft of Roman names,
great Sejanus crackles in the flames :
Form'd in the forge, the pliant brass is laid
On anvils; and of head and limbs are made,
Pans, cans, and pifs-pots, a whole kitchen-trade.
Adorn your doors with laurels; and a bull,
Milk white, and large, lead to 'the Capitol ;
Sejanus, with a rope, is dragg'd along ;
The sport and laughter of the giddy throng!
Good Lord, they cry, what Ethiop lips he has,
How foul a fnout, and what a hanging face!
By heaven, I never could endure his fight;
But fay, how came his monstrous crimes to light?
What is the charge, and who the evidence,
(The faviour of the nation and the prince?)
Nothing of this; but our old Cæfar fent
A noify letter to his parliament:
Nay, firs, if Cæfar writ, I afk no more,
He's guilty; and the question 's out of door.
goes the mob? (for that's a mighty thing,)
When the king's trump, the mob are for the king
They follow fortune, and the common cry
Is ftill against the rogue condemn'd to die.
But the fame very mob, that rascal crowd,
Had cry'd Sejanus, with a fhout as loud;
Had his defigns (by fortune's favour bleft)
Succeeded, and the prince's age oppreft.
But long, long fince, the times have changed their face,
The people grown degenerate and base:
Not fuffer'd now the freedom of their choice,
To make their magiftrates, and fell their voice.
|