Safer on common topicks to discourse,
The malt-tax, and a military force.
On these each coffee-house will lend a hint,
Besides a thousand things that are in print.
But fteal not word for word, nor thought for thought,
For you'll be teaz'd to death, if you are caught.
When factious leaders boast increasing strength,
Go not too far, nor follow every length :
Leave room for change, turn with a grace about,
And fwear you left 'em, when you found 'em out.
- 9 With art and modefty your part maintain ;
And talk like Col'nel Titus, not like Lane.
The trading knight with rants his speech begins,
Sun, moon, and stars, and dragons, faints, and kings:
But Titus faid, with his uncommon fense,
When the exclufion-bill was in fufpence,
I hear a lion in the lobby roar;
-Say, Mr. Speaker, fhall we fhut the door
And keep him there, or shall we let him in
To try if we can turn him out again?
Interpres; nec defilies imitator in ar&tum,
Unde pedem proferre pudor vetet, aut operis lex.
Nec fi incipies, ut fcriptor Cyclicus olim,
Fortunam Priami cantabo nobile bellum.”
Quanto rectius hic, qui nil molitur inepte,
"Dic mihi Mufa virum, captæ poft tempora Troja,
Qui mores hominum multorum vidit
Some mighty blufterers impeach with noise,
And call their private cry, the publick voice.
From folio's of accounts they take their handles,
Aud the whole ballance proves a pound of candles;
As if Paul's cupola were brought to bed,
After hard labour, of a small pin's head.
Some Rufus, fome the Conqueror bring in,
And fome from Julius Cæfar's days begin.
A cunning speaker can command his chops,
And when the houfe is not in humour, ftops;
In falfehood probability imploys,
Nor his old lies with newer lies deftroys.
▾ If when you speak, you'd hear a needle fall, And make the frequent hear-hims rend the wall, In matters fuited to your tafte engage, Rememb'ring ftill your quality and age.
Thy task be this, young knight, and hear my song, What politicks to ev'ry age belong.
• Non fumum ex fulgore, fed ex fumo dare lucem
Cogitat
* Quid dignum tanto feret hic promiffor hiatu?
Parturiunt montes, nafcetur ridiculus mus.
• Nec reditum Diomedes ab interitu Meleagri,
Nec gemino bellum Trojanum orditur ab ovo;
& quæ
Defperat tractata nitefcere poffe, relinquit ;
Atque ita mentitur, fic veris falfa remifcet,
Primum ne medium, medio ne difcrepet imum.
* Tu, quid ego & populus mecum defideret, audi;
Si plauforis eges aulea manentis, & ufque
* When babes can speak, babes should be taught to say King George the second's health, huzza, huzza! Boys should learn Latin for Prince William's fake, And girls Louisa their example make.
y More loves the youth, just come to his estate,
the fields, than in the house debate;
More he delights in fav'rite Jowler's tongue,
Than in Will Shippen, or Sir William Yonge:
If in one chafe he can two horfes kill,
He cares not two-pence for the land-tax bill :
Loud in his wine, in women not o'er nice,
He damns his uncles if they give advice;
Votes as his father did when there's a call,
But had much rather never vote at all.
z We take a different turn at twenty-fix,
And lofty thoughts on fome lord's daughter fix;
Sefuri donec cantor, Vos plaudite, dicat:
Etatis cujufque notandi funt tibi mores
Mobilibufque decor naturis dandus & annis.
Reddere qui voces jam fcit puer, & pede certo
Signat humum, jeftis paribus colludere, & iram
Colligit ac ponii temere, & mutatur in horas.
Imberbis juvenis, tandem cuftode remoto,
Gaudet equis canibufque, & aprici gramine campi z
Cereus in vitium flecti, monitoribus afper,
Utilium tardus provifor, prodigus æris,
Sublimis cupidufque, & amata relinquere pernix.
Converfis ftudiis, ætas animufque virilis;
Quærit opes & amicitias, infervit honori ;
Commififle cavet quod mox mutare laboret.
With men in pow'r strict friendship we pursue,
With some confiderable post in view.
A man of forty years to change his note,
One way to speak, and t'other way to vote;
Careful his tongue in paflion to command,
Avoids the bar, and speaker's reprimand.
In bags the old man lets his treasure ruft,
Afraid to use it, or the funds to trust;
When flocks are low he wants the heart to buy,
And through much caution fees them rife too high;
Thinks nothing rightly done fince feventy-eight,
Swears prefent members do not talk, but prate:
In Charles the fecond's days, fays he, ye prigs,
Tories were Tories then, and Whigs were Whigs.
Alas! this is a lamentable truth,
We lofe in age, as we advance in youth :
I laugh when twenty will like eighty talk,
And old Sir John with Polly Peachum walk.
Now as to double, or to false returns,
When pockets fuffer, and when anger burns;
• Multa fenem circumveniunt incommoda ; vel quod
Quærit, & inventis mifer abftinet, ac timet uti.
Dilator fpe longus, iners, avidufque futuri;
Difficilis, querulus, laudator temporis acti
Se puero, cenfor caftigatcrque minorum.
Multa ferunt anni venientes commoda fecum,
Multa recedentes adimunt; ne forte feniles
Mandentur juveni partes, pueroque viriles ;
Semper in adjunctis ævoque morabimur aptis.
Aut agitur res in fcenis, aut alta refertur.
Segnius irritant animos demissa per aures,
O thing furpaffing faith! knight strives with knight
When both have brib'd, and neither's in the right,
The bailiff's felf is fent for in that cafe,
And all the witneffes had face to face.
Selected members foon the fraud unfold,
In full committee of the houfe 'tis told;
Th' incredible corruption is deftroy'd,
The chairman's angry, and th' election void.
• Those who would captivate the well-bred throng, Should not too often fpeak, nor speak too long : Church, nor church-matters ever turn to sport, Nor make St. Stephen's chapel, Dover-court.
The speaker, when the commons are affembled, May to the Græcian chorus be resembled ; "Tis his the young and modeft to espouse, And fee none draw, or challenge in the house: 'Tis his old hofpitality to use,
And three good printers for the house to chufe;
Quàm quæ funt oculis fubje&ta fidelibus, & que
Ipfe fibi tradit fpectator.
Quodcunque oftendis mihi fic, incredulus odi.
Neve minor, neu fit quinto productior actu
Fabula, quæ pofci vult, & fpectata reponi ;
Nec Deus interfit, nifi dignus vindice nodus
Inciderit; nee quarta loqui perfona laboret.
Actoris partes Chorus officiumque virile
Defendat : neu quid medios intercinat actus,
Quod non propofito conducat & hæreat apte :
Ille bonis faveatque, & concilietur amicis,
Et regat iratos, amet peccare timentes ;
|