Adieu to Virtue, if you're once a Slave:

Send her to Court, you fend her to her grave.
Well, if a King's a Lion, at the least

b

The People are a many-headed Beast:

Can they direct what measures to pursue,

Who know themselves fo little what to do?
Alike in nothing but one Luft of Gold,

Juft half the land would buy, and half be fold:
Their Country's wealth our mightier Mifers drain,
Or crofs, to plunder Provinces, the Main;

125

125

The reft, fome farm the Poor-box, fome the Pews;
Some keep Affemblies, and would keep the Stews;
Some with fat Bucks on childlefs dotards fawn; 130
Some win rich Widows by their Chine and Brawn;
While with the filent growth of ten per cent,
In dirt and darkness, hundreds ftink content.

Of all these ways, if each f pursues his own,
Satire, be kind, and let the wretch alone :
But fhew me one who has it in his power
To act confiftent with himself an hour.

135

Sir

b Bellua multorum eft capitum. nam quid fequar aut

quem?

Pars hominum geftit conducere publica: funt qui

d Cruftis et pomis viduas venentur avaras,
Excipiantque fenes, quos in vivaria mittant:
e Multis occulto crefcit res fenore. f verum
Efto, aliis alios rebus ftudiifque teneri :
Iidem eadem poffunt horam durare probantes ?

Sir Job & fail'd forth, the evening bright and still,
"No place on earth (he cry'd) like Greenwich hill !”
Up ftarts a Palace, lo, th' obedient base

Slopes at its foot, the woods its fides embrace,
The filver Thames reflects its marble face.
Now let fome whimsey, or that Devil within

140

Which guides all those who know not what they mean, But give the Knight (or give his Lady) spleen; 145 "Away, away! take all your scaffolds down, "For Snug's the word: My dear! we'll live in Town." At amorous Flavio is the k stocking thrown?

That very night he longs to lie alone.

1 The Fool, whofe Wife elopes fome thrice a quarter, For matrimonial folace dies a martyr.

Did ever m Proteus, Merlin, any witch,

Transform themselves so strangely as the Rich?

}

Well, but then Poor-The Poor have the fame itch ; They change their weekly Barber, weekly News, 155 Prefer a new Japanner, to their fhoes.

Difcharge

g Nullus in orbe finus Baiis praelucet amoenis, Si dixit dives; h lacus et mare fentit amorem Feftinantis heri: cui fi i vitiofa libido Fecerit aufpicium; cras ferramenta Teanum Tolletis, fabri. k lectus genialis in aula est ? Nil ait effe prius, melius nil coelibe vita 1 Si non eft, jurat bene folis effe maritis.

m Quo teneam vultus mutantem Protea nodo? Quid pauper? ride: mutato coenacula, lectos,

n

Discharge their Garrets, move their beds, and run
(They know not whither) in a Chaife and one;
They p hire their fculler, and when once aboard,
Grow fick, and damn the climate-like a Lord.

160

q You laugh, half Beau, half Sloven if I ftand, My wig ali powder, and all snuff my band; You laugh, if coat and breeches strangely vary, White gloves, and linen worthy Lady Mary! But when no Prelate's Lawn with hair-shirt lin'd, 165 Is half fo incoherent as my Mind,

When (each opinion with the next at strife,

One s ebb and flow of Follies all my life)

It plant, root up; I build, and then confound;
Turn round to fquare, and square again to round; 170

u You never change one muscle of your face,
You think this Madness but a common cafe,
Nor w once to Chancery, nor to Hale apply;
Yet hang your lip, to see a Seam awry!

Balnea, P tonfores; conducto navigio aeque
Naufeat, ac locuples quem ducit priva triremis.
q Si curatus inaequali tonfore capillos
Occurro; rides. fi forte fubucula pexae
Trita fubeft tunicae, vel fi toga diffidet impar;
Rides. quid, mea cum pugnat fententia fecum ;
Quod petiit, fpernit; repetit quod nuper omifit;
s Aeftuat, et vitae difconvenit ordine toto;
* Diruit, aedificat, mutat quadrata rotundis ?
u Infanire putas folennia me, neque rides,
Nec w medici credis, nec curatoris egere

Careless

Carelefs how ill I with myself agree,

Kind to my drefs, my figure, not to Me.

175

180

Is this my * Guide, Philofopher, and Friend?
This he, who loves me, and who ought to mend;
Who ought to make me, (what he can, or none)
That Man divine whom Wisdom calls her own;
Great without Title, without Fortune blefs'd;
Rich y ev'n when plunder'd, z honour'd while opprefs'd;
Lov'de without youth, and follow'd without power;
At home, though exil'd, b free, though in the Tower;
In fhort, that reafoning, high, immortal Thing,
Juft less than Jove, and a much above a King,
Nay, half in heaven-e except (what's mighty odd)
A fit of Vapours clouds this Demy-god!

A praetore dati; rerum x tutela mearum
Cum fis, et prave fectum ftomacheris ob unguem,
De te pendentis, te refpicientis amici.

185

Ad fummam, fapiens uno minor eft Jove, y dives, b Liber, z honoratus, a pulcher, d rex denique regum; Praecipue fanus, nifi cum pituita molesta eft.

BOOK

BOOK I.

EPISTLE VI.:

TO MR. MURRAY.

THIS Piece is the most finished of all his imitations,

and executed in the high manner the Italian Painters call Con Amore. By which they mean, the exertion of that principle, which puts the faculties on the ftretch, and produces the fupreme degree of excellence. For the Poet had all the warmth of affection for the great Lawyer to whom it is addreffed: and, indeed, no man ever more deferved to have a Poet for his Friend. In the obtaining of which, as neither Vanity, Party, nor Fear, had any fhare: fo he supported his title to it by all the offices of true Friendship.

"NOT to admire, is all the Art I know,

To make men happy, and to keep them fo." (Plain Truth, dear MURRAY, needs no flowers of fpeech, So take it in the very words of Creech.)

b This Vault of Air, this congregated Ball, Self-center'd Sun, and Stars that rife and fall,

There

EPISTOLA

NIL admirari, prope res eft una, Numici,

VI.

Solaque quae poffit facere et fervare beatum. b Hunc folem, et ftellas, et decedentia certis