From files a random recipe they take,
And many deaths of one prescription make.
Garth, gen'rous as his Muse, prescribes and gives;
The shopman sells, and by destruction lives.
Ungrateful tribe! who, like the viper's brood,
From med'cine issuing, suck their mother's blood;
Let these obey, and let the learn'd prescribe,
That men may die without a double bribe;
Let them, but under their superiors, kill
When doctors first have sign'd the bloody bill.
He 'scapes the best who, nature to repair,
115
Draws physic from the fields in draughts of vital air.
You hoard not health for your own private use,
But on the public spend the rich produce.
When, often urg'd, unwilling to be great,
Your country calls you from you lov'd retreat, 120
And sends to senates, charg'd with common care,
Which none more shuns, and none can better bear.
Where could they find another form'd so fit,
To poise, with solid sense, a sprightly wit?
Were these both wanting, as they both abound, 125
Where could so firm integrity be found?
Well-born, and wealthy, wanting no support,
You steer betwixt the country and the court;
Nor gratify whate'er the great desire,
Nor grudging give what public needs require. 130
Part must be left, a fund when foes invade,
And part employ'd to roll the wat'ry trade:
E'en Canaan's happy land, when worn with toil,
Requir'd a sabbath-year to mend the meagre soil.
Good senators (and such as you) so give
That kings may be supply'd, the people thrive.
And he, when want requires, is truly wise,
Who slights not foreign aids, nor over-buys,
But on our native strength in time of needs relies.
Munster was bought: we boast not the success; 140
Who fights for gain, for greater makes his peace.
Our foes, compell'd by need, have peace embrac'd:
The peace both parties want is like to last;
Which, if secure, securely we may trade;
Or, not secure, should never have been made. 145
Safe in ourselves, while on ourselves we stand,
The sea is our's, and that defends the land.
Be then the naval stores the nation's care,
New ships to build, and batter'd to repair.
Observe the war in ev'ry annual course; What has been done was done with British force. Namure subdu'd is England's palm alone; The rest besieg'd, but we constrain'd the town. We saw th' event that follow'd our success; France, tho' pretending arms, pursu'd the peace; Oblig'd, by one sole treaty, to restore What twenty years of wars had won before. Enough for Europe has our Albion fought; Let us enjoy the peace our blood has bought.
Whon once the Persian king was put to flight,
The weary Macedons refus'd to fight;
Themselves their own mortality confest,
And left the son of Jove to quarrel for the rest.
E'en victors are by victories undone:
Thus Hannibal, with foreign laurels won,
To Carthage was recall'd, too late to keep his own.
While sore of battle, while our wounds are green,
Why should we tempt the doubtful dye agen?
In wars renew'd, uncertain of success,
Sure of a share as umpires of the peace.
A patriot both the king and country serves,
Prerogative and privilege preserves:
Of each our laws the certain limit show;
One must not ebb, nor th' other overflow:
Betwixt the prince and parliament we stand, 175
The barriers of the state on either hand; [land.
May neither overflow, for then they drown the
When both are full, they feed our bless'd abode.
Like those that water'd once the Paradise of God.
Some overpoise of sway by turns they share, 180
In peace the people, and the prince in war:
Consuls of mod'rate pow'r in calms were made;
When the Gauls came one sole Dictator sway'd.
Patriots in peace assert the people's right,
With noble stubbornness resisting might;
No lawless mandates from the Court receive,
Nor lend by furce, but in a body give.
Such was your gen'rous grandsire; free to grant
In parliaments that weigh'd their prince's want ;
But so tenacious of the common cause,
As not to lend the king against his laws;
And, in a loathsome dungeon doom'd to lie,
In bonds retain'd his birth-right liberty,
And sham'd Oppression till it set him free.
O true descendent of a patriot line;
Who,while thou shar'st their lustre lend'st them thine, Vouchsafe this picture of thy soul to see; 'Tis so far good as it resembles thee:
The beauties to th' original I owe,
Which, when I miss, my own defects I show:
Nor think the kindred Muses thy disgrace;
A poet is not born in ev'ry race:
Two of a house few ages can afford,
One to perform, another to record.
Praise-worthy actions are by thee embrac❜d,
And 'tis my praise to make thy praises last :
For ev'n when death dissolves our human frame,
The soul returns to Heav'n, from whence it came ;
Earth keeps the body, Verse preserves the fame.
To Sir GODFREY KNELLER, principal painter to bis Majesty.
ONCE I beheld the fairest of her kind,
And still the sweet idea charms my mind:
True, she was dumb; for nature gaz'd so long,
Pleas'd with her work, that she forgot her tongue:
But, smiling, said, She still shall gain the prize;
I only have transferr'd it to her eyes.
Such are thy pictures, Kneller! such thy skill,
That Nature seems obedient to thy will;
Comes out, and meets thy pencil in the draught;
Lives there, and wants but words to speak her thought.
At least thy pictures look a voice; and we 11
Imagine sounds; deceiv'd to that degree,
We think 'tis somewhat more than just to see.
Shadows are but privations of the light,
Yet when we walk they shoot before the sight;
With us approach, retire, arise, and fall;
Nothing themselves, and yet expressing all.
Such are thy pieces, imitating life
So near, they almost conquer in the strife,
And from their animated canvas came
Demanding souls, and loosen'd from the frame.
Prometheus, were he here, would cast away
His Adam, and refuse a soul to clay;
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