" Whose wit and virtue shall thy own exprefs, "Diftinguish'd only by their softer dress : "Thy greatness she, or thy retreat, shall share; "Sweeten tranquillity, or soften care; " Her smiles the taste of every joy shall raise, " And add new pleasure to renown and praise; ""Till charm'd you own the truth my verse would

"That happiness is near allied to love."

VERSES to be written under a PICTURE of Mr. PoΥΝΤΖ.

SUCH is thy form, O Poyntz, but who shall find

A hand, or colours, to express thy mind?
A mind unmov'd by every vulgar fear,
In a false world that dares to be fincere;
Wise without art; without ambition great;
Though firm, yet pliant; active, though fedate;
With all the richest stores of learning fraught,
Yet better still by native prudence taught;
That, fond the griefs of the distrest to heal,
Can pity frailties it could never feel;
That, when Misfortune fued, ne'er sought to know
What sect, what party, whether friend or foe;
That, fix'd on equal virtue's temperate laws,
Despises calumny, and shuns applause;
That, to its own perfections singly blind,
Would for another think this praise design'd.

:

D

An

AN EPISTLE TO MR. PОРЕ. From Rome, 17.30.

IMMORTAL bard! for whom each Muse has wove
The fairest garlands of th' Aonian grove;

Preserv'd our drooping genius to restore,
When Addison and Congreve are no more;
After so many stars extinct in night,
The darken'd age's last remaining light!
To thee from Latian realms this verse is writ,
Inspir'd by memory of antient wit;

For now no more these climes their influence boast,
Fall'n is their glory, and their virtue loft;
From tyrants, and from priests, the Muses fly,
Daughters of Reason and of Liberty!
Nor Baïe now nor Umbria's plain they love,
Nor on the banks of Nar or Mincio rove;
To Thames's flowery borders they retire,
And kindle in thy breast the Roman fire.
So in the shades, where, chear'd with fummer rays,
Melodious linnets warbled fprightly lays,
Soon as the faded, falling leaves complain
Of gloomy Winter's unaufpicious reign,
No tuneful voice is heard of joy or love,
But mournful filence faddens all the grove.
Unhappy Italy! whose alter'd state

Has felt the worst severity of fate:

Not

Not that barbarian hands her fafces broke,
And bow'd her haughty neck beneath their yoke;
Nor that her palaces to earth are thrown,
Her cities defart, and her fields unsown;
But that her ancient spirit is decay'd,
That facred wisdom from her bounds is fled;
That there the fource of science flows no more,
Whence its rich streams supplied the world before.

Illustrious names! that once in Latium shin'd,
Born to instruct, and to command mankind;
Chiefs, by whose virtue mighty Rome was rais'd,
And poets, who those chiefs fublimely prais'd;
Oft I the traces you have left explore,
Your ashes visit, and your urns adore;

Oft kiss, with lips devout, some mouldering stone,
With ivy's venerable shade o'ergrown ;
Those horrid ruins better pleas'd to fee
Than all the pomp of modern luxury.

As late on Virgil's tomb fresh flowers I strow'd,
While with th' inspiring Muse my bosom glow'd,
Crown'd with eternal bays, my ravifh'd eyes
Beheld the poet's awful form arife:

"Stranger, he said, whose pious hand has paid
"These grateful rites to my attentive shade,
"When thou shalt breathe thy happy native air,
"To Pope this message from his master bear:
"Great bard, whose numbers I myself inspire,
"To whom I gave my own harmonious lyre,
"If, high exalted on the throne of wit,
"Near me and Homer thou aspire to fit,

"No more let meaner fatire dim the rays
"That flow majestic from thy nobler bays;
"In all the flowery paths of Pindus stray,
"But shun that thorny, that unpleasing way;
"Nor, when each foft engaging Muse is thine,
"Address the least attractive of the Nine.

"Of thee more worthy were the task, to raise "A lasting column to thy country's praise; "To fing the land, which yet alone can boaft "That liberty corrupted Rome has loft; "Where Science in the arms of Peace is laid, "And plants her palm beneath the olive's shade. "Such was the theme for which my lyre I strung, "Such was the people whose exploits I sung; " Brave, yet refin'd, for arms and arts renown'd, "With different bays by Mars and Phœbus crown'd; "Dauntless opposers of tyrannic sway, " But pleas'd a mild Augustus to obey.

"If these commands fubmissive thou receive, " Immortal and unblam'd thy name shall live, " Envy to black Cocytus shall retire; " And howl with Furies in tormenting fire; "Approving Time shall confecrate thy lays, "And join the patriot's to the poet's praise."

TO LORD

TO

HERVEY.

In the Year 1730. From Worcestershire.

:

" Strenua nos exercet inertia: navibus atque "Quadrigis petimus bene vivere: quod petis, hic eft; " Est ulubris, animus fi te non deficit æquus." HOR.

FAVOURITE of Venus and the tuneful Nine,

Pollio, by Nature form'd in courts to shine,

Wilt thou once more a kind attention lend,
To thy long abfent and forgotten friend;
Who, after seas and mountains wander'd o'er,
Return'd at length to his own native shore,
From all that's gay retir'd, and all that 's great,
Beneath the shades of his paternal feat,
Has found that happiness he fought in vain
On the fam'd banks of Tiber and of Seine?
'Tis not to view the well-proportion'd pile,
The charms of Titian's and of Raphael's style;
At soft Italian sounds to melt away;
Or in the fragrant groves of myrtle stray;
That lulls the tumults of the foul to rest,
Or makes the fond possessor truly blest.
In our own breasts the source of pleasure lies,
Still open, and still flowing to the wife;
Not forc'd by toilsome art and wild defire
Beyond the bounds of nature to aspire,

D. 3

But,