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Dart not on Folly an indignant eye: Who e'er discharg'd artillery on a fly?

Deride not Vice: abfurd the thought and vain,

To bind the tyger in so weak a chain.

Nay more when flagrant crimes your laughter move,
The knave exults to fmile is to approve.

The Viufe's labour then fuccefs fhall crown,

When Folly feels her fmile, and Vice her frown.
Know next what measures to each theme belong,
And fuit your thoughts and numbers to your fong:
On wing proportion'd to your quarry rise,
And stoop to earth, or foar among the skies.
Thus when a modifh folly you rehearse,

Free the expreffion, fimple be the verse.
In artless numbers paint th' ambitious peer
That mounts the box, and shines a charioteer :
In strains familiar fing the midnight toil
Of camps and fenates disciplin❜d by Hoyle.
Patriots and chiefs whose deep design invades
And carries off the captive king of Spades!

Let SATIRE here in milder vigour fhine,
And gayly graceful sport along the line';
Bid courtly Fashion quit her thin pretence,
And smile each affectation into fenfe.

Not fo when Virtue by her guards betray'd,
Spurn'd from her throne, implores the Mufe's aid;
When crimes, which erst in kindred darkness lay,
Rife frontlefs, and infult the eye of day;

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Indignant

Indignant Hymen veils his hallow'd fires,
And white-rob'd Chastity with tears retires;
When rank Adultery on the genial bed
Hot from Cocytus rears her baleful head:

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When private faith and publick truft are fold,

And traitors barter liberty for gold;

When fell Corruption dark and deep, like Fate,
Saps the foundation of a finking state:

When giant-vice and irreligion rife,

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On mountain'd falfehoods to invade the skies:

Then warmer numbers glow thro' SATIRE's page,
And all her smiles are darken'd into rage:

On eagle-wing the gains Parnaffus' height,
Not lofty EPIC foars a nobler flight:

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Then keener indignation fires her eye;

Then flash her lightnings, and her thunders fly;

Wide and more wide her flaming bolts are huri'd,
Till all her wrath involves the guilty world.

Yet SATIRE oft' affumes a gentler mien, And beams on Virtue's friends a look ferene : She wounds reluctant, pours her balm and joy, Glad to commend where merit ftrikes her eye.

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But tread with cautious step this dangerous ground,

Beset with faithless precipices round:

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Truth be your guide: disdain Ambition's call;

And if you fall with truth, you greatly fall.

'Tis Virtue's native luftre that must shine ;

The poet can but set it in his line;

And

And who unmov'd with laughter can behold
A fordid pebble meanly grac'd with gold?
Let real merit then adorn your lays,

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For fhame attends on proffituted praise :

And all your wit, your most distinguish'd art

But makes us grieve, you want an honeft heart.

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Nor think the Mufe by SATIRE's law confin'd:
She yields defcription of the nobleft kind,
Inferior art the landskip may design,

And paint the purple evening in the line:

Her daring thought effays a higher plan;

Her hand delineates paffion, pictures man.

And great the toil, the latent foul to trace,

To paint the heart, and catch internal grace;
By turns bid vice or virtue ftrike our eyes,
Now bid a Wolfey or a Cromwell rise ;

Now with a touch more facred and refin'd,

Call forth a CHESTERFIELD's or LONSDALE's mind.
Here fweet or strong may ev'ry colour flow,
Here let the pencil warm, the canvass glow :
Of light and fhade provoke the noble ftrife,
And wake each ftriking feature into life.

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HRO' ages thus hath SATIRE keenly fhin'd,

The friend to truth, to virtue, and mankind : Yet the bright flame from virtue ne'er had sprung, And man was guilty ere the poet fung.

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This Muse in filence joy'd each better age,
Till glowing crimes had wak'd her into rage.
Truth faw her honeft fpleen with new delight,
And bade her wing her fhafts, and urge their flight.

First on the fons of Greece the prov'd her art,

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And Sparta felt the fierce IAMBICK dart ".
TO LATIUM next avenging SATIRE fiew:
The flaming faulchion rough LuCILIUS drew;
With dauntless warmth in Virtue's caufe engag'd,
And conscious villains trembled as he rag'd.

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Then sportive HORACE caught the generous fire
For SATIRE's bow refign'd the founding lyre:
Each arrow polish'd in his hand was seen,
And as it grew more polish'd, grew more keen.
His art, conceal'd in ftudy'd negligence
Politely fly, cajol'd the foes of fenfe:
He feem'd to fport and trifle with the dart,
But while he fported, drove it to the heart.

In graver ftrains majestick PERSIUS wrote,
Big with a ripe exuberance of thought:
Greatly fedate, contemn'd a tyrant's reign,
And lafh'd corruption with a calm difdain.

▾ Archilocum proprio rabies armavit Iambo.

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Enfe velut ftricto quoties Lucilius ardens

Infremuit, rubet auditor cui frigida mens eft

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HOR.

Criminibus, tacita fudant præcordia culpa. Juv. S. 1.

Omne vafer vitium ridenti Flaccus amico
Tangit, & admiffus circum præcordia ludit,
Callidus excuffo pobulum fufpendere Nafo.

PERS. S. 1.

More

More ardent eloquence, and boundlefs rage
Inflame bold JUVENAL's exalted page.
His mighty numbers aw'd corrupted Rome,
And swept audacious greatness to its doom;
The headlong torrent thundering from on high,
Rent the proud rock that lately brav'd the sky.
But lo! the fatal victor of mankind,
Swoln Luxury!-Pale Ruin ftalks behind!
As countless infects from the north-eaft pour,
To blast the spring, and ravage ev'ry flow'r :
So barb'rous millions spread contagious death:
The fick'ning laurel wither'd at their breath.
Deep fuperftition's night the skies o'erhung,
Beneath whofe baleful dews the poppy fprung.
No longer Genius woo'd the Nine to love,
But Dulness nodded in the Mufes' grove:
Wit, fpirit, freedom, were the fole offence,
Nor aught was held fo dangerous as fenfe.

At length, again fair Science shot her ray,
Dawn'd in the skies, and fpoke returning day.
Now SATIRE, triumph o'er thy flying foe,

Now load thy quiver, ftring thy flacken'd bow!

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'Tis done-See, great ERASMUS breaks the fpell, 395 And wounds triumphant Folly in her cell!

(In vain the folemn cowl furrounds her face,
Vain all her bigot cant, her fowr grimace)
With fhame compell'd her leaden throne to quit,
And own the force of reafon urg'd by wit.

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'Twas

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