Give ear, ambitious Princes, and be wife;
Liften, and learn wherein true greatness lies;
Place not your pride in roofs that shine with gems,
In purple robes, nor fparkling diadems;
Nor in dominion, nor extent of land:
He's only great, who can himself command,
Whofe guard is peaceful innocence, whofe guide
Is faithful reafon; who is void of pride.
Checking ambition; nor is idly vain
Of the falfe incenfe of a popular train ;
Who without ftrife, or envy, can behold
His neighbour's plenty, and his heaps of gold;
Nor covets other wealth, but what we find
In the poffeffions of a virtuous mind.

Fearless he fees, who is with virtue crown'd,
The tempeft rage, and hears the thunder found;
Ever the fame, let Fortune fmile or frown,
On the red scaffold, or the blazing throne;
Serenely, as he lived, refigns his breath,
Meets deftiny half way, nor fhrinks at death.
Ye fovereign Lords, who fit like Gods in state,
Awing the world, and bustling to be great;
Lords but in title, vaffals in effect,
Whom luft controuls, and wild defires direct :
The reins of empire but fuch hands difgrace,
Where Paffion, a blind driver, guides the race.

What is this Fame, thus crowded round with flaves?
The breath of fools, the bait of flattering knaves:
An honeft heart, a confcience free from blame,
Not of great acts, but good, give me the name:
In vain we plant, we build, our ftores increase,
If confcience roots up all our inward peace.
What need of arms, or inftruments of war,
Or battering engines that deftroy from far?
The greatest king, and conqueror is he,
Who Lord of his own appetites can be ;
Bleft with a pow'r that nothing can destroy,
And all have equal freedom to enjoy.

Whom worldly luxury, and pomps allure,
They tread on ice, and find no footing fure;
Place me, ye Powers! in fome obfcure retreat,
O! keep me innocent, make others great:
In quiet hade, content with rural sports,
Give me a life remote from guilty courts,
Where free from hopes or fears, in humble cafe,
Unheard of, I may live and die in peace.

Happy the man who thus retir'd from fight,
Studies himfelf, and feeks no other light:
But most unhappy he, who fits on high,
Expos'd to every tongue and every eye;
Whofe follies blaz'd about, to all are known,
But are a fecret to himfelf alone:

Worfe is an evil Fame, much worse than none.

EASE, tempting Siren, cease thy flattering strain, Sweet is thy charming fong, but fung in vain : When the winds blow, and loud the tempefts roar, What fool would truft the waves, and quit the fhore? Early, and vain, into the world I came,

Big with falfe hopes, and eager after fame;
Till looking round me, ere the race began,
Madmen, and giddy fools, were all that ran;
Reclaim'd betimes, I from the lifts retire,
And thank the Gods, who my retreat inspire.
In happier times our ancestors were bred,
When virtue was the only path to tread :
Give me, ye Gods! but the fame road to fame,
Whate'er my fathers dar'd, I dare the same.
Chang'd is the fcene, fome baneful planet rules
An impious world, contriv'd for knives and fools.
Look now around, and with impartial eyes
Confider, and examine all who rife;

Such precedents are numberlefs, we draw
Our right from cuftom; custom is a law
As high as heaven, as wide as feas or land;
As ancient as the world is our command.
Mars and Alcides would this plea allow :
Beauty was ever abfolute till now.
It is enough that I pronounce it mine,
And, right or wrong, he should his claim refign:
Not bears nor tygers fare fo favage are,
As thefe ill-manner'd monfters of the bar.

Loud * rumour has proclaim'd a nymph divine,
Whofe matchlefs form, to counterbalance mine,
By dint of Beauty shall extort your grace:
Let her appear, this rival, face to face;
Let eyes to eyes oppos'd this ftrife decide;
Now, when I lighten, let her beams be try'd.
Was 't a vain promife, and a gownfman's lie?
Or ftands the here unmark'd, when I am by?
So heav'n was mock'd, and once all Elys round,
Another Jupiter was faid to found;
On brazen floor the royal actor tries
Το ape the thunder rattling in the skies;
A brandish'd torch, with emulating blaze,
Affects the forky lightning's pointed rays:
Thus borne aloft, triumphantly he rode
Through crowds of worshippers, and acts the God.
The fire omnipotent prepares the brand,
By Vulcan wrought, and arms his potent hand;
Then flaming hurls it hiffing from above,
And in the vast abyfs confounds the mimic Jove.
Prefumptuous wretch! with mortal art to dare
Immortal power, and brave the thunderer!

Caffiope, preferring with difdain, Her daughter to the Nereids, they complain; The daughter, for the mother's guilty fcorn, Is doomed to be devoured; the mother's borne Above the clouds, where, by immortal light, Revers'd the thines, expofed to human fight, And to a fhameful pofture is confin'd, As an eternal terror to mankind. Did thus the Gods fuch private nymphs refpect? What vengeance might the Queen of Love expect?

But grant fuch arbitrary pleas are vain, Wav'd let them be; mere justice shall obtain. Who to a husband juftlier can fucceed, Than the foft partner of his nuptial bed; Or to a father's right lay ftronger claim, Thin the dear youth in whom furvives his name? Behold that youth, confider whence he springs, And in his royal veins refpect your kings: Immortal Jove, upon a mortal fhe, Begat his fire: Second from Jove is he. Well did the father blindly fight your cause, Following the cry-of Liberty and Laws, If by thofe laws, for which he loft his life t, You fpoil, ungratefully, the fon and wife.

What need I more? 'Tis treafon to dispute:
The grant was royal; that decides the fuit.
"Shall vulgar laws imperial power constrain?
"Kings and the Gods, can never ac in vain.”

She finish'd here, the Queen of every grace,
Difdain vermilioning her heavenly face:
Our hearts take fire, and all in tumult rife,
And one with sparkles in a thousand eyes.
O! might fome champion finish thefe debates!
My fword fhall end, what now my pen relates,
Up rofe the Judge, on each fide bending low,
A crafty fmile, accompanies his bow;
Ulyffes like, a gentle paufe he makes,
Then, raifing by degrees his voice, he speaks.

In you, my Lords, who judge; and all who hear,
Methinks I read your wishes for the fair;
Nor can I wonder, even I contend
With inward pain, unwilling to offend;
Unhappy! thus oblig'd to a defence,
That may difpleafe fuch heavenly excellence,
Might we the laws on any terms abuse,
So bright an influence were the best excufe;
Let Niobe's juft fate, the vile difgrace
Of the † Propetides' polluted race;
Let death, or shame, or lunacy furprize,
Who dare to match the luftre of thofe eyes!
Aloud the fairest of the Sex complain
Of captives loft, and loves invok'd in vain;
At her appearance all their glory ends,
And not a ftar, but fets, when the afcends.

Where Love prefides, ftill may she bear the prize;
But rigid Law has neither ears nor eyes:
Charms, to which Mars and Hercules would bow,
Minos and Rhadamanthus difavow.
Justice, by nothing bias'd, or inclin'd,
Deaf to perfuafion, to temptation blind,
Determines without favour, and the laws
O'erlook the parties, to decide the cause.
What then avails it, that a beardless boy
Took a rafh fancy for a female toy?

Th' infulted Argives, with a numerous hoft,
Purfue revenge, and feek the Dardan coaft;
Though the Gods built, and though the Gods defend
Thofe lofty towers, the hoftile Greeks afcend;
Nor leave they, till the town in afhes lies,
And all the race of royal Priam dies :
The Queen of Paphos, mixing in the fray,
Rallies the troops, and urges on the day;
In perfon, in the foremost ranks she stands,
Provokes the charge, directs, affifts, commands;
Stern Diomed, advancing high in air,
His lofty javelin ftrikes the heavenly Fair;
The vaulted skies with her loud fhrieks refound,
And high Olympus trembles at the wound.

* Niobe turned into a stone for presuming to com pare herself with Diana.

t Propatides, certain virgins, who, for affronting Venus, were condemned to open prostitution, and afterwards turned into stone.

Minos and Rhadamanthus, famous legislators, who for their ftrict administration of juftice, were after their deaths made chief judges in the infernal regions. Venus.

In caufes juft, would all the Gods oppose,
'Twere honeft to difpute; fo Cato chofe.
Difmifs that plea, and what fhall blood avail?
If beauty is deny'd, fhall birth prevail ?
Blood, and high deeds, in diftant ages done,
Are our forefathers merit, not our own.
Might none a juft poffeffion be allow'd,
But who could bring defert, or boaft of blood?
What numbers, even here, might be condemn'd,
Strip'd, and defpoil'd of all, revil'd, contemn'd?
Take a juft view, how many may remark,
Who now's a peer, his grandfire was a clerk:
Some few remain, ennobled by the sword
In Gothic times: But now to be My Lord,
Study the law; nor do these robes defpife;
Honour the gown, from whence your honours rife.
Those fam'd dictators, who fubdu'd the globe,
Gave the precedence to the peaceful robe;
The mighty Julius, pleading at the bar,
Was greater, than when thundering in the war
He conquer'd nations: 'Tis of more renown
To fave a client, than to ftorm a town.

How dear to Britain are her darling laws! What blood has the not lavish'd in their caufe! Kings are like common flaves to flaughter led, Or wander through the world to beg their bread. "When regal power afpires above the laws, "A private wrong becomes a public caufe."

He fpoke. The nobles differ, and divide,
Some join with Law, and some with Beauty fide.
Mordaunt, though once her flave, infults the Fair,
Whofe fetters 'twas his pride, in youth, to wear:
So Lucifer revolting, brav'd the power
Whom he was wont to worship and implore.
Like impious is their rage, who have in chace
A new Omnipotence in Grafton's face.
But Rochester, undaunted, juft, and wife,
Afferts the Goddefs with the charming eyes;
And O! may Beauty never want reward

For thee, her noble champion, and her guard.
Beauty triumphs, and Law fubmitting lies,
The tyrant tam'd, aloud for mercy cries;
Conqueft can never fail in radiant Grafton's eyes.

To furnish graces for the piece,

He fummon'd all the nymphs of Greece; So many mortals were combin'd,

To fhew how one immortal fhin'd.

Had Hyde thus fat by proxy too, As Venus then was faid to do, Venus herfelf, and all the train Of Goddeffes had fummon'd been; The painter muft have fearch'd the skies, To match the luftre of her eyes. Comparing then, while thus we view The ancient Venus, and the new ; In her we many mortals fee, As many Goddeffes in thee.

Afterwards Countefs of Clarendon and Rochester.

Lady Hyde having the Small Pox, foon after the Recovery of Mrs. Mohun.

CARCE could the general joy for Mohun appear,

SCAR

But new attempts fhew other dangers near; Beauty's attack'd in her imperial fort,

Where all her loves and graces kept their court;
In her chief refidence, befieg'd at last,
Laments to fee her faireft fields laid waste.

On things immortal, all attempts are vain;
Tyrant Disease, 'tis lofs of time and pain;
Glut thy wild rage, and load thee with rich prize
Torn from her cheeks, her fragrant lips, and eyes
Let her but live; as much vermilion take,
As might an Helen, or a Venus make;
Like Thetis, fhe fhall fruftrate thy vain rape,
And in variety of charms efcape.

The twinkling ftars drop numberlefs each night, Yet fhines the radiant firmament as bright; So from the ocean fhould we rivers drain, Still would enough to drown the world remain.

The Duchefs of

F

-, unfeaferably furprised in the Embraces of her Lord.

AIREST Zelinda, ceafe to chide, or grieve;

Nor blush at joys that only you can give; Who with bold eyes furvey'd thofe matchlefs charme, Is punifh'd, feeing in another's arms: With greedy looks he views each naked part, Joy feeds his eyes, but envy tears his heart. So caught was Mars, and Mercury aloud Proclaim'd his grief, that he was not the God; So to be caught was every God's defire : Nor lefs than Venus, can Zelinda fire. Forgive him then, thou more than heavenly Fair, Forvive his rafhness, punish'd by despair; All that we know, which wretched mortals feel In those fad regions where the tortur'd dwell, Is, that they fee the raptures of the blefs'd, And view the joys which they must never taste.

W

TO FLAVIA.

Written on her Garden in the North.

HAT charm is this, that in the midst of fnow. Of ftorms and blafts, the choiceft fruits dogrow? Melons, on beds of ice are taught to bear, And strangers to the fun, yet ripen here; On frozen ground the fweeteft flowers arife, Unfcen by any light, but Flavia's eyes; Where-e'er the treads, beneath the Charmer's fect The rofe, the jefs'mine, and the lilies meet; Where-e'er the looks, behold fome fudden birth Adorns the trees, and fructifies the earth; In midst of mountains, and unfruitful ground, As rich an Eden as the firft is found. In this new Paradife the Goddefs reigns, In fovereign state, and mocks the lover's pains; Beneath thofe beams that fcorch us from her eyes, Her fnowy bofom still unmelted lies; Love from her lips fpreads all his odours round, But bears on ice, and fprings from frozen ground. So cold the clime that can fuch wonders bear, The garden feems an emblem of the fair.

ΤΟ

TO THE SAME.

Her Gardens having efcaped a Flood that had laid all the Country round under Water.

WH

HAT hands divine have planted and protect, The torrent fpares, and deluges respect; So when the waters o'er the world were spread, Covering each oak, and every mountain's head, The chofen Patriarch fail'd within his ark, Nor might the waves o'erwhelm the facred bark. The charming Flavia is no lefs, we find, The favourite of Heav'n, than of mankind; The Gods, like rivals, imitate our care, And vie with mortals to oblige the Fair; These favours thus bestow'd on her alone, Are but the homage which they fent her down. O Flavia! may thy virtue from above

Be crown'd with bleffings, endless as my love.

TO MY FRIEND DR. GARTH.

M

IN HIS SICKNESS.

ACHAON fick, in every face we find,
His danger is the danger of mankind;
Whofe art protecting, Nature could expire
But by a Deluge, or the general Fire.
More lives he faves, than perifh in our wars,
And fafter than a plague destroys, repairs.
The bold caroufer, and advent'rous dame,
Nor fear the fever, nor refufe the flame;
Safe in his fkill, from all reftraints fei free,
But confcious fhame, remorse, or piety.

Sire of all arts, defend thy darling fon;
O! fave the man whofe life's fo much our own!
On whom, like Atlas, the whole world's reclin'd,
And by restoring Garth, preferve mankind.

TO MY DEAR KINSMAN, CHARLES LORD LANSDOWNE. Upon the Bombardment of the Town of Granville in Normandy, by the English Fleet.

HO' built by Gods, confum'd by hoftile flame, Troy bury'd lies, yet lives the Trojan name; And fo fhall thine, though with thefe walls were loft All the records our ancestors could boaft. For Latium conquer'd, and for Turnus flain, Æneas lives, though not one ftone remain Where he arofe: Nor art thou lefs renown'd For thy loud triumphs on Hungarian ground.

Thofet arms which for nine centuries had brav'd The wrath of Time, on antique ftone engrav'd, Now torn by mortars, ftand yet undefac'd On nobler trophies, by thy valour rais'd: Safe on thy Eagle's wings they foar above The rage of war, or thunder to remove, Borne by the Bird of Cæfar, and of Jove.

* Apollo, God of Poetry and Phyfic. The Granville Arms ftill remaining at that time on one of the gates of the town.

He was created a Count of the Empire, the Family Arms to be borne for ever upon the breaft of the Imperial (pread Eagle.

LADY HYDE,

Sitting at Sir Godfrey Kneller's for her Picture. HILE Kneller, with inimitable art,

heart,

face print's' on every

The Poet, with a pencil lefs confin'd,
Shall paint her virtues, and defcribe her mind,
Unlock the thrine, and to the fight unfold
The fecret gems, and all the inward gold.
Two only patterns do the Mufes name,
Of perpect beauty, but of guilty fame;
A Venus and an Helen have been seen,
Both perjur'd wives, the Goddess and the Queen:
In this the third, are reconcil'd at laft
Thofe jarring attributes of Fair and Chafte,
With graces that attract, but not enfnare,
Divinely good, as fhe's divinely fair;
With beauty, not affected, vain, nor proud;
With greatnefs, eafy, affable, and good :
Others by guilty artifice, and arts

Of promis'd kindness, practice on our hearts,
With expectation blow the paffion up;
She fans the fire, without one gale of hope,
Like the chafte moon, fhe fhines to all mankind,
But to Endymion is her love confin'd.
What cruel destiny on Beauty waits,
When on one face depend fo many fates!
Oblig'd by honour to relieve but one,
Unhappy men by thousands are undone.

TO MRS. GRANVILLE,

OF WOTTON IN BUCKINGHAMSHIRE;

L

AFTERWARDS LADY CONWAY.

OVE, like a tyrant whom no laws constrain,
Now for fome ages kept the world in pain;
Beauty, by vaft destructions got renown,
And Lovers only by their rage were known:
But Granville, more aufpicious to mankind,
Conqu'ring the heart, as much inftructs the mind
Bleft in the fate of her victorious eyes,

Seeing, we love; and hearing, we grow wife:
So Rome for wifdom, as for conqueft fam'd,
Improv'd with arts, whom the by arms had tam'd.
Above the clouds is plac'd this glorious light,
Nothing lies hid from her enquiring fight;
Athens and Rome for arts reftor'd rejoice,
Their language takes new mufic from her voice;
Learning and Love, in the fame feat we find,
So bright her eyes, and fo adorn'd her mind.
Long had Minerva govern'd in the skies,
But now defcends, confeft to human eyes;
Behold in Granville, that infpiring Queen,
Whom learned Athens fo ador'd unfeen.