In him, great modern miracle! we fee
A priest, from avarice and ambition free;
One, whom no persecuring spirit fires;
Whose heart and tongue benevolence inspires :
Learn'd, not affuming ; eloquent, yet plain;
Meek, though not timorous; conscious, though not

vain;
Without craft, reverend; holy, without cant ; 25
Zealous for truth, without enthufiast rant.
His faith, where no credulity is leen,
”Twixt infidel and bigot, marks the mean ;
His hope, no mitre militant on earth,
'Tis that bright crown, which heaven reserves for wortk.
A priest, in charity with all mankind,
His love to virtue, not to feet confinid :
Truth his delight; from him it fames abroad,
From him, wiro fears no being, but his God :
In him from Christian, moral light can shine ;
Not mad with mystery, but a sound divine;
He wins the wise and good, with reason's lore ;
Then strikes their passions with pathetic power;
Where vice erects her head, rebukes the page;
Mix'd with rebuke, persuafive charms engage;
Charms, which th' unthinking must to thoughe excite;
Lo! vice less vicious! virtue more upright :
Him copy, Codex, that the good and wise,
Who fo abhor thy heart, and head despise,
May see thee now, though late, redeem thy name, 4;
And glorify what else is damn’d to fame.

But

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But should some churchman, apeing wit severe, The poet 's sure turn'd Baptist-lay, and sneer ; Shame on that narrow mind so often known, Which in one mode of faith, owns worth alone. 50 Sneer on, rail, wrangle ! nought this truth repels Virtue is virtue, wherefoe'er the dwells; And sure, where learning gives her light to hine, Her’s is all praise--if her's, 'iis Foster, thine. Thee boast difienters; we with pride may own 55 Our Tillotson; and Roine, her Fenelon*,

SOM
OME seem to hint, and others proof will bring.
That, from neglect, my numerous hardships

spring. In this Character of the Rev. James Foster, truth guided the pen of the Muse. Mr. Pope paid a tris bute to the modest worth of this excellent man: little did he imagine his Rev. Annotator would endeavour to convert his praise into abuse. The character and writings of Foster will be admired and read, when the works of the bitter Controversialist are forgotten,

E.

Seek

JO

Seek the great man! they cry-'tis then decreed,
In him, if I court fortune, I fucceed.

What friends to second ? who for me should fue, 5
Ilave interests, partial to themselves, in view.
They own my matchless fate compassion draws;
They all wish well, lamer but drop my cause.

There are who ask no pension, want no place, No title with, and would accept no grace. Can I entreat, they should for me obtain The least, who greatest for themselves disdain ? A statesman, knowing this, unkind, will cry, Those love him : let those serve him! why should I?

Say, shall I turn where lucre points my views; 15
At first desert my friends, at length abuse ?
But, on less terms, in promise he complies :
Years bury years, and hopes on hopes arise ;
I trust, am trusted on my fairy gain ;
And woes on woes attend, an endless train.

Be posts dispos’d at will !- have, for these,
No gold to plead, no impudence to teaze.
All secret service from my soul I hate ;
All dark intrigues of pleasure, or of state.
I have no power, election-votes to gain ;

25
No will to hackney out polemic strain ;
To shape, as time shall serve, my verse, or prose,
To flatter thence, nor sur, a courtier's foes
Nor him to daub with praise, if I prevail ;
Nor Block'd by him with libels to assail.

30 Where these are not, what claim to me belongs ? Though mine the Muse and virtue, birth and wrongs.

Where

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ܪ

Where lives the statesman, fo in honour clear, To give where he has nought to hope, nor fear? No !-there to seek, is but to find fresh pain : 35 The promise broke, renew'd, and broke again ; To be, as humour deigns, receiv’d, refus’d; By turns affronted, and by turns amus'd ; To lose that time, which worthier thoughts require ; To lose the health, which should those thoughts inspire ;

40 To starve on hope ; or, like camelions, fare On ministerial faith, which means but air,

But still, undrooping, I the crew dildain, Who, or by jobs, or libels, wealth obtain. Ne’er let me be, through those, from want exempt; 45 In one man's favour, in the world's contempt: Worse in my own !-through those, to posts who rise, Themselves, in secret, nust themselves despise ; Vile, and more vile, till they, at length, disclaim Not sense alone of glory, but of fame.

50 What though I hourly see the servile herd, For meanness honour'd, and for guilt prefer’d; See selfish passion, public virtue seem; And public virtue an enthusiast dream; See favour'd falsehood, innocence belied,

55 Meekness depreis'd, and power-elated pride; A scene will shew, all-righteous vifion haste; The meek exalted, and the proud debas'd !-Oh, to be there ! -- to tread that friendly shore, Where falsehood, pride, and statesmen are no more! 60

But

But ere indulg'dere fate my breath fhall claim,
A poet

still is anxious after fame.
What future fame would my ambition crave ?
This were my wifh—could ought my memory fave,
Say, when in death my forrows lie repos’d, 65
That my past life no venal view disclos'd ;
Say, I well knew, while in a state obscure,
Without the being base, the being poor ;
Say, I had parts, too moderate to transcend :
Yet sense to mean, and virtue not t'offend ; 70
My heart supplying what my head denied,
Say that, by Pope esteem'd I liv’d and died

; Whose writings the best rules to write could give; Whose life the nobler science how to live.

:

HEAR Damon, Delia hear, in candid lays,

Truth without anger, without flattery, praise !
A bookish mind, with pedantry unfraught,
Oft a fedate, yet never gloomy thought :
Prompt to rejoice, when others pleasure know, 5
And prompt to feel the pang for others woe;

Το

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