Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

20

In him, great modern miracle! we fee
A priest, from avarice and ambition free;
One, whom no perfecuting 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;

Zealous for truth, without enthufiaft rant.
His faith, where no credulity is feen,

'Twixt infidel and bigot, marks the mean;

His hope, no mitre militant on earth,

25

'Tis that bright crown, which heaven referves for worth. A priest, in charity with all mankind,

His love to virtue, not to fect confin'd:

Truth his delight; from him it flames abroad,

From him, who fears no being, but his God:
In him from Christian, moral light can shine;
Not mad with mystery, but a found divine;
He wins the wife and good, with reason's lore;
Then strikes their paffions with pathetic power;

Where vice erects her head, rebukes the page;

Mix'd with rebuke, persuasive charms engage;

35

40

Charms, which th' unthinking muft to thought excite;
Lo! vice lefs vicious! virtue more upright:

Him copy, Codex, that the good and wise,
Who fo abhor thy heart, and head despise,

May fee thee now, though late, redeem thy name, 45
And glorify what else is damn'd to fame.

But

But fhould fome churchman, apeing wit severe, The poet's fure turn'd Baptift-say, and sneer; Shame on that narrow mind fo often known, Which in one mode of faith, owns worth alone. Sneer on, rail, wrangle! nought this truth repelsVirtue is virtue, wherefoe'er the dwells; And fure, where learning gives her light to shine, Her's is all praife-if her's, 'tis Foster, thine. Thee boaft diffenters; we with pride may own Our Tillotson; and Rome, her Fenelon*.

50

55

T HE

POET'S DEPENDANCE

O N A

STATESMA N.

SOME

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

* In this Character of the Rev. James Fofter, truth guided the pen of the Mufe. Mr. Pope paid a tribute to the modeft worth of this excellent man: little did he imagine his Rev. Annotator would endeavour. to convert his praise into abufe. The character and writings of Fofter will be admired and read, when the works of the bitter Controverfialist are forgotten.

L 3

E.

Seek

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

30

What friends to fecond? who for me should fue, 5
Have interefts, partial to themselves, in view.
They own my matchlefs fate compaffion draws;
They all wish well, lament, but drop my caufe.
There are who afk no pension, want no place,
No title with, and would accept no grace.
Can I entreat, they fhould for me obtain
The leaft, who greateft for themselves difdain?
A statesman, knowing this, unkind, will cry,
Thofe love him: let thofe ferve him!-why fhould I?
Say, fhall I turn where lucre points my views; 15
At first defert my friends, at length abuse ?
But, on lefs terms, in promise he complies :
Years bury years, and hopes on hopes arife;
I truft, am trufted on my fairy gain;
And woes on woes attend, an endless train.

Be pofts difpos'd at will !—I have, for these,
No gold to plead, no impudence to teaze.
All fecret fervice from my foul I hate;
All dark intrigues of pleasure, or of state.

I have no power, election-votes to gain;
No will to hackney out polemic strain;

20

25

To fhape, as time fhall ferve, my verse, or profe,
To flatter thence, nor flur, a courtier's foes ;
Nor him to daub with praife, if I prevail;
Nor fhock'd by him with libels to affail.
Where thefe are not, what claim to me belongs?
Though mine the Muse and virtue, birth and wrongs.

30

Where

35

Where lives the statesman, fo in honour clear, To give where he has nought to hope, nor fear? No!-there to fseek, is but to find fresh pain : 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 lofe the health, which fhould thofe thoughts in

fpire;

40

To starve on hope; or, like camelions, fare
On ministerial faith, which means but air,
But ftill, undrooping, I the crew disdain,
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:
Worfe in my own!-through thofe, to posts who rife,
Themselves, in fecret, muft themselves defpife;
Vile, and more vile, till they, at length, disclaim
Not fenfe alone of glory, but of fhame.

50

55

What though I hourly fee the fervile herd, For meanness honour'd, and for guilt prefer'd; See felfish paffion, public virtue feein; And public virtue an enthufiaft dream; See favour'd falsehood, innocence belied, Meeknefs depreis'd, and power-elated pride; A fcene will fhew, all-righteous vision haste; The meek exalted, and the proud debas’d!— Oh, to be there! -to tread that friendly fhore, Where falfehood, pride, and statesmen are no more! 60

[blocks in formation]

A

But ere indulg'd-ere fate my breath shall claim, ftill is anxious after fame.

poet What future fame would my ambition crave?

65

This were my wifh-could ought my memory fave,
Say, when in death my forrows lie repos'd,
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 fenfe to mean, and virtue not t'offend;
My heart fupplying what my head denied,
Say that, by Pope efteem'd I liv'd and died;
Whose writings the best rules to write could give;
Whofe life the nobler science how to live.

70

[blocks in formation]

EAR Damon, Delia hear, in candid lays,

HE

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, And prompt to feel the pang for others woe;

5

To

« ПредишнаНапред »