Ev'n focial friendship duns his ear, And cites him to the public sphere, Does he refift their genuine force? His temper takes fome froward courfe; Till paffion, mifdirected, fighs
For weeds, or fhells, or grubs, or flies!
Far happieft he, whofe early days Spent in the focial paths of praise, Leave, fairly printed on his mind, A train of virtuous deeds behind: From this rich fund, the memory draws The lafting meed of felf-applause.
Such fair ideas lend their aid
To people their fequefter'd fhade, Such are the naiads, nymphs, and fauns, That haunt his floods, or chear his lawns. İf, where his devious ramble strays, He virtue's radiant form furveys ; She feems no longer now to wear The rigid mien, the frown fevere To fhew him her remote abode ; To point the rocky arduous road: But from each flower, his fields allow, She twines a garland for his brow.
Alluding to the allegory in Cebes's tablet.
OECONOMY,
A RHAPSODY, addreffed to young POETS,
Infanis; omnes gelidis quæcunque lacernis "Sunt tibi, Nafones Virgiliofque vides." MART
PART the FIRST.
To you, ye bards! whofe lavish breaft requires This monitory lay, the strains belong; Nor think fome mifer vents his fapient faw, Or fome dull cit, unfeeling of the charms That tempt profufion, fings; while friendly zeal, To guard from fatal ills the tribe he loves, Infpires the meaneft of the Mufes' train! Like you I loath the groveling progeny, Whose wily arts, by creeping time matur'd, Advance them high on power's tyrannic throne To lord it there in gorgeous ufeleffness, And fpurn fuccefslefs worth that pines below! See the rich churl, amid the focial fons Of wine and wit, regaling! hark he joins In the free jeft delighted! feems to fhew A meliorated heart! he laughs! he fings! Songs of gay import, madrigals of glee, And drunken anthems fet agape the board. Like Demea, in the play, benign and mild.
And pouring forth benevolence of foul,
Till Micio wonders: or, in Shakespear's line, Obftreperous Silence; drowning Shallow's voice, And ftartling Falstaff, and his mad compeers.
He owns 'tis prudence, ever and anon, To smooth his careful brow! to let his purfe Ope to a fixpence's diameter!
He likes our ways; he owns the ways of wit Are ways of pleasaunce, and deferve regard. True we are dainty good fociety,
But what art thou? alas! confider well, Thou bane of focial pleasure, know thyself. Thy fell approach, like fome invasive damp Breath'd through the pores of earth from Stygian caves, Deftroy the lamp of mirth; the lamp which we Its flamens boaft to guard: we know not how, But at thy fight the fading flame affumes
A ghaftly blue, and in a stench expires.
True, thou seem'ft chang'd; all fainted, all ensky'd The trembling tears that charge thy melting eyes Say thou art honeft, and of gentle kind, But all is falfe! an intermitting figh
Condemns each hour, each moment giv'n to fmiles, And deems thofe only loft, thou doft not lofe. Ev'n for a demi groat, this open'd soul, This boon companion, this elastic breast Revibrates quick; and fends the tuneful tongue To lavish music on the rugged walls
Of fome dark dungeon. Hence thou caitiff, fly! Touch not my glass, nor drain my facred bowl,
Monster, ingrate! beneath one common sky
Why shouldst thou breathe? beneath one common roof Thou ne'er fhalt harbour; nor my little boat Receive a foul with crimes to press it down. Go to thy bags, thou recreant! hourly go, And, gazing there, bid them be wit, be mirth, Be converfation. Not a face that fimiles Admit thy prefence! not a foul that glows With focial purport, bid or ev'n or morn Invest the happy! but when life declines, May thy fure heirs stand tittering round thy bed, And, ushering in their favourites, burft thy locks, And fill their lamps with gold; till want and care With joy depart, and cry, "We ask no more." Ah never never may th' harmonious mind Endure the worldly! poets, ever void
Of guile, diftruftlefs, fcorn the treafur'd gold, And fpurn the mifer, fpurn his deity. Balanc'd with friendship, in the poet's eye The rival fcale of intereft kicks the beam, Than lightning fwifter. From his cavern'd ftore The fordid foul, with felf-applause, remarks The kind propensity; remarks and smiles, And hies with impious haste to spread the snare. Him we deride, and in our comic fcenes Contemn the niggard form Moliere has drawn. We loath with juftice; but alas the pain To bow the knee before this calf of gold; Implore his envious aid, and meet his frown!
But 'tis not Gomez, 'tis not he whofe heart Is crufted o'er with drofs, whofe callous mind Is fenfelefs as his gold, the flighted Muse Intenfely loaths. 'Tis fure no equal task To pardon him, who lavishes his wealth On racer, fox-hound, hawk, or spaniel, all But human merit; who with gold essays All, but the nobleft pleasure, to remove "The want of genius, and its fmiles enjoy.
But y u, ye titled youths! whofe nobler zeal Would burnish o'er your coronets with fame; Who liften pleas'd when poet tunes his lay; Permit him not, in diftant folitudes,
To pine, to languish out the fleeting hours - Of active youth! then virtue pants for praise That feafon unadorn'd, the careless bard Quits your worn threshold, and like honeft Gay Contemns the niggard boon ye time fo ill. Your favors then, like trophies given the tomb, Th' enfranchis'd spirit foaring not perceives, Or fcorns perceiv'd; and execrates the smile Which bade his vigorous bloom, to treacherous hopes And fervile cares a prey, expire in vain! -
Two lawless powers, engag'd by mutual hate In endless war, beneath their flags enroll The vaffal world. This avarice is nam'd, That luxury; 'tis true their partial friends Affign them fofter names; ufurpers both; That fhare by dint of arms the legal throne Of just œconomy; yet both betray'd
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