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Let others fcrew their hypocritic face,

She fhews her grief in a fincerer place :
There nature reigns, and paffion void of art;
For that road leads directly to the heart.

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EPIGRAM, in a maid of honour's Prayer-book.

WHEN Ifrael's daughters mourn'd their past of

fences,

They dealt in fackcloth, and turn'd cinder-winches:
But Richmond's fair ones never spoil their locks;
They ufe white powder, and wear Holland fmocks.
O comely church! where females find clean linen 5
As decent to repent in, as to fin in.

A

EPIGRAM..

Written in the year 1712.

S Thomas was cudgell'd one day by his wife,
He took to the ftreet, and fled for his life:

Tom's three dearest friends came by in the squabble,

And fav'd him at once from the shrew and the rabble;
Then ventur'd to give him some sober advice-

But Tom is a person of honour so nice,

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Too wife to take counfel, too proud to take warning,
That he fent to all three a challenge next morning.
Three duels he fought, thrice ventur'd his life;
Went home, and was cudgell'd again by his wife. 10

The BALANCE of EUROPE.

TOW Europe's balanc'd, neither fide prevails;
For nothing's left in either of the scales.

VOL. VI.

M

* A PANEGYRICAL EPISTLE to Mr. THOMAS SNOW, goldfmith, near Temple-bar; occafioned by his buying and felling the third South-fea fubfcriptions, taken in by the directors at a thousand per cent. t.

D1

ISDAIN not, Snow, my humble verse to hear; Stick thy black pen a while behind thy ear. Whether thy compter fhine with fums untold, And thy wide grafping hand grows black with gold: Whether thy mien erect, and fable locks, In crouds of brokers overawe the flocks; Sufpend the worldly bus'nefs of the day, And, to enrich thy mind, attend my lay.

O thou, whofe penetrative wifdom found

The South-fea rocks and fhelves, where thousands drown'd!

When credit funk, and commerce gafping lay,
Thou ftood'ft: no bill was fent unpaid away.
When not a guinea chink'd on † Martin's boards,
And Atwill's felf was drain'd of all his hoards,
Thou stood'st; an Indian king in fize and hue!
Thy unexhausted shop was our Peru.

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In the year 1720, the South-fea company, under pretence of paying the public debt, obtained an act of parliament for enlar ging their capital, by taking into it all the debts of the nation incurred before the year 1716, amounting to 31,664,5511. Part of this sum was subscribed into their capital at three fubscriptions; the first at 300 1. per cent. the fecond at 400 l. and a third at 1000l. Such was the infatuation of the time, that thefe fubfcriptions were bought and fold at exorbitant premiums; fo that 100 1. South-fea ftock fubfcribed at 1000l. was fold for 1200). in Exchange aliey. Hawkef.

Names of eminent goldsmiths.

WHY did 'Change alley wafte thy precious hours.
Among the fools who gap'd for golden show'rs?
No wonder, if we find fome poets there,
Who live on fancy, and can feed on air;

No wonder they were caught by South-sea schemes,
Who ne'er enjoy'd a guinea, but in dreams;
No wonder they their third subscriptions fold
For millions of imaginary gold;

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No wonder that their fancies wild can frame
Strange reafons, that a thing is ftill the fame,
Tho' chang'd throughout in substance and in name..
But you (whofe judgment fcorns poetic flights)
With contracts furnish boys for paper-kites.
LET vulture Hopkins ftretch his rufty throat,
Who ruins thousands for a fingle groat :

I know thou fcorn'ft his mean, his fordid mind;
Nor with ideal debts would plague mankind.
Madmen alone their empty dreams pursue,
And ftill believe the fleeting vifion true;

They fell the treasures which their flumbers get,
Then wake, and fancy all the world in debt.
If to inftruct thee all my reasons fail,
Yet be diverted by this moral tale.

THRO' fam'd Moorfields extends a fpacious feat,
Where mortals. of exalted wit retreat;

Where wrapp'd in contemplation, and in straw,
The wifer few from the mad world withdraw.
There in full opulence a banker dwelt,

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Who all the joys and pangs of riches felt :
His fide-board glitter'd with imagin'd plate;

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And his proud fancy held a vast estate.

As on a time he pafs'd the vacant hours In raifing piles of straw and twisted bow'rs, A poet enter'd of the neighbouring cell,

And with fix'd eye obferv'd the ftructure well:

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A sharpen'd skewer 'crofs his bare fhoulders bound
A tatter'd rug, which dragg'd upon the ground.
The banker cry'd," Behold my caftle-walls,
"My ftatues, gardens, fountains, and canals,
"With land of more than twenty acres round!
"All these I fell thee for ten thousand pound."
The bard with wonder the cheap purchase faw,
So fign'd the contract (as ordains the law).

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The banker's brain was cool'd; the mist grew clear; The vifionary fcene was loft in air.

He now the vanish'd profpect understood,

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And fear'd the fancy'd bargain was not good:
Yet loath the fum entire fhould be destroy'd,
"Give me a penny, and thy contract's void."
The startled bard with eye indignant frown'd:
“Shall I, ye gods (he cries) my debts compound!"
So faying, from his rug the skew'r he takes,
And on the stick ten equal notches makes ;
With juft refentment flings it on the ground;
There, take my tally of ten thousand pound."

The SOUTH-SE A, 1721.

E wife philofophers! explain

YE

rife,

What magic makes our money
When dropt into the Southern main ?
Or do thefe jugglers cheat our eyes?

Put in your money fairly told;

Prefto be gone

'Tis here agen;

Ladies and gentlemen, behold,

Here's ev'ry piece as big as ten.

70

* Charles II. having borrowed a confiderable sum, gave tallies as a fecurity for the re-payment; but foon after, fhutting up the exchequer, thefe tallies were as much reduced from their original value, as the South-fea had exceeded it. Hawkef.

Thus in a bason drop a fhilling,

Then fill the veffel to the brim;
You fhall obferve, as you are filling,
The pond'rous metal feems to swim..

It rifes both in bulk and height;
Behold it fwelling like a fop!
The liquid medium cheats your fight;
Behold it mounted to the top!

In stock three hundred thousand pound;
I have in view a Lord's eftate;
My manors all contiguous round;
A coach and fix, and ferv'd in plate.

Thus the deluded bankrupt raves,
Puts all upon a defp'rate bet;
Then plunges in the Southern waves,
Dipt over head and ears- -in debt.

So, by a calenture misled,

The mariner with rapture fees
On the smooth ocean's azure bed
Enamel'd fields, and verdant trees.

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And in he leaps, and down he finks.

Two hundred chariots, just bespoke,

Are funk in these devouring waves, The horses drown'd, the harness broke; And here the owners find their

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graves.

Like Pharaoh, by directors led,

They with their poils went fafe before;

His chariots, tumbling out the dead,
Lay shatter'd on the Red-fea fhore.

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