Rais'd up on Hope's afpiring plumes,
The young advent'rer o'er the deep
An eagle's flight and state affumes,
And scorns the middle way to keep.

On paper wings he takes his flight;
With wax the father bound them fast;
The wax is melted by the height,
And down the tow'ring boy is caft.

A moralift might here explain

The rashness of the Cretan youth ; Defcribe his fall into the main,

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Why in your dang'rous gulf profound,

'Where hundreds and where thoufands fell, Fools chiefly float, the wife are drown'd?

So have I feen from Severn's brink

A flock of geefe jump down together,
Swim where the bird of Jove would fink,
And swimming never wet a feather.

One fool may from another win,
And then get off with money ftor'd:
But if a harper once come in,

He throws at all, and fweeps the board.

As fifhes on each other prey,

The great ones fwall'wing up the fmall; So fares it in the Southern fea;

The whale directors eat up all.

When flock is high, they come between,
Making by fecond-hand their offers;
Then cunningly retire unfeen,

With each a million in his coffers.

So, when upon a moonshine night
An afs was drinking at a ftream,
A cloud arofe, and ftopt the light
By intercepting ev'ry beam.

The day of judgment will be foon,

(Cries out a fage among the croud ;) An afs hath fwallow'd up the moon : The moon lay fafe behind the cloud.

Each poor fubfcriber to the fea

Sinks down at once, and there he lies:

Directors fall as well as they ;

Their fall is but a trick to rife.

So fishes rifing from the main,

Can foar with moiften'd wings on high;
The moisture dry'd, they fink again,
And dip their fins again to fly.

Undone at play, the female troops
Come here their loffes to retrieve;
Ride o'er the waves in fpacious hoops,
Like Lapland witches in a fieve.

Thus Venus to the fea defcends,

As poets feign; but where's the moral ?. It fhews the queen of love intends

To fearch the deep for pearl and coral.

The fea is richer than the land,

I heard it from my Grannam's mouth,
Which now I clearly understand;
For by the fea fhe meant the South.

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Zo

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Thus by directors we are told,

Pray, Gentlemen, believe your eyes;

Our ocean's cover'd o'er with gold,

Look round, and fee how thick it lies.

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Oh! would thofe patriots be fo kind,

Here in the deep to wash their hands, Then, like Pactolus, we fhould find

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The fea indeed had golden fands.

A fhilling in the Bath you fling,
The filver takes a nobler hue

By magic virtue in the spring,
And feems a guinea to your view.

But, as a guinea will not pass

At market for a farthing more, Shewn thro' a multiplying glass, Than what it always did before:

So caft it in the Southern feas,

And view it thro' a jobber's bill; Put on what spectacles you please, Your guinea's but a guinea ftill.

One night a fool into a brook

Thus from a hillock looking down, The golden flars for guineas took, And filver Cynthia for a crown.

The point he could no longer doubt;

He ran, he leap'd into the flood
There sprawl'd a while, and scarce got out,
All cover'd o'er with flime and mud.

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Upon the waters caft thy bread,

And after many days thou'lt find it;

But gold upon this ocean spread

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Shall fink, and leave no mark behind it.

There is a gulf where thousands fell;

Here all the bold advent'rers came; A narrow found, tho' deep as hell; 'Change-alley is the dreadful name.

Nine times a-day it ebbs and flows;

Yet he that on the surface lies,

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Without a pilot, feldom knows

The time it falls, or when 'twill rife.

Subscribers here by thousands float,

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And jostle one another down ;

Each padling in his leaky boat,

And hear they fish for gold, and drown.

Now bury'd in the deep below,

Now mounted up to heav'n agen,

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They reel and ftagger to and fro,

At their wits end, like drunken men*.

Mean time fecure on Garr'way + cliffs
A favage race, by fhipwrecks fed,
Lie waiting for the founder'd skiffs,

And ftrip the bodies of the dead.

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Thus, when by rooks a Lord is ply'd,

Some cully often wins a bet,

By vent'ring on the cheating fide,

Tho' not into the fecret let.

While fome build caftles in the air,

Directors build them in the feas:

• Pfalm cvii. † Coffeehouse in 'Change-alley.

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Subfcribers plainly fee 'em there;

For fools will fee, as wife men please.

Thus oft by mariners are shown

(Unless the men of Kent are liars) Earl Godwin's caftles overflown,

And palace-roofs, and steeple-spires.

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Mark where the fly directors creep,

Nor to the shore approach too nigh!

The monsters neftle in the deep

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To feize you in your paffing by.

Then, like the dogs of Nile, be wife,
Who, taught by inftin&t how to fhun
The crocodile that lurking lies,

Run as they drink, and drink and run.

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Directors! for 'tis you I warn,

By long experience we have found,

What planet rul'd when you were born ;
We fee you never can be drown'd.

Beware, nor over-bulky grow,

Nor come within your cully's reach;

For if the fea fhould fink fo low,

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