Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

"Nec vos, dulcissima mundi "Nomina, vos Musæ, Libertas, Otia, Libri, "Hortique Sylvæque, animâ remanente, relinquam."

Nor by me e'er shall you,

You, of all names the sweetest and the best,
You, Muses, books, and liberty, and rest;
You, gardens, fields, and woods, forsaken be,
As long as life itself forsakes not me.

But this is a very pretty ejaculation; because I have concluded all the other chapters with a copy of verses, I will maintain the humour to the last.

MARTIAL, Lib. X. Epigr. xlvii.

" Vitam quæ faciunt beatiorem," &c.
SINCE, dearest friend, 'tis your defire to fee
A true receipt of happiness from me ;
These are the chief ingredients, if not all :
Take an estate neither too great or small,
Which quantum fufficit the doctors call:
Let this estate from parents' care defcend;
The getting it too much of life does spend :
Take such a ground, whose gratitude may be
A fair encouragement for industry.
Let constant fires the winter's fury tame;
And let thy kitchen's be a vestal flame.

Thee

Thee to the town let never fuit at law,
And rarely, very rarely, business, draw.
Thy active mind in equal temper keep,
In undisturbed peace, yet not in fleep.
Let exercise a vigorous health maintain,
Without which all the compofition 's vain.
In the fame weight prudence and innocence take,
Ana of each does the just mixture make.
But a few friendships wear, and let them be
By nature and by fortune fit for thee.
Instead of art and luxury in food,

Let mirth and freedom make thy table good.
If any cares into thy day-time creep,
At night, without wine's opium, let them fleep.
Let reft, which nature does to darkness wed,
And not luft, recommend to thee thy bed.
Be fatisfied and pleas'd with what thou art,
Act chearfully and well th' allotted part;
Enjoy the present hour, be thankful for the past,
And neither fear, nor wish, th' approaches of the laft..

MARTIAL, Lib. X. Epigr. xcvi.

" Sæpe loquar nimium gentes," &c.

ME, who have liv'd so long among the great,,

You wonder to hear talk of a retreat:

And a retreat so distant, as may show
No thoughts of a return, when once I go.

VOL. II..

C.c

Give

Give me a country, how remote foe'er,
Where happiness a moderate rate does bear,
Where poverty itself in plenty flows,
And all the folid use of riches knows.

The ground about the house maintains it, there;
The house mantains the ground about it, here:
Here even hunger's dear; and a full board
Devours the vital substance of the lord.
The land itself does there the feaft bestow,
The land itself must here to market go.
Three or four suits one winter here does waste,
One fuit does there three or four winters last.

Here every frugal man must oft be cold,
And little luke-warm fares are to you sold.
There fire 's an element, as cheap and free,
Almost, as any of the other three.
Stay you then here, and live among the great,
Attend their sports, and at their tables eat.
When all the bounties here of men you score,
The place's bounty there shall give me more.

EPITAPHIUM ΕΡΙΤΑΡHIUM VIVI AUCTORIS*.
A

"Hic, o viator, fub laré parvulo
"Couleius hic est conditus, hic jacet;
"Defunctis humani laboris

"Sorte, supervacuâque vitâ.

" Non indecorâ pauperie nitens,
"Et non inerti nobilis otio,

" Vanóque dilectis popello
"Divitiis animofus hoftis.

"Poffis ut illum dicere mortuum;
" En terra jam nunc quantula sufficit!
"Exempta fit curis, viator,

"Terra fit illa levis, precare.

"Hic sparge flores, sparge breves rofas
" Nam vita gaudet mortua floribus
"Herbisque odoratis corona

"Vatis adhuc cinerem calentem."

* See a tranflation of this Epitaph among the poems
of Mr. Addifon.

[blocks in formation]

PROPOSITΤΙΟΝ

FOR

THE ADVANCEMENT OF EXPERIMENTAL PHILOSOPHY *.

T

[blocks in formation]

HAT the philosophical college be fituated within one, two, or (at farthest) three miles of London; and, if it be poffible to find that convenience, upon the fide of the river, or very near it.

That the revenue of this college amount to four thouiard pounds a year.

* Ingenious men delight in dreams of reformation. -In comparing this Propofition of Cowley, with that of Milton, addresled to Mr. Hartlib, we find that these great poets had amused themselves with some exalted, and, in the main, congenial fancies, on the subject of education: that, of the two plans proposed, this of Mr. Cowley was better digested, and is the less fanciful; if a preference, in this respect, can be given to either, when both are manifestly Utopian: and that our universities, in their present form, are well enough calculated to answer all the reasonable ends of such institutions; provided we allow for the unavoidable defects of them, when drawn

out into practice. H.

1. That

« ПредишнаНапред »