202 The different acceptations of poverty. Cynics and
Monks not poor..
173 Now fay, where virtue ftops and vice begins ?174 Yonder he drives-avoid that furious beast:
If he may have his jeft, he never cares
At whofe expence; nor friend, nor patron spares:
175 Good men are scarce, the just are thinly sown;
They thrive but ill, nor can they last when grown.
And should we count them, and our ftore compile ;
Yet Thebes more gates could fhew, more mouths the
Nile.
176 On me you turn the nofé
177 Those things which now seem frivolous and flight,
Will be of ferious confequence to you,
When they have made you once ridiculous.
178 To yield to remedies is half the cure.
179 Democritus wou'd feed his fpleen, and shake..
His fides and fhoulders till he felt them ake.
180 On life, on morals, be thy thoughts employ'd;
Leave to the schools their atoms and their void.
181 Nor let me float in fortune's pow'r,
Dependant on the future hour.
182 The luft of wealth can never bear delay.
183 No faith of partnership dominion owns ;
Still difcord hovers o'er divided thrones.
184 Intrust thy fortune to the pow'rs above:
Leave them to manage for thee, and to grant
What their unerring wisdom fees thee want.
185 But O! revenge is fweet.
Thus think the crowd; who, eager to engage,
Take quickly fire and kindle into rage.
Not fo mild Thales, nor Chryfippus thought,
Nor that good man, who drank the pois'nous draught
With mind ferene; and could not wish to see
His vile accufer drink as deep as he:
Exalted Socrates! divinely brave!
Injur'd he fell, and dying he forgave,
Too noble for revenge; which still we find
The weakest frailty of a feeble mind.
186 Place me, where never fummer breeze
Unbinds the glebe, or warms the trees;
Where ever lowering clouds appear,
And angry Jove deforms th' inclement year:
Love and the nymph shall charm my toils;
The nymph, who sweetly speaks and fweetly smiles.
187 Love alters not for us his hard decrees;
Not tho' beneath the Thracian clime we freeze,
Or the mild blifs of temperate skies forego,
And in mid winter tread Sitbonian snow:
Love conquers all.-
188 The more I honour thee, the less I love.
189 Refounding plaudits tho' the croud have rung;
Thy treat is eloquent, and not thy tongue.
Clos'd their long glories with a figh, to find
Th' unwilling gratitude of bafe mankind.
Yielding like wax, th' impreffive folly bears;
Rough to reproof, and flow to future cares.
192 Vain the nobleft birth would prove,
Nor worth nor wit avail in love;
'Tis gold alone fucceeds-by gold
The venal fea is bought and fold.
Accurs'd be he who first of yore
Discover'd the pernicious oar!
This fets a brother's heart on fire,.
And arms the fon against the fire;:
And what, alas! is worse thanall,
To this the lover owes his fall.
193. Or art thou vain? Books yield a certain fpell,
To ftop thy tumour; you fhall cease to fwell
When you have read them thrice, and studied well.
CREECH.
394 If gaming does an aged fire entice,
Then my young mafter swiftly learns the vice,
And shakes in hanging fleeves the little box and dice.
J. DRYDEN, jun
Nor knows our youth, of nobleft race,
To mount the manag'd fteed, or urge the chace :
More fkill'd in the mean arts of vice,
The whirling troque, or law-forbidden dice.
196 The bleffings flowing in with life's full tide, Down with our ebb of life decreasing glide.
197 Say, to what vulture's share this carcafe falls?
198 You've told me, Maro, whilft you live
You'd not a fingle penny give,
But that whene'er you chanc'd to die,
You'd leave a handsome legacy;
You must be mad beyond redress,
If my next wish you cannot guess.
199 Obfcure, unptiz'd, and dark, the magnet lies,
Nor lures the fearch of avaricious eyes,
Nor binds the neck, nor fparkles in the hair,
Nor dignifies the great, nor decks the fair.j
But fearch the wonders of the dusky ftone,
And own all glories of the mine outdone,
Each grace of form, each ornament of state,
That decks the fair. or dignifies the great.
200 No man expects (for who fo much a fot,
Who has the times he lives in fo forgot?)
What Seneca, what Pifo us'd to fend,
To raife, or to fupport a finking friend.
Those godlike men, to wanting virtue kind,
Bounty well-plac'd preferr'd, and well defign'd,
To all their titles, all that height of pow'r,
Which turns the brains of fools, and fools alone adore.
When your poor client is condemn'd t'attend,
"Tis all we afk, receive him as a friend :
Defcend to this, and then we ask no more;
Rich to yourself, to all befide be poor.
201 Convince the world that you're devout and true,
Be juft in all you fay, and all you do ;
Whatever be your birth, you're fure to be
A peer of the first magnitude to me.
202 From no affliction is the poor exempt;
He thinks each eye furveys him with contempt.
Unmanly poverty fubdues the heart,
Cankers each wound, and fharpens ev'ry dart.
F. LEWIS,
203 Come, foon or late, death's undetermin'd day,
This mortal being only can decay.
204 Of heav'n's protection who can be
So confident to utter this- ?
To-morrow I will spend in blifs.
205 On fickle wings the minutes hafte,
And fortune's favours never laft.
206 But harden'd by affronts, and still the fame,
Loft to all fenfe of honour and of fame,
Thou yet can'ft love to haunt the great man's board,
And think no fupper good but with a lord.
207 The voice of reafon cries with winning force,. Loofe from the rapid car your aged horfe,
|
