To boon companions I my time would give,
With players, pimps, and parasites I'd live.
I would with jockeys from Newmarket dine,
And to rough-riders give my choiceft wine;
I would carefs fome stableman of note,
And imitate his language and his coat.
My ev'nings all I would with fharpers fpend,
And make the thief-catcher my bofom friend.
In Fig the prize-fighter by day delight,

And fup with Colley Cibber every night.
Should I perchance be fashionably ill,
I'd fend for Mifaubin, and take his pill.
I fhould abhor, though in the utmoft need,
Arbuthnot", Hollins, Wigan, Leey; or Mead;

s See vol. vi. This celebrated prize-fighter died about the year 1734% t Dr. John Misaubin was a celebrated quack, though a member of the College of Phyficians. He died 20 April 1734.

" Dr. Arbuthnot, the friend of Pope, Swift, and Gay. He died 27 February 1735.

w Dr. John Hollins, at the time of his death, 10 May 1739, senior King's phyfician in ordinary.-

Dr. John Wigan, of Christ Church, Oxford, where he took his de gree July 7, 1727.

Dr. Matthew Lee. This gentleman fettled at Low Layton, and died 27 September 1755.

The celebrated Dr. Richard Mead.

But

But if I found that I

grew

worfe and worfe,

I'd turn off Mifaubin and take a nurse.
How oft when eminent phyficians fail,
Do good old women's remedies prevail !
When beauty's gone, and Chloe's ftruck with years,
Eyes she can couch, or fhe can fyringe ears.
Of graduates I dislike the learned rout,

And chufe a female doctor for the gout.

Thus would I live, with no dull pedants curs'd;
Sure, of all blockheads, scholars are the worst.
Back to your univerfities, ye fools,

And dangle arguments on ftrings in fchools:
Those schools which Univerfities they call,
"Twere well for England were there none at all.
With ease that lofs the nation might fuftain,
Supply'd by Goodman's-fields and Drury-lane.
Oxford and Cambridge are not worth one farthing,
Compar'd to Haymarket and Covent-garden :
Quit those, ye British youth, and follow these,
Turn players all, and take your 'fquire's degrees.
Boaft not your incomes now, as heretofore,

Ye book-learn'd feats! the theatres have more :

Ye ftiff-rump'd heads of colleges be dumb;

A fingle eunuch gets a larger fum.

Have fome of you three hundred by the year;

Booth, Rich, and Cibber, twice three thoufand clear.
Should Oxford to her fifter Cambridge join

A year's rack-rent, and arbitrary fine:

Thence not one winter's charge would be defray'd,
For play-house, opera, ball, and masquerade.
Glad I congratulate the judging age,

The players are the world, the world the stage.
I am a politician too, and hate

Of any party, ministers of state:

I'm for an Act, that he, who sev❜n whole years
Has ferv'd his king and country, lose his ears.
Thus from my birth I'm qualified, you find,
To give the laws of Tafte to human kind.
Mine are the gallant schemes of politesse,
For books, and buildings, politics, and drefs.
This is true Taste, and whoso likes it not,
blockhead, coxcomb, puppy, fool, and fot.

AN

AN

E S SAY

ON

CONVERSATION.

T

By BENJAMIN STILLING FLEET 2.

Oderunt bilarem triftes, triftemque jocofi,
Sedatum celeres, agilem gnavumque remiffi.

HOR.

HE art of converfe, how to footh the foul
Of haughty man, his paffions to controul,
His pride at once to humble and to please,
And join the dignity of life with ease,

Be

↑ Benjamin Stillingfleet, was the only fon of Edward Stillingfleet, a clergyman in the county of Norfolk, and grandson to Dr. Stillingfleet, Bishop of Worcefter. He was educated at Norwich fchool, which he left in 1720, and went to Trinity College Cambridge, where Dr.' Bentley, who had been private tutor to his father, was then Mafter, He became a candidate while there for a fellowship, but through the influence

Be now my theme.
Fram'd for this beft, this delicate command,
And taught, when lifping without reafon's aid,
At the fame time to fpeak and to perfuade,
WYNDHAM, with diligence awhile attend,
Nor fcorn th' instructions of an older friend;
Who when the world's great commerce hall have join'd
The deep reflection, and the flrength of mind,
To the bright talents of thy youthful ftate,
In turn fhall on thy better leffons wait.

O thou, whom Nature's hand

Whence comes it, that in every art we fee
Many can rife to a fupreme degree;

Yet in this art, for which all feem defign'd
By nature, fcarcely one compleat we find ?

You'll fay, perhaps, we think, we fpeak, we move,
By the ftrong springs alone of felfifh love:

༼。

Yet among all the species, is there one,

Whom with more caution than ourselves we fhun 2

influence of Dr. Bentley, was rejected. On this difappointment, he quitted the University, and travelled with Mr. Wyndham of Felbrig, in Norfolk, to whom this Poem is addressed, and with whom he lived in the most intimate and unreserved friendship. By the favour of the late Lord Barrington, he was appointed mafter of the barracks at Kenfington, a place which enabled him to purfue his ftudies, and particularly his favourite one of Natural Hiftory, with fuccefs. He was the author of feveral valuable works which have been published, and of others which have not hitherto appeared. He died a batchelor, in the year 1771, at the age of upwards of feventy years, and was buried in Saint James's church.

C

What