Diftrefs of nations calls him hence,
Permitted fo by Providence;
For models, made to mend our kind,
To no one clime should be confin'd;
And Manly Virtue, like the fun,
His course of glorious toils should run;
Alike diffufing in his flight
Congenial joy, and life, and light.
Pale Envy fickens, Error flies,
And Difcord in his prefence dies;
Oppreffion hides with guilty dread,
And Merit rears her drooping head;
The arts revive, the vallies fing,
And winter foftens into fpring:
The wondering world, where'er he moves,
With new delight looks up and loves;
One fex confenting to admire,
Nor lefs the other to defire;
Whilft he, though feated on a throne,
>Confines his love to one alone;
The reft condemn'd, with rival voice
Repining, do applaud his choice.
Fame now reports, the Western Ill
Is made his manfion, for a while,
Whose anxious natives night and day
(Happy beneath his righteous sway)
Weary the gods with ceaseless prayer,
To blefs him, and to keep him there;
And claim it as a debt from fate,
Too lately found, to lofe him late,
VERSES on the UPRIGHT JUDGE, who condemned the DRAPIER'S PRINTER.
THE church I hate, and have good reafon;
For there my grandfire cut his weazand :
He cut his weazand at the altar;
I keep my gullet for the halter.
N church your grandfire cut his throat :
To do the job, too long he tarry'd :
He fhould have had my hearty vote,
To cut his throat before he marry'd.
(The JUDGE fpeaks.)
I'M not the grandfon of that afs * Quin;
Nor can you prove it, Mr. Pasquin.
My grand-dame had gallants by twenties,
And bore my mother by a 'prentice.
This when my grandfire knew, they tell us he
In Chrift-church cut his throat for jealoufy.
And, fince the alderman was mad you say,
Then I must be so too, ex traduce.
RIDDLES,
BY DR. SWIFT AND HIS FRIENDS, Written in or about the Year 1724.
'N youth exalted high in air,
Or bathing in the waters fair,
Nature to form me took delight,
And clad my body all in white,
My perfon tall, and slender waist,
On either fide with fringes grac'd;
Till me that tyrant man espy'd,
And dragg'd me from my mother's fide :
No wonder now I look fo thin;
The tyrant ftript me to the skin :
My skin he flay'd, my hair he cropt;
At head and foot my body lopt:
And then, with heart more hard than stone,
He pick'd my marrow from the bone.
To vex me more, he took a freak
To flit my tongue, and make me speak:
But, that which wonderful appears,
I speak to eyes, and not to ears.
He oft' employs me in difguife,
And makes me tell a thousand lies:
To me he chiefly gives in trust
To please his malice or his luft,
From me no fecret he can hide;
I fee his vanity and pride:
And my delight is to expose
His follies to his greatest foes.
All languages I can command,
Yet not a word I understand.
Without my aid, the best divine
In learning would not know a line :
The lawyer muft forget his pleading;
The scholar could not fhew his reading.
Nay; man my mafter is my flave :
I give command to kill or fave,
Can grant ten thousand pounds a year,
And make a beggar's brat a peer.
But, while I thus my life relate,
I only haften on my fate.
My tongue is black, my mouth is furr'd,
I hardly now can force a word.
I die unpitied and forgot,
And on fome dunghill left to rot.
ALL-ruling tyrant of the earth,
To vileft flaves I owe my birth.
How is the greatest monarch bleft,
When in my gawdy livery drest !
No haughty nymph has power to run
From me; or my embraces fhun.
Stabb'd to the heart, condemn'd to flame,
My conftancy is still the fame.
The favourite messenger of Jove,
And Lemnian God, confulting ftrove
To make me glorious to the fight
Of mortals, and the Gods delight.
Soon would their altars' flame expire,
If I refus'd to lend them fire.
BY fate exalted bigh in place,
Lo, here I ftand with double face;
Superior none on earth I find ;
But fee below me all mankind.
Yet, as it oft' attends the great,
I almoft fink with my own weight.
At every motion undertook,
The vulgar all confult my look.
I fometimes give advice in writing,
But never of my own inditing.
I am a courtier in my way;
For those who rais'd me, I betray;
And some give out, that I entice
To luft, and luxury, and dice;
Who punishments on me inflict,
Because they find their pockets pickt.
By riding poft, I lofe my health;
And only to get others wealth.
IV. On the POSTERIORS.
BECAUSE I am by nature blind,
I wifely chufe to walk behind;
However, to avoid disgrace,
I let no creature fee.my face.
|