And not to ev'ry one that comes,
Juft as a Scotchman does his plums.
"Pray take them, Sir-enough's a feast:
"Eat fome, and pocket up the rest.”—
What, rob your boys? thofe pretty rogues!
"No, Sir, you'll leave them to the hogs."
Thus fools with compliments befiege ye,
Contriving never to oblige ye.
Scatter your favours on a fop,
Ingratitude's the certain crop;

And 'tis but juft, I'll tell you wherefore,
You give the things you never care for.
A wife man always is or fhou'd
Be mighty ready to do good;

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But makes a diff'rence in his thought
Betwixt a guinea and a groat.

Now this I'll fay, You'll find in me

A fafe companion, and a free;

But if you'd have me always near-
A word, pray, in your Honour's ear:
I hope it is your refolution

To give me back my conftitution!
The fprightly wit, the lively eye,
Th' engaging fmile, the gaiety

Non, quo more pyris vefci Calaber jubet hofpes,
Tu me fecifti locupletem. Vefcere fodes.
Jam fatis eft. At tu quantumvis tolle. Benigne.
Non invifa feres pueris munufcula parvis.
Tam teneor dono, quam fi dimittar onuftus.
Ut libet hæc porcis hodie comedenda relinques.
Prodigus et ftultus donat quæ fpernit et odit :
Hæc feges ingratos tulit, et feret omnibus annis.,
Vir bonus et fapiens, dignis ait effe paratum;
Nec tamen ignorat quid distent æra lupinis.
Dignum præftabo me etiam pró laude merentis.
Quod fi me noles ufquam difcedere; reddes
Forte latus, nigros angufta fronte capillos:
Reddes dulce loqui: reddes ridere decorum, et
Inter vina fugam Cynaræ morere protervæ.

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That laugh'd down many a fummer fun,
And kept you up fo oft' till one,
And all that voluntary vein,
As when Belinda rais'd my ftrain.

A weafel once made shift to flink
In at a corn-loft thro' a chink;
But having amply ftuff'd his fkin,
Could not get out as he got in;
Which one belonging to the house
('Twas not a man, it was a Moufe)
Obferving, cry'd, "You 'scape not fo:
"Lean as you came, Sir, you must go."
Sir, you may spare your application,
I'm no fuch beast, nor his relation,
Nor one that temperance advance,
Cramm'd to throat with ortolans;
Extremely ready to refign

All that may make me none of mine.
South-fea fubfcriptions take who please,
Leave me but liberty and ease.

'Twas what I faid to Craggs and Child,
Who prais'd my modefty, and fimil'd.
Give me, I cry'd, (enough for me,)
My bread and independency!
So bought an annual rent or two,
And liv'd-juft as you fee I do;
Near fifty, and without a wife,
I trust that finking-fund my
life.

Forte per anguftam tenuis vulpecula rimam
Repferat in cumeram frumenti; pastaque, rurfus
Ire foras pleno tendebat corpore fruftra.

Cui muitela procul, Si vis, ait, effugere istinc,
Macra cavum repetes arctum, quem macra fubîsti
Hac ego fi compellor imagine, cuncta refigno;
Nec fomnum plebis laudo fatur altilium, nec
Otia divitiis Arabum liberrima muto.
Sæpe verecundum laudati: Rexque, Paterque
Audifti coram, nec verbo parcius abfens.
Infpice fi poffum donata reponere lætus.

*

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Can I retrench? Yes, mighty well,
Shrink back to my paternal cell,

A little house with trees a-row,

low:

And, like its master, very
There dy'd my father, no man's debtor,
And there I'll die, nor worfe nor better.
To fet this matter full before ye.
Our old friend Swift will tell his story.
"Harley, the nation's great fupport"-
But you may read it, I top fhort.

*

Parvum parva decent. mihi jam non regia Roma,
Sed vacuum Tibur placet, aut imbelle Tarentum.
Strenuus et fortis, caufifque Philippus agendis
Clarus, &c.

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IMITATED.

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THE reflections of Horace, and the judgments paf-, fed in his Epistle to Auguftus, feemed to feafonable to the prefent times, that I could not help applying them to the ufe of my own country. The author thought them confiderable enough to addrets them to his prince, whom he paints with all the great and good qualities of a monarch upon whom the Romans depended for the increase of an abfolute empire: but to make the Poem entirely English, I was willing to add one or two of those which contribute to the happinefs of a free people, and are more confiftent with the welfare of our neighbours.

This Epiftle will fhew the learned world to have fallen into two miftakes: one, that Auguftus was a patron of Poets in general; whereas he not only prohibited all but the beft writers to name him, but recommended that care even to the civil magiftrate; Admonebat prætores, ne puterentur nomen fuum obfolefieri, &c. the other, that this Piece was only a general difcourfe of poetry; whereas it was an apology for the poets, in order to render Auguftus more their patron. Horace here pleads the caufe of his contemporaries; firit, against the tafte of the town, whose humour it was to magnify the authors of the preceding age; fecondly, against the court and nobility, who encouraged only the writers for the theatre; and, lastly, againit the Emperor himfelf, who had conceived them of little ufe to the government. He fhews (by a view of the progress of learning, and the change of tafte among the Romans) that the introduction of the polite arts of Greece had given the writers of his time great advantages over their predeceffors; that their morals were much improved, and the licence of thofe ancient poets restrained; that Satire and Comedy were be

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come more just and useful; that whatever extravagancies were left on the stage were owing to the ill tafte of the nobility; that Poets, under due regulations, were in many reipets useful to the ftate, and concludes, that it was upon them the Emperor himself muft depend for his ame with pofterity.

We may further learn from this Epistle, that Horace made his court to this great Prince, by writing with a decent freedom towards him, with a just contempt of his low flatterers, and with a manly regard to his own character.-P.