Yet, that his piece might not exceed belief, He caft a veil upon fuppofed grief.
'Twas want of such a precedent as this, Made the old heathen frame their Gods amifs. Their Phoebus should not act a fonder part For the fair boy, than he did for his hart: Nor blame for Hyacinthus' fate his own, [known. That kept from him wifh'd death, hadft thou been He that with thine shall weigh good David's deeds, Shall find his passion, nor his love, exceeds:
He curft the moutains where his brave friend dy'd, But let falfe Ziba with his heir divide:
Where thy immortal love to thy blest frinds, Like that of Heaven, upon their feed descends. Such huge extremes inhabit thy great mind, God-like, unmov'd; and yet, like woman, kind! Which of the ancient Poets had not brought Our Charles's pedigree from heaven; and taught How fome bright dame, compreft by mighty Jove, Produc'd this mix'd Divinity and Love?
To the KING on his NAVY.
WHERE'ER thy Navy spreads her canvas wings,
Homage to thee, and peace to all she brings:
The French, and Spaniard, when thy flags appear, Forget their hatred, and confent to fear.
So Jove from Ida did both hosts survey,
And, when he pleas'd to thunder, part the fray.
Ships heretofore in feas like fishes sped, The mightiest still upon the smallest fed: Thou on the Deep impofeft nobler laws; And by that justice haft remov'd the cause Of those rude tempefts, which, for rapine fent, Too oft, alas! involv'd the innocent.
Now fhall the Ocean, as thy Thames, be free From both those fates, of ftorms and piracy. But we moft happy, who can fear no force But winged troops, or Pegasean horse: 'Tis not so hard for greedy foes to spoil Another nation, as to touch our foil. Should Nature's felf invade the world again, And o'er the centre spread the liquid Main, Thy power were fafe; and her deftructive hand Would but enlarge the bounds of thy command: Thy dreadful Fleet would style thee Lord of all, And ride in triumph o'er the drowned Ball: Those towers of oak o'er fertile plains might go, And visit mountains where they once did grow. The world's reftorer once could not indure, That finish'd Babel fhould thofe men fecure, Whose pride defign'd that fabric to have stood Above the reach of any fecond flood: To thee his chofen more indulgent, He Dares truft fuch power with fo much piety.
On the taking of SALLE.
F Jafon, Thefeus, and fuch Worthies old, Light feem the tales antiquity has told: Such beafts, and monsters, as their force oppreft, Some places only, and fome times, infeft.
Salle, that fcorn'd all power and laws of men, Goods with their owners hurrying to their den; And future ages threatening with a rude And favage race, fucceffively renew'd: Their King defpifing with rebellious pride, And foes profeft to all the world befide: This peft of mankind gives our Hero fame, And through th' obliged world dilates his name. The Prophet once to cruel Agag faid,
As thy fierce fword has mothers childless made, So fhall the fword make thine: and with that word He hew'd the man in pieces with his fword.
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Juft Charles like measure has return'd to these, Whofe pagan hands had ftain'd the troubled feas With fhips, they made the spoiled merchants mourn With fhips, their city and themfelves are torn. One fquadron of our winged caftles fent O'erthrew their Fort, and all their Navy rent: For, not content the dangers to increase, And act the part of tempefts in the feas; Like hungry wolves, thofe pirates from our shore Whole flocks of fheep, and ravish'd cattle, bore. Safely they might on other nations prey; Fools to provoke the Sovereign of the fea!
Mad Cacus fo, whom like ill fate persuades, The herd of fair Alcmena's feed invades ; Who, for revenge, and mortals' glad relief, Sack'd the dark cave, and crush'd that horrid thief. Morocco's monarch, wondering at this fact, Save that his presence his affairs exact, Had come in perfon, to have seen and known The injur'd world's avenger and his own. Hither he fends the chief among his Peers, Who in his bark proportion'd prefents bears, To the renown'd for piety and force,
Poor captives manumis'd, and matchlefs horse.
Upon his Majefty's repairing of ST. PAUL'S.
HAT fhipwreck'd veffel which th' Apoftle bore, Scarce fuffer'd more upon Melita's fhore,
Than did his temple in the sea of time; Our nation's glory, and our nation's crime. When the first * Monarch of this happy Ifle, Moy'd with the ruin of fo brave a pile, This work of coft and piety begun, To be accomplish'd by his Glorious Son: Who all that came within the ample thought Of his wife Sire, has to perfection brought. He, like Amphion, makes thofe quarries leap Into fair figures from a confus'd heap: For in his art of regiment is found A power, like that of harmony in found.
Those antique minstrels fure were Charles-like Kings, Cities their lutes, and fubjects' hearts their strings; On which with fo divine a hand they strook, Confent of motion from their breath they took: So, all our minds with his confpire to grace The Gentiles' great Apoftle; and deface Those state-obfcuring fheds, that like a chain Seem'd to confine, and fetter him again : Which the glad Saint shakes off at his command, As once the viper from his facred hand.
So joys the aged oak, when we divide The creeping ivy from his injur'd fide.
Ambition rather would affect the fame
Of fome new ftructure, to have borne her name: Two diftant virtues in one act we find, The modefty, and greatnefs, of his mind : Which, not content to be above the rage And injury of all-impairing age,
In its own worth fecure, doth higher climb, And things half swallow'd, from the jaws of time Reduce an earneft of his grand design,
To frame no new Church, but the old refine : Which, spouse-like, may with comely grace command, More than by force of argument or hand.
For, doubtful reafon few can apprehend;
And war brings ruin, where it should amend : But beauty, with a bloodlefs conqueft, finds A welcome fovereignty in rudeft minds.
Not aught which Sheba's wondering Queen beheld Amongst the works of Solomon, excell'd
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