LONG AND SHORT LIFE.
CIRCLES are prais'd, not that abound
In largenefs, but th' exactly round:
So, life we praise, that does excel
Not in much time, but acting well.
TRANSLATED OUT OF SPANISH.
HOUGH we may seem importunate,
While your compaffion we implore :
They, whom you make too fortunate,
May with prefumption vex you more.
TRANSLATED OUT OF FRENCH.
ADE, flowers, fade; nature will have it fo;
'Tis but what we must in our autumn do!
And, as your leaves lie quiet on the ground,
The lofs alone by those that lov'd them found:
So, in the grave, shall we as quiet lie;
Mifs'd by fome few that lov'd our company.
But fome fo like to thorns and nettles live,
That none for them can, when they perish, grieve.
Some VERSE S of an imperfect COPY, Defigned for a Friend,
On his Translation of OVID'S FASTI.
OME's holy days you tell, as if a guest
With the old Romans you were wont to feast.
Numa's religion, by themselves believ'd,
Excels the true, only in fhew receiv'd.
They made the nations round about them bow,
With their Dictators taken from the plough
Such power has juftice, faith, and honesty!.
The world was conquer'd by morality.
Seeming devotion does but gild a knave,
That's neither faithful, honeft, juft, nor brave:
But, where religion does with virtue join,
It makes a Hero like an Angel shine.
On the STATUE of King CHARLES the FIRST, at CHARING-CROSS.
HAT the Firft Charles does here in triumph ride;
See his Son reign, where he a Martyr dy'd;
And people pay that reverence, as they pass,
(Which then he wanted!) to the sacred brass;
Is not th' effect of gratitude alone,
To which we owe the ftatue and the stone.
But Heaven this lasting monument has wrought,
That mortals may eternally be taught,
Rebellion, though fuccefsful, is but vain;
And Kings fo kill'd rife conquerors again.
This truth the royal image does proclaim,
Loud as the trumpet of furviving Fame.
[OT the brave * Macedonian Youth alone;
But bafe Caligula, when on the throne, Boundless in power, would make himself a God; As if the world depended on his nod.
The Syrian King to beasts was headlong thrown,
Ere to himself he could be mortal known.
The meanest wretch, if Heaven fhould give him line,
Would never stop, till he were thought divine: :
All might within difcern the serpent's pride,
If from ourselves nothing ourselves did hide.
Let the proud peacock his gay feathers spread,
And woo the female to his painted bed :
Let winds and feas together rage and swell:
This nature teaches, and becomes them well.
Pride was not made for men: a confcious fenfe
Of guilt and folly, and their confequence,
Destroys the claim: and to beholders tells,
Here nothing, but the shape of manhood, dwells.
Alexander.
+ Nebuchadnezzar.
Ecclus. x. 18.
EPITAPH ON SIR GEORGE SPEKE.
'NDER this ftone lies virtue, youth,
Unblemish'd probity, and truth:
Juft unto all relations known,
A worthy patriot, pious fon:
Whom neighbouring towns fo often fent,
To give their fenfe in Parliament;
With lives and fortunes trufting one,
Who fo difcreetly us'd his own.
Sober he was, wife, temperate;
Contented with an old eftate,
Which no foul avarice did increafe,
Nor wanton luxury make lefs.
While yet but young, his father dy'd,
And left him to an happy guide:
Not Lemuel's mother with more care
Did counfel or inftruct her heir;
Or teach with more fuccefs her fon
The vices of the time to fhun.
An heiress fhe; while yet alive,
All that was her's to him did give:
And he just gratitude did show
To one that had oblig'd him fo :
Nothing too much for her he thought,
By whom he was fo bred and taught,
So (early made that path to tread,
Which did his youth to honour lead)
His fhort life did a pattern give,
How neighbours, husbands, friends, fhould live.
The virtues of a private life
Exceed the glorious noise and strife,
The folid intereft of mankind.
Approv'd by all, and lov'd fo well,
Though young, like fruit that 's ripe, he fell.
EPITAPH on Colonel CHARLES CAVENDISH.
ERE lies Charles Ca'ndifh: let the marble
ftone,
That hides his afhes, make his virtue known.
Beauty and valour did his fhort life
grace;
The grief and glory of his noble race!
Early abroad he did the world furvey,
As if he knew he had not long to stay :
Saw what great Alexander in the East,
And mighty Julius conquer'd in the Weft.
Then, with a mind as great as theirs, he came
To find at home occafion for his fame:
Where dark confufion did the nations hide,
And where the jufter was the weaker fide.
Two loyal brothers took their Sovereign's part,
Employ'd their wealth, their courage, and their art:
The elder did whole regiments afford;
The younger brought his conduct and his fword.
*William Earl of Devon fhire.
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