Who does his needful flattery direct,
Not to oppress and ruin, but protect;
Since flattery, which way foever laid,
Is still a tax on that unhappy trade;
If so upright a statesman you can find,
Whose paffions bend to his unbiass'd mind;
Who does his arts and policies apply,
To raise his country, not his family.

Is there a mortal who on God relies ? Whose life his faith and doctrine justifies ? Not one blown up with vain afpiring pride, Who, for reproof of fins, does man deride : Whose envious heart with faucy eloquence, Dares chide at kings, and rail at men of sense:. Who in his talking vents more peevish Iyes, More bitter railings, scandals, calumnies, Than at a goffiping are thrown about, When the good wives drink free, and then fall out. None of the fenfual tribe, whose talents lie In avarice, pride, in floth, and gluttony; Who hunt preferment, but abhor good lives, Whose luft exalted to that height arrives,

They act adultery with their own wives;
And, ere a score of years completed be,
Can from the lofty stage of honour fee,
Half a large parish their own progeny.

Nor doating --- who would be ador'd,
For domineering at the council-board,
A greater fop, in business at fourfcore,
Fonder of ferious toys, affected more,

Y 3

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}

Than

Than the gay glittering fool at twenty proves,
With all his noise, his tawdry cloaths, and loves.
But a meek humble man of modeft sense,
Who, preaching peace, does practise continence;
Whose pious life 's a proof he does believe
Mysterious truths, which no man can conceive.
If upon earth there dwell fuch godlike men,
I'll here recant my paradox to them;
Adore those shrines of virtue, homage pay,
And, with the thinking world, their laws obey.
If fuch there are, yet grant me this at least,

Man differs more from man, than man from beaft.

THE MAIMED DEBAUCHEE.

As

I.

S some brave admiral, in former war
Depriv'd of force, but prest with courage still,

Two rival fleets appearing from afar,

Crawls to the top of an adjacent hill:

II.

From whence (with thoughts full of concern) he views The wife and daring conduct of the fight:

And each bold action to his mind renews

His present glory and his past delight.

III.

From his fierce eyes flashes of rage he throws,
As from black clouds when lightning breaks away,
Transported thinks himself amidst his foes,
And absent, yet enjoys the bloody day.

IV.

So when my days of impotence approach,
And I'm by wine and love's unlucky chance,

Driven from the pleasing billows of debauch,
On the dull shore of lazy temperance :

V.

My pains at last some respite shall afford,
While I behold the battles you maintain;
When fleets of glasses fail around the board,
From whose broadfides vollies of wit shall rain.

VI.

Nor shall the fight of honourable scars,

Which my too forward valour did procure,
Frighten new-lifted foldiers from the wars;
Past joys have more than paid what I endure.

VII.

Should fome brave youth (worth being drunk) prove nice, And from his fair inviter meanly shrink,

'Twould please the ghost of my departed vice, If, at my council, he repent and drink.

VIII.

Or should fome cold-complexion'd fot forbid,
With his dull morals, our night's brisk alarms;
I'll fire his blood, by telling what I did

When I was strong, and able to bear arms.

IX.

I'll tell of whores attack'd their lords at home,
Bawds quarters beaten up, and fortress won;
Windows demolish'd, watches overcome,
And handsome ills by my contrivance done.

Χ.

With tales like these I will fuch heat inspire,
As to important mischief shall incline;
I'll make him long fome ancient church to fire,
And fear no lewdness they 're call'd to by wine.

ΧΙ.

Thus statesman-like I'll faucily impose,
And, fafe from danger, valiantly advise;
Shelter'd in impotence urge you to blows,
And, being good for nothing elfe, be wife.

NOTHING.

UPON

I.

NOTHING! thou elder brother ev'n to shade,

a being ere the world was made,

And (well fixt) art alone of ending not afraid.

II.

Ere Time and Place were, Time and Place were not, When primitive Nothing Something straight begot, Then all proceeded from the great united---What.

III.

Something, the general attribute of all,
Sever'd from thee, its fole original,

Into thy boundless self must undiftinguish'd fall.

IV.

Yet fomething did thy mighty power command,
And from thy fruitful emptiness's hand,
Snatched men, beafts, birds, fire, air, and land.

V. Matter,

V.

Matter, the wicked'st offspring of thy race,
By Form assisted, flew from thy embrace,
And rebel light obfcur'd thy reverend dusky face.

VI.

With Form and Matter, Time and Place did join; Body, thy foe, with thee did leagues combine,

To fpoil thy peaceful realm, and ruin all thy line.

VII.

But turn-coat Time assists the foe in vain,

And, brib'd by thee, assists thy short-liv'd reign, And to thy hungry womb drives back thy flaves again.

VIII.

Though mysteries are barr'd from laic eyes,
And the divine alone, with warrant, pries

Into thy bosom, where the truth in private lies :

IX.

Yet this of thee the wife may freely say,

Thou from the virtuous nothing tak'st away,

And to be part with thee the wicked wifely pray.

Χ.

Great Negative! how vainly would the wife
Enquire, define, diftinguish, teach, devise?

Didst thou not stand to point their dull philosophies.

IX.

Is, or is not, the two great ends of Fate,
And, true or false, the fubject of debate,

That perfect or destroy the vast designs of Fate;

XII. When