For fuch is good example's power,
It does its office ev'ry hour,

Where governors are good and wife;
Or elfe the trueft maxim lies :
For fo we find all ancient fages
Decree, that, ad exemplum regis.
Through all the realm his virtues run,
Rip'ning and kindling like the fun,
If this be true, then how much more,
When you have nam'd at least a score
Of courtiers, each in their degree.
If poffible, as good as he?

Or, take it in a diff'rent view,
I afk, (if what you fay be true),
If you affirm the prefent age

20

25

30

Deferves your fatire's keeneft rage;

If that fame univerfal paffion

35

With ev'ry vice hath fill'd the nation;

If virtue dares not venture down

A single step beneath the crown;
If clergymen, to fhew their wit,
Praife claffics more than holy writ;
If bankrupts, when they are undone,
Into the fenate-house can run,
And fell their votes at fuch a rate

As will retrieve a loft eftate ;

If law be fuch a partial whore

To fpare the rich and plague the poor:
If thefe be of all crimes the worst,
What land was ever half fo curs'd?

40

45

The

Q

The DOG and THIEF.

Written in the year 1726.

Uoth the thief to the dog, Let me into your door,

And I'll give you thefe delicate bits,

Quoth the dog, I fhould then be more villain than you're,

And befides must be out of my wits.

5

Your delicate bits will not ferve me a meal,
But my mafter each day gives me bread:
You'll fly, when you get what you came here to steal,
And I must be hang'd in your ftead.

10

The ftockjobber thus from 'Change-alley goes down,
And tips you, the freeman, a wink;
Let me have but your vote to ferve for the town,
And here is a guinea to drink,

Said the freeman, Your guinea to-night would be fpent:

Your offers of brib'ry cease;

I'll vote for landlord to whom I pay rent,
my
Or elfe I may forfeit my leafe.

From London they come filly people to choufe,
Their lands and their faces unknown :
Who'd vote a rogue into the parliament-houfe,
That would turn a man out of his own?

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20

ADVICE to the GRUBSTREET

WRITER-S.

VERSE

Written in the year 1726.

YE poets ragged and forlorn,

Down from your garrets haste; Ye rhymers, dead as foon as born, Not yet confign'd to paste.

I know a trick to make you thrive;
, 'tis a quaint device :

Your ftillborn poems fhall revive,
And fcorn to wrap up spice.

Get all your verses printed fair,
Then let them well be dry'd;
And Curll must have a special care
To leave the margin wide.

Lend thefe to paper-sparing Pope :
And when he fits to write,

No letter with an envelope*

Could give him more delight.

When Pope has fill'd the margins round.
Why then recall your loan;

Sell them to Curll for fifty pound,
And fwear they are your own.

* A blank cover,

On feeing VERSES written upon WINDOWS in INNS.

Written in the year 1726.

I.

HE fage who faid he fhould be proud
Of windows in his breast,

Because he ne'er one thought allow'd
That might not be confess'd;
His window fcrawl'd by ev'ry rake,
His breaft again would cover,

And fairly bid the devil take
The diamond and the lover.

II:

ANOTHER.

BY

Y Satan taught, all conj'rers know,
Your mistress in a glafs to fhow,
And you can do as much :

In this the devil and you agree;
None e'er made verfes worse than he,
And thine I fwear are fuch.

5

ANO

TH

III.

ANOTHER.

HAT love is the devil, I'll prove when requir'd;
Thofe rhymers abundantly fhow it:

They fwear that they all by love are inspir'd,
And the devil's a damnable poet.