Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

Where Love prefides, ftill may fhe bear the prize,
But rigid law has neither ears nor eyes;
Charms to which Mars and Hercules would bow,
Minos and Rhadamanthus difavow :
Juftice, by nothing biafs'd or inclin'd,
Deaf to perfuafion, to temptation blind,
Determines without favour, and the laws
O'erlook the parties, to decide the cause.
What then avails it that a beardless boy
Took a rash fancy for a female toy?
Th' infulted Argives with a numerous hoft
Purfue revenge, and feek the Dardan coaft:
Though the gods built, and though the gods defend,
Thofe lofty towers the hostile Greeks afcend,
Nor leave they till the town in ashes lies,
And all the race of royal Priam dies.
The queen of Paphos mixing in the fray.
Rallies the troops, and urges on the day,
In perfon in the foremost ranks she stands,
Provokes the charge, directs, affifts, commands:
Stern Diomed, advancing high in air

His feather'd javelin, ftrikes the heavenly fair;
The vaulted skies with her loud fhrieks refound,
And high Olympus trembles at the wound.
In caufes just should all the gods oppofe,
'Twere honeft to difpute; fo Cato chofe.
Difmifs that plea, and what fhall blood avail ?
If beauty is deny'd, fhall birth avail ?
Blood and high deeds in diftant ages done,
Are our forefathers merit, not our own.

Might none a juft poffeffion be allow'd,

But thofe who could bring defert or boast of blood,
What numbers, even here, might be condemn'd,
Strip'd and defpoil'd of all, revil'd, contemn'd!
Take a juft view, how many may remark
Who's now a lord, his grandfire was a clerk :
Then, O beware, nor do thofe robes despise,
But honour that, from whence your honours rise.
How dear to Britain are her darling laws!
What blood has fhe not lavish'd in their caufe?
Kings are the common flaves to flaughter led,
Or wander through the world to beg their bread.
Such fatal precedents might awe the throne

From lawless grants: who gives what's not their own,
The gift is void: 'twere a cheap way to clear

The crown accounts, by robbing from the bar!
That power which takes from me, may force from you:
To your own interefts---you were ever true :
Confider that I plead but your own caufe:

:

Give sentence then, protect, maintain the laws.
He spoke. The princes differ, and divide ;
Some follow law, and fome with beauty fide.
So once th' apoftate angels brav'd the power
Whom they were wont to worship and implere :
Like impious is their rage, who have in chace
A new omnipotence in Grafton's face.
Bold Rochester, undaunted, just, and wise,
Afferts the goddess with the charming eyes :
Beauty her orders, like th' Almighty, fends,
And Rochester, like Michael, cleaves the fiends:

[blocks in formation]

And O may Beauty never want reward
For thee, her noble champion, and her guard.
Beauty triumphs, and Law fubmitting lies,
The tyrant tam'd, aloud for mercy cries:
Conqueft can never fail in radiant Grafton's eyes.

ΤΟ MY LORD LANSDOWNE,

UPON THE

BOMBARDING AND BURNING THE TOWN OF GRANVILLE IN NORMANDY.

THOUGH built by gods, confum'd by hoftile flame Troy bury'd lies, yet lives the Trojan name ;

[ocr errors]

And so shall shine, though with these walls were lost
All the records thy ancestors could boast.

For Latium conquer'd, and for Turnus flain,
Eneas lives, though not one stone remain
Where he arofe: nor art thou lefs renown'd
For thy loud triumphs on Hungarian ground.
Thofe arms which for nine centuries had brav'd *
The wrath of time, on antic ftone engrav'd,
Now torn by mortars, ftand yet undefac'd

On nobler trophies by thy valour rais'd :

*The arms of his family, at that time still remaining on one of the gates of the town.

Safe

*

Safe on thy eagle's wings they foar, above
The rage of war or thunder to remove,
Borne by the bird of Cæfar and of Jove.

}

TO MY FRIEND DR. GARTH,

IN HIS SICKNESS.

MACHAON fick; in every face we find

His danger is the danger of mankind,
Whofe art protecting, Nature could expire
But by a deluge, or the general fire.
More lives he faves than perish in our wars,
And fafter than a plague destroys, repairs:
The bold caroufer, and adventuring dame,
Nor fear the fever, nor refufe the flame;
Safe in his skill, from all restraint fet free,
But confcious fhame, remorse, and piety.
Sire of all aits, defend thy darling fon,

O fave the man. whofe life's fo much our own;
On whom, like Atlas, the whole world's reclin'd,
And, by restoring Garth, preferve mankind.

* Created a Count of the Roman empire, with privilege to quarter his arms on the Imperial Spread Eagle, in acknowledgment of his bravery at the relief of Vienna, and feveral other occafions in the war of Hungary, where his lordship ferved a volunteer.

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

IT OF LAVI A.

Her Gardens having efcaped a Flood that had destroyed all the Fruits of the Ground in her Neighbourhood.

WH

HAT hands divine have planted and protect, The torrent spares, and deluges refpect; So when the waters o'er the world were spread, Covering each oak, and every mountain's head,

The

« ПредишнаНапред »