The startled Bard with Eye indignant frown'd. "Shall I, ye Gods, (he cries) my Debts compound!

So faying, from his Rug the Skew'r he takes,

And on the Stick ten equal Notches makes : With juft Refentment flings it on the Ground "There, take my Tally of ten thoufand Pound.

;

The SOUTH-SEA. 1721.

E wife Philofophers! explain

YE

What Magick makes our Money rife,
When dropt into the Southern Main ;
Or do these Juglers cheat our Eyès ?

Put in your Money fairly told;

Prefto be gone

'Tis here agen;"

Ladies and Gentlemen, behold,

Here's ev'ry Piece as big as ten.

Thus in a Bason drop a Shilling,
Then fill the Veffel to the Brim ;
You fhall obferve, as you are filling,
The pond'rous Metal feems to fwim;

·

It rifes both in Bulk and Height,
Behold it fwelling like a Sop!
The liquid Medium cheats your Sight,
Behold it mounted to the Top!

In Stock three hundred thousand Pound;
I have in View a Lord's Eftate:
My Manors all contiguous round;

A Coach and Six, and ferv'd in Plate.

Thus the deluded Bankrupt raves,
Puts all upon a desperate Bett;

Then plunges in the Southern Waves,
Dipt over Head and Ears

So, by a Calenture misled,

in Debt..
Debt.

The Mariner with Rapture fees
On the smooth Ocean's azure Bed
Enamel'd Fields, and verdant Trees.

With

eager Hafte he longs to rove
In that fantastick Scene, and thinks
It must be fome enchanted Grove;
And in he leaps, and down he finks.

Two hundred Chariots, juft befpoke,

Are funk in thefe devouring Waves,

The

The Horfes drown'd, the Harness broke,
And here the Owners find their Graves.

Like Pharah, by Directors led,

They, with their Spoils, went fafe before;
His Chariots, tumbling out the Dead,
Lay fhatter'd on the Red-Sea Shore.

Rais'd up on Hope's afpiring Plumes,
The young Advent'rer o'er the Deep,
An Eagle's Flight and State affumes,

And fcorns the middle Way to keep.

On Paper Wings he takes his Flight,
With Wax the Father bound them faft;
The Wax is melted by the Height,
And down the tow'ring Boy is cast.

His Wings are his Paternal Rent,

.

He melts his Wax at ev'ry Flame; His Credit funk, his Money spent,

In Southern Seas he leaves bis Name.

Inform us, you that best can tell,

Why in your dang'rous Gulph profound, Where Hundreds, and where Thousands fell, Fools chiefty float, the Wife are drown'd?

So

So have I feen from Severn's Brink

A Flock of Geefe jump down together; Swim where the Bird of Jove would fink, And swimming, never wet a Feather...

One Fool may from another win,

And then get off with Money ftor'd;

But if a Sharper once còmes in,

110

He throws at all, and sweeps the Board.

As Fishes on each other prey,

The Great Ones swallowing up the Small ;

So fares it in the Southern Sea;

The Whale Directors eat up all.

When Stock is high, they come between,

Making by fecond-hand their Offers;

Then cunningly retire unfeen,

With each a Million in his Coffers, t

So when upon a Moon-fhine Night not
An Afs was drinking at a Stream;
A Cloud arofe, and ftopt the Light,
By intercepting ev'ry Beam.

The Day of Judgment will be foon,
(Cries out a Sage among the Crowd ;)

こ

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An Afs hath swallow'd up the Moon:
The Moon lay fafe behind the Cloud.

Each poor Subfcriber to the Sea,

Sinks down at once, and there he lies; Directors fall as well as they,

Their Fall is but a Trick to rife.

So Fishes rifing from the Main,

Can foar with moiften'd Wings on high;
The Moisture dry'd, they fink again,
And dip their Fins again to fly.

Undone at Play, the Female Troops
Come here their Loffes to retrieve;
Ride o'er the Waves in fpacious Hopes,
Like Lapland Witches in a Sieve.

Thus Venus to the Sea defcends,

As Poets feign; but where's the Moral ?
It fhews the Queen of Love intends
To fearch the Deep for Pearl and Coral.

A Shilling in the Bath you fling,
The Silver takes a nobler Hue,
By Magick Vertue in the Spring,
And feems a Guinea to your View ;

Bus