) Casually lucky, fortunately great, Ten tiines his planet overcame his fate. Riches Aow'd in; and accidents were kind; Who puts off Death, to the last moments Health join'd her opium to delude the mind "; driv'n, Whilst pride was gratify'd in ev'ry view, Is near the grave, but very far from Hear'n 31, And pow'r had scarce an object to pursue; He who repents, and gains the wish'd reprieve, Cramı'd to the throat with happiness and ease, Was fit to die, and is more fit to live. Till nature's self could do no more to please.Chuse a good convoy in an hostile course; Vain-glorious mortal, to profusion blest! And almost by prosperity distrest! Hymn'di his no-virtues in each flatt'ring page: THE COURTIER AND PRINCE. True parasitic plants 8, which only grow Cpon their patron trees, like miscelto: So pella-mountain on the flax appears, And thyme, th' epithimy, (her bas'ard) rears Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of Just so th' agáric from the larix springs, man, in whom there is no help. And fav’rites fatten on perspiring kings.- More might be said ; but this we leave untold, Now behold, thou trusteth upon the staff of a That better things their proper place may hold. bruised reed-on which if a man lean, it will Our mirror of good luck, whom chance had go through his hand and pierce it: so is Pha claim'd rauh, king of Egypt, unto all that trust in him. As her own offspring, was Amariel nam'd. At his first horoscope the goddess smild, Then, as a wit upon th’occasion said, « Gave him her blessing, put him in a way, Divest thyself of thy pretended bays, [lays: Set up the farce, and laughd at her own play." And crown'd with short-liv'd llox ’rs present thy Fortune, the inistress of the young and bold, Froin female archives stol'n, a tale disclose, Espous'd him early, but caress'd him old; Verse tortur'd into rhymes from honest prost. Duteoris and faithful as an Indian wife, Short fables mar with double grace he told; She made appearance to be true for life : So smallest glasses sweetest essence hold. Avd kept her love alive, and like to last, Antonia somewhere ? does a tale report, Beyond the date her Pompey was disgrac'd Of no small use to rising inen at court : But nothing certain (as the wise man 10 found) (Who seek promotion in the worldly road, Is tu be deem'd on sublunary ground. And make tbeir titles and their wealth their god ;) 9" Prosperous health and uninterrupted ease Antonia ! who the Ilermit's Story fram'd 3: are often the occasion of some fatal misfortuur. A tale to prose-men known 4, by verse-men Thus a long peace makes men unguarded, and fam'd 5. sometimes unmindful, in matters of war : it beA courtier, of the lucky, thriving sort, jug observed, that the most signal overthrow is Rose like a meteor, and eclips'd the court; usually given us, when an unexpecied eneiny By chance or cunning erlry storm outbraves : surpriseth us in the deep sleep of peace and seTopinust he rode, midst shoals of fools and curity.” Si. Gregor, the Great. knaves, 8 Parasitical plants, according to the language Triumphant, like an eygre", o'er the waves : of botanisls, will not grow in the common ma trix of the earth, but their seeds, being dispers. 31 A saying of pious Jeremy Taylor. ed by winds, take root in the excrementitious "A Roman young lady of quality and a Chris- parts of a decayed tree, or arise as an excrestian convert. She afterwards married Adelphus, cence from the exsudations of some tree on who was a proconsul in the reign of Honorius plant. Thus the doulder (cuscuta), formerly and Theodosius junior. Sh. composed an His called pella-muuntain, grows usually on flux; and tory of the Old and New Testament in verse. therefore the Italian peasant calls it poriagra di Her epitaph on her husband is much adınired. linio. Both pieces were pr nted at Francfort in 1941. 9 The Arabians and Italians imitating the Her name at length was Proba Valeria Ta!- Greek nord {w.luc!o») call this adseititious plant conia. eftimo and epithmo; but very few of oui En2 Trai é sur la Pieté so'ile. Epit. xx, par glish botanists male mention of it. As far as I Madame Antoinette de Bourignon. have hitherto seen, only one of our herbalists 3 Epit. de Bourignon. Partie scconde, Epit. bas touched upon it, namely, Peter Treveris, xvii who fourished about the reign of Henry VII. 4 Dr. Patrick's Farable of the Pilgrim. He calls it epithimy. For my own part, not 5 Parnelle's Hermit. caring to invent new words in poetry, I have 6 The tenth wave, when rivers are swollen by thought proper to retain the word which he floods, or agitated by storms, is called in sume (Treveris) has used, as it is well-sounding, and parts of England an eygre. not inelegant. doin'd lo good fortune, 'twas our courtier's lot | So, in the daily work she labours at, To serve a prince who ne'er his friends forgot : The swallow toils, and rises with a gnat.Humane, discreet, compassionate, and brave; It chanc'd as through his groves our monarch Not milder when he lov'd, than when forgave, stray'd, Gen'rous of promise, punctual in the deed; T' enjoy the coolness of a summer shade, Grac'd with more candour than most monarchs Wrapt up in virtuvus schemes of means and ends, need. To reconcile his foes, or bless his friends, A milkiness of blood his heart possess'd; He spy'd a figure, which by shape be knew, With grief be punish'd, and with transport In a lone grotlo half conceal'd from view: bless'dii. Thither the prudent wand'rer had retir'd, As noblest metals are most ductile found, As modesty and well bred sense requird: Great souls with mild compassion most abound. Studious of manners, fearful to intrude The golden dye with soft complacence takes On precious hours of royal solitude. Each speaking lineament th' engraver makes, .6i Amariel,” cry'd the prince, “I know thee And wears a faithtul image for mankind, Invelop'd in the umbrage of a cell: (well, True to the features, truer to the mind : I like thy modesty, with manuers fraught;Whilst stubborn iron (like a barren soil But, as my spirits ask a pause from thought, To lab'ring hinds) eludes the artist's toil; Walk with thy master, and with him inhale To ev'ry stroke ungrateful and unjust, The cooling freshness of the western gale. Corrodes itself, or hardens into rust. Amariel," added he, and gently smil'd, Good-nature, in the language from abovely, “ This grove's my kingdom, and each tree my Is universal charity and love: child: Patient of wrongs, and enemy to strife ; (Forgive the vanity, which thus compares Basis of virtue, and the staff of life! My self to Cyrus, and his rural cares 17;) Whilst av'rice, private censure, public rage, My ready pencil sketch'd the first design, Are th' old maa's hobby-horse, and crutch of age. These eyes adjusted ev'ry space and line; Party conducts us to the meanest ends; These hands have fixt th' inoculated shoots, Party made Herod and a Pilate friends 13. Train'd the louse branches, and reform'd the Scorn'd be the bard, anu banish'd ev'n from roots, schools, Happy the monarch of the town and field, Who first immortaliz'd man-killing fools; Where vice to laus, and weeds to culture yield ! Blockheads in council, bloody in command : “ My human realms a tenfold care demands Warriors--not of the head, but of the hand; Reluctant is the staple '18 of the land : True brethren of the iron-pated Suedelt : Suur are the juices, churlish is the soil, They fight like Ajax, and like Ajax reail. Of rule impatient, and averse to toil. Of all the great and harmless things below, In vain I cherish, and in vain replace ; (face, Only an elephant is truly so. Th’ungrateful branch flies back, and wounds my (Thus writes a wit!), well known a ceni’ry past; Courtiers are like th' hyena, nerer tame : Forgotten now; yet still his fame shall last.) No bounties ux them, and no arts reclaim : Kings have their follies; siatesinen have their | Frontless they run the muck 19 through thick and [hearts; thin ; Wealth spoils the great; beauty ensuares our Not poorer, if they lose ;---and they may win. And wits are doubly dup'd by having parts. Patriots of their own intrest, right or wrong : Some have ten times the parts they ought to use; Foes to the feeble, flatt'rers to the strong. “A great wit's greatest work is to refuse 16 !" Stiff complaisance thro’ their best homage Never, O lards, the warning vo ce despise ; spreads, [heads. To add is dang'rous, to retrench is wise. So turn-soles 20 court the Sun with 'wry-neck'd Poets instead of saying what they could, True as a dial, when their patrons shine ; Must only say the very thing they shculd. But blank, if the said patrons pow'r resign. This mighty ETPHKA reserv'd for few, Like good sir Martin 20, when he lost his mau, Virgil and Boileau, Pope and Dryden knew. They grieve-and get another as they can. (Thus by the way.) Now, Muse, resume thy Yet, (though small real cuinfurt is enjoy'd course; Where man the ruler is, and men employ'd,) There is no wand'rer like the poet's horse: Of all my friends and servants, you alone Who quits the solid road, and well-beat lanes, Have pleas'd me best, and most reliev'd the (Sick of his track, and punish'd for his pains,) throne, To mimic galloping on green-swarth plains 17 Xenophont. Oeconomic. c. iv, &c. 11 “ Bountifulness is a most beautiful garden, 18 The staple of the soil, in an husbandryand mercifulness endureth for ever." sense, is the upper earth, which lies within the Ecclus. reach of the plough and influence of the atmo12 Evooxía. Matth. ch. ii, v, 14. 13 Luke ch. xxii. v. 12. Thus we call wool, with relation to England, 14 Dernir-bash, or iron-beaded: a name given a staple commudity. by the Turks to Charles the XIIth of Sweden. 19 Dryclen's Hind and Panther. 15 Dr. Doune's Letters in Prose, 129, Lond. 20 The heliotrope, or Sun-lower, called, by 1591. the Italians, orologio dei cortegiani. 16 Sir John Birkenhead's epistle to Cartwright, 21 Sir Martin Marr-all, in a comedy of Dry1658. den's writing ܪ arts ; sphere. Whatever then my bounty can provide ; “ Wretch that I am, unworthy of my breath, Whatever by my friendship be supply'd; Deceiv'd when living, and deceiv'd in death! As far as faith can bind, or speech can say, Why did I waste my strength, my cares, my ask, and I meet thy wishes half the way." To serve a master--master but in name? (fame, The servant bow'd, and gratitude express'd; An ethnic idol, for delusion made; Such gratitude as dwells in courtier's breast : Eyes without sight, protection without aid ? Pleas'd to the height of transport he retird ; Unable to bestow the good we want, His fears were calm'd, and his ambition fir'd. And ready, what avails us not, to grant! Unhappy man, in both his objects wrong ; Deceitful, impotent, unuseful pow'r; The weak he trusted, and forgot the strong ! Which can give di'monds, but not give an hour! Six years were past, when lo, by slow degrees, At Rimmon's shrine no longer will I bow, A fever did his limbs and spirits seize: But thus to th' all-pow'rful king address my row: Advanciug gently, no alarm it makes, [brakes :) “O thou, the only great, and good, and wise, (Like murd'ring Indiaus gliding through the Ruler of Earth, and monarch of the skies; But, having mark'd ber sure approaches well, Thou, whom th' intents of virtuous actions She storms, and nothing can her force repell. please; [case 21 : Instant, a liquid fire inflames the blood, Whose laws are freedom, and whose service Whilst spasms impede the self-refining flood : Whose mercy waits th' offender to the grave, Petechial spots th' approach of Death proelaim, Willing to hear; omnipotent to save ! Redd'ning like comets with vindictive flame; Who nc'er forgot one meritorious deed, Whilst wand'ring talk, and mopings wild, presage Nor left a servant in the hour of need; Moon-struck illusion, and conclude in rage. To mercy and to equity inclin'd; Inevitable Death alarms the heart : Who mind'st the heart, and tenour of the minds. Nature stands by, and bids her aim the dart. Forgive my errour, and my life restore ; The sick man, stupify'd with fear and woe, Thee will I serve alone, and thee adore ! Had hardly words to speak, or tears to flow; Farewell Earth's deities and idols all; At length in broken sounds was heard to cry, Moloch and Mammon, Chiun %4, Dagon, Baal: “ Grant me to see my master, e'er I die." Whose chemarims 25 tread their fantastic rounds The master came. “ Ah, prince,” Amariel said, | O'er Aven's 36 plains, and dance to Tyrian “ Now keep thy promise, and extend the aid; sounds. Unfurl my tangled thread of human breath, “Hence, false Astarte 27, who the world suborns, And call me back one year, before my death." Life's lambent ineteor glist’ring round her hories. The prince (for he was wise, and good withall,) Let Thammuz moan his self-intlicted pain, Stood like a statue mortis'd to the wall : And Sidon's stream run purple to the main. At length recov'ring from amazement, broke “No star of Remphan 28 shall attract my sight, An awful silence, and thus gravely spoke : Shorn of its beams, and gleaming sickly light: “ Amariel, sure thy pangs disturb thy brain: Malignant orb! which tempts bewilder'd swains The boon you ask is blasphemous and rain : To gulphs, to quicksandis, and waste trackless Am I a god, to alter Death's decree ? By thee the false Achitophel was led; (plaios! That's the prerogative of Ileav'n, not me.” And Hamau 2 dy'd aloft, and made a cloud “ Then,” cry'd Amariel, with an hasty tone, his bed. “Gain me a week, three days, or gain me one." “ From worldly hopes and false dependance “ Impossible!” agen the prince reply'd ; freed, « Sure thy disease to madness is ally'd : I'll seek no safety from a splinter'd reed; Ask me for riches-freely I resign Which causes those to fall, who wish to stand; A third, or half, and bid thee make them thine. Or, if it aids the steps, gangrenes the hand 36. Whate'er the world can human greatness call, « How vain is all the chymic wealth of porir; Pow'r, rank, grants, titles, I'll bestow them all. Sought for an age, and squander'd in an hour! Then die in peace, or with contentment live, Full late we learn, in sickness, pains, and woe, Nor ask a gift no inortal pow'r can give.” What in high health 'twas possible to know. With eyes that fash'd with eagerness and fire “ Two ages may have two Elishas seen ; The sick man then propos'd a new desire: Groups of Gehazis 31 choke the space between : “ As Death's dread tyranny has no control, Can you ensure the safety of my soul? 22 Idcirco servi sumus, ut liberi esse possimus. Anxious and doubtful for my future state, Cicero. I read the donger, but I read too late.” 23 Bishop Jer. Taylor. The prince stood mute; compassion and amaze 24 Chiun, probably from KYNN: Qu. if not Tore bis divided heart ten thousand ways: Anubis. See also Amos, ch. v, v. 26. 1 Kings, And, having rightly weigh'd the sick man's ch. xi. v. 32. pray'r, 25 For the chemarims of Baal, see Hosea, cb. Thus he reply'd in sorrow and despair: x. v. 5, in Marg. 2 Kings, ch. xxiii. v. 5. “ Salvation of the soul by grace is giv'n ; 26 Aven. Hosea, ch, x. v. 8. Plains of Aren. l'nalienable is the grace of Heav'n. Amos, ch. i. v. 5. I tremble at the rash request you make, 27 Perhaps the same as Astaroth, or Venus the Which is not mine to grant, or yours to take.” goddess of the Sidonians. Amariel then, with disappointment spent, 28 Acts, ch. viii. v. 43. Turn'd from his prince in mournful discontent, 29 Esther, ch, vii. v, 9. And, lifting up to Heav'n his bands and eyes, 30 Isaiah, ch. xxxvi, v, 6. Thus in a flood of tears obtests the skies : 31 2 Kings, ch. V, V, 20. 호 # Who live unthinking, and obdurate die, Bad bards, worse critics !—Thus we multiply Ner heed their own or children's leprosy 32. Poems and rules, but write no poetry. Sip-born and blind! Who change, protest, and Evin Pope, like Charlemagne, with all his fire swear, Made Paladins--but not an host entire 9. With the same ease they draw the vital air. Far as its pow'rs could go, thy genius went: Proud of the wit, and hecdless of the sin, Good sense still kep: thee in thy own extent 40. They strip, and sell the Christian to the skin 33. Rare wisdom! both t enjoy and know thy Charms irresistible the dupes behold store ; In vineyards, farms, and all-compelling gold. Most wits, like misers, always covet more. Others (still weaker) set their truth to sale Leave me, lov'd bard, instructor of my youth, For a mere sound, and cut off Heav'n's entail: Leave me the sounds of verse, anıl voice of truth; Whilst he, who never fails his imps, supplies So when Elias dropp'd his mantle, ran Prompt treachery, and fresh-created lies.- Elisha, and a prophet's life began 4'. Time-servers are at ev'ry man's command Add, that the Muses, nurst in various climes, For loaves and fish on Dalmanutha's strand 34," Yield diff'rent produce, and at diff'rent times. He spoke: and, with a flood of tears oppressid, | Italian plants, in vatnre's hot-bed plac'd, Gave anguish vent, and felt a mom it's rest. Bear fruits in spring, and riot into waste. Heav'n with compassion heard the sick man French flow'rs less early, (and yet early,) blow; grieve; Their pertuess is a green-louse from the snow. And Hezekiah gain'd the wish'd reprieve 35. Cold northern wits demand a longer date ; Once more his blood with equal pulses flow'd, Our genius, like our climate, ripens late. And health's contentment on bis visage glow'd, The fancy's solstice is at forty o'er, Places and honours he with joy resign'd; The tropic of our judgment sees three-score. (Peace-off'rings to procure a tranquil mind 36!) Thus summer codlings yield a poignant draught, Gare all his riches to the sick and poor, Which frisks the palate, but ne'er warms the And made one patriarch-farm bis only store. thought: cast,) To groves and brooks our new Elijah ran, Rough cackagées, (four months behind them Far from the monster world, and traitor ma:). Take all bad weathers, and through autumn last: Thus he surviv'd the tempest of the day, Mellow'll from wild austerity, at length And ev'ning-sunshine shot a glorious ray. They taste like nectar, and adopt its strength. Diseases, sickness, disappointments, sorrow, All lend us comfort, whilst they seem to horrow. Here I might paint him in a life retir'd, THE ENCHANTED REGION: OR, MISTAKEN PLEASURES. The mistress of witchcrafts, Me, humble Prudence whispers37 to give o'er. Nahum, ch. iii, v. 4. A safe retreat ; plann'd and perform’d with care, Draw near hither, ye sons of the sorceress. Stands for a vict'ry in poetic war. Isaiah, ch. lvii, v. 3. So when the warbling lark has mounted high According to their pasture, so were they filled : With upright flight, and gain'l upon the sky, they were filled, and their heart was exalted : Grown giddy, she contracts herflick’ring wings: Therefore they have forgotten me. Thrids her descending course in spiral rings, Hosea, ch, xiii, v. 6. Less'ning her voice; but to the ground she sings; Resolving, on a more auspicious day, 99 An answer made by Boccace, when it was Higher to mount, and chant a better lay 38. How few can still their reader's mindsen objected to him, that some of his novels had not gage? the spirit of the rest. One Pope is the slow child birth of one age. 40 Amongst Mr. Pope's great intellectual abi. Others write rerses, but they write unblest; lities, good sense vas bis most distinguishing Some few good.lines stand sponsors for the rest: character: for he knew precisely, and as it were They miss wit's depth, and on the surface skim; by a sort of intuition, what he had power to do, and what he could not do, (He who seeks pearls, must dive, as well as swim.) He often used to say, that for ten years toge ther he firmly resisted the importunity of friends 32 Ibid. y. ult. and flatterers, when they solicited tim to underThey pull off the robe with the garment.” take a translation of Virgil after Dryden. Nor Mic. ch. ii, v. 8. did he ever mistake the extent of his talents, but 34 Mark ch. vii, v. 10. in the following trivial instance; and that was, 35 2 Kings, ch. xx. when he writ his Ode to Music on St.Cecilia's day, 36 Tranquil mind. Shakespeare. induced perliaps by a secret ambition of rivalling 37 Me, mea Calliope, cura leviore vagantem, the inimitable Dryden. In which case, if he Jam revocat, parvoque jubet decurrere gyro. hath not exceeded the original, (for there is alColumel). de Hortis, L. 10. ways some advantage in writing first) he hath at nostra fatiscit, least surpassed (and perhaps ever will surpass) Laxaturque chelys: vires instigat, alitque; those that come after him, and attempt to make Tempestiva quies ; major post otia virtus. the same experiment. Sylv, L. 4. 41 2 Kings, ch. ii. soar: But cover'd half with ivy-walls; Eypty, illusory life, There, where Eusebio 9 rais'd a shrine, Where Reiga's tumbling torrent falls 'o. Compar'd with thee, how dimly shows Poor Anacreon's life-less rose ? First she loves, and then she leaves us ! What is Homer's plant" to thee? Erring happiness beguiles In vain the Mantuan poet try'd Emblem of wit's futility! Men saw, alas, and knew not thee, Mystic evangelic tree ! Thou hadst no charms for paynim-eyes; Louring in the groves of death Till, guided by the lamp of Heav'n, Yew-trees breathe funereal breath, To chaste Urania pow'r was givin To see, t'admire, and moralize. All beauteous flow'r, whose centre glows With studs of gold; thence streaming flows: Ray-like effulgence. Next is seen A rich expanse of varying hue, And streak’d with young Pomona's green 13. High o'er the pointal, deck'd with gold, And luscious mandrakes, life-destroying. (Emblem mysterious to behuld,) Gaudy bella-donna4 blowing, 9 The baron De Bottoni. Or with glossy berries glowing, 10 This alludes to a well-known fact in the Lures th' unwise to tempt their doom : dutchy of Carniola, where the present ode was Love's apples masks the fruit of death; written. Sick hen-bane murders with her breath, About the year 1675, a nobleman was riding Actxa with an harlot's bloom. at night upon a road which goes near the edge of the precipice here mentioned. Mistaking his One plant 7 alone is wrapt in shade ; 7 Few eyes its privacy invade; way (and that for a few steps only) his horse stopped short, and refused to go on ; upon which Plant of joy, of life, and health ! the rider, who in all probability was heated with More than the fabled lotos fam'd Which (tasted once) mankind reclaim'd liquor, (otherwise he ought to have known the precipice better, it being not far from his own From parents, country, pow'r, and wealth 8. castle) lost both his temper and prudence, and On yonder Alp I see it rise, spurred the horse with great anger; upon which Aspiring to congenial skies, the poor beast took a desperate leap, intending, as was imagined, to have reached another angle of the precipice on the same side which the road I “ Art thou arrived to maturity of life? Look lay. The horse fell directly into the torrent, back and thou shalt see the frailty of thy youth, two or three hundred feet belieath, and was hurthe folly of thy childhood, and the senseless discried away with such rapidity that the body was sipation of thy infancy !- Look forward and never found. The nobleman was discovered thou shalt behold the insincerity of the world next day in an opening of the rock, about half and cares of life, the diseases of thy body and way down, where a few bushes grew; and, as the troubles of thy mind.” Aunon. Vet. the saddle was found not far from him, it was “ In this world death is every-where, grief supposed that the horse, by the violence of the every-where, and desolation every-where. The effort he made, burst the saddle-girths. The world flieth us, and yet we follow it: it falleth, rider lived many years after this wonderful esand we adhere to it, and fall with it, and at cape, and, out of gratitude to God, erected a tempt to enjoy it falling." beautiful chapel on the edge of the precipice, deSt. Gregor. Hom. dicated (if I mistale noi) to St. Anthony of ? It is remarked, that birds adorned with rich Padua. plumage, as peacocks, parrots, &c. hare, gene I made a drawing of the chapel, precip'ce, rally speaking, unmusical voices. torrent, and nobleman's castle; of which a copy fallax herba veneni. Virg. was taken afterwards by the celebrated drafts* The bella-donna lily, or deadly-shade. man Visentini, at Venice, in 1750. (Atropa Linnai.) "Moly. Homer's Odyssey, I. XI, v. 305. 5 Amomum Plinii. 12 Aster Atticus, or (purp'e Italian) star-wort. 6 Actwa; herb Christopher. Georg. IV, v. 271. 7 The passion-flower. 13 Alluding to that particular species of green * See Homer's Odyssey, I, IX, v. 94, &c. called by the French pomme-verte, or applegreca. 3 |
