Warm'd too with mem'ry of that golden time,
When Almon gave me reason for my rhyme;

10

-glittering orbs, and, what endear'd them more,
Each glittering orb the sacred features bore
Of George the good, the gracious, and the great,
Unfill'd, unsweated, all of sterling weight;
Or, were they not, they pass'd with current ease,
Good seemings then were good realities:
No Senate had convey'd, by smuggling art, 15
Pow'r to the mob to play Cadogan's part;
Now, thro' the land, that impious pow'r prevails,
All weigh their Sov'reign in their private scales,
And find him wanting, all save me alone;
For, sad to say! my glittering orbs are gone. 20
But ill beseems a poet to repent;

Lightly they came, and full as lightly went.
Peace to their manes! may they never feel

Some keen Scotch banker's unrelenting steel;

Verse 16. Cadogan's part.] Master of the Mint.
Verse 19. And find him wanting.]

in the balances, and art found wanting.
verse 27.

Thou art weighed

Daniel, chap. viii.

While I again the Muse's sickle bring

To cut down dunces, wheresoe'er they spring,
Bind in poetic sheaves the plenteous crop,

25

And stack my full-ear'd load in Almon's shop. For now, my Muse, thy fame is fix'd as fate; Tremble, ye Fools I scorn, ye Knaves I hate : 30 I know the vigour of thy eagle wings,

I know thy strains can pierce the ear of Kings. Did China's monarch here in Britain doze,

And was, like western Kings, a King of Prose,
Thy song could cure his Asiatic spleen,

And make him wish to see and to be seen;
That solemn vein of irony so fine,
Which, é'en Reviewers own, adorns thy line,

35

Verse 34. A King of Prose.] Kien-Long, the present Emperor of China, is a poet. M. de Voltaire did him the honour to treat him as a brother above two years ago; and my late patron, Sir William Chambers, has given a fine and most intelligible prose version of an ode of his Majesty upon tea, in his postscript to his Dissertation. I am, however, vain enough to think, that the Emperor's composition would have appeared still better in my heroic verse: but Sir William forestalled it; on which account I have entirely broke with him.

40

Would make him soon against his greatness sin,
Desert his sofa, mount his palanquin,
And post where'er the goddess led the way,
Perchance to proud Spithead's imperial bay;
There should he see, as other folks have seen,
That ships have anchors, and that seas are green;
Should own the tackling trim, the streamers fine;
With Sandwich prattle, and with Bradshaw dine;
And then sail back, amid the cannon's roar,
As safe, as sage, as when he left the shore.

Such is thy pow'r, O Goddess of the song! Come then, and guide my careless pen along; 50 Yet keep it in the bounds of sense and verse, Nor, like Mac-Homer, make me gabble Erse.

Verse 37. That solemn vein of irony.] "A fine vein of solemn irony runs through this piece." See Monthly Review, under the article of the Heroic Epistle to Sir William Chambers.

Verse 43. There should he see.] A certain naval event happened just about two calendar months after the publication of the Heroic Epistle. It was impossible, considering the necessary preparations, it could have been sooner. Facts are stubborn things.

No, let the flow of these spontaneous rhymes
So truly touch the temper of the times,
That he who runs may read; while well he knows
I write in metre, what he thinks in prose. 56
So shall my song, undisciplin'd by art,
Find a sure patron in each English heart.
If this its fate, let all the frippery things
Be-plac'd, be-pension'd, and be-starr'd by Kings,
Frown on the page, and, with fastidious eye,
Like old young Fannius, call it blasphemy. 62
Let these prefer a levee's harmless talk;
Be ask'd how often, and how far they walk;

Verse 52. Nor like Mac-Homer.] See, if the reader thinks it worth while, a late translation of the Iliad.

Verse 62. Like old young Fannius.] The noble personage here alluded to, being asked to read the Heroic Epistle, said, "No, it was as bad as blasphemy."

Ibid, Fannius.] Before I sent the manuscript to the press, I discovered that an accidental blot had made all but the first syllable of this name illegible. I was doubtful, therefore, whether to print it Fannius or Fannia. After much deliberation, I thought it best to use the masculine termination. If I have done wrong, I ask pardon, not only of the Author, but the Lady. THE EDITOR.

Proud of a single word, nor hope for more, .65
Though Jenkinson is blest with many a score:
For other ears my honest numbers sound,
With other praise those numbers shall be crown'd,
Praise that shall spread, no pow'r can make it less,
While Britain boasts the bulwark of her press. 70
Yes, sons of Freedom! yes, to whom I pay,
Warm from the heart, this tributary lay;

That lay shall live, tho'Court and Grub-street sigh,
Your young Marcellus was not born to die.

The Muse shall nurse him up to man's estate, 75
And break the black asperity of fate.-

Admit him then your candidate for fame,
Pleas'd if in your Review he read his name,
Though not with Mason and with Goldsmith put,
Yet cheek by jowl with Garrick,Colman, Foote. 8.0
But if with higher Bards that name you range,
His modesty must think your judgment strange-

Verse 76. And break the black asperity of fate.]
"Si qua fata aspera rumpas,

Tu Marcellus eris."

VIRG.