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And which not done, the richest must be poor.
Late as it is, I put myself to school,
And feel some comfort, not to be a fool.
Weak though I am of limb, and short of sight,
Far from a lynx, and not a giant quite;
I'll do what Mead and Cheselden' advise,
To keep these limbs, and to preserve these eyes.
Not to go back, is somewhat to advance,
And men must walk at least before they dance.
Say, does thy blood rebel, thy bosom move
With wretched avarice, or as wretched love?
Know, there are words, and spells, which can control
Between the fits this fever of the soul:

Know, there are rhymes, which fresh and fresh applied

Will cure the arrantest puppy of his pride.

Be furious, envious, slothful, mad, or drunk,
Slave to a wife, or vassal to a punk,

A Switz, a High-dutch, or a Low-dutch bear;
All that we ask is but a patient ear.

'Tis the first virtue, vices to abhor;
And the first wisdom, to be fool no more.
But to the world no bugbear is so great,
As want of figure, and a small estate.
To either India see the merchant fly,
Scared at the spectre of pale poverty!
See him, with pains of body, pangs of soul,
Burn through the tropic, freeze beneath the pole!
Wilt thou do nothing for a nobler end,
Nothing to make philosophy thy friend?
To stop thy foolish views, thy long desires,
And ease thy heart of all that it admires?

Here, Wisdom calls: "Seek virtue first, be bold! As gold to silver, virtue is to gold."

There, London's voice: "Get money, money still!
And then let virtue follow, if she will."

This, this the saving doctrine preached to all,
From low St. James's up to high St. Paul;
From him whose quills stand quivered at his ear,
To him who notches sticks at Westminster.2

1 Great physicians.

2 I.e., exchequer tallies,-Warburton,

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Barnard in spirit, sense, and truth abounds;1 "Pray then, what wants he? Fourscore thousand pounds;

As pension, or such harness for a slave

As Bug now has, and Dorimant would have.
Barnard, thou art a cit, with all thy worth;

But Bug and D-1, "their Honours," and so forth.
Yet ev'ry child another song will sing:

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Virtue, brave boys! 'tis virtue makes a king."
True, conscious honour is to feel no sin,

He's armed without that's innocence within;
Be this thy screen, and this thy wall of brass;
Compared to this, a minister's an ass.

And say, to which shall our applause belong,
This new court jargon, or the good old song?
The modern language of corrupted peers,
Or what was spoke at Cressy and Poitiers?
Who counsels best? who whispers, "Be but great,
With praise or infamy leave that to fate;
Get place and wealth, if possible, with grace;
If not, by any means get wealth and place.”
For what? to have a box where eunuchs sing,
And foremost in the circle eye a king,

Or he, who bids thee face with steady view
Proud fortune, and look shallow greatness through:
And, while he bids thee, sets the example too?
If such a doctrine, in St. James's air,

Should chance to make the well-dressed rabble stare;
If honest Schutz2 take scandal at a spark,
That less admires the palace than the park;
Faith I shall give the answer Reynard gave:
"I cannot like, dread sir, your royal cave:
Because I see; by all the tracks about,
Full many a beast goes in, but none come out."
Adieu to virtue, if you're once a slave:
Send her to court, you send her to her

grave.

Well, if a king's a lion, at the least
The people are a many-headed beast:
Can they direct what measures to pursue,
Who know themselves so little what to do?

Alike in nothing but one lust of gold,

1 Sir John Barnard, member for the city; he was born at Reading, of Quaker parents, but was received into the Church of England by Compton, Bishop of London.

2 Augustus Schutz, a courtier.- Carruthers,

Just half the land would buy, and half be sold:
Their country's wealth our mightier misers drain,
Or cross, to plunder provinces, the main;

The rest, some farm the poor-box,' some the pews;
Some keep assemblies, and would keep the stews;
Some with fat bucks on childless dotards fawn;
Some win rich widows by their chine and brawn;
While with the silent growth of ten per cent.
In dirt and darkness, hundreds stink content.
Of all these ways, if each pursues his own,
Satire be kind, and let the wretch alone:
But show me one who has it in his pow'r
To act consistent with himself an hour.
Sir Job sailed forth, the evening bright and still,
"No place on earth (he cried) like Greenwich hill!”
Up starts a palace; lo, th' obedient base

Slopes at its foot, the woods its sides embrace,
The silver Thames reflects its marble face.

Now let some whimsy, or that the devil within
Which guides all those who know not what they

mean,

But give the knight (or give his lady) spleen;
"Away, away! take all your scaffolds down,
For snug's the word; my dear! we'll live in town.”
At amorous Flavio is the stocking thrown?
That very night he longs to lie alone.

The fool, whose wife elopes some thrice a quarter,
For matrimonial solace dies a martyr.

Did ever Proteus, Merlin, any witch,

Transform themselves so strangely as the rich?
Well, but the poor? the poor have the same itch;
They change their weekly barber, weekly news,
Prefer a new japanner to their shoes,
Discharge their garrets, move their beds, and run
(They know not whither) in a chaise and one;
They hire their sculler, and when once aboard,
Grow sick, and d- the climate-like a lord.
You laugh, half beau, half sloven if I stand,
My wig all powder, and all snuff my band;
You laugh, if coat and breeches strangely vary,
White gloves, and linen worthy lady Mary!
But when no prelate's lawn with hair-shirt lined,

1 Alluding probably to a society called the Charitable Corporation, by which thousands were cheated and ruined.-Bowles,

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Kind to my dress, my figure, not to me.
Is this my guide, philosopher, and friend?
This, he who loves me, and who ought to mend?
Who ought to make me (what he can, or none,)
That man divine whom wisdom calls her own;
Great without title, without fortune blessed:
Rich even when plundered, honoured while oppress
Loved without youth, and followed without power;
At home, though exiled; free, though in the Tower;
In short, that reasoning, high, immortal thing,
Just less than Jove, and much above a king,
Nay, half in heaven-except (what's mighty odd)
A fit of vapours cloud this demi-god

THE SIXTH EPISTLE OF THE

FIRST BOOK OF HORACE

EPISTLE VI.

1737.

TO MR. MURRAY.2

'NOT to admire, is all the art I know,

To make men happy, and to keep them so.

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1 Dr. Hale, a physician employed in cases of insanity.-Carruthers. 2 "Silver-tongued Murray," as Pope called him, was born 1704, died 1793. He was a distinguished lawyer; became chief justice of the king's bench, and was finally created Earl of Mansfield. He became unpopular at one time, and had his house burned down by the mob. His valuable library was thus destroyed,

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(Plain truth, dear Murray, needs no flowers of speech.
So take it in the very words of Creech.1)

This vault of air, this congregated ball,
Self-centred sun, and stars that rise and fall,
There are, my friend! whose philosophic eyes
Look through, and trust the Ruler with his skies,
To him commit the hour, the day, the year,
And view this dreadful All without a fear.
Admire we then what earth's low entrails hold,
Arabian shores, or Indian seas infold;

All the mad trade of fools and slaves for gold?
Or popularity? or stars and strings?
The mob's applauses, or the gifts of kings?
Say with what eyes we ought at courts to gaze,
And pay the great our homage of amaze?

If weak the pleasure that from these can spring,
The fear to want them is as weak a thing:
Whether we dread, or whether we desire,
In either case, believe me, we admire;
Whether we joy or grieve, the same the curse,
Surprised at better, or surprised at worse.
Thus good or bad, to one extreme betray
Th' unbalanced mind, and snatch the man away;
For virtue's self may too much zeal be had;
The worst of madmen is a saint run mad.
Go then, and if you can, admire the state
Of beaming diamonds, and reflected plate;
Procure a taste to double the surprise,
And gaze on Parian charms with learned eyes:
Be struck with bright brocade, or Tyrian dye,
Our birth-day nobles' splendid livery.
If not so pleased, at council-board rejoice,
To see their judgments hang upon thy voice;
From morn to night, at senate, rolls, and hall,
Plead much, read more, dine late, or not at all.
But wherefore all this labour, all this strife?
For fame, for riches, for a noble wife?
Shall one whom nature, learning, birth, conspired
To form, not to admire but be admired,
Sigh, while his Chloe blind to wit and worth
Weds the rich dulness of some son of earth?
Yet time ennobles, or degrades each line;

1 From whose translation the first two lines of Horace are taken.Pope.

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