w

I' plant, root up; 1 build, and then confound;
Turn round to fquare, and square again to round;
▾ You never change one muscle of your face,
You think this Madness but a common cafe,
Nor once to Chanc'ry, nor to Hale apply;
Yet hang your lip, to see a Seam awry !
Careless how ill I with myself agree,
Kind to my dress, my figure, not to Me.
Is this my * Guide, Philofopher, 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; 180
Great without Title, without Fortune blefs'd;
Rich ev'n when plunder'd, honour'd while op-

* H

171

175

prefs'd;

b

Lov'da without youth, and follow'd without pow'r;
At home, tho' exil'd; free, tho' in the Tower;
In short, that reas'ning, high, immortal Thing, 185
Juft lefs than Jove, and much above a King,
Nay, half in heav'n- except (what's mighty odd)
A Fit of Vapours clouds this Demy-God.

с

d

THE

SIXTH EPISTLE

OF THE

FIRST BOOK

OF

HORAC E.

EPISTOLA

NI

VI.

IL admirari, prope res eft una, Numici,

Solaque quae poffit facere et fervare beatum.

Hunc folem, et ftellas, et decedentia certis Tempora momentis, funt qui formidine nulla Imbuti fpectent. & quid cenfes, munera terrae ?

d

Quid, maris extremos Arabas⚫ ditantis et Indos

NOTES.

VER. 3. Dear MURRAY] This piece is the most finished of all his imitations, and executed in that high manner the Italian Painters call con amore. By which they mean, the exertion of that principle, which puts the faculties on the stretch, and produces the fupreme degree of excellence. For the Poet had all the warmth of affection for the great Lawyer to whom it is addreffed, and indeed no man ever more deferved to have a Poet for his friend. In the obtaining of which as neither vanity, party, or fear had any fhare, fo he fupported his title to it by all the offices of true friendship,

VER. 4. Creech)] From whose translation of Horace the two firft lines are taken. P. VER. 8. trust the Ruler with the fkies, To him commit the hour,] Our Author, in these imitations, has been all along careful to correct the loose morals, and abfurd divinity of his Original.

C

VI.

EPISTLE

To Mr. MURRAY.

"NOT to admire, is all the Art I know,

To make men happy, and to keep them so." (Plain Truth, dear MURRAY, needs no flow'ts of

speech,

So take it in the very words of Creech.)

This Vault of Air, this congregated Ball, Self-center'd Sun, and Stars that rise and fall, There are, my Friend! whofe philofophic eyes Look thro', and truft the Ruler with his fkies, 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 fhores, or Indian feas infold;

io

}

All the mad trade of Fools and Slaves for Gold?

NOTES.

VER. 10. And view this dreadful All without a fear.] He has added this idea to his text; and it greatly heightens the dignity of the whole thought. He gives it the appellation of a dreadful All, because the immenfity of God's creation, which modern philosophy has fo infinitely enlarged, is apt to affect narrow minds, who measure the divine comprehenfion by their own, with dreadful fufpicions of man's being overlooked in this dark and narrower corner of existence, by a Governor occupied and bufied with the fum of things.