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Horatii Ep. I. Lib. II. ad Auguftum.

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ADVERTISEMENT.

HE following piece is a burlesque imitation: a

THE

fpecies of poetry, whofe chief excellence confifts in a lucky and humorous application of the words and fentiments of any author to a new fubject totally different from the original. This is what is ufually forgot both by the writers and readers of these kind of compofitions; the firft of whom are apt to ftrike out new and independent thoughts of their own, and the latter to admire fuch injudicious excrefcences: thefe immediately lose fight of their original, and those scarce ever caft an eye towards him at all. It is thought proper therefore to advertise the reader, that in the following epiftle he is to expect nothing more than an appofite converfion of the ferious fentiments of Horace on the Roman poetry, into more ludicrous ones on the subject of English politics; and if he thinks it not worth while to compare it line for line with the original, he will find in it neither wit, humour, nor even common sense; all the little merit it can pretend to confifting folely in the closeness of so long, and uninterrupted an imitation.

VOL. I.

G

HORATII

HORATII

Ep. I. Lib. II.

AD AUGUSTU M.

UM tot fuftineas, & tanta negotia folus,

CU

Res Italas armis tuteris, moribus ornes,
Legibus emendes, in publica commoda peccem,
Si longo fermone morer tua tempora, Cæfar.
Romulus, & Liber pater, & cum Caftore Pollux,
Poft ingentia facta, deorum in templa recepti,
Dum terras hominumque colunt genus, aspera bella
Componunt, agros affignant, oppida condunt,

Ploravere

THE

FIRST EPISTLE

OF THE

SECOND BOOK OF HORACE,

'WH

I M IT A TE D.

HILST you, my lord, fuch various toils fuftain,

Prefide o'er Britain's Peers, her laws explain,

With ev'ry virtue ev'ry heart engage,

And live the bright example of the age,

With tedious verse to trespass on your time,

Is fure impertinence, if not a crime.

All the fam'd heroes, ftatefmen, admirals,
Who after death within the facred walls

Of WESTMINSTER with kings have been receiv'd,
Met with but sorry treatment, while they liv'd;
And tho' they labour'd in their country's cause,
With arms defended her, and form'd with laws,

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