At am'rous Flavio is the stocking thrown? That very night he longs to lie alone.

'The Fool, whose Wife elopes fome thrice a quarter, For matrimonial folace dies a martyr.

m

Did ever " Proteus, Merlin, any witch,

151

Transform themselves fo ftrangely as the Rich? Well, but the " Poor-The Poor have the fame itch; They change their weekly Barber, weekly News, Prefer a new Japanner to their fhoes,

156 Discharge their Garrets, move their beds, and run (They know not whither) in a Chaise and one; They hire their fculler, and when once aboard, Grow fick, and damn the climate-like a Lord. 160 You laugh, half Beau, half Sloven if I ftand, My wig all powder, and all fnuff 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-fhirt lin❜d, Is half fo incoherent as my Mind,

166

When (each opinion with the next at ftrife,

One ebb and flow of follies all my life)

I'plant, root up; I build, and then confound;

Turn round to fquare, and fquare again to round;

171.

"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 fee a Seam awry!
Careless how ill I with myself agree,
Kind to my dress, my figure, not to Me.

175

A prætore dati; rerum * tutela mearum

Cum fis, et prave sectum stomacheris ob unguem, De te pendentis, te refpicientis amici.

Ad fummam, fapiens uno 'minor eft Jove, dives,

a

b

с

* Liber, honoratus, pulcher, rex denique regum ; Præcipue fanus, nifi cum pituita molesta est.

NOTES.

VER. 177. Philofopher, and Friend?] Bentley was for reading, in the original, with Heinfius, fufpicientis, instead of refpicientis; which reading Gefner oppofes. Horace, in thefe concluding lines, laughs at the high-flown and unnatural doctrines of the ftoics. Pope has turned this piece of irony into a great compliment to Bolingbroke, whom he fo much idolized; little imagining what this friend would fay of him foon after his decease.

VER. 188. A Fit of Vapours] By the word pituita in the Ori ginal, Horace meant the disorder of his eyes. Celfus calls it pitiuta. In Verse 187. "What's mighty odd" is a lamentable botch.

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

a

prefs'd;

Lov'd without youth, and follow'd without pow'r;
At home, tho' exil'd; 'free, tho' in the Tow'r;

In fhort, 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.

THE SIXTH EPISTLE

OF THE

FIRST BOOK OF HORACE.