Barnard in spirit, sense, and truth, abounds; "Pray then what wants he?" Fourscore thousand pounds;
A pension, or such harness for a slave
As Bug now has, and Dorimont would have.
Barnard, thou art a cit, with all thy worth:
But Bug and D*l, their Honours! and so forth.
Yet ev'ry child another song will sing,
"Virtue, brave boys! 'tis virtue makes a king."
True conscious honour is to feel no sin:
He's arm'd without that's innocent within:
Be this thy screen, and this thy wall of brass;
Compar'd 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 th' example too? If such a doctrine, in St. James's air,
Should chance to make the well-dress'd rabble stare;
If honest Sz 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 tracts 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,
Just half the land would buy, and half be sold: 125
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; 130
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 shew me one who has it in his pow'r To act consistent with himself an hour. Sir Job sail'd forth, the ev'ning bright and still, "No place on earth (he cried) like Greenwich
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 whimsey, or that devil within
Which guides all those who know not what they
But give the knight (or give his lady) spleen, 145) 145 S "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, 155
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 damn the climate-like a lord. 160
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 lin'd, 165
Is half so incoherent as my mind,
When (each opinion with the next at strife,
One ebb and flow of follies all my life,)
I plant, root up; I build, and then confound;
Turn round to square, and square again to round;
You never change one muscle of your face,
You think this madness but a common case;
Nor once to chancery 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, 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 bless'd;
Rich ev'n when plunder'd, honour'd while oppress'd;
Lov'd without youth, and follow'd without power;
At home though exil'd; free though in the Tower;
In short, that reasoning, high, immortal thing, 185
Just less than Jove, and much above a king:
Nay, half in heav'n---except (what's mighty.odd)
A fit of vapours clouds this demigod.
'Nor to admire is all the art I know,
To make men happy, and to keep them so.'
(Plain truth, dear Murray! needs no flowers 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! 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,
Surpris'd at better, or surpris'd at worse.
Thus good or bad, to one extreme betray
Th' unbalanc'd mind, and snatch the man away; 25
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 pleas'd, 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, conspir'd 40
To form not to admire but be adinir'd,
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;
It brighten'd Craggs's, and may darken thine.
And what is fame? the meanest have their day;
The greatest can but blaze and pass away.
Grac'd as thou art with all the power of words,
So known, so honour'd, at the house of lords:
Conspicuous scene! another yet is nigh,
(More silent far) where kings and poets lie;
Where Murray (long enough his country's pride)
Shall be no more than Tully or than Hyde!
Rack'd with sciatics, martyr'd with the stone,
Will any mortal let himself alone?
See Ward, by batter'd beaux invited over,
And desperate misery lays hold on Dover,
The case is easier in the mind's disease;
There all men may be cur'd whene'er they please.
Would ye be bless'd? despise low joys, low gains;
Disdain whatever Cornbury disdains;
Be virtuous, and be happy for your pains.
But art thou one whom new opinions sway,
One who believes as Tindal leads the way,
Who virtue and a church alike disowns,
Thinks that but words, and this but brick and stones? Fly then on all the wings of wild desire,
Admire whate'er the maddest can admire.
Is wealth thy passion? hence! from pole to pole,
Where winds can carry, or where waves can roll; 70,
For Indian spices, for Peruvian gold,
Prevent the greedy, and outbid the bold:
Advance the golden mountain to the skies:
On the broad base of fifty thousand rise;
Add one round hundred, and (if that's not fair) 75
Add fifty more, and bring it to a square:
For, mark th' advantage; just so many score
Will gain a wife with half as many more,
Procure her beauty, make that beauty chaste,
And then such friends-as cannot fail to last.
A man of wealth is dubb'd a man of worth;
Venus shall give him form, and Anstis birth.
(Believe me, many a German prince is worse,
Who proud of pedigree is poor of pursc.)
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