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Vehemens et liquidus, puroque fimillimus amni,
Fundet opes, Latiumque beabit divite lingua:
Luxuriantia compefcet: nimis afpera fano
Levabit cultu, virtute carentia tollet:
Ludentis fpeciem dabit, et torquebitur, ut qui
Nunc Satyrum, nunc agreftem Cyclopa movetur.
Praetulerim fcriptor delirus inerfque videri,
Dum mea delectent mala me, vel denique fallant,
Quam fapere, et ringi. Fuit haud ignobilis Argis,
Qui fe credebat miros audire tragoedos,
In vacuo laetus feffor plauforque theatro:
Caetera qui vitae fervaret munia reco
More; bonus fane vicinus, amabiles hofpes,
Comis in uxorem; poffet qui ignofcere fervis,
Et figno laefo non infanire lagenae :

Poffet qui rupem, et puteum vitare patentem.

VER. 170. For Use will father what's beget by Senfe] A very fine and happy improvement on the expreffion, if not on the thought, of his original

VER. 184. There liv'd in primo Georgii, etc.] The imitation of this ftory of the Madman is as much fuperior to his original, in the fine and easy manner of telling, as that of Lucullus's Soldier comes fhort of it. It is true the turn Horace's madman took, agrees better with the fubject of his Epiftle, which is Poetry; and doubtless there were other beauties in it, which time has

Or bid the new be English, ages hence,

170

}

175

(For Ufe will father what's begot by Senfe)
Pour the full tide of eloquence along,
Serenely pure, and yet divinely strong,
Rich with the treasures of each foreign tongue;
Prune the luxuriant, the uncouth refine,
But show no mercy to an empty line:
Then polish all, with fo much life and eafe,
You think 'tis Nature, and a knack to please:
"But ease in writing flows from Art, not chance;
"As thofe move eafieft who have learn'd to dance.
9 If fuch the plague and pains to write by rule, 180
Better (fay I) be pleas'd, and play the fool;
Call, if you will, bad rhyming a disease,
It gives men happiness. or leaves them ease.
There liv'd in primo Georgii (they record)
A worthy member, no small fool, a Lord;
Who, tho' the Houfe was up, delighted fate,
Heard, noted, answer'd, as in full debate:
In all but this, a man of sober life,
Fond of his Friend, and civil to his Wife;
Not quite a mad-man, tho' a pafty fell,

185

190

And much too wife to walk into a well,

deprived us of. For it is in poetry as in painting, the most delicate touches go firft; and, what is worse, they agree in this too, that they are laft obferved. So that, what between time and ill tafte, the greatest beauties are the shortesft lived.

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Hic ubi cognatorum opibus curisque refe&tus,

Expulit elleboro morbum bilemque meraco,

Et redit ad fefe: Pol me occidiftis, amici,

Non fervaftis, ait; cui fit extorta voluptas,

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Him, the damn'd Doctors and his Friends immur'd, They bled, they cupp'd, they purg'd; in fhort, they cur'd:

Whereat the gentleman began to ftare

dull:

200

My Friends! he cry'd, p--x take you for your care! 195
That from a Patriot of diftinguish'd note,
Have bled and purg'd me to a fimple Vote.
'Well,on the whole, plain Profe must be my fate:
Wisdom (curse on it) will come foon or late.
There is a time when Poets will grow
I'll e'en leave verses to the boys at school:
To rules of Poetry no more confin'd,
I learn to fmooth and harmonize my Mind,
Teach ev'ry thought within its bounds to roll,
And keep the equal measure of the Soul.

S

Soon as I enter at my country door,

My mind resumes the thread it dropt before;
Thoughts, which at Hyde park-corner I forgot,
Meet and rejoin me, in the penfive Grot.
There all alone, and compliments apart,

I ask these fober questions of my heart.

205

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210

t If, when the more you drink, the more you crave, You tell the Doctor; when the more you have, The more you want, why not with equal case Confefs as well your Folly, as Disease?

The heart refolves this matter in a trice,

215

V

Si vulnus tibi monftrata radice vel herba
Non fieret levius, fugeres radice vel herba
Proficiente nihil curarier: audieras, cui
Rem Di donarint, illi decedere pravam
Stultitiam; et, cum fis nihilo fapientior, ex quo
Plenior es, tamen uteris monitoribus îfdem?
At fi divitiae prudentem reddere poffent,

Si cupidum timidumque minus te; nempe ruberes,
Viveret in terris te fi quis avarior uno.

"Si proprium eft, quod quis libra mercatus et aert eft,

Quaedam (fi credis confultis) mancipat ufus:
Qui te pafcit ager, tuus eft; et villicus Orbî,
Cum fegetes occat tibi mox frumenta daturas,
To dominum fentit...

* das nummos; accipis uvam,
Pullos, ova, cadum temeti: nempe modo ifto
Paulatim mercaris agrum, fortaffe trecentis,
Aut etiam fupra nummorum millibus emtum.
Quid refert, vivas numerato nuper, an olim?

VER. 218. When golden Angels, etc.] This illuftration is much happier than what is employed in his original; as by raifin pecuniary ideas, it prepares the mind for that morality it brought to illuftrate.

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