an element more merciless than they. But fearless they pursue, nor can the flood quench their dire thirst: alas! they thirst for blood. So t'wards a ship the oar-finn'd gallies ply, which wanting sea to ride, or wind to fly, stands but to fall reveng'd on those that dare tempt the last fury of extreme despair. So fares the stag; among th' enraged hounds repels their force, and wounds returns for wounds: and as a hero, whom his baser foes in troops surround, now these assails, now those, tho' prodigal of life, disdains to die by common hands; but if he can descry which was, or should have been at least, the last. + Runny-mead, where the Magna Charta was first sealed th' advantage only took the more to crave; till kings, by giving, give themselves away, and ev'n that power that should deny betray. "Who gives constrain'd, but his own fear reviles, not thank'd, but scorn'd; nor are they gifts, but Thus kings, by grasping more than they could hold, first made their subjects by oppression bold; and popular sway, by forcing kings to give more than was fit for subjects to receive, ran to the same extremes; and one excess made both, by striving to be greater, less. When a calm river, rais'd with sudden rains, or snows dissolv'd, o'erflows th' adjoining plains, the husbandmen with high-rais'd banks secure their greedy hopes, and this he can endure; but if with bays and dams they strive to force his channel to a new or narrow course, no longer then within his banks he dwells, first to a torrent, then a deluge, swells; stronger and fiercer by restraint, he roars, and knows no bound, but makes his pow'r his shores FRIENDSHIP AND SINGLE LIFE. Love! in what poison is thy dart What subtle witchcraft man constrains May not a prison, or a grave, like wedlock, honour's title have? that word makes free-born man a slave. How happy he that loves not lives! him neither hope nor fear deceives to Fortune who no hostage gives. How unconcern'd in things to come! if here uneasy, finds at Rome, at Paris, or Madrid, his home. Secure from low and private ends, his life, his zeal, his wealth attends his prince, his country, and his friends. Danger and honour are his joy; but a fond wife or wanton boy may all those gen'rous thoughts destroy. Then he lays by the public care, thinks of providing for an heir; learns how to get, and how to spare. Nor sire, nor foe, nor fate, nor night, the Trojan hero did affright, who bravely twice renew'd the fight: tho' still his foes in number grew, thicker their darts and arrows flew, yet left alone no fear he knew. But Death in all her forms appears from ev'ry thing he sees and hears for whom he leads and whom he bears.* His father and son. Love, making all things else his foes, Love is as old as place or time;:: 't was he the fatal tree did climb, grandsire of father Adam's crime, Well may'st thou keep this world in awe; religion, wisdom, honour, law, the tyrant in his triumph draw. 'T is he commands the powers above; Phoebus resigns his darts, and Jove his thunder, to the god of Love.. To him doth his feign'd mother yield; nor Mars (her champion) his flaming shield guards him, when Cupid takes the field. He clips Hope's wings, whose airy bliss. much higher than fruition is, but less than nothing, if it miss. When matches love alone projects, ́ Tho' Sol'mon with a thousand wives to get a wise successor strives, but one (and he a fool) survives. Old Rome of children took no care; they with their friends their beds did share, secure t'adopt a hopeful heir. Love drowsy days and stormy nights makes, and breaks friendship, whose delights feed, but not glut, our appetites." Well-chosen friendship, the most noble of virtues, all our joys makes double, and into halves divides our trouble. But when th' unlucky knot we tie, |