You laugh, if coat and breeches strangely vary, When (each opinion with the next at ftrife, S One ebb and flow of Follies all my life) I plant, root up; I build, and then confound; 166 Turn round to fquare, and fquare again to round; "You never change one muscle of your face, You think this Madness but a common cafe, W Nor once to Chanc'ry, nor to Hale apply; Yet hang your lip, to fee a Seam awry! 171 175 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 Wifdom calls her own; 180 Great without Title, without Fortune bless'd; Richev'n when plunder'd, honour'd while op prefs'd; b Lov'd without youth, and follow'd without pow'r; EPISTOLA VI. N IL admirari, prope res eft una, Numici, Solaque quae poffit facere et fervare beatum. D Hunc folem, et ftellas, & decedentia certis VER. 3. dear MURRAY,] This Piece is the most finished of all his imitations, and executed in the high manner the Italian Painters call con amore. By which they mean, the exertion of that principle, which puts the faculties on the stretch, and produces the fupreme degree of excellence. For the Poet had all the warmth of affection for the great Lawyer to whom it is addreffed: and, indeed, no man ever more deserved to have a Poet for bis friend. In the obtaining of which, as neither Vanity, Party, nor Fear, had any fhare; fo he fupported his title to it by all the offices of true Friendship. VER. 4. Creech] From whofe tranflation of Horace the two firft lines are taken. Vin. 6. ftars that rife and fall,] The original is, decedentia certis Tempora momentis EPISTLE VI. N To Mr. MURRAY. OT to admire, is all the Art I know, To make men happy, and to keep them fo." (Plain Truth, dear MURRAY, needs no flow'rs of fpeech, So take it in the very words of Creech.) b This Vault of Air, this congregated Ball, Self-center'd Sun, and Stars that rife and fall, There are, my Friend! whofe philofophic eyes. Look thro', and truft the Ruler with his fkies, To him commit the hour, the day, the year, And view this dreadful All without a fear. d Admire we then what Earth's low entrails hold, All the mad trade of Fools and Slaves for Gold? which words fimply and literally fignify, the change of seasons. But this change being confidered as an object of admiration, his imitator has judiciously expreffed it in the more fublime figurative terms of Stars that rife and fall. by whose courses the seasons are marked and distinguished. VDR. 8. trust the Ruler with bis Skies. To bim commit the kour,] Our Author, in these imitations, has been all along care ful to correct the loofe morals, and abfurd divinity of his Original. |