Zimri ask'd wealth, and wealth o'erturn'd his [ By his own art th' artificer was try'd,
And lawyers beat him on the quibbling side.
Now hasten, poet, to begin thy song:
parts.-
[hearts.
Parents for children pray, which break their
Contractors, agio-men, for villas sigh;
To day they purchase, and to morrow die.
Six cubic feet of earth are all their lot;
Mourn'd with hypocrisy, with ease forgot.
Their Christian-heirs the pagan-rites employ,
And give the fun'ral ilicet with joy.
Lelio 4 would be th' Angelics of a school;
Kneels down a wit, and rises up a fool.
Weak hands affect to hold the statesman's scale;
As well the shrimp might emulate a whale.-
Clamb'ring, with stars averse, to fortune's
beight
Ambitious Omri rose, and dropp'd down-right-
His paunch too heavy, and his head too light.
Like fall'n Salmoneus, he perceiv'd, at length,
The mean bypocrisy of boasted strength:
To deal like Dennis his vain thunder round,
And imitate inimitable sound.-
Both ways deceitful is the wine of pow'r,
When new, 'tis heady, and, when old, 'tis sour.
Ianthe' pray'd for beauty; luckless maid!-
An idiot mind th' angelic form betray'd.
Nature profusely deck'd the out-side pile,
But starv'd the poor inhabitant the while.
D'Avenant implor'd the Muses for a tongue:
The Muses lent him theirs. He sweetly sung;
And-(but for Milton ) had more sweetly
[all 8,
"Learn hence," he cry'd, " my merry brethren
Tyburn's agáric stanches wit, and gall."
Others mount Pegasus, but lose their seat: And break their necks, before they end the heat. Libanius try'd the streams of eloquence, [sense. But plummet deep he sunk, unbuoy'd with Soncinas 9 ask'd the "knack of plotting treason Against the crown and dignity of reason
Hic tibi mortis erunt meta: domus alta
sub ida,
Lyrnessi domus alta:-Solo Laurente se-
pulcrum.
Virg. Æneid XII.
"A small space of ground after death contains both rich and poor. Nature produceth us all alike, and makes no distinction at death. Open the grave, view the dead bodies; move the ashes, you will find no difference between the patrician and the peasant, except thus far; that by the magnificence of the tomb of the former you may perceive he had much more to resign and lose than the latter."
4 Late lord B***. • Doctor Angelicus. 6 Milton interceded, and saved D'Avenant, when he was a state-prisoner at Cowes castle in the isle of Wight, anno 1650: D'Avenant, in return, preserved Milton at the Restoration.
Alluding to a passage in Dryden: "A man may be capable, as Jack Ketch's wife said of his servant, of a plain piece of work, bare hanging; but, to make a malefactor die sweetly, was only belonging to her husband."
"A tale," says Prior, "ne'er should be too
Ill-judging is the bard, who slacks his pace
And seeks for flow'rs, when he should run the
race;
Or, wand'ring to enchanted castles, sleeps
On beds of down or Cupid's vigils keeps;
Whilst the main action is by pleasures crost,
And the first purport of th' adventure lost.
Great wits may scorn the dry poetic law;
Nor from the critic, but from Nature, draw:
Each seeming trip, and each digressive start,
Displays their ease the more, and deep-plann'd
(All study'd blandishments t' allure the heart.) Like Santueil's "stream, gliding thro' flow'ry plains,
Th' effects are seen; the source unknown remains.
In ancient times, scarce talk'd of, and less
known,
When pious Justin 'fill'd the eastern throne,
In a small dorp 2 till then for nothing fam'd,
And by the neighb'ring swains Thebais nam'd,
Eulogius liv'd: an humble mason he;
In nothing rich, but virtuous poverty.
From noise and riot he devoutly kept,
Sigh'd with the sick, and with the mourner wept;
Half his earn'd pittance to poor neighbours went;
They had his alms, and he had his content.
Still from his little he could something spare
To feed the hungry, and to clothe the bare.
He gave whilst aught he had, and knew no
bounds;
[pounds.
The poor man's drachma stood for rich men's
He learnt with patience, and with meekness
taught;
His life was but the comment of his thought.
Hence, ye vain-glorious Shaftesburys, allow
That men had more religion then than now.
Whether they nearer liv'd to the blest times
When man's Redeemer bled for human crimes;
Whether the hermits of the desert fraught
With living practice, by example taught;
Or whether, with transmissive virtues fir'd,
(Which Chrysostoms all-eloquent inspir'd,)
They caught the sacred flame-I spare to say.
Religion's sun still shot an ev'ning ray.
On the south aspect of a sloping hill,
Whose skirts meand'ring Pencus wasbes still,
Our pious lab'rer pass'd his youthful days
In peace and charity, in pray'r and praise.
" Alluding to his famous inscription:
Quæ dat aquas saxo letet hospita Nympha sub
imo;
Sic tu, cum dederis dora, latere velis.
2 Dorp, a village, or more properly an hamlet. Dryden. It is a German word, and adopted by our best 10 Logic: so defined by our venerable poet writers in the beginning and middle of the last
No theatres of oaks around him rise,
Whose roots Earth's centre touch, whose heads
the skies:
No stately larch-tree there expands a shade
O'er half a rood 3 of Larisséan glade :
No lofty poplars catch the murm'ring breeze,
Which loit'ring whispers on the cloud-capp'd
Such imag'ry of greatness ill became [trees;
A nameless dwelling, and an unknown name!
Instead of forest-monarchs, and their train,
The unambitious rose bedeck'd the plain :
Trifoliate cytisus restrain'd its boughs
For humble sheep to crop, and goats to browze.
On skirting heights thick stood the clust'ring
vine,
And here and there the sweet-leav'd eglantine;
One lilac only, with a statelier grace,
Presum'd to claim the oak's and cedar's place,
And, looking round him with a monarch's care,
Spread his exalted bonghs to wave in air.
This spot, for dwelling fit, Eulogius chose,
And in a month a decent home-stall rose,
Something, between a cottage and a cell.
Yet Virtue here could sleep, and Peace could
dwell.
From living stone, (but not of Parian rocks)
He chipp'd his pavement, and he squar'd his
blocks:
And then, without the aid of neighbours' art,
Ferform'd the carpenter's and glazier's part.
The site was neither granted him, nor giv'n;
'Twas Nature's; and the ground-rent due to
Wife he had none: nor had he love to spare;
An aged mother wanted all his care.
They thank'd their Maker for a pittance sent,
Supp'd on a turnip, slept upon content.
Four rooms, above, below, this mansion grac'd,
With white-wash deckt, and river-sand o'er-cast:
The first, (forgive my verse if too diffuse,)
Perform'd the kitchen's and the parlour's use:
The second, better bolted and immur'd,
From wolves his out-door family secur'd:
(For he had twice three kids, besides their dams;
A cow, a spaniel, and two fav'rite lambs :)
A third, with herbs perfum'd, and rushes spread,
Held, for his mother's use, a feather'd bed:
Two moss-matrasses in the fourth were shown;
One for himself, for friends and pilgrims one.
A ground-plot square five hives of bees con-
tains;
Emblems of industry and virtuous gains 4!
Pilaster'd jas'mines 'twixt the windows grew,
With lavender beneath, and sage and rue.
Pulse of all kinds diffus'd their od'rous pow'rs,
Where Nature pencils butterflies on flow'rs:
Nor were the cole-worts wanting, nor the root
Which after-ages call Hybernian fruit:
There, at a wish, much chamomile was had;
(The conscience of man's stomach good or bad;)
Spoon-wort was there, scorbutics to supply;
And centaury to clear the jaundic'd eye;
4 Nullus, cum per cœlum licuit, otio periit dies. Plin. Hist. Natural, L. 1.
All leguminous plants are, as the learned say, papilionaceous, or bear butterflied flowers. 6 Cochlearia. Spoon-wort is the old English word for scurvy-grass.
And that, which on the Baptist's vigil sends
To nymphs and swains the vision of their friends.
Else physical and kitchen-plants alone
His skill acknowledge, and his culture own.
Each herb he knew, that works or good or ill,
More learn'd than Mesva, half as learn'd as
Hill;
For great the man, and useful without doubt,
Who seasons pottage-or expells the gout;
Whose science keeps life in, and keeps death
out!
No flesh from market-towns our peasant soughts
He rear'd his frugal meat, but never bought:
A kid sometimes for festivals he slew:
The choicer part was his sick neighbour's due:
Two bacon-flitches made his Sunday's cheer;
Some the poor had, and some out-liv'd the year:
For roots and herbage, (rais'd at hours to spare)
With humble milk, coupos'd his usual fare.
(The poor man then was rich, and liv'd with glee;
Each barley-head un-taxt, and day-light free :)
All had a part in all the rest could spare,
The common water 9, and the common air 1.
Mean while God's blessings made Eulogius
![[blocks in formation]](https://books.google.ee/books/content?id=5OEUAAAAYAAJ&hl=et&output=html_text&pg=PA383&img=1&zoom=3&q=present&cds=1&sig=ACfU3U0t5YKAiHiWkZG98POYDdflvJVKvQ&edge=0&edge=stretch&ci=465,598,447,121)
Alternate were his labours and his rest,
For ever blessing, and for ever blest,
Such kindness left men nothing to require,
Prevented wishing, and out-ran desire.
He sought, not to prolong poor lives, but save:
And that which others lend, he always gave.
Us'ry, a canker in fair virtue's rose,
Corrodes, and blasts the blossom e'er it blows:
So fierce, O Lucre, and so keen thy edge:
Thou tak'st the poor man's mill-stones for a
pledge!
Eusebius, hermit of a neighb'ring cell, [well:
His brother Christian mark'd, and knew him
With zeal un-envying, and with transport fir'd,
Beheld him, praisʼd him, lov'd him, and admir'd.
Convinc'd, that noiseless piety might dwell
In secular retreats, and flourish well;
And that Heav'n's king (so great a master He)
Had servants ev'ry where, of each degree.
"All-gracious Pow'r," he cries, "for forty years
I've liv'd an anchorete in pray'rs and tears:
Yon' spring, which bubbles from the mountain's | Give him Bizantium's wealth, which useless
Has all the luxury of thirst supply'd: [side,
The roots of thistles have my hunger fed,
Two roods 12 of cultur'd barley give me bread.
A rock my pillow, and green moss my bed.
The midnight clock attests my fervent pray'rs,
The rising Sun my orisons declares,
The live-long day my aspiration knows,
And with the setting Sun my vespers close!
Thy truth, my hope: thy Providence, my guard:
Thy grace, my strength: thy Heav'n, my last
reward!
But, self-devoted from the prime of youth
To life sequester'd, and ascetic truth,
With fasting mortify'd, worn out with tears,
And bent beneath the load of seventy years,
I nothing from my industry can gain
To ease the poor man's wants, or sick man's
My garden takes up half my daily care, [pain:
And my field asks the minutes I can spare;
While blest Eulogius from his pittance gives
The better half, and in true practice lives.
Heav'n is but cheaply serv'd with words and
I want that glorious virtue-to bestow! [show,
True Christianity depends on fact:
Religion is not theory, but act.
Men, seraphs, all, Eulogius' praise proclaim,
Who lends both sight and feet to blind and lame:
Who sooths th' asperity of hunger's sighs,
And dissipates the tear from mournful eyes;
Pilgrims or wand'ring angels entertains;
Like pious Abraham on Mamre's plains.
Ev'n to brute beasts his righteous care extends13,
He feels their suff'rings, and their wants be-
friends;
From one smail source so many bounties spring,
We lose the peasant, and suppose a king;
A king of Heav'n's own stamp, not vulgar make;
Blessed in giving, and averse to take!
Not such my pow'r! Half-useless doom'd to
Pray'rs and advice are all I have to give: [live,
But all, whate'er my means or strength deny,
The virtues of Eulogius can supply.
Each, in the compass of his pow'r, he serves;
Nor ever from his gen'rous purpose swerves:
Ev'n enemies to his protection run,
Sure of his light, as of the rising Sun.
What pity is it that so great a soul,
An heart so bountiful, should feel control?
Warm in itself, by icy fortune dampt,
And in the effort of exertion crampt;
Beneficent to all men, just, and true:
As Nature bounteous, and impartial too.
Thus sometimes have I seen an angel's mind
In a weak body wretchedly confin'd;
A mind, O Constantine, which from thy throne
Can take no honours, and yet add her own!
"Then hear me, gracious Heav'n, and grant
my pray❜r;
Make yonder man the fav'rite of thy care:
Nourish the plant with thy celestial dew,
Like manna let it fall, and still be new :
Expand the blossoms of his gen'rous mind,
Till the rich odour reaches half mankind.
12 Two roods, i. e. half an acre. 13 The righteous man regardeth the life of his beast." Prov. ch. xii, v. 10.
Sicilian plenty, and the Indian mines;
Instead of Peneus, let Pactolus lave
His garden's precincts with a golden wave;
Then may his soul its free-born range enjoy,
Give deed to will, and ev'ry pow'r employ:
In him the sick a second Luke shal! find;
Orphans and widows, to his care consign'd,
Shall bless the father, and the husband kind:
Just steward of the bounty he receiv'd,
And dying poorer than the poor reliev'd!"
So pray'd he, whilst an angel's voice from
high
Bade him surcease to importune the sky:
Fate stopp'd his ears in an ill-omen'd day,
And the winds bore the warning sounds away;
Wild indistinction did their place supply;
Half heard, half lost, th' imperfect accents die.
Little foresaw he that th' Almighty Pow'r,
Who feeds the faithful at his chosen hour,
Consults not taste, but wholesomeness of food,
Nor means to please their sense, but do them
Great was the miracle, and fitter too, [good.
When draughts from Cherith's brook Elijah
drew 14:
And wing'd purveyors his sharp hunger fed
With frugal scraps of flesh, and maslin-bread 15,
On quails the humble prophet's pride might
swell,
And high fed lux'ry prompt him to rebell.
Nor dreamt our anchorete, that, if his friend Should reach, O virtuous Poverty! thy end, That conscience and religion soon might fly To some forsaken clime and distant sky.
Ign'rant of happiness, and blind to ruin, How oft are our petitions our undoing!
![[ocr errors]](https://books.google.ee/books/content?id=5OEUAAAAYAAJ&hl=et&output=html_text&pg=PA384&img=1&zoom=3&q=present&cds=1&sig=ACfU3U0NZppK6bNt1wATzTXTdAn0KLiDHg&edge=0&edge=stretch&ci=834,893,7,7)
Jephtha, with grateful sense of victʼry fir'd, Made a rash vow, and thought the vow inspir'd; In piety the first, his daughter ran, To hail with duteous voice the conq'ring man: Well meaning, but unconscious of her doom, She sought a blessing, and she found a tomb 16!
14 1 Kings, ch. xvii, v. 4, &c.
15 Maslin bread, i. e. miscellane, or miscellaneous bread, an ancient English word, given to a plain sort of household bread. When people in a middling station used it, they generally mixed two gallons of oats and rye with six gallons of wheat. The poorer people mixed in equal quantities wheat, barley, oats, rye, buckwheat, pulse, &c. But such is the luxury of the present age (even amongst the poor) that not only the thing but the very name is forgotten; and a preference given to a whiter, but more unwholesome sort of bread, if alum enters into the composition; which, indeed, cannot be concealed.
One of the first cares of a prime-minister (who ought also to be considered as proveditor-general of a kingdom) is to see the people supplied with bread, of an wholesome nature, at as reasonable a price as possible.
Hence the great Gustavus used to say, “That it required more talents to feed a large army in the field, upon easy terms, in times of war; than to conduct the fighting part,"
16 Judges, ch. xi, v. 31.
The Pow'r Supreme, (my author so declares) |
Heard with concern the erring hermit's pray'rs;
Heard disapproving; but at length inclin'd
To give a living lesson to mankind;
That men thence-forward should submissive live;
And leave omniscience the free pow'r to give.
For wealth or poverty, on man bestow'd,
Alike are blessings from the hand of God!
How often is the soul ensnar'd by health?
How poor in virtue is the man of wealth.
The hermit's pray'r permitted, not approv'd;
Soon in an higher sphere Eulogius mov'd:
Each sluice of affluent fortune open'd soon,
And wealth flow'd in at morning, night, and
One day, in turning some uncultur'd ground, (In hopes a free-stone quarry might be found) His mattock met resistance, and behold
A casket burst, with di'monds fill'd and gold.
He cramm'd his pockets with the precious store,
And ev'ry night review'd it o'er and o'er;
Till a gay conscious pride, unknown as yet,
Touch'd a vain heart, and taught it to forget:
And, what still more his stagg'ring virtue try'd,
Ilis mother, tut'ress of that virtue, dy'd.
A neighb'ring matron, not unknown to fame,
(Historians give her Teraminta's name,)
The parent of the needy and distress'd,
With large demesnes and well-sav'd treasure
blest;
[store
(For like th' Egyptian prince 7 she hoarded
To feed at periodic dearths the poor ;)
This matron, whiten'd with good works and age,
Approach'd the sabbath of her pilgrimage;
Her spirit to himself th' Almighty drew ;→→
Breath'd on th' alembic, and exhal'd the dew.
In souls prepar'd, the passage is a breath
From time t'eternity, from life to death 18.
But first, to make the poor her future care,
She left the good Eulogius for her heir.
Who but Eulogius now exults for joy? New thoughts, new hopes, new views his mind employ.
Pride push'd forth buds at ev'ry branching shoot,
And virtue shrunk almost beneath the root.
High-rais'd on fortune's hill, new Alps he
spies,
O'ershoots the valley which beneath him lies, Forgets the depths between, and travels with his eyes.
The tempter saw the danger in a trice, (For the man slidder'd upon fortune's ice:) And, having found a corpse half-dead, half-warm, Reviv'd it, and assum'd a courtier's form: Swift to Thebais urg'd his airy flight; And measur'd half the globe in half a night. With flowing manners exquisitely feign'd, And accent soft, he soon admission gain'd: Survey'd each out-work well, and mark'd apart Each winding avenue that reach'd the heart;
![[blocks in formation]](https://books.google.ee/books/content?id=5OEUAAAAYAAJ&hl=et&output=html_text&pg=PA385&img=1&zoom=3&q=present&cds=1&sig=ACfU3U1-2rxIPYPmXXmAp-KhNbZ0CpzZnA&edge=0&edge=stretch&ci=68,1320,406,178)
Displaying, like th' illusive fiend of old,
Thrones deckt with gems, and realms of living
Bad spirits oft intrude upon the good; [gold 19.
Adonis' grot near Christ's presepio stood ".
Th' artificer of fraud, (tho' here he fail'd,)
Straight chang'd approaches, and the ear assail'd;
This only chink accessible he finds;
For flatt'ry's oil pervades ev'n virtuous minds.
Virtue, like towns well-fortify'd by art,
Has (spite of fore-sight) one deficient part.
With lenient artifice, and fluent tongue, (For on his lips the dews of Hybla hung,) Libanius like 21, he play'd the sophist's part, And by soft marches stole upon the heart: Maintain'd that station, gave new birth to sense, And call'd forth manners, courage, eloquence: Then touch'd with spritely dashes here and there, (Correctly strong, yet seeming void of care,) The master-topic, which may most men move, . The charms of beauty and the joys of love! Eulogius faulter'd at the first alarms, And soon the 'waken'd passions buzz'd to arms; Nature the clam'rous bell of discord rung, And vices from dark caverns swift up-sprung. So, when Hell's monarch did his summons make, The slumb'ring demons started from the lake.
Eulogius saw with pride, or seem'd to see, (Not yet in act, but in the pow'r to be,) Great merit lurking dormant in his mind: He had been negligent--but Nature kind: Till by degrees the vain, deluded elf, Grew out of humour with his former self. He thought his cottage small, and built in haste; It had convenience but it wanted taste. His mien was awkward; graces he had none; Provincial were his notions and his tone; His manners emblems of his own rough stone.
Then, slavish copyist of his copying friend, He ap'd him without skill, and without end : Larissa's gutturals convuls'd his throat; He smooth'd his voice to the Bizantine note. With courtly suppleness unfurl'd his face; Or screw'd it to the bonne mine of grimace; With dignity he sneez'd, and cough'd with grace.' The pious mason once, had time no more To mark the wants and mis'ry of the poor! Suspicious thoughts his pensive mind employ, A sullen gratitude, and clouded joy. In days of poverty his heart was light; Hesung his hymns at morning, noon, and night. Want sharpens poesy, and grief adorns ; The spink 22 chants sweetest in a hedge of thorns 23.
29 See Sandys's Travels into the Holy Land, fo lio, p. 138.
Presepio is an Italian word, taken from the Latin, and signifies a stable or manger. It is now become a term of art, and denotes any picture, drawing, or print, where Christ is represented as born in a stable or lying in the manger.
21 A famous Greek rhetorician in the fourth century, whose orations are still extant.
22 Spink, the old poetical name for finches of every sort. See Country Farm, by Surflet and Markham, folio, printed in 1616.
Tir'd of an house too little for his pride,
Tir'd of himself, and country friends beside,
He sometimes thought to build a mansion, fit
For state, and people it with men of wit;
Knowing (by fame) small poets, small musi-
cians,
Small painters, and still smaller politicians;
Nor was the fee of ten-score mine wanting,
To purchase taste in building and in planting.
A critic too he was, and rul'd the stage;
The fashionable judgment 24 of his age:
When Crito once a panegyric show'd,
![[ocr errors]](https://books.google.ee/books/content?id=5OEUAAAAYAAJ&hl=et&output=html_text&pg=PA386&img=1&zoom=3&q=present&cds=1&sig=ACfU3U1aYUM3iEMqn18-gz4VJrUp9vLjnw&edge=0&edge=stretch&ci=142,385,17,10)
He beat him with the staff 25 of his own ode.
Ah, what!" (he cry'd,) "are Pindar's flights
to me?
I love soft home-made sing-song, duty free.
Write me the style that lords and ladies speak;
Or give me pastorals in Doric Greek:
I read not for instruction, but for ease;
The opium of the pen is sure to please;
Where limpid streams are clear, and sun-shine
bright;
[unite:
Where wooS and coos, and loves and doves
Where simply married epithets are seen,
With gentle Hyphen keeping peace between.
Whipt cream; unfortify'd with wine or sense!
Froth'd by the slatten-muse, Indifference;
And deck'd (as after-ages more shall see)
With poor hedge-flow'rs, y-clept Simplicity!
Pert, and yet dull; tawdry and mean withall;
Fools for the future will it Nature call."
He learnt his whims, and high-flown notions
too,
Such as fine men adopt, and fine men rue; (Meer singularity the point in view.)
Julian with him was statesman, bard, and wit; Julian, who ten times miss'd, and one time hit; Who reason'd blindly, and more blindly writ. Julian, who lov'd each sober mind to shock ;Who laugh'd at God, and offer'd to a cock.
He learn'd no small regard for Arius too: And hinted what-nor he, nor Arius knew. But most (as did his pregnant parts become) He lov'd th' old pageantry of Pagan Rome. Pompous idolatry with him was fashion; Nay, he once dream'd of transubstantiation.Now, Muse, return, and tread thy course again; I only tell the story of a swain.
Pirasmus (for that name the demon bore Who nurs'd our spark in fashionable lore) Lik'd well this way-ward vanity of mind, But thought a country-stage a niche confin'd; Too cold for lux'ry, nor to folly kind: Bizantium's hot-bed better serv'd his use, The soil less stubborn, and more rank the juice. "My lord," he cries, (with looks and tone compos'd,
Whilst he the mischief of his soul disclos'd)
"Forgive me, if that title I afford
To one, whom nature meant to be a lord;
How ill mean neighbourhood your genius suits?
To live like Adam 'midst an herd of brutes!
24 Critics in the reign of Charles II. called themselves judgments. Hence Dryden says, A brother-judgment spare,
He is, like you, a very wolf, or bear.
Leave the meer country to meer country-swains And dwell where life in all life's glory reigns.
"At six hours' distance from Bizantium's walls, (Where Bosphorus into the Euxine falls) In a gay district, call'd th' Elysian Vale 25, A furnish'd villa stands, propos'd for sale: Thither, for summer shade, the great resort; Each nymph a goddess, and each house a court? Be master of the happier Lares there, And taste life's grandeur in a rural air."
He spoke. Eulogiuş readily agreed, And sign'd with eager joy the purchase-deed. Div'd in the Theban vales an home-spun swain, And rose a tawdry fop in Asia's plain.
Dame Nature gave him comeliness and health, And Fortune (for a pass-port) gave him wealth. The beaux extoll'd him, the coquets approv'd; For a rich coxcomb is by instinct lov'd.
Swift Atalanta (as the story's told *7)
Felt her feet bird-lim'd to the earth with gold:
The youth 28 had wealth, with no unpleasing
face;
That, and the golden apples, won the race:
Had he been swifter than the swiftest wind,
And a poor wit,-he still had sigh'd behind.—
Here Satin vanish'd:-he had fresh com-
mands-
And knew, his pupil was in able hands.
And now the treasure found, and matron's
Sought other objects than the tatter'd poor,
Part to humiliated Apicius went,
A part to gaming confessors was lent,
And part, O virtuous Thais, paid thy rent!
Poor folks have leisure hours to fast and pray,
Our rich man's bus'ness lay another way:
No farther intercourse with Heav'n had he,
But left good works to men of low degree:
Warm as himse if pronounc'd each ragged man,
And bade distress to prosper as it ean:
Till, grown obdurate by meer dint of time,
He deem'd all poor men rogues, and want a
crime 29.
By chance he ancient amities forgot,
Or else expung'd them with one wilful blot :
Nor knew he God nor man, nor faith nor friends,
But for by-purposes and worldly ends.
No single circumstance his mind dismay'd,
But his low extract, and once humble trade;
These thoughts he strove to bury in expense,
Rich meat, rich wines, and vain magnificence:
Weak as the Roman chief, who strove to hide
His father's cot, (and once his father's pride,)
![[merged small][merged small][ocr errors]](https://books.google.ee/books/content?id=5OEUAAAAYAAJ&hl=et&output=html_text&pg=PA386&img=1&zoom=3&q=present&cds=1&sig=ACfU3U1aYUM3iEMqn18-gz4VJrUp9vLjnw&edge=0&edge=stretch&ci=572,1197,211,80)
Why dost thou doat on the image of a king stamped on coin; and despisest the image of God that shines in human nature ?”
St. August. Minutius Felix addresses himself very pathetically to great and opulent men devoid of charity and alms-giving:
"A man," says he, "asks bread of you.— Whilst your horses champ upon bridles whose bits are gilt with gold, the people die with hun25 Staff, i. e. Stanza. See Shakespeare, Cow-ger :-whereas one of your diamonds might save ley, and Dryden's Rival Ladies, Act 1, sc. 2.
the lives of an hundred families."
|