(x) Peace is my dear delight---not FLEURY's more: But touch me, and no minister fo fore.

76 Whoe'er offends, at some unlucky time (7) Slides into verse, and hitches in a rhyme, Sacred to ridicule his whole life long, And the sad burthen of some merry long.

80 (2) Slander or poison dread from Delia's rage, Hard words or hanging, if your judge be Page:

Jupiter, ut pereat positum rubigine telum,
Nec quisquam noceat (x) cupido mihi pacis! at ille,
Qui me commorit, (mellus non tangere, clamo),
(y) Flebit, et insignis tota cantabitur urbe.

() Cervius iratus leges minitatur et urnam; Canidia Albuti, quibus est inimica, venenum ; Grande malum Turius, fi quid se judice certes :

a

NOTES. velle (fays the admirable author de L'esprit des loix) s'est repandue en Europe ; elle a faifi nos princes, et leur fait entretenir un nombre defordonne de troupes. Elle a fes redoublemens, et elle devient nece/lairement contagieuse. Car si-tot qu’un etat augmente ce qu'il appelle ses troupes, les autres soudain augmentent les leurs, de facon qu'on ne gagne rien par-la que la ruine commune. Chaque Monarque tient sur pied toutes les armees qu'il pourroit avoir si les peuples etoient en danger d'etre extermines; et on nomme paix cet etat d'effort de tous contre tous. Aufli l'Europe est elle fi ruinee, que les particuliers, qui seroient dans la fituation ou sont les trois puissances de cette partie du monde les plus opulentes, n'auroient pas de quoi vivre. Nous sommes pauvres avec les richefles et le coinmerce de tout l'univers ; et bientot, a force d'avoir des soldats, nous n'aurons plus que des soldats, et nous førons comme des Tartares."

From

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From furious Sappho fcarce a milder fate;
P---x'd by her love, or libell’d by her hate.
(a) Its proper pow'r to hurt, each creature feels; 85
Bulls aim their horns, and Asses lift their heels;
'Tis a bear's talent not to kick, but hug;
And no man wonders he's not ftung by Pug.
(b) So drink with Watters, or with Chartres * eat;
They'll never poison you, they'll only cheat. 90

(c) Then, learned Sir! (to cut the matter short),
Whate'er my fate, or well or ill at court;
Whether Old Age, with faint but cheerful ray,
Attends to gild th' ev'ning of my day,
Or Death's black wing already be display'd, 95
To wrap me in the universal shade ;
Whether the darken'd room to muse invite,
Or whiten'd wail provoke the skew'r to write:
In durance, exile, Bedlam, or the Mint,
(d) Like Lee or Budgell, I will rhyme and print.

(a) Ut, quo quisque valet, fufpectos terreat, utque
Imperet hoc Natura potens, fic collige mecum.
Dente lupus, cornu taurus petit; unde, nifi intus
Monstratum? (6) Scævæ vivacem crede nepoti
Matrem; nil faciet sceleris pia dextera: (mirum ?
Ut neque calce lupus quemquam, neque dente petit

bos):
Sed mala tollet anum vitiato melle cicuta.

(c) Ne longum faciam: seu me tranquilla senectus
Exspectat, feu mors atris circumvolat alis;
Dives, inops; Romæ, feu fors ita jufferit, exsul;
(d) Quisquis erit vitæ, fcribam, color.

:

:

* See note on Moral Efsays, epist. 3. V. 20.

(e) F.

(e) F. Alas, young man! your days can ne'er be In flow'r of age you perish for a song! [long, Plums and Directors, Shylock and his wife, With club their tefters, now, to take your life! (pen,

P. (S) What? arm’d for virtue when I point the Brand the bold front of shameless guilty men; 106 Daih the proud gamefter in his gilded car; Bare the mean heart that lurks beneath a flar; Can there be wanting, to defend Her cause, Lights of the church, or guardians of the laws? 110 Could pension’d Boileau lash in honest strain Flatt'rers and bigots ev’n in Louis' reign? Could Laureat Dryden pimp and fry'r engage, Yet neither Charles nor James be in a rage? And I not (3) strip the gilding off a knave, 115 Unplac'd, unpenfion'd, no man's heir, or llave?

I will

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T. (e) O puer, ut fis Vitalis metuo; et majorum ne quis amicus Frigore te feriat.

H. (f) Quid ? cum est Lucilius ausus Primus in hunc operis componere carmina morem, (8) Detrabere et pellem, nitidus qua quisque per ora Cederet, introrfum turpis; num Lælius, et qui

I will, or perish in the gen’rous cause :
Hear this, and tremble! you, who 'scape the laws.
Yes, while I live, nó rich or noble knave
Shall walk the world, in credit, to his grave.

I 20

Duxit ab oppreffa meritum Carthagine nomen,
Ingenio offenfi? aut læso doluere Metello,
Tamofisque Lupo cooperto versibus ? atqui
Primores populi arripuit populumque tributim ;

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NOTES. Halifax, of his own motion, sent for Mr Pope, and told him, it had often given him concern, that so great a poet had ne. ver been distinguished; that he was glad it was now in his power to serve him; and, if he chused to accept it, he Mould have a pension not clogged with any engagements. Mr Pope thanked him, and desired time to consider of it. After three months (having heard nothing further from that Lord) he wrote him a letter to repeat his thanks; in which he took occasion to mention the affair of the pension with much indifference. So the thing dropt till Mr Craggs came into the ministry. The affair of the pension was then resumed. And this minister, in a very frank and friendly man. ner, told Mr Pope, that three hundred pounds a-year was then at his service; he had the management of the secret service money, and could pay him such a pension, without it being known, or ever coming to account. But now Mr Pope declined the offer without hesitation : only, in return for so friendly a proposal, he told the Secretary, that if at any time he wanted money, he would draw upon

him for 105 or 2ool. which liberty, notwithstanding, he never took. Mr Craggs more than once pressed him on this head; and urged the conveniency of a chariot; which Mr Pope was sensible enough of: but the precariousness of that supply made him very prudently decline the thoughts of an equi. page; which it was much better never to let up, thasi not properly to support. VOL. II.

G

(b) To

(

or

(b) To VIRTUE ONLY, and HER FRIENDS A FRIEND, The world beside may murmur,

commend. Know, all the distant din that world can keep, Rolls o'er my grotto, and but sooths my sleep. (i) There, my retreat the best companions grace, Chiefs out of war, and statesmen out of place, 126 There St John mingles with my friendly bowl The feast of reason and the flow of soul: And He, whose lightning pierc'd th' Iberian lines; Now forms my Quincunx, and now ranks my Vines, Or tames the genius of the itubborn plain, 131 Almost as quickly as he conquer'd Spain.

(6) Envy must own, I live among the great,

(k No pimp of pleasure, and no ípy of Itate,

Scilicet (5) UNI EQUUS VIRTUTİ' ATQUE EJUS A

MICIS.

a

(i) Quin ubi se a oulgo ct scena in secreta remorant
Virtus Scipiadæ et mitis fapientia Læli,
Nugari cum illo, et discincti ludere, donec
Decoqueretur olus, foliti.

Quidquid fum ego, quamvis
Infra Lucili cenfum, ingeniumque ; tamen me
(b) Cum magnis vixisse invita fatebitur usque
Invidia ; et fragili quærens illidere dentem,
Offende: folido;