But now we show the world a nobler way, With how inuch ease is a young Muse betray'd!
And in translated verse do more than they; How nice the reputation of the maid !
Serene and clear harmonious Horoce flows, Your early, kind, paternal care appears,
With sweetness not to be express'd in prose: By chaste instruction of her tender years.
Degrading prose explains his meaning ill, The first impression in her infant breast
And shows the sunft, but not the workman's skill: Will be the deepest, and should be the best.
I (who have serv'd him inore than twenty years) | Let no austerity breed servile fear,
Scarce know my master as he there appears. No wayton sound offend her virgin ear.
Vain are our neighbours' hopes, and vain their Secure from foolish pride's affected state,
cares ;

And specious flatt'ry's more pernicious bait,
The fault is inore their language's than theirs ; Habitual innocence adorns her thoughts;
'Tis courtly, florid, and abounds in words But your neglect must answer for her faults.
Of sosier sound than ours perhaps affords; Inimodest words admit of no defence ;
But who did ever in French authors see For want of decency is want of sense. (stews,
The comprehensive English energy? . What mod’rate fop would rake the Park or
The weighty bullion of one sterling line, Who among troops of faultless nymphs may
Drawn to French wire, would thro' whole pages Variety of such is to be found: choose?
shine.

Then take a subject proper to expound; I speak iny private but impartial sense,

But moral, great, and worth a poet's voce, With freedom, and I hope without offence; For men of sense despise a trivial choice : For I 'll recant when France can show me wit And such applause it must expect to meet, As strong as ours, and as succinctly writ. As would some painter busy in a street Tis true, composing is a nobler part;

To copy bulls and bears, and ev'ry sign But good translation is no easy art.

That calls the staring sots to nasty wine. For though materials have long since been found, Yet 'tis not all to have a subject good; Yet both your fancy and your hands are bound; It must delight us when 'uis understood. And by improving what was writ before, He that brings fulsome objects to niy view Invention labors less, but judgement more. (As many old have done, and many new) The soil intended for Pierian seeds

With naiiseous images my fancy fills, Must be well purg'd from rank pedantic weeds. And all goes down like oxymel of squills. Apollo starts, and all Parnassus shakes, Instruct the list’ning world how Maro sings Ai the rude rumbling Baralipton makes. Of useful subjects and of lofty things. For none have been with admiration read, These will such true, such bright ideas raise, But who (beside their learning) were well bred. As merit gratitude as well as praise : . The first great work (a task perform'd by few) But foul descriptions are offensive still, Is, that yourself may to yourself be true: Either for being like, or being ill. No mask, no tricks, no favor, no reserve; For who, without a qualm, hath ever look d Dissect your mind, examine ev'ry nerve. On holy garbage, though by Homer cookid? Whoever vainly on his strength depends, Whose railing heroes, and whose woundedGods, Begins like Virgil, but like Mævius ends. Make some suspect he snores as well as nods. That wretch (in spite of his forgotten rhymes), But I offend - Virgil begins to frown, Condemn'd to live to all succeeding times, And Horace looks with indignation down; With pompous nonsense and a bellowing sound, My blushing Muse with conscious fear retires, Surig lofty Ilium tumbling to the ground. And whom they like implicity admires. And (if my Muse can through past ages see) On sure foundations let your fabric rise, 'That noisy, nau:eous, gaping fool was he: And with attractive majesty surprise, Exploded when, with universal scorn,

Not by affected meretricious arts, The mountains labor'd and a mouse was born. | But strict harmonious symmetry of parts;

Learn, learn, Crotona's brawny wrestler cries, Which through the whole insensibly must pass, Audacious mortals, and be timely wise ; | With vital hcat to animate the mass : 'Tis I that call, remember Milo's end,

A pure, an active, and auspicious flame, [came, Wedge in that timber which he strove to rend. And bright as heaven, from whence the blessing Each poet with a diff'rent talent writes ; But few, oh few, souls pre-ordain'd by fate, One praises, one instrucis, another bites. The race of Gods, have reach'd that envied Horace did ne'er aspire to Epic bays,

No rebel Titan's sacrilegious crime, Theight. Nor lofty Maro sioop to Lyric lays.'

By reaping hills on hills, can hither clinib, Examine how your humor is inclin'd,

The grizly ferryman of hell denied And which the ruling passion of your mind; Eneas entrance, till he knew his guide : Then seek a poet who your way does bend, How justly then will impious morials fall, And choose an author as you choose a friend ; Whose pride would soar to heaven without a call! Unised by this sympathetic boud,

Pride (of all others the most dang'rous fault) You grow familiar, intimate, and fond ; Proceeds from want of sense or want of thought. Your thoughts, your words, your stvles, your The men who labor and digest things most, No longer his interpreter, but he. [souls agree, Will be much apter iu despond than buat:

For

For if your author be profoundly good, Affected noise is the most wretched thing
"Pwill cost you dear before he's understood. That to contempt can empty scribblers bring.
How many ages since has Virgil writ?

Vowels and acconis regularly plac'd,
How few are they who understand him yet! JOn even syllables (and still ihe last),
Approach bis altars with religious tear,' Though gross innumberable faults abeunal,
No vulgar deity inhabits there :,

In spite of nonsensc, never fail of sound.
Heaven shakes not more at Jove's imperial nod, But this is meant of even verse alone,
Than poets should before their Mantuan god. As being most larmonious and most known :
Hail, mighty Maro! may ihat sacred namie. For if you will uncqual numbers try,
Kindle ny. breast with thy celestial Aane; There accents on odd syllables inust lie.
Sublime ideas and apk words infuse; (the Muse! Whatever sister of the learned Nine
The Muse instruct iny voice, and thou inspire Does to your.suit a willing ear incline,

What I have instanc'd only in the best, Crge your success, deserve a lasting name,
Is, in proportion, true of all the rest.

She'll crown a grateful and a constant flame.
Take pains the genuine meaning to explore; But if a wild uncertainty prevail,
There sweat, there sırain, tug the laborious oar; And turn your vcering heart with ev'ry gale,
Search ev'ry comment that your care can find, You lose the fruit of all your former care
Some here, some there, may hit the poet's mind; For the sad prospect of a just despair.
Yet be not blindly guided by the throng: : A quack (too scandalously mean to name)
The multitude is always in ihe wrong.

Had, by man-midwifery, got wealth and fame: When things appear annatural or hard, | As if Lucina had forgot her trade, Consult your author, with himself compar'd; The laboring wife invokes his surer aij. Who knows what blessing Phæbus may bestow, Well-season'd bowls the gossip's spirits raise, And future ages to your labor owe?

Who, while sheguzzles, chats the doctor's praise; Such secrets are not easily found out ;

And largely what she wants in words supplies But, once discorerd, leave no room for doubt. With maudlin-eloquence of trickling eyes. Trutin stamps conviction in your ravish'd breast, / Birr what a thoughilesy animal is man? And peace and joy attend the glorious guest. How very active in his own trepan!

Truth still is one; truth is divinely bright; For greedy of physicians' frequent fees, No cloudy doubts obscure her native light; From female mcllow praise he takes degrees; While in your thoughts you find the least debate, Struts in a new unlicens'd gown, and then, You may confound, but never can translate. From saying women, falls to killing men. your style will thus thro' all disguises show, Another such had left the nation thin, . For none explain more clearly than they know. In spite of all the children he brought in. He only proves he understands a text,

Hlis pills astbiek as hand-granadoes flew, Whose exposition leaves it unperplex'd. And where they fell, as certainly they slew ; They who too faithfully on names insist, His name struck ev'ry where as great a damp Rather create than dissipate the mist;

As Archimedes' thro' the Roman camp. And grow unjust by being over-nice

With this, the doctor's pride began to cool; (For superstitious virtuv turns to vice).

For smarting soundly may convince a fool. Let Crassus' * ghost and Labienus tell

But now repentance came too late for grace, How iwice in Parthian plains their legions fell :. And ineagre famine star'd him in the face : Since Rome hath been so jealous of her fame, Fain would he to the wives be reconcil'd, That few know Pacorus' or Monæses' name." But found no husband left to own a child.

Words in one language elegantly us'd, |The friends that got the brats were poison'd too; Will bardly in another be excus'd.

In this sad case what could our vermin do? And some that Rome admir'd in Cæsar's time, Worried with debts, and past all hope of bail, May neither suit our genius nor our clire. | Th'unpitied wretch lies rolling in a jail : The genuine sense, intelligibly told,

| And there.with basket-alms scarce kept alive, Shows a translator both discreet and bold. Shows how mistaken talents ought to thrive. Excursions are inexpiably bad ;

I pity, from my soul, unhappy men, And 'tis much safer to leave ont than add. |Coinpellid hy want to prostitute their pen; Abstruse and mystic thoughts you must express 7 Who must, like lawyers, either starve or plead, With painful care, but seeming easiness ; (l And follow, right or wrong, where guineas lead! For truth shines brightest thro' the plainest But you, Pompilian, wealthy pamper'd heirs, Cress.

Jwho to your country owe your swords and cares, Thi Enean Muse, when she appears in state, | Let no vain hope your easy inind seduce, Makes all Jove's. thunder on her verses wait ; For rich ill poets are without excuse. Yet writes sonictimes as soft and moving things, 'Tis very dang'rous tampering with a Muse; As Venus speaks, or Philomela sings.

The profit's small, and you have much to lose : Pour author always will the best advise: For though true wit adorns your birth or place, Full when he falls, and when he rises rise: Degenerate lines degradle tl'attainted race.

T 4 - Hor. üi. Od. 6.

Na

No poct any passion can excite, (write. | 'This antient Rome and clder Athens found,
But what they feel transport them when they Before mistaken stops debauch'd the sound.
Have you been led through the Curean cavc, 1 lihen, bvimpulse from Heaven, Tyrtæus sung,
And heard the impatient maid divinely rare? In drooping soldiers a new courage spring;
I hear her now; I see her rolling eves: - Reviving Sparta now the flight maintain'd,
And panting, Lo! the god! the gol: she cries; And what iwo generals lost a poet gain'd.
With words not hers, and more thanhumansound, By secret influence of indulgent shies,
She makes th'obedient ghosts peep trembling Empire and poesy together-rise.
thro' the ground.

True poets are the guardians of the state,
But, tho'we mustobey when Heaven commands, And, when they fail, portend approaching fate.
And uian in vain the sacred call withstands, For that which Rome to conquest did aspire,
Beware what spirit rages in your breast; Was not the restal, but the use's tire ;
For ten inspir'd, ten thousand are possest. Heaven joins the blessings : po declining age
Thus enake the proper use of each extrenie, E'er felt the raptures of poetic rage.
And write with fury, but correct with phlegm. Of many faults rhyme is perbaps the cause;
As when the cheerful hours too freels pass, Too strictio riunie, we sliglit more useful laws;
And sparkling wine smiles in the temping glass, For that, in Grecce or Rome, was never known,
Your pulse advises, and begins to beat

Till bv barbaruin deluges o'erflown : Througlı ev'ry swelling vein a lou: retreat: Subdui, undone, they did at last ober, So when a Muse propriously invites,

And change their own for their invader's way. Improve her favors, and indulge her fights ; Il grant that, from some mossy idol oak, But which you find that vigorous heat abate, In double rhymes our 'Thor and Woden spoke; Leave off, and for another summons wait. and by succession of unlearned times, Before the radliaut sun a glimn'ring lamp, As baris began, so monks rung on the chimes. Adulterate mictals to the sterling siamp,

But now that Phæbus and the sacred Nine Appear not meaner than mere human lines, With all their beans on our blest island shine, Compar'd with those which inspiration shives : Why should not we their antient rights restore, These nervous, bold; those languid and remiss; And be what Rome or Athens were before? There, cold salutes; but here a lover's liss. *Have you forgot howRaphael's numerous prose Thus have I scen a rapid headlong tide

Led our esalied souls thro' heavenly camps, With foaining waves ihe passive Soane divide ; ' And mark'the ground where proud spostate Whose lazy waters without motion lay,

throues While he with eager force, ury'd his impetuous Detied Jehovah! here, 'twixt host and host, way.

• (A narrow, but a dreadful interval) The privilege that antient poets claiin, 1 Portentous sight! before the cloudy van Now turn'd to licence by ton just a name, Satan will vast and haugbty strides adranc'd, Belongs to none but an establish'd fame, . Came tow'ring arm'd in adamant and gold. Which scorns to take it

• There bellowing engines, with their fiery tubes, Absurd expressions, orude abortive thoughts, • Dispers'd ethereal forns, and dowu they fell All the lewd legion of explodei faults,

• By ihousands, angels on archangels rollid; Base fugitives, to that asylun fly,

• Recover'd, to the hills they ran, they flens, And sacred laws with insolence defy.

• Which (with their ponderous lood, rocks, Not thus our heroes of the former days

"waters, woods), Deserv'd and gain'd their never-fading bavs; From their tirin seats torn by the shaggy tops, For I mistake, or far the greatest part

They bore like shields before them through the Of what some call negleet, was study's art,

air,

Tlves. When Virgil seculis to trifle in a line,

1. Till more incens'd they burld them at their "Tis like a warning-piece, which gives the signAll was confusion, heaven's foundation shouk, To wake your fancy, and prepare your sight, Threat'ning no less than universal wreck; Torcach ihe noble height of some unusual Aiglit. For Michael's arm main promontories flung, I lose my patience when, with saucy pride, 1. And over-press'd whole legions weak with sin, By untui'd cars I hear his numbers oried. Yet they blasphem'and struggled as they lay, Reverse of nature; shall such copies then Till the great ensign of Messiah blaz'd, Arraign th' originals of Maru's pen;

• And (arin'id with vengeance) God's victorious And the ride nations of perlantic schools 1. (Effulgence of paternal Detv!)

Son Blaspheme the sacred founder of our rules? • Grasping ten thousand thunders in his hand, The delicacy of the nicest par

• Drove th'old original rebels headlong down, Finds nothing harsh or out of order there, • And sent them Haming to the past abyss.' Sublime or low, unbended or intense,

() inay I live to hail the glorious day, The sound is still a comment to the seuse. | And sing loud pæans through the crowded way,

A skilful car in numbers should preside, When in triuniphant state the British Muse, And all disputes without appeal decide, "True to hersell, shall barbarous aid refuse,

And • An Essay on Blank Verse, out of Paradise Lost, B. VI,

And in the Roman majesty appear, snear. Who banishid David did from Hebron bring. Which none know better, and none come so And with a gen'ral shout proclaim'il him king.

Those very Jews, who at their very best

Their bunior more than loyalty expressid, $ 27. Alsalom and Achitophel. Dryden. Now wonder'd why so long they hall obey'd Is pious times, ere priesteraft did berin, An idol monarch which their hand, had made; Before polygamy was made a sin;

Thought they might ruin him they could crcate, When man on many multiplied his kind, Or melt hiin to that golden calf of state. Ere one to one was cursedly confind!

But these were random bolts : no form'd design, When nature prompted, anil no law denicd Nor ini'rest made the factions crowd to join : Promiscuous use of concubine and bride;

The sobert part of Israel, free from stain, Then Israel's monarch, after Heaven's own hicart, Well knew the value of a peaceful reign; His vigorous warmth did variously impart And looking backward with a wise offright, Towires and slaves; and wide as his commaw, Saw seams of wounds dishonest to the sight; Scatter'd his Maker's injage thro' the land In contemplation of whose ugly scirs, Michal, of royal blood, the crown did wear; Thry cursid the men'ry of civil wars. A soil ungrateful to the tiller's care;

The moderate sort of mien thans qualified, Not so the rest ; for several mothers hore

inclind the balance to the better side: To godlike Darid several sons before.

And David's wildness managd it so well,
But since, like slaves, bis ber they did aseend, The bad found no occasion to rebel.
No true succession could their sced attend. But when to sin our biass'l vature leans,
Of all the numerous progeny, was rone

The careful devil is still at hand with means; So beautiful, so brave, as Absalom ::

Ind providently pimps for ill desires : Whether inspired by some diviner lust,

The good old causc reviv'd a plot requires. Ilis father got him with a greater gust;

Plots true or false are necessary things Or that his conscions destiny inace way,

To raise up commonwealihs, and ruin kings. By manly beauty, to imperial sway,

1 'Th'inhabitants of old Jerusalem Farly in foreign fields he won renown, Were Jebasites; the town so call'd from them; With kings and states allied to Israel's crown: And theirs the native right In peace the thoughts of war he could remove, But when the chosen people grew more strong, And seem'd as he were only born for love. The rightful cause at length becainc the wrong; Whate'er he did was done with so much ease, And ev'ry loss the men of Jebus bore, In him alone 'twas natural to please :

'They still were thought God's enemics the more. His motions all accompanied with grace; Thus worn or wcakend, well or ill content, And paradise wag opend in his face.

Submit they must to David's government, With secret joy indulgent David view'il Imporerislid, and reprind of all command, His routhful image in his son renewid : Their taves doubled is they lost their land; To all his wishes nothing he denied ;

And wluit was frarder ret to flesh and blood, And made the charming Annabel bie bride. Their gods disgrac'd, und burnt like common What faults he had (for whio from faults is free:)1. wooil. His father could not, or he would not see. This set the heathen priesthood in a flaine ; Some warın excesses which the law forbore, For priests of all religions are the same. Were construed youth that purg'd by boilingo'er, Of whatsve'er descent their godliead be, And Ammon's murder, by a specious naine, Stock, stone, or other homely pedigree, Was call'd a just revenge for injur'd famc. In his defence his servants are as bold Thus prais'd and lord the noble youth reinain'd, .Is if he had been born of beiten gold. While Dasid uudisturb'd in Sion reignd;

I The Jewish rabbins, though their encinies, But life can never be sincerely blest:

In this conclude them honest men and wise : Heayen punishes the bal, and proves the best. For 'twas their duty, all the learned think, The Jews, a headstrony, mnoods, murun'ring racc, Tespolise huis cause by whom they eat and drink. As ever tried th' extent and stretch of grace; lirom hence bega: that ploi, the nation's curse, God's pamper'd people, whomm, debauched with | Bad in itself, but represented worse; ease,

Rais'd in extremes, and in extremes decried : Noking could govern, nor no God could please. With oathis atlirmoil, withi diing vows denied ; Gods they have triell of every shape and size, Not weigh'd nor window'd by the multitude; That goldsmiths could produce, or priests devise: But swallow'di in the mass, unchew'd and crude, These Adam-wits, too fortunately free, Some truth there was, but daslidand brew'd with Began to dream they wanted liberty;

| To please the foods, und puzzle all the wise. [lies; And when no rule, no precedent was found Succeeding times did ernal folly call, Of men by laws less circumscrib'd and bound, Believing nothing, or believing all. They led iheir wild desires to woods and caves, Th' Egyptian rites ibe Jebusites enibracid; And thought that all but Savages were slaves. Where gods were recommended by their taste. They who, when Saul was dead, without a blow, Such savory deities must nceds be good, Made foolish subosheth the crown forego; As servd at once for worship and for food.

By

By force they could not introduce these gods; 1 Yet fame descrv'd no enemy can grudge :
For ten to one in former days was odds;

The statesman we abhor, but praise the judge. So fraud was usit, the sacriticer's trade :

in Israel's courts ne'er sat an Abethdin Fools are more hard to conquer ihan persnade. With more discerning eyes, or lands more Their busy teachers mingled with the Jews, . clean, And rak'u for converts cy'n the court and stews : l'ibrilird, unsought, the wreiched to redress, Which Hebrew pricsis the more unkindly took, Swift of dispatch, and casy of access. Because the fleece accompanies the flock. Oh! hud he been conteni to serve the crown Some thought tev God's anointed meant to slay With virtues only proper to the gown : By guns, invented since fult many a day: 'Or liad the rankness of the soil been fied Our author wears it not; but who can know I'rom cockle, ibai oppressid the noble seed; How far the devil and lebusites mav go? David for him his tuncful harp had smuk, This plot, which will for waniof common sense, And licaven had wanted one imimortal song, Had yet a deep and dangerous consequence : But will ambition lores 10 slide, not stand: For as, when ragin, fevers boil the blood, And fortune's ice prefers to viriue's land. , The standing lake soon floats into a food, Achitophel, grown weary to possess And er’ry hostile humor, which before

A lawful fame, and lazy happiness, Slept quie! in iis channel, bubbles v'er; Disdain'd the golden fruit to gather free,'. . So sev'ral fuctions, from this first ferment, And lent the crowd bis arın to shake the tree. Work up 10 foam, and threat the government. | Now, manifese of crimes contris d long since, Some by their friends, more by themselves Ile stood at bold defiance with his prince; thought wise

Held up the buckler of the people's cause
Oppos'd the pow'r to which they could not rise. Against ihc crown, and sculk's behind the laws,
Some had in courts been great; and uirown from The wishid occasion of the plot he takes;
Likefiends, werelarden'd inimpenitenco. thence Some circunstances finds, but more he makes:
Some, by their monarchi's fatal inercy, grown By buzzing emissaries fills the ears,
From parlon'd rebels kinsmer to the throne, of list'ning crowds with jealousies and fcars
Were rais'd in pow'r and public office high ; Of arbitrary counse's brought to light,
Strong bands, ii bands ungrateful men could tie. And proves the king himself a Jebusile.
. Of these the false Achitophel was first; . W'eak arguments! which yet, he knew full well,
A name to all succecling ages curst:

Were strong with people easy to rebel.
For close designs and crooked counsels fit; For, govern'd by the moon, ibe giddy Jews
Sagacious, bold, and turbulent of wit ;

Tread thesametrack when she the prime reniers;
Resiless, unfix'd in principles and place; And once in twenty years, their scribes record,
In pow'r unpleas', inpatient of disgrace: By natural instinct they change their lord.
A fiery soul, which, working out its way, 21 Achitophel still wants a chief, and noue
Fretted the pigny-body to decay,

| Was found so fit as warlike Absalom. And o'er-juform'd the tenemeni of clay. ) Not that he wish'd his greatness to create, A daring pilot in extremity;

For politicians neither love nor hate : Pleas'd with the danger when the waveswenthigh, But, for he knew his title not allow'd He sought the stornis; but, for a calım unfit, Would keep him still depending on the crowd: Would steer 100 nigh the sands to boast his wit: That kingly pow'r, thus ebbing out, might be Great wits are sure to madness near allied, Drawn to the dregs of a democracy. And thin parutions do their bounds divide; Him he attempis with studied arts to please, Else whishould he, with wealth and honor blest, And sheds his venoin in such words as these : Refuse his age the needful hours of rest?

Auspicious prince! at whose nativity Punish a body which he could not please; Some roval planet rald the southern sky; . Bankrupt of life, yet prodigal of ease?

Thy longing country's darling and desire ; And all to leave what with his toil he won Their cluudy pillar and their guardian fire ; To thân unfeather'd two-legg'd thing, a Son ; Their second Moses, whose extended wand Gut, while his soul did huddled notions try; Divides the seas, and shows the promis'd land; And born a shapeless lump, like anarchy. Whose dawning day, in er’ry distant age,. lo friendship false, implacable in hate ; Uas exercis'd the sacred prophet's rage; Resolvid to ruin or to rule the state.

The people's pray'r, the glad diviner's theme, To compass this, the triple bond he broke; 2 The young men's vision, and the old men's The pillars of the public safety shook ; And fitted Israel for a foreign yoke:

Thee, Saviour, thee the nation's vows confess, Then, scis'd with fear, yet still affecting fame, And, never satisfied with sceing, bless : Usurpd a patriot's all-atoning name.

Swift unbespoken pomps thy steps proclain, So casy still it proves, in facrious times, Aud stanım'ring babes are taughi to lispa thy With public zeal to cancel private crimes,

name. How safe is treason, and how sacred ill, How long wilt thou the gen'ral joy detain, Where none can sin against the people's will! Starve and defraud the people of thy reign ; Where crouds can wink,and no ottence beknown, Content ingloriously to pass thy days, Since in another's guilt they find their own! Like one of Viriue's fools that feed on praise ;,