And long 'twas doubtful, both so closely pent,
Which first should iffue thro' the narrow vent:
At laft agreed, together out they fly,
Infeparable now, the truth and lye;

The strict companions are for ever join'd, 495
And this or that unmix'd, no mortal e'er fhall find.
While thus I ftood, intent to fee and hear,
One came, methought, and whisper'd in
my ear:
What could thus high thy rash ambition raise?
Art thou, fond youth, a candidate for praife? 500
'Tis true, faid I, not void of hopes I came,
For who fo fond as youthful bards of Fame?
But few, alas! the cafual bleffing boast,

So hard to gain, fo eafy to be loft.

How vain that second life in others breath, 505 Th'eftate which wits inherit after death!

NOTES.

VER. 497. While thus food, etc.] The hint is taken from a paffage in another part of the third book, but here more naturally made the conclufion, with the Addition of a Moral to the whole. In Chaucer he only answers "he came to fee the place;" and the book ends abruptly, with his being furprized at the fight of a Man of great Authority, and awaking in a fright. P.

IMITATIONS.

A lefing and a fad footh faw

That gonnen at adventure draw

Out of a window forth to pace

And no man, be he ever fo wrothe,

Shall have one of thefe two, but bothe, etc. P....

Eafe, health, and life, for this they must resign,
(Unfure the tenure, but how vaft the fine!)
The great man's curfe, without the gains endure,
Be envy'd, wretched, and be flatter'd, poor; 510
All luckless wits their enemies profest,
And all fuccessful, jealous friends at best.
Nor Fame I flight, nor for her favours call
She comes unlook'd for, if she comes at all.
But if the purchase costs fo dear a price
As foothing Folly, or exalting Vice:
Oh! if the Muse must flatter lawless fway,
And follow ftill where fortune leads the way;
Or if no bafis bear my rifing name,

;

;

But the fall'n ruins of another's fame
520
Then teach me, heav'n! to fcorn the guilty bays,
Drive from my breast that wretched luft of praise,
Unblemish'd let me live, or die unknown;
Oh grant an honeft fame, or grant me none!

515