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Or for a titled punk, or foreign flame,
Renounce our [u] country, and degrade our name?
If, after all, we must with [x] Wilmot own,
The cordial drop of life is Love alone,
And SWIFT cry wifely, Vive la bagatelle!

The man that loves and laughs, must fure do well.
[y] Adieu---If this advice appear the worst, 131
L'en take the counsel which I gave you first:
Or better precepts if you can impart,
Why do, I'll follow them with all

my

heart.

Cui potior [u] patria fuit interdicta voluptas. [x] Si, Mímnermus uti cenfet, fine amore jocifque Nil eft jucundum; vivas in amore jocifque. [y] Vive, vale. fi quid novifti rectius iftis, Candidus imperti: fi non, his utere mecum.

THE FIRST

EPISTLE

Of the SECOND BOOK of

HOR A CE.

ADVERTISEMENT.

TH

HE reflections of Horace, and the judgments paffed in his epiftle to Auguftus, feemed fo feafonable to the prefent times, that I could not help applying them to the use of my own country. The author thought them confiderable enough to address them to his prince; whom he paints with all the great and good qualities of a monarch, upon whom the Romans depended for the increase of an abfolute empire. But to make the poem entirely English, I was willing to add one or two of thofe which contribute to the happiness of a free people, and are more confiftent with the welfare of our neighbours.

This epiftle will fhow the learned world to have fallen into two mistakes: one, that Auguftus was a patron of poets in general; whereas he not only prohibited all but the best writers to name him, but recommended that care even to the civil magiftrate. Admonebat prætores, ne paterentur nomen. fuum

fuum obfolefieri, &c. The other, that this piece was only a general difcourfe of poetry; whereas it was an apology for the poets, in order to render Augu ftus more their patron. Horace here pleads the cause of his contemporaries, firft, against the talie of the town, whose humour it was to magnify the authors of the preceding age: fecondly, again!t the court and nobility, who encouraged only the writers for the theatre; and, laftly, againit the Emperor himfelf, who had conceived them of litte ufe to the government. He fhews (by a view of the progrefs of learning, and the change of take among the Romans) that the introduction of the polite arts of Greece had given the writers of his time great advantages over their predeceffors; that their morals were much improved, and the licence of thofe ancient poets restrained: that fatire and comedy were become more just and useful; that whatever extravagancies were left on the flage, were owing to the ill tafle of the nobility; that poets, under due regulations, were in many refpects ufeful to the fate, and concludes, that it was upon them the Emperor himself must depend, for his fame with posterity.

We may farther learn from this epiftle, that Horace made his court to this great prince by writing with a decent freedom toward him, with a just contempt of his low flatterers, and with a manly regard to his own character.

EPISTLE I.

To AUGUSTUS.

WHILE you, great patron of mankind! (a) fuftain

The balanc'd world, and open all the main;
Your country, chief, in arms abroad defend,
At home, with morals, arts, and laws amend;
(b) How fhall the Muse, from fuch a monarch, steal
An hour, and not defraud the public weal?

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(c) Edward and Henry, now the boast of fame, And virtuous Alfred, a more (d) facred name, After a life of gen'rous toils endur'd, The Gaul fubdu'd, or property fecur'd,

EPISTOLA I.

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Ad AUGUSTUM.

COM

UM tot (a) fuftineas et tanta negotia folus, Res Italas armis tuteris, moribus ornes, Legibus emendes; in (b) publica commoda peccem, Si longo fermone morer tua tempora, Cæfar.

(c) Romulus, et Liber pater, et cum Castore Pollux,

Poft ingentia facta, (d) deorum in templa recepti, Dum terras hominumque colunt genus afpera bella Componunt, agros adfignant, oppida condunt;

Ambition

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Ambition humbled, mighty cities ftorm'd,
Or laws establish'd, and the world reform'd;
(e) Clos'd their long glories with a figh, to find
Th' unwilling gratitude of base mankind!
All human virtue, to its latest breath,
(f) Finds Envy never conquer'd but by Death.
The great Alcides, every labour past,
Had ftill this moniter to fubdue at last.
(g) Sure fate of all, beneath whose rifing ray
Each flar of meaner merit fades away!
Opprefs'd we feel the beam directly beat,
Thofe funs of glory please not till they fet.

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To thee the world its prefent homage pays, The harvest early, (b) but mature the praise : Great friend of LIBERTY! in kings a name Above all Greek, above all Roman fame *: Whose word is truth, as facred and rever'd, (i) As Heav'n's own oracles from altars heard. Wonder of kings! like whom, to mortal eyes (4) None e'er has ris'n, and none e'er fhall rife. 30

(e) Ploravere fuis non refpondere favorem
Speratum meritis. diram qui contudit hydram,
Notaque fatali portenta labore fubegit,
Comperit (f) invidiam fupremo fine domari,
(g) Urit enim fulgore fuo, qui prægravat artes
Infra fe pofitas: extinctus amabitur idem.

(b) Præfenti tibi maturos largimur honores, (i) Jurandafque tuum per numen ponimus aras, (k) Nil oriturum alias, nil ortum tale fatentes. Sed tuus hoc populus fapiens et justus in uno, *Te nofirus ducibus, te Graiis anteferendo, Cetere nequaquam fimili ratione modoque

T

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