But thou of force muft one religion own, And only one, and that the right alone. To find that right one, afk thy rev'rend fire; 95 Let him of his, and him of his inquire; 100 Tho' Truth and Falfehood feem as twins ally'd, 105 On a large mountain, at the bafis wide, Steep to the top, and craggy at the fide, Sits facred Truth enthron'd; and he who means To reach the fummit, mounts with weary pains, Winds round and round, and ev'ry turn essays Where fudden breaks refift the fhorter ways. IIQ Yet labour fo, that, ere faint age arrive, Thy fearching foul poffefs her reft alive; To work by twilight were to work to late, And age is twilight to the night of Fate. To will alone, is but to mean delay; To work at present is the use of day, 115 For man's employ much thought and deed remain, 126 OF 130 Or will it boot thee, at the latest day, Pow'r, from above fubordinately spread, 136 Streams like a fountain from th' eternal head; 140 Each flow'r, ordain'd the margins to adorn, 145 So fares the foul, which more that pow'r reveres Man claims from God, than what in God inheres. SATIRE WE SATIR E IV. ELL, if it be my time to quit the ftage, age! grave. I die in charity with fool and knave, SATIRE IV. W Indeed is great, but yet I have been in ELL; I may now receive, and die. My fin A purgatory, fuch as fear'd Hell is A recreation, and fcant map of this. NOTES. Ver. 3 I die in charity with fool and knave,] We verily think he did. But of the cause of his death, not only the doctors, but other people differed. His family fuggefts, that a general decay of nature, which had been long coming on, ended with a dropfy in the breaft. The gentlemen of the Dunciad maintain, that he fell by the keen pen of our redoubtable Laureat. We ourselves fhould be inclined to this latter opinion, for the fake of ornamenting his ftory; and that we might be able to say, that he died, like his immortal namefake, Alexander the Great, by a drug of fo deadly cold a nature, that, as Plutarch and other grave writers tell us, it could be contained in nothing but the fcull of an afs.---This is a grievous error. It was the hoof of an als; a much likelier vehicle of mischief. 15 With foolish pride my heart was never fir'd, Nor the vain itch t' admire, or be admir'd; I hop'd for no commiffion from his Grace; I bought no benefice, I begg'd no place; Had no new verfes, nor new fuit to show; Yet went to Court!----the Dev'l would have it fo. But, as the fool that in reforming days Would go to Míafs in jeft (as flory fays) Could not but think, to pay his fine was odd, Since 'twas no form'd defign of ferving God; So was I punish'd, as if full as proud, As prone to ill, as negligent of good, As deep in debt, without a thought to pay, As vain, as idle, and as falfe, as they Who live at Court, for going once that way! Scarce was I enter'd, when, behold! there came A thing which Adam had been pos'd to name; 20 } My mind, neither with pride's itch, nor hath been Poifon'd with love to fee or to be feen, I had no new fuit there, nor new fuit to fhow, Therefore I fuffer'd this; towards me did run A thing more strange, than on Nile's flime the fun Noah Noah had refus'd it lodging in his ark, The fun e'er got, or flimy Nilus bore, 26 Or Sloane or Woodward's wond'rous fhelves contain, Nay, all that lying travellers can feign. 31 35 The watch would hardly let him país at noon, The fuit, if by the fashion one might guess, 40 E'er bred, or all which into Noah's ark came: Than Afric monsters, Guianeas rarities, cry, Sir, by your priesthood tell me what you are? His clothes were ftrange, tho' courfe, and black, though bare, But |