You laugh, if coat and breeches strangely vary,
White gloves, and linen worthy Lady Mary!
But when no Prelate's Lawn with hair-hirt lin'd,

Is half so incoherent as my Mind,

166

When (each opinion with the next at strife,
One ebb and flow of Follies all my life)
It plant, root up; I build, and then confound;
Turn round to square, and square again to round;

171

You never change one muscle of your face,

175

You think this Madness but a common cafe,
Nor w once to Chanc'ry, nor to Hale apply;
Yet hang your lip, to see a Seam awry!
Careless how ill I with myself agree,
Kind to my dress, my figure, not to Me.
Is this my Guide, Philosopher, and Friend?
This he, who loves me, and who ought to mend;
Who ought to make me (what he can, or none,)
That Man divine whom Wisdom calls her own; 180
Great without Title, without Fortune bless'd;

Rich ev'n when plunder'd, honour'd while op

press'd;

Lov'd without youth, and follow'd without pow'r;
At home, tho' exil'd; free, tho' in the Tower;
In short, that reas'ning, high, immortal Thing; 185
Just less than Jove, and much above a King,
Nay, half in heav'n- except (what's mighty odd)
A fit of Vapours clouds this Demy-God?

EPISTOLA VI.

IL admirari, prope res est una, Numici,

NIL

Solaque quae poffit facere et servare beatum.

Hunc folem, et stellas, & decedentia certis Tempora momentis, funt qui formidine nulla Imbuti spectent.quid censes, munera terrae? Quid, maris extremos Arabas ditantis et Indos?

VER. 3. dear MURRAY,] This Piece is the most finished of all his imitations, and executed in the high manner the Italian Painters call con amore. By which they mean, the exertion of that principle, which puts the faculties on the stretch, and produces the fupreme degree of excellence. For the Poet bad all the warmth of affection for the great Lawyer to whom it is addressed: and, indeed, no man ever more deserved to have a Poet for bis friend. In the obtaining of which, as neither Vanity, Party, nor Fear, had any share; so he supported his title to it by all the offices of true Friendship.

VER. 4. Creech] From whose tranflation of Horace the two first lines are taken.

Vzn. 6. ftars that rife and fall,] The original is, decedentia certis

Tempora momentis

EPISTLE VI.

N

To Mr. MURRAY.

OT to To make men happy, and to keep them so." (Plain Truth, dear MURRAY, needs no flow'rs of

admire, is all the Art I know,

speech,

So take it in the very words of Creech.)

This Vault of Air, this congregated Ball, s Self-center'd Sun, and Stars that rise and fall, There are, my Friend! whose philosophic eyes. Look thro', and trust the Ruler with his skies, To him commit the hour, the day, the year, And view this dreadful All without a fear. Admire we then what d Earth's low entrails hold, Arabian shores, or Indian seas infold;

All the mad trade of Fools and Slaves for Gold?

10

which words simply and literally fignify, the change of seasons. But this change being confidered as an object of admiration, bis imitator has judiciously expressed it in the more fublime figurative terms of

Stars that rife and fall.

by whose courses the seasons are marked and distinguished.

VER. 8. trust the Ruler with bis Skies. To bim commit the kour,] Our Author, in these imitations, has been all along careful to correct the loose morals, and absurd divinity of his Original.