The baits of gifts, and money to despise,
And look on wealth with undefiring eyes?
When thou canst truly call these virtues thine,
Be wife and free, by heaven's confent, and mine.
But thou, who lately, of the common strain,
Wert one of us, if ftill thou dost retain
The fame ill habits, the fame follies too,
Gloss'd over only with a saint-like show,
Then I refume the freedom which I gave,
Still thou art bound to vice, and still a slave.
Thou canst not wag my finger, or begin
"The leaft light motion, but it tends to fin."
How's this? Not wag thy finger, he replies?
No, friend; nor fuming gums, nor facrifice,
Can ever make a madman free, or wife.
"Virtue and vice are never in one foul:

"A man is wholly wife, or wholly is a fool."
A heavy bumkin, taught with daily care,

Can never dance three fteps with a becoming air.
PERSIUS.

In fpite of this, my freedom ftill remains.

CORNUTUS.

Free! what, and fetter'd with fo

many

chains?

Can't thou no other mafter understand

Than him that freed thee by the prætor's wand?
Should he, who was thy lord, command thee now,
With a harsh voice, and fupercilious brow,
To fervile duties, thou would'ft fear no more;

The gallows and the whip are out of door.

}

But

But if thy paffions lord it'in thy breast,
Art thou not still a flave, and ftill oppreft?
Whether alone, or in thy harlot's lap,

When thou would'st take a lazy morning's nap;
Up, up, says Avarice; thou fnor'ft again,
Stretcheft thy limbs, and yawn'st, but all in vain
The tyrant Lucre no denial takes;

At his command th' unwilling fluggard wakes:
What must I do? he cries: What? fays his lord:
Why, rife, make ready, and go ftreight abraod:
With fish, from Euxine feas, thy veffel freight;
Flax, caftor, Coan wines, the precious weight
Of pepper, and Sabæan incenfe, take

With thy own hands, from the tir'd camel's back:
And with post-hafte thy running markets make.
Be fure to turn the penny; lye and fwear;

'Tis wholesome fin: but Jove, thou fay'ft, will hear:
Swear, fool, or ftarve; for the dilemma 's even :
A tradefman thou! and hope to go to heaven?
Refolv'd for fea, the flaves they boogage pack,
Each faddled with his burden on hfs back :
Nothing retards thy voyage, now, unless
Thy other lord forbids, Voluptuousness:
And he may ask this civil queftion: Friend,
What doft thou make a fhip-board? to what end?
Art thou of Bethlem's noble college free?

Stark, ftaring mad, that thou would'ft tempt the fea?
Cubb'd in a cabbin, on a mattress laid,

On a brown george, with lowfy fwobbers fed,

}

Dead

Dead wine, that stinks of the borrachio, fup
From a foul jack, or greafy maple-cup?

Say, would't thou bear all this, to raise thy store
From fix i' th' hundred, to fix hundred more?
Indulge, and to thy genius freely give ;

For, not to live at eafe, is not to live;
Death ftalks behind thee, and each flying hour
Does fome loofe remnant of thy life devour.
Live, while thou liv'ft; for death will make us all
A name, a nothing but an old wife's tale.

Speak; wilt thou Avarice, or Pleasure, chuse
To be thy lord? Take one, and one refuse.
But both, by turns, the rule of thee will have;
And thou, betwixt them both, wilt be a flave.

Nor think, when once thou haft refifted one,
That all thy marks of fervitude are gone :
The ftruggling greyhound gnaws his leafh in vain;
If, when 'tis broken, ftill he drags the chain.

Says Phædra to his man, Believe me, friend, To this uneafy love I'll put an end: Shall I run out of all? my friends difgrace, And be the firft lewd unthrift of iny race? Shall I the neighbours nightly rest invade At her deaf doors, with fome vile ferenade? Well haft thou freed thy felf, his man replies, Go, thank the Gods, and offer facrifice. Ah, fays the youth, if we unkindly part, Will not the poor fond creature break her heart? Weak foul! and blindly to deftruction led!

She break her heart! fhe 'll fooner break your he? 1 VOL. VII.

A a

She knows her man, and, when you rant and swear,
Can draw you to her, with a single hair.

But fhall I not return? Now, when the fues!
Shall I my own, and her defires refuse?
Şir, take your course: but my advice is plain:

Once freed, 'tis madness to resume your chain.

Ay; there's the man, who, loos'd from lust and pelf, Lefs to the prætor owes, than to himself.

But write him down a flave, who, humbly proud,
With prefents begs preferments from the crowd;

That early fuppliant, who falutes the tribes,
And fets the mob to fcramble for his bribes:
That fome old dotard, fitting in the fun,

On holidays may tell, that fuch a feat was done :
In future times this will be counted rare.

Thy fuperftition too may claim a share :

When flowers are ftrew'd, and lamps in order plac'd,
And windows with illuminations grac'd,
On Herod's day; when fparkling bowls go round,
And tunnies tails in favoury fauce are drown'd,
'Thou mutter'ft prayers obscene; nor doft refuse
The fafts and fabbaths of the curtail'd Jews.
Then a crack'd egg-shell thy fick fancy frights,
Befides the childish fear of walking sprights.
Of o'ergrown gelding priests thou art afraid ;
The timbrel, and the squintifego maid
Of Ifis, awe thee: left the Gods, for fin,
Should, with a fwelling dropfy, stuff thy skin
Unless three garlick-heads the curfe avert,
aten each morn, devoutly, next thy heart.

Preach

Preach this among the brawny guards, fay'st thou,
And fee if they thy doctrine will allow :

The dull fat captain, with a hound's deep throat,
Would bellow out a laugh, in a base note;
And prize a hundred Zeno's just as much
As a clipt fixpence, or a fchilling Dutch.