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Now let your

Mufe rife with expanded wings,
To fing the fate of empires and of kings;
Great William's victories the 'll next rehearse,
And raife a trophy of immortal verse :
Thus to your art proportion the defign,
And mighty things with mighty numbers join,
A fecond Namur, or a future Boyne.

H. BLOUNT.

POEMS

POEM S

By SIR SAMUEL GARTH.

THE DISPENSARY.

CANTO I.

SPEAK, Goddefs! fince 'tis thou that beft canft tell,
How ancient leagues to modern discord fell;
And why Phyficians were fo cautious grown
Of others' lives, and lavish of their own;
How by a journey to th' Elyfian plain
Peace triumph'd, and old Time return'd again.
Not far from that most celebrated place,
Where angry Juftice fhews her awful face;
Where little villains muft fubmit to fate,

*

That
great ones may enjoy the world in state;
There ftands at dome, majeftic to the fight,
And sumptuous arches bear its oval height;

* Old Bailey.

+ College of Physicians. C 2

5

10

A golden

A golden globe, plac'd high with artful skill,
Seems, to the distant fight, a gilded pill :
This pile was, by the pious patron's aim,
Rais'd for a ufe as noble as its frame;
Nor did the learn'd fociety decline
The propagation of that great defign;
In all her mazes, Nature's face they view'd,
And, as the disappear'd, their search pursued.
Wrapt in the shade of night the Goddess lies,
Yet to the learn'd unveils her dark disguise,
But fhuns the grofs accefs of vulgar eyes.

Now the unfolds the faint and dawning strife
Of infant atoms kindling into life;.
How ductile matter new meanders takes,
And slender trains of twisting fibres makes ;
And how the viscous feeks a closer tone,
By juft degrees to harden into bone ;

While the more loofe flow from the vital urn,
And in full tides of purple ftreams return;
How lambent flames from life's bright lamps arise,
And dart in emanations through the eyes;
How from each fluice a gentle torrent pours,
To flake a feverish heat with ambient fhowers;
Whence their mechanic powers the spirits claim;
How great their force, how delicate their frame;

VARIATIONS.

Ver. 19.
-they ftill pursued.
They find her dubious now, and then as plain,
Here the 's too fparing; there profufely vain.

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How the fame nerves are fashion'd to sustain
The greatest pleasure and the greatest pain;
Why bilious juice a golden light puts on,
And floods of chyle in filver currents run;
How the dim fpeck of entity began
T'extend its recent form, and ftretch to man ;
To how minute an origin we owe

Young Ammon, Cæfar, and the great Nassau ;
Why paler looks impetuous rage proclaim,
And why chill virgins redden into flame ;
Why envy oft' transforms with wan disguise,
And why gay mirth fits smiling in the eyes;
All ice why Lucrece; or Sempronia, fire;
Why Scarfdale rages to furvive defire;

When Milo's vigour at th' Olympick 's fhown,
Whence tropes to Finch, or impudence to Sloane;
How matter, by the vary'd fhape of pores,

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45

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Or idiots frames, or folemn fenators.

55

Hence 'tis we wait the wondrous cause to find,

How body acts upon impaffive mind;

How fumes of wine the thinking part can fire,
Past hopes revive, and prefent joys infpire;
Why our complexions oft' our foul declare,
And how the paffions in the feature are;
How touch and harmony arife between
Corporeal figure, and a form unfeẹn ;

VARIATIONS.

60

Ver. 53. Why Atticus polite, Brutus fevere,
Why Methwin muddy, Montagu why clear,

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How quick their faculties the limbs fulfil,
And act at every fummons of the will;
With mighty truths, mysterious to defcry,
Which in the womb of diftant caufes lie.

70

But now no grand enquiries are defcry'd,
Mean faction reigns where knowledge fhould prefide,
Feuds are increas'd, and learning laid afide.
Thus fynods oft' concern for faith conceal,
And for important nothings fhew a zeat:
The drooping fciences neglected pine,
And Paan's beams with fading luftre fhine.
No readers here with hectic looks are found,

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75

Nor eyes in rheum, through midnight-watching, drown'd;

The lonely edifice in fweats complains

That nothing there but fullen filence reigns.

This place, fo fit for undisturb'd repose,
The God of Sloth for his afylum chofe ;
Upon a couch of down in thefe abodes,
Supine with folded arms he thoughtless nods ;
Indulging dreams his Godhead lull to ease,
With murmurs of foft rills, and whispering trees:
The poppy and each numbing plant difpenfe
Their drowzy virtue, and dull indolence ;
No paffions interrupt his easy reign,
No problems puzzle his lethargic brain;
But dark oblivion guards his peaceful bed,
And lazy fogs hang lingering o'er his head.
As at full length the pamper'd monarch lay,
Battening in eafe, and flumbering life away;

85

A fpiteful

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