to by his remarks. He would gladly have left out the heavy passage of the Mirmillo and Retiarius, which he honestly confesses he either does not rightly understand, or cannot fufficiently explain. If he has not confined himself to the strict rules of translation, but has frequently taken the liberty of imitating, paraphrasing, or reconciling the Roman customs to our modern usage; he hopes this freedom is pardonable, fince he has not used it but when he found the original flat, obscure, or defective; and where the humour and connection of the author might naturally allow of fuch a change..
the advantage, or the real good,
In tracing from the fource our antient blood?
To have our ancestors in paint or ftone,
Preferv'd as relicks, or like monsters shewn?
The brave Æmilii, as in triumph plac'd,
The virtuous Curii, half by time defac'd;
Corvinus, with a mouldering nose, that bears
Injurious scars, the sad effects of years;
And Galba grinning without nose or ears?
Vain are their hopes, who fancy to inherit
By trees of pedigrees, or fame, or merit :
Though plodding heralds through each branch may trace
Old Captains and Dictators of their race,
While their ill lives that family bely,
And grieve the brass which stands dishonour'd by. 'Tis mere burlesque, that to our Generals praife
Their progeny immortal statues raise,
Yet (far from that old gallantry) delight
To game before their images all night,
And steal to bed at the approach of day,
The hour when these their ensigns did display.
Why should foft Fabius impudently bear
Names gain'd by conquests in the Gallic war?
Why lays he claim to Hercules's strain,
Yet dares be base, effeminate and vain?
The glorious altar to that hero built
Adds but a greater lustre to his guilt,
Whose tender limbs and polish'd skin disgrace
The grifly beauty of his manly race;
And who, by practising the dismal skill
Of poisoning, and such treacherous ways to kill,
Makes his unhappy kindred marble sweat,
When his degenerate head by theirs is set.
Long galleries of ancestors, and all
The follies which ill-grace a country hall,
Challenge no wonder or esteem from me;
"Virtue alone is true nobility."
Live therefore well: to men and gods appear,
Such as good Paulus, Coffus, Drufus, were;
And in thy confular triumphal show,
Let these before thy father's statues go;
Place them before the ensigns of the state,
As choofing rather to be good than great.
Convince the world that you 're devout and true,
Be just in all you say, and all you do;
Whatever be your birth, you 're fure to be
A peer of the first magnitude to me:
Rome for your fake shall push her conquests on,
And bring new titles home from nations won,
To dignify so eminent a fon.
With your blest name shall every region found,
Loud as mad Egypt, when her priests have found
A new Ofiris for the ox they drown'd.
But who will call those noble, who deface,
By meaner acts, the glories of their race;
Whose only title to our fathers' fame
Is couch'd in the dead letters of their name?
A dwarf as well may for a giant pass;
A negro for a fwan; a crook-back'd lafs
Be call'd Europa; and a cur may bear
The name of tiger, lion, or whate'er
Denotes the nobleft or the fiercest beaft:
Be therefore careful, lest the world in jest
Should thee just so with the mock titles greet,
Of Camerinus, or of conquerd Crete.
To whom is this advice and cenfure due?
Rubellius Plancus, 'tis applied to you;
Who think your person second to divine,
Because descended from the Drufian line;
Though yet you no illustrious act have done,
To make the world diftinguish Julia's fon
From the vile offspring of a trull, who fits
By the town wall, and for a living knits.
"You are poor rogues (you cry) the baser scum
"And inconfiderable dregs of Rome;
"Who know not from what corner of the earth
"The obfcure wretch, who got you, stole his birth:
" Mine I derive from Cecrops" - May your Grace
Live and enjoy the splendor of your race!-
Yet of these base plebeians we have known
Some, who, by charming eloquence, have grown
Great senators, and honours to that gown :
Some at the bar with fubtilty defend
The cause of an unlearned noble friend;
Or on the bench the knotty laws untie:
Others their ftronger youth to arms apply,
Go to Euphrates, or those forces join
Which garrifon the conquests near the Rhine.
While you, Rubellius, on your birth rely;
Though you refemble your great family
No more, than those rough statues on the road
(Which we call Mercuries) are like that God:
Your blockhead though excels in this alone,
You are a living statue, that of stone.
Great Son of Troy, who ever prais'd a beast
For being of a race above the rest,
But rather meant his courage, and his force?
To give an inftance---We commend a horfe
(Without regard of pasture or of breed)
For his undaunted mettle and his speed;
Who wins most plates with greatest ease, and first
Prints with his hoofs his conquests on the dust.
But if fleet Dragon's progeny at last
Prove jaded, and in frequent matches caft,
No favour for the stallion we retain,
And no respect for the degenerate strain;
The worthless brute is from New-Market brought, And at an under-rate in Smithfield bought,
To turn a mill, or drag a loaded life
Beneath two panniers and a baker's wife.
That we may therefore you, not yours, admire; First, Sir, fome honour of your own acquire; Add to that stock which justly we bestow
On those blest shades to whom you all things owe.
This may fuffice the haughty youth to shame,
Whose swelling veins (if we may credit fame)
Burst almost with the vanity and pride
That their rich blood to Nero's is ally'd :
The rumour's likely; for "We seldom find
"Much sense with an exalted fortune join'd."
But Ponticus, I would not you should raise
Your credit by hereditary praise;
Let your own acts immortalise your name;
"'Tis poor relying on another's fame;"
For, take the pillars but away, and all
The superstructure must in ruins fall;
As a vine droops, when by divorce remov'd
From the embraces of the elm the lov'd.
Be a good foldier, or upright trustee,
An arbitrator from corruption free.
And if a witness in a doubtful cause,
Where a brib'd judge means to elude the laws;
Though Phalaris's brazen bull were there,
And he would dictate what he 'd have you fivear,
Be not fo profligate, but rather chuse
To guard your honour, and your life to lose,
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