Ev'n focial friendship duns his ear,
And cites him to the public fphere,
Does he refift their genuine force?
His temper takes fome froward courfe;
Till paffion, mifdirected, fighs
For weeds, or fhells, or grubs, or flies!
Far happieft he, whofe early days
Spent in the focial paths of praise,
Leave, fairly printed on his mind,
A train of virtuous deeds behind :
From this rich fund, the memory draws
The lafting meed of felf-applaufe.
Such fair ideas lend their aid
To people their fequester'd shade.
Such are the naiads, nymphs, and fauns,
That haunt his floods, or chear his lawns.
If, where his devious ramble strays,
He virtue's radiant form furveys;
She feems no longer now to wear
The rigid mien, the frown fevere *;
To fhew him her remote abode ;
To point the rocky arduous road:
But from each flower, his fields allow,
She twines a garland for his brow.
* Alluding to-the allegory in Cebes's tablet.
OECONOMY,
A RHAPSODY, addreffed to young POETS.
"Infanis; omnes gelidis quæcunque lacernis "Sunt tibi, Nafones Virgiliofque vides." MART
PART the FIRST.
TO you, ye bards! whose lavish breast requires
This monitory lay, the ftrains belong;
Nor think fome mifer vents his fapient faw,
Or fome dull cit, unfeeling of the charms
That tempt profufion, fings; while friendly zeal,
To guard from fatal ills the tribe he loves,
Infpires the meaneft of the Mufes' train!
Like I loath the groveling progeny,
Whose wily arts, by creeping time matur'd,
Advance them high on power's tyrannic throne:
To lord it there in gorgeous ufeleffness,
And fpurn fuccefsless worth that pines below!
See the rich churl, amid the focial fons
Of wine and wit, regaling! hark he joins
In the free jeft delighted! feems to fhew
A meliorated heart! he laughs! he fings!
Songs of gay import, madrigals of glee,
And drunken antheins fet agape the board.
Like Demea, in the play, benign and mild.
And pouring forth benevolence of soul,
Till Micio wonders; or, in Shakespear's line,
Obftreperous Silence; drowning Shallow's voice,
And ftartling Falstaff, and his mad compeers.
He owns 'tis prudence, ever and anon,
To fmooth his careful brow! to let his purfe
Ope to a fixpence's diameter!
He likes our ways; he owns the ways of wit
Are ways of pleafaunce, and deserve regard.
True we are dainty good fociety,
But what art thou? alas! confider well,
Thou bane of focial pleasure, know thyself.
Thy fell approach, like fome invasive damp
Breath'd through the pores of earth from Stygian caves,
Deftroy the lamp of mirth; the lamp which we
Its flamens boaft to guard: we know not how,
But at thy fight the fading flame affumes
A ghaftly blue, and in a stench expires.
True, thou feem'ft chang'd; all fainted, all ensky'd
The trembling tears that charge thy melting eyes
Say thou art honeft, and of gentle kind,
But all is falfe! an intermitting figh
Condemns each hour, each moment giv'n to smiles,
And deems thofe only loft, thou dost not lose.
Ev'n for a demi groat, this open'd foul,
This boon companion, this elastic breast
Revibrates quick; and fends the tuneful tongue
To lavish mufic on the rugged walls
Of fome dark dungeon. Hence thou caitiff, fly!
Touch not my glafs, nor drain my facred bowl,
Monster, ingrate! beneath one common sky
Why shouldst thou breathe? beneath one common roof
Thou ne'er fhalt harbour; nor my little boat
Receive a foul with crimes to press it down.
Go to thy bags, thou recreant! hourly go,
And, gazing there, bid them be wit, be mirth,
Be converfation. Not a face that fimiles
Admit thy prefence! not a foul that glows
With focial purport, bid or ev'n or morn
Inveft the happy! but when life declines,
May thy fure heirs and tittering round thy bed,
And, ushering in their favourites, burst thy locks,
And fill their lamps with gold; till want and care
With joy depart, and cry, "We afk no more."
Ah never never may th' harmonious mind
Endure the worldly! poets, ever void
Of guile, diftruftlefs, fcorn the treasur'd gold,
And fpurn the mifer, fpurn his deity.
Balanc'd with friendship, in the poet's eye
The rival fcale of interest kicks the beam,
Than lightning fwifter. From his cavern'd store
The fordid foul, with self-applause, remarks
The kind propensity; remarks and fmiles,
And hies with impious hafte to spread the snare.
Him we deride, and in our comic fcenes
Contemn the niggard förm Moliere has drawn.
We loath with justice; but alas the pain
To bow the knee before this calf of gold;
Implore his envious aid, and meet his frown!
But 'tis not Gomez, 'tis not he whofe heart
Is crufted o'er with drofs, whofe callous mind
Is fenfelefs as his gold, the flighted Muse
Intenfely loaths. 'Tis fure no equal task
To pardon him, who lavishes his wealth
On racer, fox-hound, hawk, or spaniel, all
But human merit; who with gold effays
All, but the nobleft pleasure, to remove
The want of genius, and its fmiles enjoy.
But you, ye titled youths! whose nobler zeal
Would burnish o'er your coronets with fame;
Who liften pleas'd when poet tunes his lay;
Permit him not, in diftant folitudes,
To pine, to languish out the fleeting hours
Of active youth! then virtue pants for praise
That feafon unadorn'd, the careless bard
Quits your worn threshold, and like honeft Gay
Contemns the niggard boon ye time fo ill.
Your favors then, like trophies given the tomb,
Th' enfranchis'd fpirit foaring not perceives,
Or fcorns perceiv'd; and execrates the smile
Which bade his vigorous bloom, to treacherous hopes
And fervile cares a prey, expire in vain!
Two lawless powers, engag'd by mutual hate
In endless war, beneath their flags enroll
The vaffal world. This avarice is nam'd,
That luxury; 'tis true their partial friends
Affign them fofter names; ufurpers both;
That share by dint of arms the legal throne
Of just œconomy; yet both betray'd
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