Not that barbarian hands her fafces broke,
And bow'd her haughty neck beneath their yoke;
Nor that her palaces to earth are thrown,
Her cities defart, and her fields unfown;
But that her ancient spirit is decay'd,

That facred wifdom from her bounds is fled;
That there the fource of fcience flows no more,
Whence its rich ftreams fupplied the world before.
Illuftrious names! that once in Latium hin'd,
Born to inftru&t, and to command mankind;
Chiefs, by whofe virtue mighty Rome was rais'd,
And poets, who those chiefs fublimely prais'd;
Oft I the traces you have left explore,

Your afhes vifit, and your urns adore;

Oft kifs, with lips devout, fome mouldering stone,
With ivy's venerable shade o'ergrown ;

Those horrid ruins better pleas'd to fee
Than all the pomp of modern luxury.

As late on Virgil's tomb fresh flowers I ftrow'd,
While with th' inspiring Muse my bofom glow'd,
Crown'd with eternal bays, my ravish'd eyes
Beheld the poet's awful form arise :

"Stranger, he said, whofe pious hand has paid "These grateful rites to my attentive shade, "When thou shalt breathe thy happy native air, "To Pope this message from his master bear:

"Great bard, whose numbers I myself infpire, "To whom I gave my own harmonious lyre, "If, high exalted on the throne of wit, "Near me and Homer thou afpire to fit,

"No more let meaner fatire dim the rays
"That flow majestic from thy nobler bays;
"In all the flowery paths of Pindus ftray,
"But fhun that thorny, that unpleafing way;
"Nor, when each foft engaging Mufe is thine,
"Addrefs the least attractive of the Nine.

"Of thee more worthy were the task, to raise "A lafting column to thy country's praise; "To fing the land, which yet alone can boast "That liberty corrupted Rome has loft; "Where Science in the arms of Peace is laid, “And plants her palm beneath the olive's fhade. "Such was the theme for which my lyre I ftrung, "Such was the people whofe exploits I fung; "Brave, yet refin'd, for arms and arts renown'd, "With different bays by Mars and Phoebus crown'd; "Dauntless opposers of tyrannic sway,

"But pleas'd a mild Auguftus to obey.

"If these commands fubmiffive thou receive, "Immortal and unblam'd thy name shall live, "Envy to black Cocytus fhall retire;

And howl with Furies in tormenting fire; Approving Time shall confecrate thy lays, "And join the patriot's to the poet's praife."

TO

[ 37

то

LORD HER VE Y.

In the Year 1730. From Worcestershire.

<<< Strenua nos exercet inertia : navibus atque

Quadrigis petimus bene vivere: quod petis, hic eft; "Eft ulubris, animus fi te non deficit æquus." HOR.

AVOURITE of Venus and the tuneful Nine,

FA

Pollio, by Nature form'd in courts to shine,

Wilt thou once more a kind attention lend,
To thy long abfent and forgotten friend';
Who, after feas and mountains wander'd o'er,
Return'd at length to his own native shore,
From all that's gay retir'd, and all that's great,
Beneath the fhades of his paternal feat,
Has found that happiness he fought in vain
On the fam'd banks of Tiber and of Seine?

'Tis not to view the well-proportion'd pile,
The charms of Titian's and of Raphael's ftyle;
At foft Italian founds to melt away;
Or in the fragrant groves of myrtle stray;
That lulls the tumults of the foul to reft,
Or makes the fond poffeffor truly bleft.
In our own breafts the fource of pleasure lies,
Still open, and still flowing to the wife;
Not forc'd by toilfome art and wild defire
Beyond the bounds of nature to afpire,

D 3

But,

But, in its proper channels gliding fair;
A common benefit, which all may share.
Yet half mankind this eafy good disdain,
Nor relish happiness unbought by pain;

Falfe is their tafte of blifs, and thence their search
is vain.

So idle, yet fo reftlefs, are our minds,

We climb the Alps, and brave the raging winds ;
Through various toils to feek Content we roam,
Which with but thinking right were ours' at home.
For not the ceaseless change of fhifted place
Can from the heart a fettled grief erase,
Nor can the purer balm of foreign air
Heal the distemper'd mind of aking care.
The wretch, by wild impatience driven to rove,
Vext with the pangs of ill-requited love,
From Pole to Pole the fatal arrow bears,
Whofe rooted point his bleeding bofom tears;
With equal pain each different clime he tries,
And is himfelf that torment which he flies.

For how should ills, which from our paffions flow,
Be chang`d by Africk's heat, or Russia's fnow?
Or how can aught but powerful reafon cure
What from unthinking folly we endure?
Happy is He, and He alone, who knows
His heart's uneafy difcord to compofe;
In generous love of others good, to find
The fweeteft pleasures of the focial mind;
To bound his wishes in their proper sphere;

To nourish pleasing hope, and conquer anxious fear:

This was the wifdom ancient fages taught,

This was the fovereign good they justly fought;.
This to no place or climate is confin'd,

But the free native produce of the mind.

Nor think, my Lord, that courts to you deny
The ufeful practice of philofophy:

Horace, the wifeft of the tuneful choir,
Not always chose from greatness to retire;
But, in the palace of Augustus, knew
The fame unerring maxims to purfue,
Which, in the Sabine or the Velian shade,
His study and his happiness he made.

May you, my friend, by his example taught,
View all the giddy scene with fober thought;
Undazzled every glittering folly fee,

And in the midst of flavish forms be free;
In its own centre keep your steady mind,
Let Prudence guide you, but let Honour bind.
In fhow, in manners, act the courtier's part;
But be a country gentleman at heart. -

ADVICE TO ALAD Y. 1731.

THE counfels of a friend, Belinda, hear,

Too roughly kind to please a lady's ear,

Unlike the flatterics of a lover's pen,

Such truths as women feldom learn from men.