None ever can without admirers live,
Who have a pension or a place to give.
Great ministers ne'er fail of great deserts;

The herald gives them blood; the poet, parts.
Senfe is of course annex'd to wealth and power;
No Mufe is proof against a golden shower.
Let but his lordship write fome poor lampoon,
He's Horac'd up in doggrel like his own:
Or, if to rant in tragic rage he yields,

Falfe Fame cries—Athens; honest Truth-Moorfields.

Thus fool'd, he flounces on through floods of ink;
Flags with full-fail; and rifes but to fink.

Some venal pens so prostitute the bays,
Their panegyrics lafh; their fatires praise.
So naufeoufly, and fo unlike, they paint,
N's an Adonis; Mr, a faint.
Metius with those fam'd heroes is compar'd,
That led in triumph Porus and Tallard.

But fuch a fhameless Mufe must laughter move,
That aims to make Salmonius vie with Jove.

To form great works, puts Fate itself to pain;
Ev'n Nature labours for a mighty man,
And, to perpetuate her Hero's fame,
She strains no lefs a Poet next to frame.
Rare as the Hero's, is the Poet's rage;

20

25

30

Churchills and Drydens rife but once an age.

With earthquakes towering Pindar's birth begun;

35

And an eclipfe produc'd Alcmena's fon.

The fire of Gods o'er Phoebus caft a fhade;

But, with a hero, well the world repaid.

No

No bard for bribes fhould prostitute his vein;
Nor dare to flatter where he should arraign.
To grant big Thrafo valour, Phormio fenfe,
Should indignation give, at least offence.
I hate fuch mercenaries, and would try
From this reproach to rescue poetry.
Apollo's fons fhould fcorn the fervile art,

40

45

And to court-preachers leave the fulfome part.

What then-You'll fay, Muft no true fterling pafs, Because impure allays fome coin debafe?

Yes, praife, if juttly offer'd, I'll allow;
And, when I meet with merit, fcribble too.
The man who's honeft, open, and a friend,
Glad to oblige, uneasy to offend;

50

Forgiving others, to himfelf fevere;

Though earnest, eafy; civil, yet fincere;

Who feldom but through great good-nature errs;

-55

Detefting fraud as much as flatterers ;

'Tis he my Mufe's homage should receive;

*If I could write, or Hølles could forgive.

But pardon, learned youth, that I decline
Amame fo lov'd by me, fo lately thine.
When Pelham you refign'd, what could repair
A lofs fo great, unless Newcastle's heir?
Hydafpes, that the Afian plains divides,
"From his bright urn in pureft cryftal glides;

'60

But, when new-gathering ftreams enlarge his courfe, 65
He's Indus nam'd, and rolls with mightier force;
In fabled floods of gold his current flows,

And wealth on nations, as he runs, beflows.

'Direct me, Clare, to name fome nobler Mufe, That for her theme thy late recefs may choose; Such bright defcriptions fhall the fubject drefs, Such vary'd fcenes, fuch pleafing images,

7.0

That fwains fhall leave their lawns, and nymphs their bowers,

And quit Arcadia for a feat like yours.

But fay, who fhall attempt th' adventurous part
Where Nature borrows dress from Vanbrugh's art?
If, by Apollo taught, he touch the lyre,
Stones mount in columns, palaces aspire,
And rocks are animated with his fire.
'Tis he can paint in verse those rifing hills,
Their gentle vallies, and their filver rills;

75

}

Clofe groves, and opening glades with verdure spread,
Flowers fighing sweets, and shrubs that balfam bleed;
With gay variety the profpect.crown'd,

And all the bright Horizon smiling round.
Whilft I attempt to tell how ancient Fame

Records from whence the Villa took its name.

In times of old, when British nymphs were known

To love no foreign fashions like their own;

80

8.5

When drefs was monftrous, and fig-leaves the mode, 90 And quality put on no paint hut woad.;

Cf Spanish red unheard was then the name

(For cheeks were only taught to blush by shame);

No beauty, to increase her crowd of slaves,

Rofe out of wash, as Venus out of waves;

95

Not yet lead-comb was on the toilet plac'd ;
Not yet broad eye-brows were reduc'd by paste ;

Ne

No fhape-fmith fet up shop, and drove a trade
To mend the work wife Providence had made;
Tires were unheard of, and unknown the loom,
And thrifty filkworms spun for times to come;
Bare limbs were then the marks of modefty;
All like Diana were below the knee.

The men appear'd a rough, undaunted race,
Surly in fhow, unfashion'd in addrefs;
Upright in actions, and in thought fincere ;
And ftrictly were the fame they would appear.
Honour was plac'd in probity alone ;
For villains had no titles but their own.
None travel'd to return politely mad;
But ftill what fancy wanted, reafon had,
Whatever Nature afk'd, their hands could give;
Unlearn'd in feafts, they only eat to live.
No cook with art increas'd phyficians' fees:
Nor ferv'd up Death in foups and fricafees:
Their taste was, like their temper, unrefin'd;
For looks were then the language of the mind.

Ere right and wrong, by turns, fet prices bore;
And confcience had its rate like common whore;
Or tools to great employments had pretence;
Or merit was made out by impudence ;
Or coxcombs look'd affuming in affairs;
And humble friends grew haughty ministers;
In thofe good days of innocence, here stood
Of oaks, with heads unfhorn, a folemn wood,
Frequented by the Druids, to beflow
Religious honours on the Miffeltoe.

The naturalifts are puzzled to explain, How trees did firft this ftranger entertain s Whether the bufy birds ingraft it there; Or elfe fome deity's myfterious care,

130

As Druids thought; for, when the blasted oak
By lightning falls, this plant efcapes the ftroke.
So, when the Gauls the towers of Rome defac'd,
And flames drove forward with outrageous wafte, 135
Jove's favour'd capitol uninjur'd stood:

So facred was the manfion of a God.

Shades honour'd by this plant the Druids chofe,
Here, for the bleeding victims, altars rose.
To Hermes oft' they paid their facrifice ;
Parent of arts, and patron of the wife.

Good rules in mild perfuafions they convey'd ;
Their lives confirming what their lectures faid.
None violated truth, invaded right;

140

Yet had few laws, but will and appetite.

145

The people's peace they studied, and profest
No politicks but public interest.

Hard was their lodging, homely was their food
For all their luxury was doing good.

No mitre'd prieft did then with princes vie,

150

Nor o'er his mafter claim fupremacy;

Nor were the rules of faith allow'd more pure,
For being feveral centuries obfcure.

None loft their fortunes, forfeited their blood,

For not believing what none underflood.

155

Nor fimony, nor fine-cure, were known ;

Nor would the Bee work honey for the Drone.