Moft think what has been heap'd on you
To other fort of folk was due:
Epifiles, riddles, epigrams.
Though now your depth muft not be founded,
you 'd have compounded
For less than Charley Grattan's fchool :
Five hundred pound a year's no fool!·
Take this advice then from you friend,
your ambition put an end.
Be frugal, Pat pay what you owe,
Before you build and you bestow.
Be modeft; nor addrefs your betters
With begging, vain, familiar letters,
A paffage may be found *, I 've heard,
In fome old Greek or Latian bard,
Which fays, "Would crows in filence eat.
"Their offals, or their better meat,
"Their generous feeders not provoking
By loud and unharmonious croaking: "They might, unhurt by Envy's claws, "Live on, and ftuff to boot their maws."
*Hor. Lib. I. Ep. xvii.
ON THE REVEREND
DEL A N Y,
JOHN LORD CARTERET. 1729..
DELUDED mortals, whom the great
Chufe for companions tete à tete;
Who at their dinners, en famille,
Get leave to fit whene'er you will;
Then boafting tell us where you din'd,
And how his lordship was fo kind;
How many pleasant things he spoke,
And how you laugh'd at every joke :.
Swear he's a moft facetious man ;
That you and he are cup and can :
You travel with a heavy load,
And quite mistake preferment's road.
Suppofe my lord and you alone;
Hint the least interest of your own,
His vifage drops, he knits his brow,
He cannot talk of bufinefs now:
Or, mention but a vacant post,
He'll turn it off with, " Name your toast:"-
Nor could the nicest artist paint
A countenance with more constraint.
For as, their appetites to quench, Lords keep a pimp to bring a wench;
THE IINIVERSITY OF MICHIKAN LIKHADICO
So men of wit are but a kind
Of pandars to a vicious mind;
Who proper objects must provide
To gratify their luft of pride,
When, wearied with intrigues of state,
They find an idle hour to prate.
Then, fhall you dare to ask a place,
You forfeit all your patron's grace,
And disappoint the fole design,
For which he fummon'd you to dine.
Thus Congreve spent in writing plays,
And one poor office, half his days:
While Montague, who claim'd the station
To be Mæcenas of the nation,
For poets open table kept,
But ne'er confider'd where they slept : 'Himself as rich as fifty Jews,
Was eafy, though they wanted fhoes;
And crazy Congreve scarce could spare
A fhilling to discharge his chair:
Till prudence taught him to appeal
From Pæan's fire to party zeal ;
Not owing to his happy vein
The fortunes of his later scene,
Took proper principles to thrive ;
And fo might every dunce alive.
Thus Steele, who own'd what others writ,
And flourish'd by imputed wit,
From perils of a hundred jails
Withdrew to ftarve, and die in Wales.
Thus Gay, the bare with many friends,
Twice feven long years the court attends :
Who, under tales conveying truth,
To virtue form'd a princely youth *:
Who paid his courtship with the croud
As far as modeft pride allow'd ;
Rejects a fervile uber's place,
And leaves St. James's in difgrace.
Thus Addison, by lords carest,
Was left in foreign lands distrest;
Forgot at home, became for hire
A traveling tutor to a 'squire:
But wifely left the Mufes' hill,
To business shap'd the poet's quill,
Let all his barren laurels fade,
Took up himself the courtier's trade,
And, grown a minifter of flate,
Saw poets at his levee wait.
Hail, happy Pope! whofe generous, mind
Detefting all the statesman kind,
Contemning courts, at courts unfeen,
Refus'd the vifits of a queen.
A foul with every virtue fraught,
By fages, priefts, or poets taught;
Whose filial piety excels
Whatever Grecian story tells;
A genius for all stations fit,
Whofe meanest talent is his wit;
* William duke of Cumberland, fon to George II.
His heart too great, though fortune little,.
To lick a rafeal fatefman's fpittle;
Appealing to the nation's taste,
Above the reach of want is plac'd:
By Homer dead was taught to thrive,
Which Homer never could alive;
And fits aloft on Pindus' head,
Defpifing Alaves that cringe for bread..
True politicians only pay
For folid work, but not for play;
Nor ever chufe to work with tools
Forg'd up in colleges and fchools.
Confider how much more is due
To all their journeymen than you :-
At table you can Horace quote;
They at a pinch can bribe a vote :
You fhew your skill in Grecian story;
But they can manage Whig and Tory:
You, as a critick, are fo curious
To find a verfe in Virgil fpurious;
But they can fmoke the deep defigns,
When Bolingbroke with Pulteney dines.
Befides, your patron may upbraid ye,
That you
have got a place already;
An office for your talents fit,
To flatter, carve, and fhew your wit;
To fnuff the lights and stir the fire,
And get a dinner for your hire.
What claim have you to place or penfion?
He overpays in condescension.
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