Thus fhe-Mankind are bleft, they riot still
Unbounded in exorbitance of ill.

By devastation the rough warrior gains,
And farmers fatten moft when famine reigns;
For fickly feasons the phyficians wait,
And politicians thrive in broils of ftate;
The Lover 's easy when the fair-one fighs,
And Gods fubfift not but by facrifice.

Each other being fome indulgence knows:
Few are my joys, but infinite my woes.
My prefent pain Britannia's genius wills,
And thus the fates record my future ills.
A heroine fhall Albion's fceptre bear,

·65

With arms fhall vanquish earth, and heaven with prayer.

She on the world her clemency shall shower,

And only to preferve exert her power.

75

Tyrants fhall then their impious aims forbear,
And Blenheim's thunder more than Etna's fear.
Since by no arts I therefore can defeat

The happy enterprizes of the great,

I'll calmly stoop to more inferior things,

And try

if my lov'd snakes have teeth or stings. She faid; and straight fhrill Colon's perfon took, In morals loose, but most precise in look.

VARIATIONS.

Worth in diftrefs is rais'd by Montague;
Auguftus liftens if Mæcenas fue;

And Vernon's vigilance no flumber takes,

Whilft faction peep's abroad, and anarchy awakes.

* Lee, an apothecary.

80

Black

Black-friars annals lately pleas'd to call
Him warden of Apothecaries-hall;
And, when fo dignify'd, did not forbear
That operation which the learn'd declare
Gives colics cafe, and makes the ladies fair.
In trifling fhow his tinfel talent lies;
And form the want of intellects fupplies.
In aspect grand and goodly he appears,
Rever'd as patriarchs in primæv al years.
Hourly his learn'd impertinence affords.
A barren fuperfluity of words;

The patient's ears remorfelefs he affails,
Murders with jargon where his medicine fails.
The Fury thus affuming Colon's grace,
So flung her arms, fo fhuffl'd in her pace.
Onwards the haftens to the fam'd abodes,
Where Horoscope invokes th' infernal gods;
And reach'd the mansion where the vulgar run,
For ruin throng, and pay to be undone.

This vifionary various projects tries,
And knows, that to be rich is to be wife.
By useful obfervations he can tell

The facred charms that in true fterling dwell;
How gold makes a patrician of a slave,

A dwarf an Atlas, a Therfites brave.

Ver. 95.

VARIATIONS.

In hafte he ftrides along, to recompenfe
The want of business with its vain pretence.

Dr. Barnard.

cancels all defects, and in their place
Finds fenfe in Brownlow, charms in lady Grace;
It guides the fancy, and directs the mind;
No bankrupt ever found a fair-one kind.
So truly Horofcope its virtues knows,
To this lov'd idol 'tis, alone, he bows;
And fancies fuch bright heraldry can prove,
The vile Plebeian but the third from Jove.
Long has he been of that amphibious fry,
Bold to prefcribe, and bufy to apply.
His fhop the gazing vulgar's eyes employs
With foreign trinkets, and domeftic toys.
Here mummies lay moft reverendly ftale;
And there the tortoife hung her coat of mail;
Not far from fome huge Shark's devouring head
The flying fish their finny pinions fpread ;
Aloft in rows large poppy-heads were ftrung,
And near, a fcaly alligator hung;

In this place, drugs in mufty heaps decay'd;
In that, dry'd bladders and drawn teeth were laid.
An inner room receives the numerous fhoals
Of fuch as pay to be reputed fools.

Globes ftand by globes, volumes on volumes lie,
And planetary schemes amufe the eye.
The fage, in velvet chair, here lolls at ease,
To promife future health for prefent fees;
Then, as from tripod, folemn fhame reveals,
And what the ftars know nothing of, foretels.
One afks how foon Panthea may be won,
And longs to feel the marriage-fetters on:

Others,

Others, convinc'd by melancholy proof,

Enquire when courteous fates will strike them off.
Some, by what means they may redress their wrong,
When fathers the poffeffion keep too long.
And fome would know the iffue of their caufe,
And whether gold can folder up its flaws.
Poor pregnant Lais his advice would have,
To lofe by art what fruitful Nature gave;
And Fortia, old in expectation grown,
Laments her barren curfe, and begs a fon :
Whilft Iris his cofmetic wafh would try,
To make her bloom revive, and lovers die.
Some afk for charms, and others philtres choose,
To gain Corinna, and their quartans lose.

140

Young Hylas, botch'd with ftains too foul to name,
In cradle here renews his youthful frame:
Cloy'd with defire, and furfeited with charms,
A hot-house he prefers to Julia's arms.
And old Lucullus would th' arcanum prove,
Of kindling in cold veins the sparks of love.

155

Bleak Envy thefe dull frauds with pleasure fees, 16. And wonders at the fer.felefs myfteries.

In Colon's voice the thus calls out aloud

On Horoscope environ'd by the croud :

Forbear, forbear, thy vain amufements ceafe,
Thy woodcocks from their gins awhile release;
And to that dire misfortune listen well,
Which thou fhould'ft fear to know, or I to tell.
Tis true, thou ever wast esteem'd by me
The great Alcides of our company.

165

When

When we with noble fcorn refolv'd to ease
Ourfelves from all parochial offices;
And to our wealthier patients left the care
And draggled dignity of fcavenger;
Such zeal in that affair thou didft exprefs,
Nought could be equal, but the great fuccefs.
Now call to mind thy generous prowess past,

170

175

Be what thou should'ft, by thinking what thou waft: The faculty of Warwick-lane defign,

If not to ftorm, at least to undermine.

Their gates each day ten thousand night-caps croud,
And mortars utter their attempts aloud.

If they should once unmask our mystery,
Each nurse, ere long, would be as learn'd as we;
Our art expos'd to every vulgar eye;
And none, in complaifance to us, would die.
What if we claim their right t' affaffinate,
Must they needs turn apothecaries straight ?
Prevent it, Gods! all ftratagems we try,
To croud with new inhabitants your íky.
'Tis we who wait the Deftinies' command,
the troubled air, and weed the land.
And dare the college infolently aim

Το

purge

185

190

To equal our fraternity in fame?

Then let crabs-eyes with pearl for virtue try,

Or Highgate-hill with lofty Pindus vie;

195

So glow-worms may compare with Titan's beams,

And Hare-court pump with Aganippe's streams.
Our manufactures now they meanly fell,
And their true value treacherously tell;