Nature's great works no distance can obfcure,
No fmallness her near objects can fecure;
Y' have taught the curious fight to prefs
Into the privatest recess

Of her imperceptible littleness!

Y' have learn'd to read her smallest hand,
And well begun her deepest fenfe to understand !

Mischief and true difhonour fall on those
Who would to laughter or to scorn expose
So virtuous and fo noble a defign,

So human for its ufe, for knowledge fo divine.
The things which these proud men despise, and cal
Impertinent, and vain, and fmall,,

Those smallest things of nature let me know,.
Rather than all their greatest actions do!
Whoever would deposed Truth advance
Into the throne ufurp'd from it,
Muft feel at first the blows of Ignorance,
And the sharp points of envious Wit.

So, when, by various turns of the celeftial dance,
In many thousand years.

Aftar, fo long unknown, appears,

Though heaven itself more beauteous by it grow,
It troubles and alarms the world below;
Does to the wife a ftar, to fools a meteor, fhow.

and fuccefs you

}

}

the bold work begin;

With courage
Your cradle has not idle been :

None e'er, but Hercules and you, would be

At five years age worthy a history.

And

And ne'er did Fortune better yet

Th' hiftorian to the story fit:

As

you from all old errors free

And purge the body of Philofophy;

So from all modern follies he

Has vindicated Eloquence and Wit.

His candid ftyle like a clean stream does flide,
And his bright fancy, all the way,

Does like the fun-shine in it play;

It does, like Thames, the best of rivers! glide,
Where the God does not rudely overturn,

But gently pour, the crystal urn,

And with judicious hand does the whole current guide: 'T has all the beauties Nature can impart,

And all the comely dress, without the paint, of Art.

UPON THE

CHAIR made out of Sir FRANCIS DRAKE'S SHIP, Prefented to the University Library of Oxford, by John Davis of Deptford, Efquire.

T

O this great ship, which round the globe has run And match'd in race the chariot of the fun, This Pythagorean fhip (for it may claim Without prefumption fo deferv'd a name, By knowledge once, and transformation now) In her new shape, this facred port allow.

7

Drake

Drake and his fhip could not have wish'd from Fate
A more bleft station, or more bleft eftate;

For lo! a feat of endless reft is given
To her in Oxford, and to him in heaven.

PROLOGUE

To the CUTTER OF COLMAN STREET.

AS, when the midland fea is no where clear

From dreadful fleets of Tunis and Argier-
Which coaft about, to all they meet with foes,
And upon which nought can be got but blows-
The merchant-fhips fo much their paffage doubt,
That, though full-freighted, none dares venture out,
And trade decays, and scarcity enfues :

Juft fo the timorous wits of late refuse,
Though laded, to put forth upon the stage,
Affrighted by the criticks of this age.

It is a party numerous, watchful, bold;

They can from nought, which fails in fight, with-hold;
Nor do their cheap, though mortal, thunder spare ;
They fhoot, alas! with wind-guns charg'd with air.
But yet, gentlemen-criticks of Argier,

For your own intereft I 'd advise ye here,
To let this little forlorn-hope go by

Safe and untouch'd. "That must not be" (you 'll cry.)
If ye be wife, it muft; I'll tell you why.

There are feven, eight, nine-stay-there are behind J
Ten plays at least, which wait but for a wind,

And

And the glad news that we the enemy miss;
And those are all your own, if you spare this.
Some are but new trimm'd up, others quite new;
Some by known fhipwrights built, and others too
By that great author made, whoe'er he be,
That ftyles himself" Perfon of Quality;"
All thefe, if we mifcarry here to-day,

Will rather till they rot in th' harbour stay;
Nay, they will back again, though they were come
Ev'n to their laft fafe road, the tyring-room.
Therefore again I say, if you be wife,

Let this for once pafs free; let it fuffice
That we, your fovereign power here to avow,
Thus humbly, ere we pass, strike fail to you.

ADDED AT COURT.

STAY, gentlemen; what I have faid was all
But forc'd fubmiffion, which I now recall.
Ye 're all but pirates now again; for here
Does the true fovereign of the feas appear,
The fovereign of these narrow feas of wit;
"Tis his own Thames; he knows and governs it.
'Tis his dominion and domain; as he
Pleafes, 'tis either fhut to us, or free.
Not only, if his paffport we obtain,
We fear no little rovers of the main;

But, if our Neptune his calm vifage show,
No wave fhall dare to rife or wind to blow.

THE

THE MISTRESS,

O R

SEVERAL COPIES OF LOVE-VERSES.

"Hæret lateri lethalis arundo."

VIRG.

I

'ave often with'd to love; what shall I do?

Me ftill the cruel boy does fpare;

And I a double task must bear,

First to wooe him, and then a mistress too.
Come at last and strike, for fhame,
If thou art any thing besides a name;
I'll think thee elfe no God to be,

But poets rather Gods, who first created thee.

I ask not one in whom all beauties grow;
Let me but love, whate'er fhe be,
She cannot feem deform'd to me;
And I would have her feem to others fo.
Defire takes wings and strait does fly,
It stays not dully to enquire the Why.

That happy thing, a lover, grown,

I fhall not fee with others' eyes, fcarce with mine own.

3

If