"Whose wit and virtue shall thy own exprefs, "Distinguish'd only by their fofter dress: "Thy greatness fhe, or thy retreat, shall share; "Sweeten tranquillity, or foften care; "Her fimiles the taste of every joy shall raise, "And add new pleasure to renown and praise; "Till charm'd you own the truth my verfe would 66 prove,

"That happiness is near allied to love."

VERSES to be written under a PICTURE of Mr. Po Y N T Z.

UCH is thy form, O Poyntz, but who shall find

SUCH

A hand, or colours, to express thy mind?

A mind unmov'd by every vulgar fear,

In a falfe world that dares to be fincere;
Wife without art; without ambition great;
Though firm, yet pliant; active, though fedate;
With all the richest stores of learning fraught,
Yet better ftill by native prudence taught;
That, fond the griefs of the distrest to heal,
Can pity frailties it could never feel;

That, when Misfortune fued, ne'er fought to know
What fect, what party, whether friend or foe;
That, fix'd on equal virtue's temperate laws,
Defpifes calumny, and shuns applause;
That, to its own perfections singly blind,
Would for another think this praise defign'd.

AN EPISTLE TO MR. POPE.

From Rome, 1730.

IMMORTAL bard! for whom each Mufe has wove
The fairest garlands of th' Aonian grove;
Preferv'd our drooping genius to restore,
When Addison and Congreve are.no more;
After so many stars extinct in night,
The darken'd age's last remaining light!
To thee from Latian realms this verfe is writ,
Inspir'd by memory of antient wit;

For now no more thefe climes their influence boast,
Fall'n is their glory, and their virtue loft;
From tyrants, and from priests, the Muses fly,
Daughters of Reason and of Liberty!

Nor Baïe now nor Umbria's plain they love,
Nor on the banks of Nar or Mincio rove;
To Thames's flowery borders they retire,
And kindle in thy breast the Roman fire.
So in the fhades, where, chear'd with fummer rays,
Melodious linnets warbled sprightly lays,
Soon as the faded, falling leaves complain.
Of gloomy Winter's unaufpicious reign,
No tuneful voice is heard of joy or love,
But mournful filence faddens all the grove.
Unhappy Italy! whofe alter'd state

Has felt the work severity of fate:

Not

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 unsown;
But that her ancient spirit is decay'd,

That facred wisdom from her bounds is fled
That there the fource of fcience flows no more,
Whence its rich ftreams fupplied the world before.
Illustrious names! that once in Latium fhin'd,
Born to instruct, and to command mankind;
Chiefs, by whofe virtue mighty Rome was rais'd,
And poets, who thofe chiefs fublimely prais'd;
Oft I the traces you have left explore,

Your ashes vifit, and your urns adore;

Oft kifs, with lips devout, fome mouldering ftone,
'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' infpiring Mufe my bofom glow'd,
Crown'd with eternal bays, my ravish'd eyes
Beheld the poet's awful form arise :

"Stranger, he faid, whose pious hand has paid "Thefe grateful rites to my attentive shade, "When thou shalt breathe thy happy native air, "To Pope this message from his master bear : "Great bard, whofe numbers I myself inspire, "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 thun that thorny, that unpleafing way;
"Nor, when each foft engaging Mufe is thine,
"Addrefs the leaft 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 thefe commands fubmiffive thou receive, "Immortal and unblam'd thy name fhall 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."

то

LORD

то

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.

F

AVOURITE of Venus and the tuneful Nine,
Pollio, by Nature form'd in courts to fhine,

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 ftill flowing to the wife ;
Not forc'd by toilfome art and wild defire

Beyond the bounds of nature to afpire,