His morning draughts till noon can swill,
Among his brethren of the quill :
With good roast beef his belly full,
Grown lazy, foggy, fat, and dull,
Deep sunk in plenty and delight,
What poet e'er could take his flight?
Or stuff'd with phlegm up to the throat,
What poet e'er could sing a note ?
Nor Pegasus could bear the load
Along the high celestial road;

The steed, oppress'd, would break his girth,
To raise the lumber from the earth.
But view him in another scene,
When all his drink is Hippocrene.
His money spent, his patrons fail,
His credit out for cheese and ale;
His two-years coat so smooth and bare,
Through every thread it lets in air;
With hungry meals his body pin'd,
His guts and belly full of wind;
And like a jockey for a race,
His flesh brought down to flying case:
Now his exalted spirit loathes
Encumbrances of food and clothes;'
And up he rises like a vapour,
Supported high on wings of paper.
He singing flies, and flying sings,
While from below all Grub-Street rings.

THE SOUTH-SEA PROJECT. 1721.

"Apparent rari nantes in gurgite vasto,

Arma virum, tabulæque, et Troïa gaza per undas."-VIRG.

[When the deluded people of England awoke from their golden dream of South Sea wealth, their wrath rose to the brim against the directors by whom that ruinous project had been conducted. The parliamentary proceedings instituted against them were carried on with unusual violence. Gibbon, the historian, descended from one of these directors, complains grievously of the injustice with which they were treated. "The legislature restrained the persons of the directors, imposed an exorbitant security for their appearance, and marked their characters with a previous note of ignominy. They were compelled to deliver, upon oath, the strict value of their estates, and were disabled from making any transfer or alienation of any part of their property. Against a bill of pains and penalties, it is the common right of every subject to be heard by his counsel at the bar: they prayed to be heard; their prayer was refused; and their oppressors, who required no evidence, would listen to no defence. It had been at first proposed, that one eighth of their respective estates should be allowed for the future support of the directors; but it was speciously urged, that, in the various shades of opulence and guilt, such a proportion would be too light for many, and for some might possibly be too heavy. All were condemned, absent and unheard, in arbitrary fines and forfeitures, which swept away the greater part of their substance."-GIBBON'S Miscellaneous Works, I. 11.]

YE wise philosophers explain

What magic makes our money rise,
When dropt into the Southern main:
Or do these jugglers cheat our eyes?

Put in your money fairly told;
Presto! be gone 'Tis here again :
Ladies and gentlemen, behold,
Here's every piece as big as ten.

Thus in a bason drop a shilling,
Then fill the vessel to the brim;
You shall observe, as you are filling,
The ponderous metal seems to swim:

It rises both in bulk and height,
Behold it swelling like a sop;
The liquid medium cheats your sight:
Behold it mounted to the top!

In stock three hundred thousand pounds,
I have in view a lord's estate;
My manors all contiguous round!

A coach and six, and serv'd in plate!

Thus the deluded bankrupt raves;
Puts all upon a desperate bet;
Then plunges in the Southern waves,
Dipt over head and ears-in debt.

So, by a calenture misled,

The mariner with rapture sees,
On the smooth ocean's azure bed,
Enamell'd fields and verdant trees:

With eager haste he longs to rove
In that fantastic scene, and thinks
It must be some enchanted grove;
And in he leaps, and down he sinks.

Five hundred chariots just bespoke,
Are sunk in these devouring waves,
The horses drown'd, the harness broke,
And here the owners find their graves.

Like Pharaoh, by directors led,

They with their spoils went safe before :
His chariots, tumbling out the dead,
Lay shatter'd on the Red Sea shore.

Rais'd up on Hope's aspiring plumes,
The young adventurer o'er the deep
An eagle's flight and state assumes,

And scorns the middle way to keep.

On paper wings he takes his flight,
With wax the father bound them fast;
The wax is melted by the height,
And down the towering boy is cast.

A moralist might here explain
The rashness of the Cretan youth;
Describe his fall into the main,
And from a fable form a truth.

His wings are his paternal rent,
He melts the wax at every flame;
His credit sunk, his money spent,
In Southern Seas he leaves his name.

Inform us, you that best can tell,

Why in that dangerous gulf profound, Where hundreds and where thousands fell, Fools chiefly float, the wise are drown'd?

So have I seen from Severn's brink

B

A flock of geese jump down together; Swim, where the bird of Jove would sink, 10And, swimming, never wet a feather.

But, I affirm, 'tis false in fact,

Directors better knew their tools;

We see the nation's credit crack'd,

Each knave has made a thousand fools.

One fool may from another win,

And then get off with money stor❜d, But, if a sharper once comes in,

He throws at all, and sweeps the board.

As fishes on each other prey,

The great ones swallowing up the small,
So fares it in the Southern Sea;
The whale directors eat up all.

When stock is high, they come between,
Making by second-hand their offers;
Then cunningly retire unseen,

With each a million in his coffers.

So, when upon a moonshine night,
An ass was drinking at a stream,
A cloud arose, and stopt the light,
By intercepting every beam:

The day of judgment will be soon,

Cries out a sage among the crowd; An ass has swallow'd up the moon! The moon lay safe behind the cloud.

T