[eas'd,

What fool for noisy feuds large fees would leave?
Ten harvests more would all I wish for give."
"True man!" reply'd the elf; "by choice dis-
Ever contriving pain, and never pleas'd.
A present good they slight, an absent choose;
And what they have, for what they have not, lose.
False prospects all their true delights destroy,
Resolv'd to want, yet labouring to enjoy.
In restless hurries thoughtlessly they live,

Though gods themselves engage, a Diomed
With ease could show a deity can bleed.

"But war's rough trade should be by fools profest,
The truest rubbish fills a trench the best.
Let quinsies throttle, and the quartan shake, 165
Or dropsies drown, and gout and colics rack;
Let sword and pestilence lay waste, while we
Wage bloodless wars, and fight in theory.
Who wants not merit, needs no arm for fame;

At substance oft unmov'd, for shadows grieve. 100 The dead I raise, my chivalry proclaim;
Children at toys, as men at titles, aim;

And in effect both covet but the same.
This Philip's son prov'd in revolving years;
And first for rattles, then for worlds shed tears."
The fury spoke; then in a moment fir'd
The hero's breast with tempests, and retir'd.

In boding dreams Mirmillo spent the night,
And frightful phantoms danc'd before his sight,
'Till the pale Pleiads clos'd their eyes of light.
At length gay morn glows in the eastern skies, 110
The larks in raptures through the ether rise,
The azure mists scud o'er the dewy lawns,
The chanter at Iris early matins yawns,
The amaranth opes its leaves, the lys its bells,
And Progne her complaint of Tereus tells.

120

[ceives.

170

180

Diseases baffled, and lost health restor❜d,
In Fame's bright list my victories record.
More lives from me their preservation own,
Than lovers lose if fair Cornelia frown."
"Your cures, shrill Querpo cry'd, aloud you tell,
But wisely your miscarriages conceal.
Zeno, a priest, in Samothrace of oid,
Thus reason'd with Philopidas the bold:
'Immortal gods you own, but think them blind
To what concerns the state of human kind.
Either they hear not, or regard not prayer;
That argues want of power, and this of care.
Allow that wisdom infinite must know:
Power infinite must act.' I grant it so.'
Haste straight to Neptune's fane; survey with zeal
The walls.' What then?' reply'd the infidel.
Observe those numerous throngs, in effigy,
The gods have sav'd from the devouring sea.'
"Tis true, their pictures that escap'd you keep,
But where are theirs that perish'd in the deep?'
"Vaunt now no more the triumph of your skill,
But though unfec'd, exert your arm, and kill.
Our scouts have learn'd the posture of the foe;
In war, surprises surest conduct show."

But Fame, that neither good nor bad conceals,
That Pembroke's worth, and Ormond's valour tells;
How truth in Burnet, how in Cavendish, reigns,
Varro's magnificence with Maro's strains;
But how at church and bar all gape and stretch
130 If Winnington but plead, or South or Only preach;
On nimble wings to Warwick-lane repairs, 201
And what the enemy intends, declares.
Confusion in each countenance appear'd,
A council's call'd, and Stentor first was heard;
His labouring lungs the thron'd prætorium rent,
Addressing thus the passive president:

As bold Mirmillo the grey dawn descries,
Arm'd cap-a-pee, where honour calls, he flies,
And finds the legions planted at their post;
Where mighty Querpo fill'd the eye the most.
His arms were made, if we may credit fame,
By Mulciber, the mayor of Birmingham.
Of temper'd stibium the bright shield was cast,
And yet the work the metal far surpass'd.
A foliage of the vulnerary leaves,
Grav'd round the brim, the wondering sight de-
Around the centre Fate's bright trophies lay,
Probes, saws, incision-knives, and tools to slay.
Embost upon the field, a battle stood
Of leeches spouting hæmorrhoidal blood.
The artist too express'd the solemn state
Of grave physicians at a consult met;
About each symptom how they disagree,
But how unanimous in case of fee.
Whilst each assassin his learn'd colleague tires
With learn'd impertinence, the sick expires.
Beneath this blazing orb bright Querpo shone,
Himself an Atlas, and his shield a moon.
A pestal for his truncheon led the van,
And his high helmet was a close-stool pan.
His crest an ibis, brandishing her beak,
And winding in loose folds her spiral neck.
This when the young Querpoïdes beheld,
His face in nurse's breast the boy conceal'd;
Then peept, and with th' effulgent helm would play,
And as the monster gap'd, would shrink away.
Thus sometimes joy prevail'd, and sometimes fear;
And tears and smiles alternate passions were.

211

"Machaon, whose experience we adore,
Great as your matchless merit, is your power.
At your approach, the baffled tyrant Death[teeth.
140 Breaks his keen shafts, and grinds his clashing
To you we leave the conduct of the day;
What you command your vassals must obey.
If this dread enterprise you would decline,
We'll send to treat, and stifle the design.
But, if my arguments had force, we'd try
To humble our audacious foes, or die:
Our spite, they 'll find, to their advantage leans;
The end is good, no matter for the means.
So modern casuists their talents try,
Uprightly for the sake of truth to lie."

150

As Querpo towering stood in martial might,
Pacific Carus sparkled on the right.
An oran outang o'er his shoulders hung,
His plume confess'd the capon whence it sprung.
His motly mail scarce could the hero bear,
Haranguing thus the tribunes of the war:

220

He had not finish'd, till th' out-guards descry'd Bright columus move in formidable pride;

But whilst he view'd with pity the distress'd,
He spy'd Signetur 7 writ upon his breast. 340
Then tow'rds the skies he toss'd his threatening
head,

And, fir'd with more than mortal fury, said:
"Sooner than I'll from vow'd revenge desist,
His Holiness shall turn a Quietist;
Jansenius and the Jesuits agree,
The inquisition wink at heresy,

Warm convocations own the church secure,

And more consult her doctrine than her power."
With that he drew a lancet in his rage,
To puncture the still supplicating sage.

350

But, while his thoughts that fatal stroke decree,
Apollo interpos'd in form of fee.

The chief great Pæan's golden tresses knew,
He own'd the god, and his rais'd arm withdrew.
Thus often at the Temple-stairs we've seen,
Two Tritons of a rough athletic mien,
Sourly dispute some quarrel of the flood,

And with his heavenly guide the charge descends.
Thus Numa, when to hallow'd caves retir'd,
Was by Egeria guarded and inspir'd.

Within the chambers of the globe they spy
The beds where sleeping vegetables lie,
Till the glad summons of a genial ray
Unbinds the glebe, and calls them out to day.
Hence pancies trick themselves in various hue,
And hence jonquils derive their fragrant dew;
Hence the carnation and the bashful rose
Their virgin blushes to the morn disclose;
Hence the chaste lily rises to the light,

50

With knuckles bruis'd, and face besmear'd in Unveils her snowy breasts, and charms the sight;

blood;

But, at the first appearance of a fare,

Both quit the fray, and to their oars repair.
The hero so his enterprise recalls,

His fist unclenches, and the weapon falls.

CANTO VI.

Hence arbours are with twining greens array'd, T'oblige complaining lovers with their shade; 360 And hence on Daphne's laurel'd forehead grow Immortal wreaths for Phoebus and Nassau.

10

WHILE the shrill clangour of the battle rings,
Auspicious Health appeared on Zephyr's wings;
She seem'd a cherub most divinely bright,
More soft than air, more gay than morning-light.
A charm she takes from each excelling fair,
And borrows Carlisle's shape, and Grafton's air.
Her eyes like Ranelagh's their beams dispense,
With Churchill's bloom, and Berkeley's innocence;
On Iris thus the differing beams bestow
The dye, that paints the wonders of her bow;
From the fair nymph a vocal music falls,
As to Machaon thus the goddess calls: [shown,
"Enough, th' achievement of your arms you've
You seek a triumph you should blush to own.
"Haste to th' Elysian fields, those bless'd abodes,
Where Harvey sits among the demi-gods.
Consult that sacred sage, he 'll soon disclose
The method that must mollify these woes.
Let Celsus 8 for that enterprise prepare,
His conduct to the Shades shall be my care,"
Aghast the heroes stood dissolv'd in fear,
A form so heavenly bright they could not bear;
Celsus, alone unmov'd, the sight beheld,
The rest in pale confusion left the field.

20

So when the pygmies, marshail'd on the plains,
Wage puny war, against th' invading cranes;
The puppets to their bodkin spears repair,
And scatter'd feathers flutter in the air;
But, when the bold imperial bird of Jove
Stoops on his sounding pinions from above,
Among the brakes the fairy nation crowds,
And the Strimonian squadron seeks the clouds.

VARIATIONS.

30

60

The insects here their lingering trance survive:
Benumb'd they seem'd, and doubtful if alive.
From winter's fury hither they repair,
And stay for milder skies and softer air.
Down to these cells obscener reptiles creep,
Where hateful nutes and painted lizards sleep;
Where shivering snakes the summer solstice wait;
Unfurl their painted folds, and slide in state.
Here their new form the numb'd erucæ hide
Their numerous feet, in slender bandage ty❜d:
Soon as the kindling ear begins to rise,
This upstart race their native clod despise,
And proud of painted wings attempt the skies. 70
Now those profounder regions they explore,
Where metals ripen in vast cakes of ore.
Here, sullen to the sight, at large is spread
The dull unwieldy mass of lumpish lead.
The light aspiring seeds of sprightly tin.
There, glimmering in their dawning beds, are seen
The copper sparkles next in ruddy streaks;
And in the gloom betrays its glowing cheeks.
The silver then, with bright and burnish'd grace,
Youth and a blooming lustre in its face,
80
To th' arms of those more yielding metals flies,
And in the folds of their embraces lies.
So close they cling, so stubbornly retire;
Their love's more violent than the chymist's fire.
Near these the delegate with wonder spies
Where floods of living silver serpentise;
Where richest metals their bright looks put on,
And golden streams through amber channels run;
Where light's gay god descends, to ripen gems,
And lend a lustre brighter than his beams.
Here he observes the subterranean cells,
Where wanton Nature sports in idle shells.
Some helicoeids, some conical appear:
These, mitres emulate, those turbans are.

Ver. 342. Faith stand unmov'd through Stilling- Here marcasites in various figure wait,

flect's defence,

And Locke for mystery abandon sense.

7 Those members of the college that observe a late statute, are called by the apothecaries Sig

netur men.

Dr. Bateman.

90

To ripen to a true metallic state:
'Till drops that from impending rocks descend
Their substance petrify, and progress end.
Nigh, livid seas of kindled sulphur flow,
And, whilst enrag'd, their fiery surges glow, 100
Convulsions in the labouring mountains rise,
And hurl their melted vitals to the skies.

GARTH'S POEMS.

He views with horrour next the noisy cave,
Where with hoarse dins imprison'd tempests rave;
Where clamorous hurricanes attempt their flight,
Or, whirling in tumultuous eddies, fight.
The warring winds unmov'd Hygeia heard,
Brav'd their loud jars, but much for Celsus fear'd.
Andromeda so, whilst her hero fought,
Shook for his danger, but her own forgot.
And now the goddess with her charge descends,
Whilst scarce one cheerful glimpse their steps be-
friends.

110

Here his forsaken seat old Chaos keeps;
And, undisturb'd by form, in silence sleeps;
A grisly wight, and hideous to the eye,
An awkward lump of shapeless anarchy.
With sordid age his features are defac'd;
His lands unpeopled, and his countries waste.
To these dark realms much learned lumber creeps,
There copious Morton safe in silence sleeps; 120
Where mushroom libels in oblivion lie,
And, soon as born, like other monsters, die.
Upon a couch of jet, in these abodes,
Dull Night, his melancholy consort, nods.
No ways and means their cabinet employ;
But their dark hours they waste in barren joy.
Nigh this recess, with terrour they survey
Where Death maintains his dread tyrannic sway.
In the close covert of a cypress grove,
Where goblins frisk, and airy spectres rove, 130
Yawns a dark cave, with awful horrour wide,
And there the monarch's triumphs are descry'd;
Confus'd, and wildly huddled to the eye,
The beggar's pouch and prince's purple lie;
Dim lamps with sickly rays scarce seem to glow;
Sighs beave in mournful moans, and tears o'erflow;
Restless Anxiety, forlorn Despair,
And all the faded family of Care;

Old mouldering urns, racks, daggers, and distress,
Make up the frightful horrour of the place. 140

Within its dreadful jaws those furies wait,
Which execute the harsh decrees of Fate.
Febris is first: the hag relentless hears
The virgin's sighs, and sees the infant's tears.
In her parch'd eye-balls fiery meteors reign;
And restless ferments revel in each vein.

Then Hydrops next appears amongst the
throng;

Bloated, and big, she slowly sails along.
But, like a miser, in excess she 's poor,
And pines for thirst amidst her watery store. 150
Now loathsome Lepra, that offensive spright,
With foul eruptions stain'd, offends the sight;
Still deaf to beauty's soft persuading power;
Nor can bright Hebe's charms her bloom secure.
Whilst meagre Pthisis gives a silent blow,
Her strokes are sure, but her advances slow:
No loud alarms, nor fierce assaults, are shown;
She starves the fortress first, then takes the town.
Behind stood crowds of much inferior fame,
Too numerous to repeat, too foul to name;
The vassals of their monarch's tyranny,
Who, at his nod, on fatal errands fly.

Physicians never linger on this strand:
Old Charon's present still at their command.
Our awful monarch and his consort owe
To them the peopling of the realms below."
Receiv'd his guests aboard, and shov'd from shore.
Then in his swarthy hand he grasp'd the oar,
Now, as the goddess and her charge prepare
Upon the left they spy a pensive shade,
To breathe the sweets of soft Elysian air,
Who on his bended arm had rais'd his head: 180
Pale grief sat heavy on his mournful look;
To whom, not unconcern'd, thus Celsus spoke:
"Tell me,
thou much afflicted shade, why sighs
Burst from your breast, and torrents from your

eyes:

And who those mangled manes are, which show
A sullen satisfaction at your woe?"

Know, I'm Guâicum, once your firmest friend;
"Since," said the ghost," with pity you'll attend,
And on this barren beach in discontent
Am doom'd to stay, till th' angry powers relent. 190
Those spectres, seam'd with scars, that threaten
The victims of my late ill-conduct are.
They vex with endless clamours my repose:
[there,
This wants his palate; that demands his nose:
And ply me every moment with a pill."
And here they execute stern Pluto's will,

201

How rigid is the sentence you relate!
Then Celsus thus: "O much-lamented state!
Methinks I recollect your former air,
But ah, how much you're chang'd from what you
[were!
Insipid as your late ptisans you lie,
At the sad tale you tell, the poppies weep,
That once were sprightlier far than Mercury.
And mourn their vegetable souls asleep;
The unctuous larix, and the healing pine,
But still the offspring of your brain shall prove
Lament your fate in tears of turpentine.
The grocer's care, and brave the rage of Jove:
When bonfires blaze, your vagrant works shall rise
In rockets, till they reach the wondering skies. 210
"If mortals e'er the Stygian powers could bend,
Entreaties to their awful seats I'd send.
But, since no human arts the Fates dissuade,
Direct me how to find bless'd Harvey's shade."
In vain th' unhappy ghost still urg'd his stay;
Then, rising from the ground, he show'd the way.
Nigh the dull shore a shapeless mountain stood,
Its fearful brow no lively greens put on;
That with a dreadful frown survey'd the flood.
No frisking goats bound o'er the ridgy stone. 220
To gain the summit the bright goddess try'd;
And Celsus follow'd, by degrees, his guide.
Th'ascent thus conquer'd, now they tower on
high,

And taste th' indulgence of a milder sky.
Soft infant blossoms their chaste odours pay,
Loose breezes on their airy pinions play,
And roses blush their fragrant lives away.
160 Cool streams through flowery meadows gently
glide;

Now Celsus, with his glorious guide, invades
The silent region of the fleeting shades;
Where rocks and rueful deserts are descry'd,
And sullen Styx rolls down his lazy tide;
Thn shows the ferry-man the plant he bore,
And claims his passage to the further shore.
To whom the Stygian pilot, smiling, said,
"You need no passport to demand our aid.

170

And, as they pass, their painted banks they chide.
These blissful plains no blights nor mildews fear,
The flowers ne'er fade, and shrubs are myrtles
The morn awakes the tulip from her bed; [here.
Ere noon in painted pride she decks her head,
Rob'd in rich dye she triumphs on the green,
And every flower does homage to their queen. 235

Dr. Morton.

So, when bright Venus rises from the flood,
Around in throngs the wondering Nereids crowd;
The Tritons gaze, and tune each vocal shell,
And every grace unsung, the waves conceal.

The delegate observes, with wondering eyes, 240
Ambrosial dews descend, and incense rise;
Then hastens onward to the pensive grove,
The silent inansion of disastrous love.
Here Jealousy with jaundic'd looks appears,
And broken slumbers, and fantastic fears.
The widow'd turtle hangs her moulting wings,
And to the woods in mournful murmurs sings.
No winds but sighs there are, no floods but tears;
Each conscious tree a tragic signal bears.
Their wounded bark records some broken vow,
And willow-garlands hang on every bough.

Olivia here in solitude he found,

Her down-cast eyes fix'd on the silent ground:
Her dress neglected, and unbound her hair,
She seem'd the dying image of despair.
How lately did this celebrated thing
Blaze in the box, and sparkle in the ring;
Till the green-sickness and love's force betray'd
To Death's remorseless arms th' unhappy maid!
260
All o'er confus'd the guilty lover stood,
The light forsook his eyes, his cheeks the blood;
An icy horrour shiver'd in his look,
As to the cold-complexion'd nymph he spoke:
"Tell me, dear shade, from whence such anxious
care,

Your looks disorder'd, and your bosom bare?
Why thus you languish like a drooping flower,
Crush'd by the weight of some relentless shower?
Your languid looks, your late ill-conduct tell;
Oh that, instead of trash, you'd taken steel!"
Stabb'd with th' unkind reproach, the conscious
270
maid

280

Thus to her late insulting lover said:
"When ladies listen not to loose desire,
You style our modesty our want of fire:
Smile or forbid, encourage or reprove,
You still find reasons to believe we love:
Vainly you think a liking we betray,
And never mean the peevish things we say.
Few are the fair-ones of Rufilla's make,
Unask'd she grants, uninjur'd she 'll forsake:
But several Cælias, several ages boast,
That like, where reason recommends the most.
Where heavenly truth and tenderness conspire,
Chaste passion may persuade us to desire."
"Your sex," he cry'd," as custom bids, behaves';
In forms the tyrant ties such haughty slaves.
To do nice conduct right, yoú nature wrong;
Impulses are but weak, where reason's strong.
Some want the courage; but how few the flame!
They like the thing, that startle at the name.
The lonely Phoenix, though profess'd a nun, 290
Warms into love, and kindles at the Sun;
Those tales of spicy urns and fragrant fires
Are but the emblems of her scorch'd desires."
Then, as he strove to clasp the fleeting fair,
His empty arms confess'd th' impassive air.
From his embrace th' unbody'd spectre flies,
And, as she mov'd, she chid him with her eyes.
They hasten now to that delightful plain,
Where the glad manes of the bless'd remain:
Where Harvey gathers simples, to bestow
Immortal youth on heroes' shades below,
Soon as the bright Hygeia was in view,
The venerable sage her presence knew:

Thus he

"Hail, blooming goddess! thou propitious power,
Whose blessings mortals more than life implore!
With so much lustre your bright looks endear,
That cottages are courts where those appear.
Mankind, as you vouchsafe to smile or frown,
Finds ease in chains, or anguish in a crown. 310
"With just resentiments and contempt you see
The foul dissensions of the faculty;
How your sad sickening art now hangs her head,
And, once a science, is become a trade.
Her sons ne'er rifle her mysterious store,
But study nature less, and lucre more.
Not so when Rome to th' Epidaurian rais'd
A temple, where devoted incense blaz'd.
Oft father Tiber views the lofty fire,

300

As the learn'd son is worshipp'd like the sire; 320
The sage with Romulus like honours claim;
The gift of life and laws were then the same.

"I show'd of old, how vital currents glide,
And the meanders of the refluent tide.
Then, Willis, why spontaneous actions here,
And whence involuntary motions there:
And how the spirits, by mechanic laws,
In wild careers tumultuous riots cause.
230
Nor would our Wharton, Bates, and Glisson, lie
In the abyss of blind obscurity.
But now such wondrous searches are forborn,
And Pæan's art is by divisions torn.
Then let your charge attend, and I'll explain
How her lost health your science may regain.

341

[throng

"Haste, and the matchless Atticus address, 335
From Heaven and great Nassau he has the mace.
Th' oppress'd to his asylum still repair;
Arts he supports, and learning is his care.
He softens the harsh rigour of the laws, [claws;
Blunts their keen edge, and grinds their harpy
And graciously he casts a pitying eye
On the sad state of virtuous poverty.
When'er he speaks, Heaven! how the listening
Dwells on the melting music of his tongue!
His arguments are emblems of his mien,
Mild, but not faint, and forcing, though serene:
And, when the power of eloquence he'd try,
Here lightning strikes you; there soft breezes sigh.
"To him you must your sickly state refer,
350
Your charter claims him as your visiter.
Your wounds he'll close, and sovereignly restore
[aim;
Your science to the height it had before.

"Then Nassau's health shall be your glorious
His life should be as lasting as his fame.
Some princes' claims from devastations spring;
He condescends in pity to be king;

And, when amidst his olives plac'd he stands,
And governs more by candour than commands;
Ev'n then not less a hero he appears,
Than when his laurel-diadem he wears.

360

"Would Phoebus, or his Granville, but inspire
Their sacred vehemence of poetic fire;
To celebrate in song that god-like power,
Which did the labouring universe restore:
Fair Albion's cliffs would echo to the strain,
And praise the arm that conquer'd, to regain
The earth's repose, and empire o'er the main.

"Still may th' immortal man his cares repeat,
To make his blessings endless as they're great:
370
Whilst malice and ingratitude confess
They 've strove for ruin long without success.
When, late, Jove's eagle from the pile shall rise
To bear the victor to the boundless skies,