Science to raife, and knowledge to enlarge,
Be our great mafter's future charge;
To write his own memoirs, and leave his heirs.
High fchemes of government, and plans of wars;
By fair rewards our noble youth to raise
To emulous merit, and to thirst of praise;
To lead them out from cafe ere opening dawn
Through the thick forest and the distant lawn,
Where the fleet ftag employs their ardent care,
And chaces give them images of war;
To teach them vigilance by false alarms,
Inure them in feign'd camps to real alarms;
Practise them now to curb the turning fteed,
Mocking the foe; now to his rapid speed
To give the rein, and in the full career

To draw the certain fword, or fend the pointed spear.

XXXIV.

Let him unite his fubjects hearts, Planting focieties for peaceful arts; Some that in nature fhall true knowledge found, And by experiment make precept found; Some that to morals fhall recal the

age, And purge from vicious drofs the finking stage; Some that with care true eloquence fhall teach, And to just idioms fix our doubtful fpeech; That from our writers diftant realms may know The thanks we to our monarch owe;

To whom by fate 'twas given, with happy sway, To calm the earth, and vindicate the sea,

XXXVII.

Our prayers are heard; our mafter's fleets fhall go
As far as winds can bear, or waters flow,
New lands to make, new Indias to explore,
In worlds unknown to plant Britannia's power;
Nations yet wild by precept to reclaim,

And teach them arms and arts in William's name,

XXXVIII.

With humble joy, and with refpe&ful fear,
The listening people fhall his story hear,
The wounds he bore, the dangers he fuftain'd,
How far he conquer'd, and how well he reign'd;
Shall own his mercy equal to his fame,

And form their children's accents to his name,
Inquiring how, and when, from heaven he came.
Their regal tyrants fhall with blushes hide.
Their little lufts of arbitrary pride,

Nor bear to see their vaffals ty'd; When William's virtues raife their opening thought,

His forty years for public freedom fought,
Europe by his hand sustain'd,

His conqueft by his piety reftrain'd,
And o'er himself the last great triumph gain'd.

XXXV.

Let his high power the drooping mufes rear;
The mufes only can reward his care:
'Tis they that guard the great Atrides' spoils;
'Tis they that ftill renew Ulyffes' toils;
To them by fmiling Jove 'twas given to save
Diftinguish'd patriots from the common grave;
To them, great William's glory to recal,
When ftatues moulder, and when arches fall.
Nor let the mufes, with ungrateful pride,

The fources of their treasure hide:
The hero's virtue does the firing infpire,
When with big joy they strike the living lyre.
On William's fame their fate depends;
With him the song begins; with him it ends.
From the bright effluence of his deed
They borrow that reflected light,
With which the lafting lamp they feed,
Whole beams difpel the damps of envious night.

XXXVI.

Through various climes, and to each distant pole,
In happy tides let active commerce roll:
Let Britain's fhips export an annual fleece,
Richer than Argos brought to ancient Greece:
Returning loaden with the fhining stores,
Which lie profufe on either India's fhores.
As our high veffels pafs their watery way,
Let all the naval world due homage pay:
With hafty reverence their top-honours lower,
Confeffing the afferted power,

And own a present Deity confest,

In valour that preferv'd and power that bleft.

IL.

}

Long let this growing æra blefs his fway;
And let our fons his prefent rule obey :
On his fure virtue long let earth rely,
And late let the imperial eagle fly,

To bear the hero through his father's fky,
To Leda's twins, or he whofe glorious speed
On foot prevail'd, cr he who tam'd the steed;
To Hercules, at length absolv'd by fate
From earthly toil, and above envy great;
To Virgil's theme, bright Cytherea's fon,
Sire of the Latian and the British throne:
To all the radiant names above.
Rever'd by men, and dear to Jove;
Late, Janus, let the Naffau-ftar
New-born, in rifing majesty appear,

To triumph over vanquish'd night,
And guide the profperous mariner
With everlasting beams of friendly light.

To wake, ere morning dawn, to loud alarms,
And march till clofe of night in heavy arms;
To fcorn the fummer's funs and winter's fnows,
And search through every clime thy country's foes;
That thou might'ft fortune to thy fide engage;
That gentle peace might quell Bellona's rage;
And Anna's bounty crown her foldier's hoary
age?

In vain we think that free-will'd man has power,
To haften or protract th' appointed hour.
Our term of life depends not on our deed:
Before our birth our funeral was decreed.
Nor aw'd by forefight, nor mifled by chance,
Imperious death directs his ebon lance;
Peoples great Henry's tombs, and leads up
Holben's dance.

Alike muft every state and every age
Sustain the univerfal tyrant's rage:

For neither William's power, nor Mary's charms,
Could or repel or pacify his arms.
Young Churchill fell, as life began to bloom;
And Bradford's trembling age expects the tomb:
Wisdom and eloquence in vain would plead
One moment's refpite for the learned head:
Judges of writings and of men have dy'd;
Mæcenas, Sackville, Socrates, and Hyde:
And in their various turns the fons must tread
Those gloomy journies which their fires have led.
The ancient fage, who did fo long maintain
That bodies die, but fouls return again,
With all the births and deaths he had in fore,
Went out Pythagoras, and came no more.
And modern Afgyll, whofe capricious thought
Is yet with ftores of wilder notions fraught,
Too foon convinc'd shall yield that fleeting breath,
Which play'd fo idly with the darts of death.

Some from the ftranded veffel force their way;
Fearful of fate, they meet it in the fea :
Some, who escape the fury of the wave,
Sicken on earth, and fiok into a grave :

In journies or at home, in war or peace,
By hardships many, many fall by ease.
Each changing fealon does its poifon bring;
Rheums chill the winter, agues biaft the spring:
Wet, dry, cold, hot, at the appointed hour,
All act fubfervient to the tyrant's power:
And, when obedient nature knows his will,
A fly, a grape-fone, or a hair, can kill.

For restless Froferpine for ever treads
In paths unfeen, o'er our devoted heads;
And on the spacious land, and liquid main,
Spreads flow disease, or darts afflictive pain:
Variety of deaths confirm her endless reign.

On curft Piava's banks the goddess stood,
Shew'd her dire warrant to the rifing flood;
When what I long muft love, and long must mourn,
With fatal speed was urging his return;
In his dear country, to disperse his care,
And arm himself by reft for future war;
To chide his anxious friends officious fears,
And promise to their joys his elder years:

Oh! destin'd head! and oh! fevere decree! Nor native country thou, nor friend, fhalt fee; Nor war haft thou to wage; nor year to come : Impending death is thine, and inftant doom.

Hark! the imperious goddess is obey'd: Winds murmur; fnows defcend; and waters

fpread.

Oh! kinfman, friend-Oh! vain are all the cries
Of human voice, ftrong deftiny replies:
Weep, you on earth; for he fhall fleep below:
Thence none return, and thither all must

go.
Whoe'er thou art, whom choice or bufinefs leads
To this fad river, or the neighbouring meads;
If hou may'it happen on the dreary fhores.
To find the object which this verfe deplores,
Cleanse the pale corpfe with a religious hand
From the polluting weed and common fand:
Lay the dead hero graceful in a grave
(The only honour he can now receive),
And fragrant mould up on his body throw,
And plant the warrior laurel o'er his brow:
Light lie the earth, and flourish green the bough.
So may juft heaven fecure thy future life
From foreign dangers and domeftic ftrife!
And, when th' infernal judge's difmal power
From the dark urn fhall throw thy deftin'd hour;
When, yielding to the fentence, breathless thou
And pale fhalt lie, as what thou buriest now;
May fome kind friend the piteous object see,
And equal rites perform to that which once was
thee!

PROLOGUE.

SPOKEN AT COURT BEFORE THE QUEEN,
On Her Majeßy's Birth-day, 1704.

SHINE forth, ye planers, with diflinguifh'd light,
As when ye hallow'd first this happy night :
Aain tranfmit your triendly beams to earth,
As when Britannia joy'd for Anna's birth.
And thou, propitious ftar, whofe facred power
Prefided o'er the monarch's natal hour,
Thy radiant voyages for ever run,
Yielding to none but Cynthia and the Sun;
With thy fair afpeći fill illufirate heaven;
Kindly preferve what thou haft greatly given;
Thy influence for thy Anna we implore:
Prolong one life; and Britain aíks no more.
For virtue can no ampler power exprefs,
Than to be great in war, and good in peace :
For thought no higher with of blifs can frame,
Than to enjoy that virtue fill the fame.
Entire and fure the monarch's rule nuit prove,
Who founes her greatnefs on her fubjects love ;
Who does our homage for our good require;
And orders that which we should firft de fire:
Our vanquifh'd wills that pleafing force obey,
Her goodneis takes our liberty away,
And haughty Britain yields to arbitrary fway.
Let the young Auftrian then her terrors bear,
Great as he is, her delegate in war:

}

Let him in thunder fpeak to both his Spains,
That in thefe dreadful ifles a woman reigns:
While the bright queen does on her fubjects fhower,
The gende bleflings of her fofter power ;

Gives facred morals to a vicious age,

To temples zeal, and manners to the stage;
Bids the chalte mufe without a blush appear;
And wit be that which heaven and fhe may hear.
Minerva thus to Perfeus lent her shield;
Secure of conqueft, fent him to the field:
The hero acted what the queen ordain'd;
So was his fame complete, and Andromede un-
chain'd.

Mean time, amidst her native temple's fate
The goddess, ftudious of her Grecian's fate,
Taught them in laws and letters to excel,
In acting justly, and in writing well.
Thus whilft fhe did her various power difpofe,
The world was freed from tyrants, wars, and

woes :

[rofe. Virtue was taught in verfe, and Athen's glory,

SINCE, hir'd for life, thy fervile mufe muft fing
Succeffive conquefts, and a glorious king;
Must of a man immortal vainly boast,
And bring him laurels, whatfoe'er they cost:
What turn wilt thou employ, what colours lay
On the event of that superior day,

In which one English lubject's profperous hand
(So Jove did will; fo Anna did command)
Broke the proud column of thy master's praife,
Which fixty winters had confpir'd to raise?

From the loft field a hundred ftandards brought Must be the work of chance, and fortune's fault : Bavaria's ftars must be accus'd, which fhone, That fatal day the mighty work was done With rays oblique upon the Gallic fun: Some dæmon, cnvying France, mifled the fight; And Mars muitook, though Louis order'd right. When thy young mule invok'd the tune

ful mine,

To fay how Louis did not país the Rhine;
What work had we with Wageninghen, Arnheim,
Places that could not be reduc'd to rhyme!
And, though the poet made his last efforts,
Wurts-who could mention in heroic-Wurts?
But, tell me, hadit thou reafon to complain
Of the rough triumphs of the laft campaign?
The Danube refcued, and the empire fav'd,
Say, is the majefty of verfe retriev'd?
And would it prejudice thy fofter vein,
To fing the princes, Louis and Eugene?
Is it too hard in happy verle to place

The Vans and Vanders of the Rhine and Macfe?
Her warriors Anna fends from Tweed and Thames,

That France may fall by more harmonious names?

+ "En vain, pour te louer,” &c, Ep. 4.

His prefence only must retrieve that lofs;
Marlborough to her must be what William was.
So when great Atlas, from these low abodes
Recall'd, was gather'd to his kindred gods;
Alcides, refpited by prudent fate, [weight.
Suftain'd the ball, nor droop'd beneath the
Secret and swift behold the chief advance;
Sees half the empire join'd and friend to France:
The British general dooms the fight; his sword
Dreadful he draws; the captains wait the word.
Anne and St. George the charging hero cries:
Shrill echo from the neighbouring wood replies
Anne and St. George.-At that auspicious fign
The standards move; the adverse armies join.
Of eight great hours, time meafures out the fands;
And Europe's fate in doubtful balance stands :
The ninth, Victoria comes:-o'er Marlbo-
rough's head

Confefs'd fhe fits; the hoftile troops recede :
Triumphs the goddess, from her promife freed.

The eagle, by the British lion's might
Unchang'd and free, directs her upward flight:
Nor did the e'er with ftronger pinions foar
From Tyber's bank, than now from Danube's fhore.
Fir'd with the thoughts which these ideas raise,
And great ambition of my country's praise;
The English mufe fhould like the Mantuan rife,
Scornful of earth and clouds, fhould reach the
fkies,

With wonder (though with envy ftill) pursued by human eyes.

But we must change the style-just now I faid,
I ne'er was master of the tuneful trade;
Or the fmall genius which my youth could boast,
In profe and business lies extinct and loft:
Blefs'd, if I may fome younger mufe excite;
Point out the game, and animate the flight;
That, from Marfeilles to Calais, France may
know,

As we have conquerors, we have poets too;
And either laurel does in Britain grow;
That, though among ourselves, with too much heat,
We fometimes wrangle, when we should debate
(A confequential ill which freedom draws;
A bad effect, but from a noble caufe);
We can with univerfal zeal advance,
To curb the faithlefs arrogance of France;
Nor ever fhall Britannia's fons refufe
To answer to thy mafter or thy mufe;
Nor want juft fubject for victorious strains,
While Marlborough's arm eternal laurels gains;
And where old Spenfer fung, a new Eliza
reigns.

UPON THIS PASSAGE IN THE SCALIGERIANA.

Les Allemans ne ce foucient pas quel Vin il "boivent pourveau que ce foit Vin, ni que, "Latin ils parlent pourveau que ce foit Latin.'

WHEN you with High-Dutch Heeren dine,
Expect falfe Latin, and ftumm'd wine :
They never tafte, who always drink;

They always talk, who never think.