And dost thou prune thy trembling wing,

To take thy flight thou know'st not whither? Thy humourous vein, thy pleasing folly,

Lies all neglected, all forgot :

And, penfive, wavering, melancholy,

Thou dread'ft and hop'st thou know'ft not what,

A PASSAGE IN THE MORIÆ ENCOMIUM
OF ERASMUS IMITATED.

In awful pomp and melancholy ftate,
See settled reason on the judgment feat:
Around her crowd distrust, and doubt, and fear,
And thoughtful forefight, and tormenting care:
Far from the throne, the trembling pleasures ftand,
Chain'd up, or exil'd by her stern command.
Wretched her fubjects, gloomy fits the queen ;
Till happy chance reverts the cruel fcene;
And apish folly, with her wild refort
Of wit and jeft, disturbs the folemn court.
See the fantastic minstrelsy advance,
To breathe the fong, and animate the dance,
Bleft the ufurper happy the furprise!
Her mimic postures catch our eager eyes;
Her jingling bells affect our captive ear;
And in the fights we fee, and founds we hear,
Against our judgment, the our sense employs;
The laws of troubled reason the destroys,
And in their place rejoices to indite

Wild schemes of mirth, and plans of loofe delight,

TO DR. SHERLOCK,

ON HIS PRACTICAL DISCOURSE CONCERNING

DEATH.

FORGIVE the muse, who, in unhallow'd ftrains,
The faint one moment from his god detains:
For fure, whate'er you do, where'er you are,
'Tis all but one good work, one conftant prayer ;
Forgive her; and entreat that God, to whom
Thy favour'd vows with kind acceptance come,
To raise her notes to that fublime degree,
Which suits a fong of piety and thee.

Wondrous good man! whofe labours may repel
The force of fin, may stop the rage of hell;
Thou, like the Baptist, from thy God waft fent,
The crying voice, to bid the world repent.

The youth fhall ftudy, and no more engage Their flattering wishes for uncertain age; No more, with fruitlefs care and cheated ftrife, Chafe fleeting pleasure through this maze of life; Finding the wretched all they here can have, But prefent food, and but a future grave : Each, great as Philip's victor fon, fhall view This abject world, and, weeping, ask a new, Decrepit age fhall read thee, and confefs Thy labours can affuage, where medicines ceafe; Shall blefs thy words, their wounded foul's relief, The drops that fweeten their last dregs of life; Shall look to Heaven, and laugh at all beneath ; Own riches gather'd, trouble; fame, a breath; And life an ill, whofe only cure is death.

Yet to fuch height is all that plainness wrought, Wit may admire, and letter'd pride be taught. Eafy in words thy ftyle, in fenfe fublime,

On its bleft fteps each age and fex may rise; "Tis like the ladder in the Patriarch's dream,

Its foot on earth, its height above the skies:
Diffus'd its virtue, boundless is its power;
'Tis public health, and univerfal cure:
Of heavenly manna 'tis a fecond feast;
A nation's food, and all to every taste.

To its last height mad Britain's guilt was rear'd;
And various death for various crimes fhe fear'd.
With your kind work her drooping hopes revive;
You bid her read, repent, adore, and live:
You wreft the bolt from Heaven's avenging hand;
Stop ready death, and fave a finking land.

O fave us ftill: ftill blefs us with thy ftay: O want thy heaven, till we have learnt the way: Refuse to leave thy deftin'd charge too foon; And, for the church's good, defer thy own. O live; and let thy works urge our belief; Live to explain thy doctrine by thy life; Till future infancy, baptis'd by thee, Grow ripe in years, and old in piety; Till Christians, yet unborn, be taught to die. Then, in full age and hoary holiness, Retire, great teacher! to thy premis'd blifs: Untouch'd thy tomb, uninjur'd be thy dust, As thy own fame among the fature juft; Till in last sounds the dreadful trumpet fpeaks; Till judgment calls, and quicken'd nature wakes; Till, through the utmost earth, and deepest sea, Our scatter'd atoms find their deftin'd way, In hafte to clothe their kindred fouls again, Perfect our ftate, and build immortal man : Then fearless thou, who well fuftaind'st the fight, To paths of joy, or tracts of endless light, Lead up all thofe who heard thee, and believ'd;" 'Midit thy own flock, great fhepherd! be receiv'd; [fav'd.

And glad all heaven with millions thou haft

And happy power fuftain'd by wholesome laws;
In comely rank call every merit forth,
Imprint on every act its standard-worth;
The glorious parallels then downward bring
To modern wonders, and to Britain's king;
With equal juftice, and hiftoric care,

Their laws, their toils, their arms, with his com

The son of Mars reduc'd the trembling fwains,
And spread his empire o'er the distant plains;
But yet
the Sabins violated charms

Obfcur'd the glory of his rifing arms.
Numa the rights of ftrict religion knew;
On every altar laid the incenfe due;
Unfkil'd to dart the pointed fpear,
Or lead the forward youth to noble war.
Stern Brutus was with too much horror good,
Holding his fafces ftain'd with filial blood.
Fabius was wife, but with excefs of care
He fav'd his country, but prolong'd the war.
While Decius, Paulus, Curius, greatly fought,

And by their strict examples taught
How wild defires fhould be controll'd,
And how much brighter virtue was than gold;
They scarce their swelling thirst of fame could hide;
And boasted poverty with too much pride.
Excess in youth made Scipio lefs rever'd;
And Cato, dying, feem'd to own he fear'd.
Julius with honour tam'd Rome's foreign foes;
But patriots fell, ere the dictator rose:
And, while with clemency Auguftus reign'd,
The monarch was ador'd; the city chain'd.

Rome by degrees, advancing more in age,
Shew'd fad remains of what had once been fair
Till Heaven a better race of men fupplies :
And glory fhoots new beams from western skies.

VI.

Turn then to Pharamond and Charlemain,
And the long heroes of the Gallic strain;
Experienc'd chiefs, for hardy prowess known,
And bloody wreaths in venturous battles won.
From the first William, our great Norman king,
The bold Plantagenets and Tudors bring;
Illuftrious virtues, who by turns have rose
In foreign fields to check Britannia's foes ;
With happy laws her empire to sustain,
And with full power affert her ambient main.
But fometimes, too induftrious to be great,
Nor patient to expect the turns of fate,
They open'd camps, deform'd by civil fight,
And made proud conqueft trample over right:
Disparted Britain mourn'd their doubtful fway,
And dreaded both, when neither would obey.

VII.

From Didier and imperial Adolph trace
The glorious offspring of the Nassau race,
Devoted lives to public liberty;

The chief ftill dying, or the country free.
Then fee the kindred blood of Orange flow,
From warlike Cornet, through the lines of Beau;
Through Chalon next, and there with Naffau join,
From Rhone's fair banks transplanted to the Rhine.
Bring next the royal lift of Stuarts forth,
Undaunted minds, that rul'd the rugged north:
Till Heaven's decrees by ripening times are
shown;

Till Scotland's kings afcend the English throne;
And the fair rivals live for ever one.

VIII.

Janus, mighty deity,

Be kind; and, as thy fearching eye
Does our modern story trace,
Finding fome of Stuart's race
Unhappy, pafs their annals by:

No harsh reflection let remembrance raife:
Forbear to mention what thou canst not praise :
But, as thou dwell'ft upon that heavenly name
To grief for ever facred, as to fame,
Oh! read it to thyfelf; in filence weep;
And thy convulfive forrows inward keep :
Left Britain's grief fhould waken at the found,
And blood gufh fresh from her eternal wound.

IX.

Whither wouldst thou further look? Read William's acts, and clofe the ample book : Ferufe the wonders of his dawning life :

How, like Alcides, he began;

With infant patience calm'd feditious ftrife, [ran. And quell'd the fnakes which round his cradle

X.

Defcribe his youth, attentive to alarms,

Ey dangers form'd, and perfected in arms :grac'd; When conquering, mild; when conquer'd, not difBy wrongs not leffen'd, nor by triumphs rais'd: Superior to the blind events.

Of little human accidents;

* Mary.

And conftant to his first decree,

To curb the proud, to fet the injur'd free; To bow the haughty neck, and raife the fuppliant knee.

XI.

His opening years to riper manhood bring;
And fee the hero perfect in the king:
Imperious arms by manly reafon fway'd,
And power fupreme by free confent obey'd;
With how much hafte his mercy meets his foes,
And how unbounded his forgiveness flows;
With what defire he makes his fubjects blefs'd,
His favours granted ere his throne address'd:
What trophies o'er our captiv'd hearts he rears,
By arts of peace more potent than by wars:
How o'er himself as o'er the world he reigns,
His morals strengthening what his law ordains.

XII.

Through all his thread of life already fpun,
Becoming grace and proper action run:
The piece by virtue's equal hand is wrought,
Mixt with no crime, and fhaded with no fault;
No footsteps of the victor's rage
Left in the camp where William did engage:
No tincture of the monarch's pride
Upon the royal purple spy'd :

His fame, like gold, the more 'tis try'd,
The more fhall its intrinfic worth proclaim;
Shall pass the combat of the searching flame,
And triumph o'er the vanquish'd heat,

For ever coming out the fame,
And lofing nor its luftre nor its weight.

XIII.

Janus, be to William juft;

To faithful history his actions trust :
Command her, with peculiar care

To trace each toil, and comment every war:
His faving wonders bid her write
In characters diftinctly bright;
That each revolving age may read
The patriot's piety, the hero's deed:
And fill the fire inculcate to his fon
Tranfmiffive leffons of the king's renown;
That William's glory ftill may live;
When all that prefent art can give,
The pillar'd marble, and the tablet brafs,
Mouldering, drop the victor's praife :
When the great monuments of his power
Shall now be visible no more;

}

When Sambre fhall have chang'd her winding flood;

And children afk, where Namur stood.

7

Behold him from the dreadful height appear! And lo! Britannia's lions waving there.

XV.

Europe freed, and France repell'd,
The hero from the height beheld :

He fpake the word that war and rage fhould ceafe ;
He bid the Maefe and Rhine in fafety flow;
And dictated a lafting peace

To the rejoicing world below.

To refcued states, and vindicated crowns,
His equal hand prescrib'd their ancient bounds;
Ordain'd, whom every province should obey;
How far each monarch fhould extend his fway;
Taught them how clemency made power rever'd,
And that the prince belov'd was truly fear'd.
Firm by his fide unfpotted honour food,
Pleas'd to confefs him not so great as good:
His head with brighter beams fair virtué deck'd,
Than thofe which all his numerous crowns re-
flect:

Establish'd freedom clapp'd her joyful wings;
Proclaim'd the firft of men, and beft of kings.

XVI.

Whither would the mufe afpire

With Pindar's rage, without his fire?
Pardon me, Janus, 'twas a fault,
Created by too great a thought:
Mindlefs of the god and day,
1 from thy altars, Janus, ftray,
From thee, and from myfeif, borne far away.
The fiery Pegasus difdains

To mind the rider's voice, or bear the reins:
When glorious fields and opening caps he views,
He runs with an unbounded loole:

Hardly the muse can fit the headstrong horse; Nor would fhe, if he could, check his impetuous force;

With the glad noife the cliffs and vallies ring, While the through earth and air pursues the king.

Albion with open triumph would receive
Her hero, nor obtains his leave:
Firm he rejects the altars fhe would raise;
And thanks the zeal, while he declines the praise.
Again the follows him through Belgia's land,
And countries often fav'd by William's hand;
Hears joyful nations blefs thofe happy toils,
Which freed the people, but return'd the fpoils.
In various views fhe tries her conftant theme;
Finds him in councils, and in arms the fame;
When certain to o'ercome, inclin'd to fave,
Tardy to vengeance, and with mercy brave.

X X.

Sudden another scene employs her fight;
She fets her Hero in another light;
Paints his great mind fuperior to fuccefs,
Declining conqueft, to eflablish peace :
She brings Aftræa down to earth again;
And quiet, brooding o'er his future reign.

XXI.

Then with unweary wing the goddess foars
Eaft, over Danube and Propontis' fh res;
Where jarring empires, ready to engage,
Retard their armies, and fufpend their rage;
Till William's word, like that of fate, declares,
If they shall study peace, or lengthen wars.
How facred his renown for equal laws,

To whom the world defers its common caufe!
How fair his friendships, and his leagues how just,
Whom every nation courts, whom all religions
truft!

XXII,

From the Mæotis to the Northern fea,

The goddefs wings her defperate way; Sees the young Mufcovite, the mighty head, Whole fovereign terror forty nations dread, Inamour'd with a greater monarch's praife, And paffing half the earth to his embrace : She in his rule beholds his Volga's force, O'er precipices with impetuous sway Breaking, and, as he rolls his rapid courfe, [way. Drowning, or bearing down, whatever meets his But her own king fhe likens to his Thames, With gentle courfe devolving fruitful streams; Serene yet ftrong, majeftic yet fedate, Swift without violence, without terror great. Each ardent nynph the rifing current craves; Each fhepherd's prayer retards the parting waves; The vales along the bank their sweets disclose; Fresh flowers for ever rife; and fruitful harvest grows.

XXIII.

Yet whither would th' adventurous goddess go?
Sees the not clouds, and earth, and main, below?
Minds fhe the dangers of the Lycian coaft,
And fields, where mad Bellerophon was loft?
Or is her towering flight reclaimı'd
By feas from Icarus's downfall nam'd?
Vain is the call, and ufelefs the advice:
To wife perfuafion deaf, and human cries,
Yet upward fhe inccffant flies;
Refolv'd to reach the high empyrean fphere,
And tell great Jove, the fings his image here;
To ask for William an Olympic crown, [known:
To Chromius' ftrength, and Theron's freed un-

Till, lost in trackless fields of shining day,
Unable to difcern the way,
Which Naffau's virtue only could explore,
Untouch'd, unknown, to any mufe before;
She, from the noble precipices thrown,
Comes rushing with uncommon ruin down.
Glorious attempt! unhappy fate!

The fong too daring, and the theme too great!
Yet rather thus the wills to die,
Than in continued annals live, to fing
A fecond hero, or a vulgar king;
And with ignoble fafety fly

In fight of earth, along a middle sky.

XXIV.

To Janus' altars, and the numerous throng
That round his myftic temple press,
For William's life and Albion's peace,
Ambitious mufe, reduce the roving song.
Janus, caft thy forward eye
Future, into great Khéa's pregnant womb;
Where young ideas brooding lie,

And tender images of things to come :

Till, by thy high commands releas'd, Till, by thy hand in proper atoms drefs'd, In decent order they advance to light; Yet then too swiftly fleet by human fight; And meditate too foon their everlasting flight.

XXV.

Nor beaks of ships in naval triumph borne,
Nor ftandards from the hoftile ramparts torn,
Nor trophies brought from battles won,
Nor oaken wreath, nor mural crown,
Can any future honours give

To the victorious monarch's name:
The plenitude of William's fame
Can no accumulated ftores receive.

Shut then, aufpicious God, thy facred gate,
And make us happy, as our king is great.
Be kind, and with a milder hand
Clofing the volume of the finish'd age

(Though noble, 'twas an iron page),
A more delightful leaf expand,
Free from alarms, and fierce Bellona's rage;
Bid the great months begin their joyful round,
By Flora fome, and fome by Ceres crown'd:
Teach the glad hours to fcatter, as they fly,
Soft quiet, gentle love, and endless joy ;
Lead forth the years for peace and plenty fam'd,
From Saturn's rule and better metal nam'd.

XXVI.

Secure by William's care let Britain stand;
Nor dread the bold invader's hand:
From adverfe fhores in fafety let her bear
Foreign calamity, and diftant war;

Of which let her, great heaven, no portion bear!
Betwixt the nations let her hold her fcale,
And, as fhe wils, let either part prevail:
Let her glad vallies fmile with wavy corn;
Let fleecy flocks her rifing hills adorn;
Around her coaft let ftrong defence be spread;
Let fair abundance on her breast be fhed; [head
And heavenly sweets bloom round the goddess'

XXVII.

Where the white towers and ancient roofs did stand, Remains of Wolfey's or great Henry's hand,

To age now yielding, or devour'd by flame,
Let a young phenix raise her towering head;
Her wings with lengthen'd honour let her spread;
And by her greatness show her builder's fame :
Auguft and open as the hero's mind,

Be her capacious courts defign'd:
Let every facred pillar bear

Trophies of arms, and monuments of war.
The king Thal! there in Parian marble breathe,
His shoulder bleeding fresh: and at his feet
Difarm'd fhall lie the threatening death
(For fo was faving Jove's decree complete).
Behind, that angel fhali be plac'd, whose shield
Sav'd Europe, in the blow repell'd:

On the firm bafis. from his oozy bed,
Boyne fhall raise his laurel'd head;
And his immortal ftream be known,
Artfully waving through the wounded stone.

XXVIII.

And thou, imperial Windfor, ftand enlarg'd,
With all the monarch's trophies charg'd:
Thou, the fair heaven, that doft the ftars enclofe,
Which William's bofom wears, or hand bestows
On the great champions who fupport his throne,
And virtues nearest to his own.

XXIX.

Round Ormond's knee, thou ty'ft the myftic ftring,

That makes the knight companion to the king.
From glorious camps return'd, and foreign fields,
Bowing before thy fainted warrior's fhrine,
Faft by his great forefather's coats, and fhields
Blazon'd from Bohun's or from Butler's line,
He hangs his arms; nor fears thofe arms íhould
fhine

With an unequal ray; or that his deed
With paler glory fhould recede,
Eclips'd by theirs, or leffen'd by the fame
Ev'n of his own maternal Naffau's name.

XXX.

Thou fmiling feeft great Dorfet's worth confeft,
The ray diftinguishing the patriot's breaft;
Born to protect and love, to help and pleafe;
Sovereign of wit, and ornament of peace.
O! long as breath informs this fleeting frame,
Ne'er let me pafs in filence Dorfet's name;
Ne'er cease to mention the continued debt,
Which the great patron only would forget,
And duty, long as life, must study to acquit.

XXXI.

Renown'd in thy records fhall Ca’ndish stand,
Afferting legal power and juft command:
To the great houfe thy favour fhall be shown,
The father's ftar tranfmiffive to the fon.
From thee the Taloot's and the Seymour's race.
Inform'd, their fire's immortal steps fhall trace.
Happy, may their fons receive

The bright reward, which thou alone canft give!

XXXII.

And if a God these lucky numbers guide;
If fure Apollo o'er the verfe prefide;
Jerfey, belov'd by all (for all muft feel

The influence of a form and mind,
Where comely grace and conftant virtue dwell,
Like mingled ftreams, inore forcible when join'd)-
D & iij