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"Whofe wit and virtue fhall thy own exprefs, Diftinguish'd only by their fofter drefs:

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Thy greatnefs fhe, or thy retreat, shall share; "Sweeten tranquillity, or foften care; "Her finiles the tafte of every joy shall raise,

"And add new pleasure to renown and praife; "Till charm'd you own the truth my verse would

66 prove,

"That happiness is near allied to love."

VERSES to be written under a PICTURE of Mr. PoYNTZ.

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

A hand, or colours, to exprefs 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 ftores of learning fraught,
Yet better still by native prudence taught;
That, fond the griefs of the diftreft 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 fhuns applause ;
That, to its own perfections fingly blind,
Would for another think this praise design'd.

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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 fo many stars extinct in night,
The darken'd age's last remaining light!

To thee from Latian realms this verfe is writ,
Infpir'd by memory of antient wit;

For now no more thefe climes their influence boaft,
Fall'n is their glory, and their virtue loft;
From tyrants, and from priests, the Muses fly,
Daughters of Reafon 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 summer rays,
Melodious linnets warbled fprightly 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 hate

Has felt the worst feverity 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 unfown;
But that her ancient fpirit is decay'd,

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

Your afhes vifit, and your urns adore;

Oft kifs, with lips devout, fome mouldering stone,
With ivy's venerable fhade o'ergrown ;

Thofe 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 arife :

"Stranger, he said, whofe pious hand has paid. "Thefe grateful rites to my attentive fhade, "When thou shalt breathe thy happy native air, "To Pope this message from his master bear : "Great bard, whofe numbers I myself infpire, "To whom I gave my own harmonious lyre, "If, high exalted on the throne of wit, "Near me and Homer thou afpire to fit,

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"No more let meaner fatire dim the rays
"That flow majeftic from thy nobler bays;
"In all the flowery paths of Pindus firay,
"But fhun that thorny, that unpleasing 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 fyre I ftrung, "Such was the people whofe exploits I sung; "Brave, yet refin'd, for arms and arts renown'd, "With different bays by Mars and Phoebus crown'd; "Dauntless oppofers of tyrannic sway,

"But pleas'd a mild Auguftus to obey.

"If these commands fubmiffive thou receive, "Immortal and unblam'd thy name shall live, Envy to black Cocytus fhall retire;

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And howl with Furies in tormenting fire; Approving Time fhall confecrate thy lays, "And join the patriot's to the poet's praife."

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LORD 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.

FAVOURITE 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 seat,
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 style;
At foft Italian founds to melt away;
Or in the fragrant groves of myrtle stray;
That lulls the tumults of the foul to rest,
Or makes the fond poffeffor truly bleft.
In our own breasts the fource of pleasure lies,
Still open, and still flowing to the wife;
Not forc'd by toilfome art and wild defire
Beyond the bounds of nature to aspire,

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