On each relation, friend, dependant, pour
With partial wantonness the golden show'r,
And fenc'd by strong corruption to despise
An injur'd nation's unavailing cries?

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Rouse, Britons! rouse: if sense of shame be weak,
Let the loud voice of threat'ning Danger speak.
Lo! France, as Persia once, o'er ev'ry land
Prepares to stretch her all-oppressing hand.
Shall England sit regardless and sedate
A calm spectatress of the gen'ral fate,
Or call forth all her virtue, and oppose
Like valiant Greece her own and Europe's foes?
O let us seize the moment in our pow'r;
Our follies now have reach'd the fatal hour:
No later term the angry gods ordain;
This crisis lost we shall be wise in vain.

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And thou, great Poet! in whose nervous lines The native majesty of Freedom shines, Accept this friendly praise, and let me prove My heart not wholly void of publick love; Tho' not like thee I strike the sounding string To notes which Sparta might have deign'd to sing, But idly sporting in the secret shade

With tender trifles sooth some artless maid.

TO WILLIAM PITT, ESQ.

ON HIS LOSING HIS COMMISSION
In the Year 1736.

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LONG had thy virtues mark'd thee out for fame Far far superiour to a Cornet's name :

The gen'rous Walpole saw and griev'd to find
So mean a post disgrace that noble mind:
The servile standard from thy freeborn hand
He took, and bad thee lead the patriot band.

6

TO MR. WEST, AT WICKHAM†. Written in the Year 1740.

I.

FAIR Nature's sweet simplicity,

With elegance refin'd,

Well in thy seat, my Friend! I see,

But better in thy mind.

II.

To both from courts and all their state

Eager I fly, to prove

Joys far above a courtier's fate,

Tranquillity and love.

TO COLONEL DRUMGOLD. DRUMGOLD! whose ancestors from Albion's shore

Their conq'ring standards to Hibernia bore,
Tho' now thy valour to thy country lost
Shines in the foremost ranks of Gallia's host,
Think not that France shall borrow all thy fame-5
From British sires deriv'd thy genius came;
Its force, its energy, to these it ow'd,

But the fair polish Gallia's clime bestow'd;

4

+See the Inscriptions in Mr. West's Poems.

The Graces there each ruder thought refin'd,
And liveliest wit with soundest sense combin'd; 10
They taught in sportive Fancy's gay attire
To dress the gravest of th' Aonian choir,
And gave to sober Wisdom's wrinkled cheek.
The smile that dwells in Hebe's dimple sleek.
Pay to each realm the debt that each may ask: 15
Be thine and thine alone the pleasing task
In purest elegance of Gallick phrase
To clothe the spirit of the British lays.
Thus ev'ry flow'r which ev'ry Muse's hand
Has rais'd profuse in Britain's fav'rite land
By thee transplanted to the banks of Seine,
Its sweetest native odours shall retain ;
And when thy noble friend, with olive crown'd,
In Concord's golden chain has firmly bound
The rival nations, thou for both shalt raise
The grateful song to his immortal praise.
Albion shall think she hears her Prior sing,
And France that Boileau strikes the tuneful string:
Then shalt thou tell what various talents join'd
Adorn, embellish, and exalt his mind;

Learning and wit with sweet politeness grac'd,
Wisdom by guile or cunning undebas'd,
By pride unsully'd genuine dignity,

A noble and sublime simplicity.

Such in thy verse shall Nivernois be shown;
France shall with joy the fair resemblance own,
And Albion sighing bid her songs aspire

'To imitate the merit they admire,

H

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30

35

38

TO A YOUNG LADY,

WITH THE TRAGEDY OF VENICE PRESERV'D.

IN tender Otway's moving scenes we find
What pow'r the gods have to your sex assign'd;
Venice was lost if on the brink of fate

A woman had not propt her sinking state:
In the dark danger of that dreadful hour
Vain was her senate's wisdom, vain its pow'r ;
But sav'd by Belvidera's charming tears
Still o'er the subject main her tow'r she rears,
And stands a great example to mankind

5

15

With what a boundless sway you rule the mind, 10
Skilful the worst or noblest ends to serve,
And strong alike to ruin or preserve.
In wretched Jaffier we with pity view
A mind to honour false, to virtue true,
In the wild storm of struggling passions tost
Yet saving innocence tho' fame was lost,
Greatly forgetting what he ow'd his friend-
His country which had wrong'd him to defend.
But she who urg'd him to that pious deed,
Who knew so well the patriot's cause to plead, 20
Whose conq'ring love her country's safety won,
Was by that fatal love herself undone.

[hide,

*"Hence may we learn what passion fain would "That Hymen's bands by Prudence should be try'd.

*The twelve following lines, with some small variations, have been already printed in Advice to a Lady, p. 38; but as Lord Lyttelton chose to introduce them here, it was thought more eligible to repeat these few lines han to suppress the rest of the poem.

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"Venus in vain the wedded pair would crown "If angry Fortune on their union frown; "Soon will the flatt'ring dreams of joy be o'er, "And cloy'd imagination cheat no more: "Then waking to the sense of lasting pain "With mutual tears the bridal couch they stain, "And that fond love which should afford relief "Does but augment the anguish of their grief, "While both could easier their own sorrows bear "Than the sad knowledge of each other's care.' May all the joys in Love and Fortune's pow'r 35 Kindly combine to grace your nuptial hour! On each glad day may plenty show'r delight, And warmest rapture bless each welcome night! May Heav'n that gave you Belvidera's charms, Destine some happier Jaffier to your arms, Whose bliss misfortune never may allay, Whose fondness never may thro' care decay, Whose wealth may place you in the fairest light, And force each modest beauty into sight! So shall no anxious want your peace destroy, No tempest crush the tender buds of joy, But all your hours in one gay circle move, Nor Reason ever disagree with Love!

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