Could other rules impart. The friendly strain,
For gentler bosoms plann'd, to yours would prove
The juice of lurid aconite, exceed

Whatever Colchos bore, and in your breast
Compassion, love, and friendship all destroy.
It greatly shall avail, if e'er thy stores
Increase apace by periodic days
Of annual payment, or thy patron's boon,
The lean reward of gross unbounded praise !
It much avails to seize the present hour,
And, undeliberating, call around

70

Thy hungry creditors: their horrid rage
When once appeas'd, the small remaining store
Shall rise in weight tenfold, in lustre rise,
As gold improv'd by many a fierce assay.
'Tis thus the frugal husbandman directs
His narrow stream, if o'er its wonted banks,
By sudden rains impell'd, it proudly swell
His timely hand thro' better tracks conveys
The quick-decreasing tide, ere borne along
Or thro' the wild morass, or cultur'd field,
Or bladed grass mature, or barren sands,
It flow destructive, or it flow in vain!
But happiest he who sanctifies expense
By present pay; who subjects not his fame
To tradesmen's varlets, nor bequeaths his name,
His honour'd name, to deck the vulgar page
Of base mechanic, sordid, unsincere !

75

80

85

90

95

There haply, while thy Muse sublimely soars
Beyond this earthly sphere, in heav'n's abodes,
And dreams of nectar and ambrosial sweets,
Thy growing debt steals unregarded o'er
The punctual record, till nor Phoebus' self,
Nor sage Minerva's art, can aught avail
To sooth the ruthless dun's detested rage:
Frantic and fell, with many a curse profane
He loads the gentle Muse, then hurls thee down,
To want, remorse, captivity, and shame.

100

Each public place, the glitt'ring haunts of men, With horror fly. Why loiter near thy bane? 106 Why fondly linger on a hostile shore

115

Disarm'd, defenceless? why require to tread
The precipice? or why, alas! to breathe
A moment's space where ev'ry breeze is death? 110
Death to thy future peace! Away, collect
Thy dissipated mind; contract thy train
Of wild ideas, o'er the flow'ry fields
Of show diffus'd, and speed to safer climes.
Economy presents her glass, accept
The faithful mirror, pow'rful to disclose
A thousand forms unseen by careless eyes,
That plot thy fate. Temptation in a robe
Of Tyrian dye, with ev'ry sweet perfum'd,
Besets thy sense; Extortion follows close
Her wanton step, and Ruin brings the rear.
These and the rest shall her mysterious glass

120

125

130

Embody to thy view; like Venus kind,
When to her lab'ring son the 'vengeful pow'rs
That urg'd the fall of Ilium she display'd :
He, not imprudent, at the sight declin'd
Th' unequal conflict, and decreed to raise
The Trojan welfare on some happier shore.
For here to drain thy swelling purse await.
A thousand arts, a thousand frauds attend;
"The cloud-wrought canes, thegorgeous snuffboxes,
"The twinkling jewels, and the gold etwee,
"With all its bright inhabitants, shall waste
"Its melting stores, and in the dreary void
"Leave not a doit behind." Ere yet exhaust 135
Its flimsy folds offend thy pensive eye,
Away! embosom'd deep in distant shades,
Nor seen nor seeing, thou may'st vent thy scorn
Of lace, embroid'ry, purple, gems, and gold!
There of the farded fop and essenc'd beau,
Ferocious, with a Stoic's frown disclose
Thy manly scorn, averse to tinsel pomp,
And fluent thine harangue. But can thy soul
Deny thy limbs the radiant grace of dress,
Where dress is merit! where thy graver friend 145
Shall wish thee burnish'd! where the sprightly fair
Demand embellishment! ev'n Delia's eye,
As in a garden, roves, of hues alone
Inquirent, curious? Fly the curs'd domain ;
These are the realms of luxury and show,
No classic soil; away! the bloomy spring

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150

1

Attracts thee hence; the waning autumn warns;
Fly to thy native shades, and dread, ev'n there,
Lest busy fancy tempt thy narrow state

161

Beyond its bounds. Observe Florelio's mien: 155
Why treads my friend with melancholy step
That beauteous lawn? why, pensive, strays his eye
O'er statues, grottoes, urns, by critic art
Proportion'd fair? or from his lofty dome,
Bright glitt ring thro' the grove, returns his eye
Unpleas`d, disconsolate? And is it love,
Disastrous love, that rohs the finish'd scenes
Of all their beauty? cent'ring all in her
His soul adores? or from a blacker cause
Springs this remorseful gloom? Is conscious guilt
The latent source of more than love's despair? 166
It cannot be within that polish'd breast,

Where science dwells, that guilt shouldharbour there.
No 't is the sad survey of present want

:

And past profusion! lost to him the sweets
Of yon pavilion, fraught with ev'ry charm
For other eyes; or if remaining, proofs
Of criminal expense! Sweet interchange

170

Of river, valley, mountain, woods, and plains! 174
How gladsome once he rang`d your native turf,
Your simple scenes, how raptur'd! ere Expense
Had lavish'd thousand ornaments, and taught
Convenience to perplex him, art to pall,
Pomp to deject, and beauty to displease!

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190

Oh! for a soul to all the glare of wealth, 180
To Fortune's wide exhaustless treasury,
Nobly superior! but let Caution guide
The coy disposal of the wealth we scorn,
And Prudence be our almoner. Alas!
The pilgrim wand'ring o'er some distant clime,
Sworn foe of avarice! not disdains to learn
Its coin's imputed worth, the destin'd means
To smooth his passage to the favour'd shrine.
Ah! let not us, who tread this stranger world,
Let none who sojourn on the realms of life,
Forget the land is merc'nary, nor waste
His fare ere landed on no venal shore.
Let never bard consult Palladio's rules;
Let never bard, O Burlington! survey
Thy learned art, in Chiswick's dome display'd;
Dangerous incentive! nor with ling'ring eye 196
Survey the window Venice calls her own.
Better for him with no ingrateful Muse
To sing a requiem to that gentle soul
Who plann'd the skylight, which to lavish bards
Conveys alone the pure ethereal ray;

For garrets him, and squalid walls, await,
Unless, presageful, from this friendly strain

201

He glean advice, and shun the scribbler's doom. 204