Love lurks within the rofy bow'r,
And claims the fpeculative hour;
Ambition finds his calm retreat,
And bids his pulfe too fiercely beat;
Ev'n focial friendship duns his ear,
And cites him to the public sphere.
Does he refift their genuine force?
His

temper takes fome froward course Till paffion, misdirected, sighs

For weeds, or fhells, or grubs, or flies!

Far happiest he, whofe early days
Spent in the focial paths of praise,
Leave, fairly printed on his mind,
A train of virtuous deeds behind:

From this rich fund, the mem'ry draws
The lafting meed of felf-applaufe.

Such fair ideas lend their aid

To people the fequefter'd fhade.

Such are the naiads, nymphs, and fawns,
That haunt his floods, or chear his lawns.
If where his devious ramble strays,

*

He virtue's radiant form furveys;
She feems no longer now to wear
The rigid mien, the frown fevere
To fhew him her remote abode;
To point the rocky arduous road:
But from each flower, his fields allow,
She twines a garland for his brow.

Alluding to the allegory in CEBES's tablet.

Ju

The

OECONOMY,

A RHAPSODY, addreffed to young POETS.

Infanis; omnes gelidis quicunque lacernis

Sunt tibi, Nafones Virgiliofque vides.

MART.

T

O you, ye bards! whofe lavish breast requires
This monitory lay, the ftrains belong;
Nor think fome mifer vents his fapient faw,
Or fome dull cit unfeeling of the charms
That tempt profufion, fings; while friendly zeal,
To guard from fatal ills the tribe he loves,
Infpires the meaneft of the mufe's train!
Like you I loath the groveling progeny,
Whose wily arts, by creeping time matur'd,
Advance them high on pow'r's tyrannic throne:
To lord it there in gorgeous uselessnefs,

And spurn fuccefslefs worth that pines below!
See the rich churl, amid the focial fons
Of wine and wit, regaling! hark he joins
In the free jeft delighted! feems to fhew
A meliorated heart! he laughs! he fings!
Songs of gay import, madrigals of glee,

And

And drunken anthems fet agape the board.
Like *DEMEA, in the play, benign and mild,
And pouring forth benevolence of soul,

Till MICIO wonders: or, in SHAKESPEAR'S line,
Obftrep❜rous filence; drowning SHALLOW's voice,
And ftartling FALSTAFF, and his mad compeers.
He owns 'tis prudence, ever and anon,

To fmooth his careful brow; to let his purfe
Ope to a fix-pence's diameter !

He likes our ways; he owns the ways of wit

Are ways of pleafaunce, and deferve regard.

True, we are dainty good fociety,

But what art thou? alas! confider well,
Thou bane of focial pleasure, know thyfelf.
Thy fell approach, like fome invasive damp
Breath'd thro' the pores of earth from Stygian caves,
Destroys the lamp of mirth; the lamp which we
Its flamens boaft to guard, we know not how :
But at thy fight the fading flame affumes
A ghaftly blue, and in a stench expires.

True, thou feem'ft chang'd; all fainted, all enfky'd;
The trembling tears that charge thy melting eyes
Say thou art honeft; and of gentle kind,
But all is falfe! an intermitting figh

Condemns each hour, each moment giv'n to fmiles,
And deems thofe only loft, thou dost not lose.
Ev'n for a demi-groat, this open'd soul,

This boon companion, this elaftic breast

Revibrates quick; and fends the tuneful tongue
To lavish mufic on the rugged walls

Of fome dark dungeon. Hence thou caitiff, fly!
Touch not my glafs, nor drain my facred bowl,
Monster, ingrate! beneath one common sky
Why should'st thou breathe; beneath one common roof
Thou ne'er fhalt harbour; nor my little boat
Receive a foul with crimes to prefs it down.
Go to thy bags, thou recreant! hourly go,
And gazing there, bid them be wit, be mirth,
Be converfation. Not a face that fmiles
Admit thy presence! not a foul that glows
With focial purport, bid or ev'n or morn
Invest thee happy! but when life declines,
May thy fure heirs ftand titt'ring round thy bed,
And ufh'ring in their fav'rites, burst thy locks,
And fill their laps with gold; till want and care
With joy depart, and cry, "We ask no more."
Ah never never may th' harmonious mind
Endure the worldly! poets ever kind,—
Guileless, distrustless, fcorn the treasur❜d gold,
And fpurn the mifer, fpurn his deity.
Ballanc'd with friendship, in the poet's eye
The rival scale of intereft kicks the beam,
Than lightning fwifter. From his cavern'd store
The fordid soul, with self-applause, rema.ks
The kind propensity; remarks and smiles,
And hies with impious hafte to spread the fnare.

Him we deride, and in our comic scenes

Con

Contemn the niggard form MOLIERE has drawn.
We loath with justice; but alas the pain
To bow the knee before this calf of gold;
Implore his envious aid, and meet his frown!

But 'tis not GOMEZ, 'tis not he whose heart
Is crufted o'er with drofs, whofe callous mind.
Is fenfelefs as his gold, the flighted muse
Intenfely loaths. 'Tis fure no equal task
To pardon him, who lavishes his wealth
On racer, fox-hound, hawk or spaniel, all
But human merit; who with gold effays
All, but the nobleft pleasure, to remove
The wants of genius, and its fmiles enjoy.

But you, ye titled youths! whofe nobler zeal Would burnish o'er your coronets with fame; Who liften pleas'd when poet tunes his lay; Permit him not, in diftant folitudes, To pine, to languish out the fleeting hours for praife. That feafon unadorn'd, the careless bard Quits your worn threshold, and like honeft GAY Contemns the niggard boon ye time fo ill. Your favours then, like trophies giv'n the tomb, Th' enfranchis'd spirit foaring not perceives, Or fcorns perceiv'd; and execrates the smile Which bade his vig'rous bloom, to treacherous hopes And fervile cares a prey, expire in vain !— Two lawless pow'rs, engag'd by mutual hate In endless war, beneath their flags enroll

Of active youth! then virtue pants

The