Without my aid, the beft divine
In learning would not know a line:
The lawyer muft forget his pleading;
The fcholar could not fhew his reading.

Nay; man my mafter is my flave:
I give command to kill or fave,
Can grant ten thousand pounds a year,
And make a beggar's brat a peer.

But, while I thus my life relate, I only haften on my fate.

My tongue is black, my mouth is furr'd, I hardly now can force a word.

I die unpitied and forgot,
And on fome dunghill left to rot.

II.
ANOTHER.

A

LL-ruling tyrant of the earth, To vileft flaves I owe my birth. How is the greatest monarch bleft, When in my gaudy liv'ry dreft! No haughty nymph has pow'r to run From me; or my embraces fhun. Stabb'd to the heart, condemn'd to flame, My conftancy is fill the fame.

The fav'rite meffenger of Jove*,
And Lemnian God + confulting ftrove
To make me glorious to the fight
Of mortals, and the Gods delight.
Soon would their altars flame expire,
If I refus'd to lend them fire.

III.
ANOTHER.

BY
fate exalted high in place,
Lo, here I ftand with double face;
Superior none on earth I find;
But fee below me all mankind.
Yet, as it oft attends the great,
I almost sink with my own weight.
At every motion undertook,
The vulgar all confult my look.
I sometimes give advice in writing,
But never of my own inditing.

I am a courtier in my way;
For those who rais'd me, I betray;
And some give out, that I entice
To luft and luxury and dice:
Who punishments on me inflict,
Because they find their pockets pickt.

* Mercury.

+ Vulcan.

By

By riding post I lose my health; And only to get others wealth.

IV.

ANOTHER.

BE

ECAUSE I am by nature blind, I wifely chufe to walk behind; However, to avoid disgrace, I let no creature fee my face. My words are few, but spoke with sense: And yet my Speaking gives offence: Or, if to whisper I prefume, The company will fly the room. By all the world I am oppreft, And my oppreffion gives them reft.

Through me, though fore against my will, Inftructors ev'ry art inftil. By thousands I am sold and bought, Who neither get nor lofe a groat; For none, alas! by me can gain, But thofe who give me greatest pain. Shall man prefume to be my mafter, Who's but my caterer and tafter? Yet, though I always have my will, I'm but a meer depender ftill:

An

An humble hanger-on at best;
Of whom all people make a jeft.

In me detractors feek to find Two vices of a diff'rent kind: I'm too profufe, fome cens'rers cry, And all I get, I let it fly: While others give me many a curse, Because too close I hold my purse. But this I know, in either cafe They dare not charge me to my face. 'Tis true indeed, fometimes I fave, Sometimes run out of all I have; But, when the year is at an end, Computing what I get, and spend, My goings out, and comings in, I cannot find I lofe or win; And therefore all that know me fay, I justly keep the middle way. I'm always by my betters lead; I laft get up, and firft a-bed; Though, if I rife before my time, The learn'd in fciences fublime Confult the ftars, and thence foretel Good luck to thofe with whom I dwell.

V.
ANOTHER.

THE joy of man, the pride of brutes,
Domeftic fubject for difputes,

Of plenty thou the emblem fair,
Adorn'd by nymphs with all their care!
I faw thee rais'd to high renown,
Supporting half the British crown;
And often have I feen thee
grace
The chafte Diana's infant face;
And whenfoe'er you please to shine,
Lefs useful is her light than thine:
Thy numʼrous fingers know their way,
And oft in Celia's treffes play.

To place thee in another view,
I'll fhew the world ftrange things and true;
What lords and dames of high degree
May juftly claim their birth from thee.
The foul of man with fpleen you vex :
Of spleen you cure the female fex.
Thee for a gift the courtier fends
With pleasure to his fpecial friends:
He gives; and with a gen'rous pride,
Contrives all means the gift to hide :

Nor