Without my aid, the best 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.
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 + consulting strove
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.
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 fometimes 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 fome give out, that I entice
To luft and luxury and dice:
Who punishments on me inflict,
Because they find their pockets pickt.
By riding post I lose my health; And only to get others wealth.
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 fpoke with fense:
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 fold and bought,
Who neither get nor lofe a groat;
For none, alas! by me can gain,
But those 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 fill:
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 curfe,
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 first 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.
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 num'rous 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 :
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