Like Joseph's dream, but with a better doom,
The famine past, the plenty still to come.

For her the weeping heav'ns become serene;
For her the ground is clad in cheerful green;
For her the nightingales are taught to sing,
And nature has for her delay'd the spring,
The Muse resumes her long-forgotten lays,
And Love, restor'd, his ancient realm surveys,
Recals our beauties, and revives our plays;
His waste dominions peoples once again,
And from her presence dates his second reign.
But awful charms on her fair forehead sit,
Dispensing what she never will admit;
Pleasing, yet cold, like Cynthia's silver beam,
The people's wonder and the poet's theme,
Distemper'd Zeal, Sedition, canker'd Hate,

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35

No more shall vex the church and tear the state; 40
No more shall Faction civil discords move,
Or only discords of too tender love;
Discord like that of music's various parts;
Discord that makes the harmony of hearts;
Discord that only this dispute shall bring,

Who best shall love the Duke and serve the King. 46

XIV.

To bonoured kinsman, JOHN DRYDEN, of Chesterton,

my

in the county of Huntingdon, Esq.

How bless'd is he who leads a country life,
Unvex'd with anxious cares, and void of strife!
Who, studying peace, and shunning civil

rage,

Enjoy'd his youth, and now enjoys his age!
All who deserve his love he makes his own.
And to be lov'd himself needs only to be known.
Just,good,and wise,contending neighbourscome,
From your award to wait their final doom,
And, foes before, return in friendship home.
Without their cost you terminate the cause,
And save th' expence of long litigious laws,
Where suits are travers'd, and so little won,
That he who conquers is but last undone.
Such are new our decrees; but, so design'd,
'The sanction leaves a lasting peace behind,
Like your own soul serene, a pattern of your mind.
Promoting concord, and composing strife,

Lord of yourself, uncumber'd with a wife;
Where for a year, a month, perhaps a night,
Long penitence succeeds a short delight;
Minds are so hardly match'd, that e'en the first,
Tho' pair'd by Heav'n, in Paradise were curst ;
Volume III.

F

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5

IO

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For man and woman, tho' in one they grow,

Yet, first or last, return again to two:

'He to God's image, she to his was made;

25

So farther from the fount the stream at random stray'd.
How could he stand when, put to double pain,
He must a weaker than himself sustain ?

Each might have stood perhaps : but, each alone!
Two wrestlers help to pull each other down.

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Not that my verse would blemish all the fair; But yet, if some be bad, 'tis wisdom to beware; And better shun the bait than struggle in the snare. Thus have you shunn'd, and shun the marry'd state, Trusting as little as you can to Fate.

No porter guards the passage of your door, T' admit the wealthy and exclude the poor; For God, who gave the riches, gave the heart To sanctify the whole, by giving part;

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Heav'n, who foresaw the will, the means has wrought,

And to the second son a blessing brought:

The first begotten had his father's share,

But you, like Jacob, are Rebecca's heir.

So may your stores and fruitful fields increase,
And ever be you bless'd who live to bless.
As Ceres sow'd wheree'er her chariot flew;
As Heav'n in deserts rain'd the bread of dew;
So, free to many, to relations most,

You feed with manna your own Israel host.

45

With crowds attended of your ancient race,

50

You seek the champion sports or sylvan chase:
With well breath'd beagles you surround the wood,
E'er then industrious of the common good;
And often have you brought the wily fox
To suffer for the firstlings of the flocks;
Chas'd e'en amid the folds, and made to bleed,
Like felons, where they did the murd❜rous deed.
This fiery game your active youth maintain❜d,

Not yet by years extinguish'd, tho' restrain’d;

55

You season still with sports your serious hours, 60

For age but tastes of pleasures, youth devours.

The hare in pastures or in plains is found,
Emblem of human life, who runs the round,
And, after all his wand'ring ways are done,
His circle fills, and ends where he begun,
Just as the setting meets the rising sun.

Thus princes ease their cares; but happier he
Who seeks not pleasure thro' necessity,

65

Than such as once on slipp'ry thrones were plac'd,
And chasing, sigh to think themselves are chas'd. 70
So liv'd our sires ere doctors learn'd to kill,
And multiply'd with theirs the weekly bill.
The first physicians by debauch were made;
Excess began, and sloth sustains, the trade.
Pity the gen'rous kind their cares bestow,
To search forbidden truths; (a sin to know)

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To which, if human science could attain,

The doom of death, pronounc'd by God, were vain:
In vain the leech would interpose delay;
Fate fastens first, and vindicates the prey.

What help from Art's endeavours can we have ?
Gibbons but guesses, nor is sure to save; [grave,
But Maurussweepswholeparishes, and peoples ev'ry
And no more mercy to mankind will use.

80

99

Than when he robb'd and murder'd Maro's Muse.85
Would'st thou be soon dispatch'd, and perish whole?
Trust Mauruswiththylife, and Milbournwith thysoul.
By chase our long-liv'd fathers earn'd their food,
Toil strung, the nerves, and purify'd the blood;
But we, their sons, a pamper'd race of men,
Are dwindled down to threescore years and ten.
Better to hunt in fields for health unbought,
Than fee the doctor for a nauseous draught.
The wise, for cure, on exercise depend:
God never made his work for man to mend.
The tree of Knowledge once in Eden plac'd,
Was easy found, but was forbid the taste;
O, had our grandsire walk'd without his wife,
He first had sought the better plant of Life!
Now both are lost; yet, wand'ring in the dark, 100
Physicians for the tree have found the bark:
They, lab'ring for relief of human kind,
With sharpen'd sight some remedies may
Th' apothecary-train is wholly blind.

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