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Jack knew his friend, but hoped in that difguife
He might escape the moft obferving eyes,
And whiftling, as if unconcerned and gay,
Curried his nag, and looked another way.
Convinced at laft, upon a nearer view,
"Twas he, the fame, the very Jack he knew,
Overwhelmed at once with wonder, grief, and joy,
He preffed him much to quit his base employ;
His countenance, his purfe, his heart, his hand,
Influence and power, were all at his command:
Peers are not always generous as well-bred,
But Granby was, meant truly what he faid.
Jack bowed, and was obliged-confeffed t'was ftrange,
That fo retired he should not wifh a change,
But knew no medium between guzzling beer,
And his old ftint-three thoufand pounds a year.
Thus fome retire to nourish hopeless woe;
Some feeking happiness not found below;
Some to comply with humour, and a mind
To focial scenes by nature difinclined;
Some swayed by fashion, fome by deep disguft;
Some felf-impoverished, and because they muft;
But few, that court Retirement, are aware
Of half the toils they muft encounter there.

Lucrative offices are feldom loft

For want of powers proportioned to the poft:

Give even a dunce the employment he defires,
And he foon finds the talents it requires;
A bufinefs with an income at it's heels
Furnishes always oil for its own wheels.
But in his arduous enterprize to close
His active years with indolent repose,
He finds the labours of that ftate exceed
His utmost faculties, fevere indeed.
'Tis eafy to refign a toilsome place,
But not to manage leifure with a grace;
Abfence of occupation is not reft,

A mind quite vacant is a mind diftreffed.
The veteran fteed, excufed his task at length,
In kind compaffion of his failing ftrength,
And turned into the park or mead to graze,
Exempt from future fervice all his days,
There feels a pleasure perfect in its kind,
Ranges at liberty, and fnuffs the wind:
But when his lord would quit the busy road,
To tafle a joy like that he had bestowed,
He proves lefs happy than his favoured brute,
A life of cafe a difficult purfuit.

Thought, to the man that never thinks, may feem

As natural as when afleep to dream;
But reveries (for human minds will act)

Specious in fhow, impoffible in fact,

Those flimfy webs, that break as foon as wrought, Attain not to the dignity of thought:

Nor yet the fwarms, that occupy the brain,

Where dreams of drefs, intrigue, and pleasure reign; Nor fuch as ufelefs converfation breeds,

Or luft engenders, and indulgence feeds.

Whence, and what are we? to what end ordained?
What means the drama by the world sustained ?
Bufinefs or vain amusement, care or mirth,
Divide the frail inhabitants of earth.

Is duty a mere sport, or an employ?
Life an intrufted talent, or a toy?

Is there, as reason, confcience, fcripture, fay,
Cause to provide for a great future day,
When, earth's affigned duration at an end,
Man fhall be fummoned and the dead attend?
The trumpet-will it found? the curtain rife?
And show the auguft tribunal of the skies,
Where no prevarication shall avail,
Where eloquence and artifice fhall fail,
The pride of arrogant diftinctions fall,
And confcience and our conduct judge us all?
Pardon me, ye that give the midnight oil
To learned cares or philofophic toil,
Though I revere your honourable names,
Your useful labours and important aims,

And hold the world indebted to your aid,
Enriched with the discoveries ye have made;
Yet let me ftand excufed, if I efteem

A mind employed on fo fublime a theme,
Pushing her bold inquiry to the date
And outline of the prefent tranfient ftate,
And, after poifing her adventurous wings,
Settling at laft upon eternal things,
Far more intelligent, and better taught
The ftrenuous ufe of profitable thought,
Than ye, when happieft, and enlightened moft,
And highest in renown, can juftly boaft.

A mind unnerved, or indisposed to bear
The weight of fubjects worthieft of her care,
Whatever hopes a change of scene inspires,
Muft change her nature, or in vain retires.
An idler is a watch, that wants both hands,
As ufelefs if it goes as when it ftands.
Books therefore, not the fcandal of the shelves,
In which lewd fenfualifts print out themselves;
Nor thofe, in which the ftage gives vice a blow,
With what fuccefs let modern manners fhow;
Nor his, who for the bane of thousands born
Built God a church, and laughed his word to fcorn,
Skilful alike to feem devout and juft,

And ftab religion with a fly fide-thruft;

Nor those of learned philologifts, who chafe
A panting fyllable through time and space,
Start it at home, and hunt it in the dark,
To Gaul, to Greece, and into Noah's ark;
But fuch as learning without false pretence,
The friend of truth, the affociate of found sense,
And fuch as in the zeal of good defign,
Strong judgment labouring in the scripture mine,
All fuch as manly and great fouls produce,
Worthy to live, and of eternal use:

Behold in thefe what leifure hours demand,
Amusement and true knowledge hand in hand.
Luxury gives the mind a childish caft,

And while fhe polishes, perverts the tafte;
Habits of clofe attention, thinking heads,
Become more rare as diffipation spreads,
Till authors hear at length one general cry,
Tickle and entertain us, or we die.

The loud demand, from year to year the fame,
Beggars invention and makes fancy lame.
Till farce itself, moft mournfully jejune,
Calls for the kind affiftance of a tune;
And novels (witness every month's review)
Belic their name, and offer nothing new.
The mind, relaxing into needful sport,
Should turn to writers of an abler fort,

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