XII.

"Come, ye, who ftill the cumberous load of life "Push hard up hill; but as the fartheft steep "You truft to gain, and put an end to ftrife, "Down thunders back the ftone with mighty fweep, "And hurls your labours to the valley deep, "For-ever vain: come, and, withouten fee, "I in oblivion will your forrows steep, "Your cares, your toils, will steep you in a fea "Of full delight: O come, ye weary wights, to me!. XIII.

"With me, you need not rife at early dawn, “To pass the joyless day in various stounds : "Cr, louting low, on upftart fortune fawn, "And fell fair honour for fome paltry pounds; "Or through the city take your dirty rounds, "To cheat, and dun, and lye, and visit pay, "Now flattering bafe, now giving fecret wounds: "Or proul in courts of law for human prey, "In venal fenate thieve, or rob on broad highway. XIV.

"No cocks, with me, to ruftic labour call, "From village on to village founding clear: "To tardy fwain no fhrill-voic'd matrons fquall; "No dogs, no babes, no wives, to stun your ear; "No hammers thump; no horrid blacksmith fear, "Ne noify tradesman your sweet flumbers start, "With founds that are a mifery to hear: "But all is calm, as would delight the heart. "Of Sybarite of old, all nature, and all art.

XV. "Here

XV.

"Here nought but candour reigns, indulgent ease, "Good-natur'd lounging, fauntering up and down: "They who are pleas'd themselves must always please; "On others' ways they never fquint a frown, "Nor heed what haps in hamlet or in town: « Thus, from the fource of tender indolence, "With milky blood the heart is overflown, "Is footh'd and fweeten'd by the focial fenfe; "For intereft, envy, pride, and ftrife are banish'd hence. XVI.

"What, what, is virtue, but repofe of mind, "A pure ethereal calm, that knows no storm; "Above the reach of wild ambition's wind, "Above the paffions that this world deform, "And torture man, a proud malignant worm ? "But here, inftead, foft gales of paffion play, "And gently ftir the heart, thereby to form "A quicker fenfe of joy; as breezes ftray "Acrofs th' enliven'd fkies, and make them still more

XVII.

"The best of men have ever lov'd repose:

[gay.

"They hate to mingle in the filthy fray; "Where the foul fours, and gradual rancour grows, "Imbitter'd more from peevish day to day. "Ev'n thofe whom Fame has lent her fairest ray, "The most renown'd of worthy wights of yore, "From a bafe world at laft have stol'n away: "So Scipio, to the foft Cumæan fhore "Retiring, tafted joy he never knew before.

XVIII. "But

XVIII.

"But if a little exercise you chufe,

"Some zeft for ease, 'tis not forbidden here.
"Amid the groves you may indulge the Mufe,
"Or tend the blooms, and deck the vernal year;
"Or foftly stealing, with your watery gear,

"Along the brook, the crimson spotted fry

"You may delude: the whilft, amus'd, you hear "Now the hoarse stream, and now the zephyr's figh, "Attuned to the birds, and woodland melody.

XIX.

"O grievous folly! to heap up estate, "Lofing the days you see beneath the fun; "When, fudden, comes blind unrelenting fate, "And gives th' untafted portion you have won, "With ruthless toil, and many a wretch undone, "To those who mock you gone to Pluto's reign, "There with fad ghosts to pine, and fhadows dun: "But fure it is of vanities most vain,

"To toil for what you here untoiling may obtain.”
XX.

He ceas'd. But still their trembling ears retain'd
The deep vibrations of his witching song ;
That, by a kind of magic power, constrain'd
To enter in, pell-mell, the liftening throng,
Heaps pour'd on heaps, and yet they flipt along,
In filent ease: as when beneath the beam
Of fummer-moons, the diftant woods among,
Or by fome flood all filver'd with the gleam,
The foft-embodied fays through airy portal stream:

XXI. By

XXI.

By the smooth demon so it order'd was,

And here his baneful bounty first began:
Though some there were who would not furtner pass,
And his alluring baits suspected han.

The wife diftruft the too fair-spoken man.
Yet through the gate they caft a wishful eye:
Not to move on, perdie, is all they can ;
For do their very best they cannot fly,

But often each way look, and often forely figh.
XXII.

When this the watchful wicked wizard faw,
With fudden fpring he leap'd upon them ftrait;
And foon as touch'd by his unhallow'd paw,
They found themselves within the curfed gate;
Full hard to be repafs'd, like that of fate.
Not stronger were of old the giant crew,

: Who fought to pull high Jove from regal state;
Though feeble wretch he feem'd, of fallow hue:
Certes, who bides his grafp, will that encounter rue.
XXIII.

For whomfoe'er the villain takes in hand,
Their joints unknit, their finews melt apace;
As lithe they grow as any willow-wand,
And of their vanish'd force remains no trace:
So when a maiden fair, of modeft grace,
In all her buxom blooming May of charms,
Is feized in fome lofel's hot embrace,
She waxeth very weakly as she warms,

Then fighing yields her up to love's delicious harms.

XXIV. Wak'd

XXIV.

Wak'd by the crowd, flow from his bench arose
A comely full-fpread porter, fwoln with fleep:
His calm, broad, thoughtless afpect breath'd repose;
And in fweet torpor he was plunged deep,
Ne could himself from ceafelefs yawning keep;
While o'er his eyes the drowsy liquor ran,
Through which his half-wak'd foul would faintly peep.
Then taking his black staff he call'd his man,
And rous'd himself as much as roufe himself he can.
XXV.

The lad leap'd lightly at his master's call.
He was, to weet, a little roguish page,

Save fleep and play who minded nought at all,
Like most the untaught striplings of his age.
This boy he kept each band to difengage,
Garters and buckles, talk for him unfit,
But ill-becoming his grave perfonage,
And which his portly paunch would not permit,
So this fame limber page to all performed it.

XXVI.

Meantime the mafter-porter wide difplay'd
Great ftore of caps, of flippers, and of gowns;
Wherewith he those that enter'd in, array'd
Loose, as the breeze that plays along the downs,
And waves the fummer-woods when evening frowns.
O fair undress, beft drefs! it checks no vein,
But every flowing limb in pleasure drowns,

And heightens ease with grace. This done, right fain, Sir porter fat him down, and turn'd to fleep again.

XXVII. Thus