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Hail, tree of knowledge! thy leaves fruit! which

well

Doft in the midft of paradife arife,

Oxford! the Mufe's paradife,

From which may never fword the blefs'd expel!
Hail, bank of all paft ages! where they lie
T'enrich with intereft pofterity!

Hail, Wit's illuftrious Galaxy!

'T had happier been for him, as well as me; For when all, alas! is done,

We books, I mean, You books, will prove to be
The best and nobleft converfation:

For, though fome errors will get in,
Like tinctures of original fin;
Yet fure we from our fathers' wit
Draw all the ftrength and fpirit of it,

Where thousand lights into one brightnefs fpread; Leaving the greffer parts for converfation,
Hail, living Univerfity of the dead!

Unconfus'd Babel of all tongues! which e'er
The mighty linguift Fame, or Time, the mighty
traveller,

That could fpeak, or this could hear.
Majeftic monument and pyramid!
Where ftill the fhades of parted fouls abide
Embalm'd in verfe; exalted fouls which now
Enjoy thofe arts they woo'd fo well below;
Which now all wonders plainly fee,
That have been, are, or are to be,
In the mysterious library,

The beatific Bodley of the Deity;
Will you into your facred throng admit
The meanest British Wit?

You, general-council of the priests of Fame,
Will you not murmur and difdzin,
That I a place among you claim,

The humbleft deacon of her train?
Will you allow me th' honourable chain?
The chain of ornament, which here
Your noble prifoners proudly wear;

A chain which will more pleasant seem to me
Than all my own Pindaric liberty!

Will ye to bind me with thole mighty names
fubmit,

Like an Apocrypha with holy Writ?
Whatever happy book is chained here,
No other place or people need to fear;
His chain's a paffport to go every where.

As when a feat in heaven

Is to an unmalicious finner given,

Who, cafting round his wondering cye,
Does none but patriarchs and apoftles there efpy;
Martyrs who did their lives beftow,

And faints, who martyrs liv'd below;
With trembling and amazement he begins
To recollect his frailties paft and fins;

He doubts almoft his ftation there;

His foul fays to itself, "How came I here?"

It fares no otherwife with me,
When I myself with confcious wonder fee
Amidst this purify'd elected company.

With hardship they, and pain,
Did to this happiness attain:
No labour I, nor merits, can pretend;
I think predeftination only was my friend.
Ah, that my author had been ty'd like me
To fuch a place and fach a company!
Instead of feveral countries, feveral men,

And bufinefs, which the Mufes hate,
He might have then improv'd that small eftate
Which Nature fparingly did to him give;

He might perhaps have thriven then,
And fettled upon, me, his child, fomewhat to live,

As the best blood of man's employ'd in generation.

SITTING AND

O D E.

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DRINKING IN THE CHAIR MADE

OUT OF THE RELICS OF SIR FRANCIS
DRAKE'S SHIP.

HEER up, my mates, the wind does fairly
blow,

Clap on more fail, and never spare;,

Farewell all lands, for now we are

In the wide fea of drink, and merrily we go.
Blefs me, 'tis hot! another bowl of wine,
And we shall cut the burning Line:
Hey, boys! the fcuds away, and by my head I
know

We round the worid are failing now.
What dull men are thofe that tarry at home,
When abroad they might wantonly roam,

And gain fuch experience, and spy too
Such countries and wonders, as I do!
But pr'ythee, good pilot, take heed what you do,
And fail not to touch at Peru!

With gold there the veffel we'll flore,
And never, and never be poor,
No, never be poor any more.

What do I mean? What thoughts do me mifguide?
As well upon a staff may witches ride

Their fancy'd journeys in the air,

As I fail round the ocean in this chair!

"Tis true; but yet this chair which here you fee,

For all its quiet now, and gravity,

Has wander'd and has travel'd more

Than ever beaft, or fish, or bird, or ever tree, before:

In every air and every fea 't has been,

"I has compafs'd all the earth, and all the heavens

't has feen.

Let not the Pope's itfelf with this compare,
This is the only univerfal chair.

The pious wanderer's fleet, fav'd from the flame
(Which ftill the relics did of Troy pursue,

And took them for its due),

A fquadron of immortal nymphs became :
Still with their arms they row about the seas,
And ftill make new and greater voyages:
Nor has the firft poetic fhip of Greece
(Though now a ftar fhe fo triumphant fhew,
And guide her failing fucceffors below,
Bright as her ancient freight the fhining fleece)
Yet to this day a quiet harbour found;
The tide of heaven ftill carries her around.

Only Drake's facred veffel (which before

Had done and had feen more

Than thofe have done or feen,

Ev'n fince they Goddeffes and this a Star has been)

As a reward for all her labour past,

Is made the feat of reft at last.

Let the cafe now quite alter'd be,

And, as thou went'ft abroad the world to fee,
Let the world now come to see thee!
The world will do't; for curiofity
Does, no less than devotion, pilgrims make;
And I myfelf, who now love quiet too,
As much almost as any chair can do,
Would yet a journey take,

An old wheel of that chariot to fee,

Which Phaeton fo rafhly brake:

Yet what could that fay more than these remains of Drake?

Great relick! thou too, in this port of ease,
Haft ftill one way of making voyages;
The breath of Fame, like an aufpicious gale

(The great trade-wind which ne'er docs fail) Shall drive thee round the world, and thou fhalt

run,

As long around it as the fun.

The ftraights of Time too narrow are for thee;
Launch forth into an undiscover'd fea,
And steer the endless course of vaft Eternity!
Take for thy fail this verfe, and for thy pilot me!

UPON THE DEATH OF

THE EARL OF BALCARRES.

IS folly all, that can be faid,

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By living mortals, of th' immortal dead, And I'm afraid they laugh at the vain tears we fhed.

"Tis as if we, who stay behind

In expectation of the wind,

Should pity those who pafs'd this ftreight before,"
And touch the univerfal fhore.

Ah, happy man! who art to fail no more!
And, if it feem ridiculous to grieve
Because our friends are newly come from fea,

Though ne'er fo fair and calm it be;
What would all fober men believe,
If they fhould hear us fighing fay,

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Balcarres, who but th' other day

"Did all our love and our refpect command; "At whofe great parts we all amaz'd did stand; "Is from a storm, alas! caft fuddenly on land "S

If you will fay-Few perfons upon earth

Did, more than he, deferve to have
A life exempt from fortune and the grave;
Whether you look upon his birth

And ancestors, whofe fame 's fo widely spread-
But ancestors, alas! who long ago are dead-
Or whether you confider more
The vast increase, as fure you ought,
Of honour by his labour bought,
And added to the former ftore:

All I can answer, is, That I allow The privilege you plead for; and avow That, as he well deferv'd, he doth enjoy it now.

Though God, for great and righteous ends, Which his unerring Providence intends Erroneous mankind fhould not understand, Would not permit Balcarres' hand, (That once with so much industry and art Had clos'd the gaping wounds of every part) To perfect his distracted nation's cure, Or ftop the fatal bondage 'twas t' endure; Yet for his pains he foon did him remove, From all th' oppreffion and the woe Of his frail body's native foil below, To his foul's true and peaceful country above: So Godlike kings, for fecret causes known Sometimes, but to themselves alone,

One of their ableft minifters elect,

And fent abroad to treaties, which they' intend Shall never take effect;

But though the treaty wants a happy end, The happy agent wants not the reward, For which he labour'd faithfully and hard; His juft and righteous mafter calls him home, And gives him, near himself, fome honourable

room,

Noble and great ́endeavours did he bring To fave his country, and restore his king; And, whilst the manly half of him (which thofe

Who know not Love, to be the whole suppose)
Perform'd all parts of virtue's vigorous life;

The beauteous half, his lovely wife,
Did all his labours and his cares divide;
Nor was a lame nor paralytic fide :
In all the turns of human ftate,
And all th' unjuft attacks of Fate,
She bore her fhare and portion still,
And would not fuffer any to be ill.
Unfortunate for ever let me be,

If I believe that fuch was he,

Whom, in the storms of bad fuccefs, And all that Error calls unhappiness,

His virtue and his virtuous wife did still accompany!

With these companions 'twas not ftrange
That nothing could his temper change.
His own and country's union had not weight
Enough to crufh his mighty mind!

He faw around the hurricanes of ftate,
Fixt as an ifland 'gainst the waves and wind.
Thus far the greedy fea may reach;
All outward things are but the beach;
A great man's foul it doth affault in vain!
Their God himself the ocean doth reftrain
With an imperceptible chain,
And bid it to go back again.
His wisdom, justice, and his piety,
His courage both to fuffer and to die,
His virtues, and his lady too,
Were things celeftial. And we see,
In fpite of quarrelling philofophy,

How in this cafe 'tis certain found, That Heav'n ftands ftill, and only earth goca round.

OD E.

UPON DR. HARVEY,

OY Nature (which remain'd, though aged

COY

grown,

A beauteous virgin ftill, enjoy'd by none,
Nor feen unveil'd by any one)

When Harvey's violent paflion fhe did fee,
Began to tremble and to flee;

Took fanctuary, like Daphne, in a tree :

There Daphne's lover stop'd, and thought it much
The very leaves of her to touch:
But Harvey, our Apollo, ftop'd not fo;
Into the bark and root he after her did go!
No smallest fibres of a plant,

For which the eye-beams' point doth fharpnefs

want,

His paffage after her withstood.
What fhould the do? through all the moving

wood

Of lives endow'd with fenfe fhe took her flight;
Harvey pursues, and keeps her still in fight.
But, as the deer, long-hunted, takes a flood,
She leap'd at laft into the winding streams of
blood;

Of man's maander all the purple reaches måde,
Till at the heart she stay'd;

Where turning head, and at a bay,

Thus by well-purged ears was the o'erheard to

fay:

"Here fure fhall I be fafe" (faid fhe)

"None will be able fure to fee

"This my retreat, but only He "Who made both it and me.

"The heart of man what art can e'er reveal?

"A wall impervious between
"Divides the very parts within,

Thus Harvey fought for Truth in Truth's own book,
The creatures-which by God himself was
writ;

And wifely thought 'twas fit,

But on th' eriginal itself to look.
Not to read comments only upon it,

Methinks in Art's great circle others stand
Lock'd-up together, hand in hand;
Every one leads as he is led;
The fame bare path they tread,

And dance, like fairies, a fantastic round,
But neither change their motion nor their ground:
Had Harvey to this road confined his wit,

His noble circle of the blood had been untrod-
den yet.

Great Doctor! th' art of curing's cur'd by thee,
From all inveterate difeafes free,
We now thy patient, Phyfic, fee

Purg'd of old errors by thy care,
New dieted, put forth to clearer air;

It now will strong and healthful prove;
Itfelf before lethargic lay, and could not move!
These useful fecrets to his pen we owe!
And thousands more 'twas ready to bestow;
Of which a barbarous war's unlearned rage
Has robb'd the ruin'd age:

O cruel lofs! as if the golden fleece,

With fo much coft and labour bought,
And from afar by a great hero brought,

Had funk ev'n in the ports of Greece.
O curfed war! who can forgive thee this?
Houfes and towns may rife again;

And ten times easier 'tis

To rebuild Paul's, than any work of his :
That mighty talk none but himself can do,
Nay, fcarce himself too, now;

For, though his wit the force of age withstand,
His body, alas! and time, it must command;
And Nature now, fo long by him surpass'd,

"And doth the heart of man ev'n from itself Will fure have her revenge on him at laft.

conceal."

She fpoke: but, ere fhe was aware,
Harvey was with her there;

And held this flippery Proteus in a chain,
Till all her mighty myfteries he defcry'd;
Which from his wit th' attempt before to hide
Was the first thing that Nature did in vain.

He the young practice of new life did fee,
Whilft, to conceal its toilfome poverty,

It for a living wrought, both hard and privately.
Before the liver understood

The noble scarlet dye of blood;
Before one drop was by it made,

Or brought into it, to fet up the trade;
Before the untaught heart began to beat
The tuneful march to vital heat;

From all the fouls that living buildings rear,
Whether imply'd for earth, or fea, or air;
Whether it in the womb or egg be wrought;
A ftrict account to him is hourly brought
How the great fabric does proceed,
What time, and what materials, it does
need:

He fo exactly does the work furvey,
As if he hir'd the workers by the day.

W

ODE FROM CATULLUS.

ACME AND SEPTIMIUS.

HILST on Septimius' panting breast
(Meaning nothing less than rest)
Acme lean'd her loving head,
Thus the pleas'd Septimius faid:
My dearest Acme, if I be
Once alive, and love not thee
With a paffion far above
All that e'er was called love:
In a Libyan defert may
I become fome lion's prey;
Le him, Acme, let him tear
My breast, when Acme is not there.

The God of Love, who flood to hear him
(The God of Love was always near him)
Pleas'd and tickled with the found,
Sneez'd aloud; and all around
The little Loves, that waited by,
Bow'd, and bleft the augury.

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Acme, enflam'd with what he said,
Rear'd her gently-bending head;
And, her purple mouth with joy
Stretching to the delicious boy,
Twice (and twice could scarce fuffice)
She kift his drunken rolling eyes.
My little life, my all! (faid fhe)
So may we ever fervants be

To this beft God, and ne'er retain
Our hated liberty again!

So may thy paffion last for me,
As I a paffion have for thee,
Greater and fiercer much than can
Be conceiv'd by thee a man!
Into my marrow is it gone,
Fixt and fettled in the bone;
It reigns not only in my heart,

runs,

But like life, through every part.
She fpoke; the God of Love aloud
Sneez'd again; and all the crowd
Of little Loves, that waited by,
Bow'd, and bleft the augury.

This good omen thus from heaven
Like a happy fignal given,

Their loves and lives (all four) embrace,
And hand in hand run all the race.
To poor Septimius (who did now
Nothing elfe but Acme grow)
Acme's bofom was alone
The whole world's imperial throne;
And to faithful Acme's mind
Septimius was all human-kind.

If the Gods would please to be
But advis'd for once by me,
I'd advise them, when they fpy
Any illuftrious piety,
To reward her, if it be fhe-
To reward him, if it be he-
With fuch a husband, such a wife;
With Acme's and Septimius' life.

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-Quod optanti divûm promittere nemo

Auderet, volvenda dies, en, attulit ultro."-VIRG.

Now bleffings on you all, ye peaceful ftars,

Which meet at laft fo kindly, and difpenfe Your univerfal gentle influence

To calm the ftormy world, and still the rage of

wars!

Nor, whilft around the continent

Plenipotentiary beams ye fent,

Did your pacific lights difdain
In their large treaty to contain

The world apart, o'er which do reign

Your feven fair brethren of great Charles's-wain; No ftar amongst ye all did, I believe,

Such vigorous afliftance give,

As that which, thirty years ago,
At Charles's birth, did, in despite
Of the proud fun's meridian light,
His future glories and this year forefhow.
No lefs effects than these we may
Be affur'd of from that powerful ray,
Which could out-face the fun, and overcome the
day.

Aufpicious ftar! again arife,

And take thy noon-tide station in the skies,
Again all heaven prodigiously adorn;
For lo! thy Charles again is born.
He then was born with and to pain;
With and to joy he's born again.
And, wifely for this fecond birth,
By which thou certain wert to bless
The land with full and flourishing happiness,
Thou mad'ft of that fair month thy choice,
In which heaven, air, and fea, and earth,
And all that's in them, all, does fmile and does
rejoice.

"Twas a right feafon; and the very ground
Ought with a face of paradife to be found,
Then, when we were to entertain

Felicity and innocence again.

Shall we again (good Heaven!) that bleffed pair behold,

Which the abufed people fondly fold

For the bright fruit of the forbidden tree,

By fecking all like Gods to be? Will Peace her halcyon neft venture to build Upon a fhore with fhipwrecks fill'd, And truft that fea, where the can hardly fay She 'as known thefe twenty years one calmy day?

Ah! mild and gall-lefs dove,

Which doft the pure and candid dwellings love,
Canft thou in Albion ftill delight?

Still canft thou think it white?

Will ever fair Religion appear

In thefe deformed ruins? will the clear
Th' Augean ftables of her churches here?
Will Juftice hazard to be feen

Where a High Court of Justice e'er has been?
Will not the tragic fcene,

And Bradshaw's bloody ghoft, affright her there,
Her, who fhall never fear?

Then may Whitehall for Charles's feat be fit,
If Justice fhall endure at Weftminster to fit.

Of all, methinks we leaft fhould fee
The cheerful looks again of Liberty.
That name of Cromwell, which does fiefaly ftill
The curfes of fo many fufferers fill,

Is ftill enough to make her flay,
And jealous for a while remain
Left, as a tempeft carried him away,
Some hurricane fhould bring him back again.

*The ftar that appeared at noon, the day of the to St. Paul's, to give thanks to God for that king's birth, juft as the king his father was riding blefling.

Or, fhe might juftlier be afraid

Left that great ferpent, which was all a tail
(And in his poifonous folds whole nations pri-
foners made)

Should a third time perhaps prevail
To join again and with worfe fting arife,
As it had done when cut in pieces twice.
Return, return, ye facred Four!
And dread your perifh'd enemies no more.

Your fears are caufelefs all, and vain,
Whilft you return in Charles's train;
For God does him, that he might you, restore,
Nor fhall the world him only call
Defender of the faith, but of you all.

Along with you plenty and riches go,
With a full tide to every port they flow,

With a warm fruitful wind o'er all the country ( blow.

Honour does as ye march her trumpet found,
The Arts encompafs you around,
And, against all alarms of Fear,
Safety itself brings up the rear;
And, in the head of this angelie band,
Lo! how the goodly Prince at last does stand
(0 righteous God!) on his own happy land:
'Tis happy now, which could with fo much eafe
Recover from fo defperate a disease;

A various complicated ill,

Whofe every fymptom was enough to kill;
In which one part of three frenzy poffelt,
And lethargy the reft:

'Tis happy, which no bleeding does endure,
A furfeit of fuch blood to cure :
'Tis happy, which beholds the flame
In which by hoftile hands it ought to burn,
Or that which, if from Heaven it came,
It did but well deferve, all into bonfire turn.
We fear'd (and almost touch'd the black degree
Of inftant expectation)

That the three dreadful angels we,

Of famine, fword, and plague, fhould here cftablifh'd fee

(God's great triumvirate of defolation!)
To fcourge and to destroy the finful nation.
Justly might Heaven Protectors fuch as thofe,
And fuch Committees for their Safety, impofe
Upon a land which fearcely better chofe.

We fear'd that the Fanatic war,
Which men against God's houfes did declare,
Would from th' Almighty enemy bring down
A fure deftruction on our own.
We read th' inftructive hiftories which tell
Of all thofe endless mifchiefs that befel
The facred town which God had lov'd fo well,
After that fatal curfe had once been faid,

"His blood be upon ours and on our children's head."

We know, though there a greater blood was fpilt,

'Twas fcarcely done with greater guilt. We know thofe miferies did befal

Whilft they rebell'd against that Prince, whom all

The rest of mankind did the love and joy of mankind call.

Already was the shaken nation Into a wild and deform'd chaos brought, And it was hafting on (we thought) Even to the laft of ills-annihilation: When, in the midft of this confufed night, Lo! the bleft Spirit mov'd, and there was light; For, in the glorious General's previous tay,

We faw a new created day:

We by it faw, though yet in mifts it fhone,
The beauteous work of Order moving on.
Where are the men who bragg'd that God did
blefs,

And with the marks of good fuccefs

Sign his allowance of their wickednefs?

Vain men! who thought the Divine Power to

find

In the fierce thunder and the violent wind:
God came not tiil the ftorm was paft;

In the ftill voice of Peace he came at laft!
The cruel bufincfs of deftruction

May by the claws of the great fiend be done:
Here, here we see th' Almighty's hand indeed,
Both by the beauty of the work we fee 't, and by
the fpecd.

He who had feen the noble British heir,
Even in that ill, difadvantageous light
With which misfortune ftrives t' abuse our fight-
He who had feen him in his cloud fo bright-
He who had feen the double pair

Of brothers, heavenly good! and filters, heavenly fair!

Might have perceiv'd, methinks, with eafe (But wicked men fee only what they pleafe) That God had no intent t' extinguish quite

The pious king's eclipfed right.

He who had feen how by the Power Divine
All the young branches of this royal line
Did in their fire, without confuming, fhine- S
How through a rough Red fea they had been led,
By wonders guarded, and by wonders fed-
How many years of trouble and diftrefs
They'd wander'd in their fatal wilderness,
And yet did never murmur or repine ;--

Might, methinks, plainly understand,
That, after all these conquer'd trials paft,

Th' Almighty mercy would at laft
Conduct them with a strong unerring hand
To their own Promis'd Land:
-For all the glories of the carth

Ought to be entail'd by right of birth;
And all Heaven's bleflings to come down
Upon his race, to whom alone was given
The double royalty of earth and heaven;
Who crown'd the kingly with the martyrs'

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