Where Stilico and virtue not avail,

Where royal favours ftand expos'd to fale,
Where now Rufinus, fcandaloufly great,
Loads lab'ring nations with oppreflive weight,
Keeps the obfequious world depending still
On the proud dictates of his lawless will,
Advances those whose fierce and factious zeal
Prompts ever to refift and to rebel,

But thofe impeaches who their prince commend,
Who dauntless dare his facred rights defend,
Expounds fmall riots into highest crimes,
Brands loyalty as treason to the times;

An haughty minion, mad with empire grown,
Enflaves the fubjects and infults the throne.

A thousand difemboguing rivers pay

Their everlasting homage to the sea ;

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215

220

224

The Nile, the Rhine, the Danube, and the Thames, Pour conftant down their tributary streams;

But yet the fea confeffes no increase,

For all is swallow'd in the deep abyss.

In craving ftill Rufinus' foul remains,

229

Tho' fed with fhow'rs of gold and floods of gains;
For he defpoils and ravages the land;
No ftate is free from his rapacious hand:
Treafures immenfe he hoards, erects a tow'r 233
To lodge the plunder'd world's collected itore:
Unmeafur'd is his wealth. unbounded is his pow'r.

Oh! whither wouldíl thou rove, mistaken Man? Vain are thy hopes, thy acquifitions vain;

Volume II.

For now fuppofe thy avarice poffeft
Of all the splendour of the glitt'ring East,
Of Crœfus' mass of wealth, of Cyrus' crown,
Suppofe the ocean's treasure all thy own,
Still would thy foul repine, ftill ask for more,
Unbleft with plenty, with abundance poor.
Fabricius in himself, in virtue, great,

240

Difdain'd a monarch's bribe, defpis'd his ftate; 245
Serranus as he grac'd the Conful's chair

So could he guide the plough's laborious share;
The fam'd, the warlike, Curii deign'd to dwell
In a poor lonely cot and humble cell:
Such a retreat to me is more glorious far
Than all thy pomp than all thy triumphs are.
Give me my folitary native home,
Take thou thy rifing tow'r, thy lofty dome :
Tho' there thy furniture of radiant die
Abstracts and ravishes the curious eye,
Tho' each apartment, ev'ry spacious room,
Shines with the glories of the Tyrian loom,
Yet here I view a more delightful fcene:

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255

Where Nature's freshest bloom and beauties reign, Where the warm zephir's genial balmy wing

Playing diffufes an eternal fpring:

Tho' there thy lewd lafcivious limbs are laid
On a rich downy couch or golden bed,
Yet here extended on the flow'ry grafs

260

More free from care my guiltless hours I pass; 265

Tho' there thy fycophants, a fervile race!
Cringe at thy levees and refound thy praife,
Yet here a murm'ring fiream or warbling bird
To me does fweeter harmony afford.

270 ́

Nature on all the pow'r of blifs beftows, Which from her bounteous fource perpetual flows, But he alone with happiness is blest

Who knows to use it rightly when poffeft;

275

A doctrine if well poiz'd in Reason's scale
Nor luxury nor want would thus prevail,
Nor would our fleets fo frequent plough the main,
Nor our embattled armies ftrew the plain.

But oh! Rufinus is to reafon blind;

A ftrange hydropick thirst inflames his mind:
No bribes his growing appetite.can fate,
For new poffeffions new defires create.

No fenfe of fhame, no modefty, restrains

Where avarice or where ambition reigns.

280

When with strict oaths his profer'd faith he binds
Falfe are his vows and treach'rous his defigns. 285
Now fhould a patriot rife, his pow'r oppose,
Should he affert a finking nation's cause,
He stirs a vengeance nothing can control,
Such is the rancour of his haughty foul;

Fell as a lionefs in Libya's plain

When tortur'd with the jav'lin's pointed pain,

Or a spurn'd ferpent as fhe fhoots along,

290

With lightning in her eyes and poison in her tongue.

Nor will those families eras'd fuffice,

But provinces and cities he destroys;

295

Urg'd on with blind revenge and settled hate

He labours the confufion of the state,

Subverts the nation's old establish'd frame,
Explodes her laws and tramples on her fame.

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305

If e'er in mercy he pretends to fave A man purfu'd by faction from the grave, Then he invents new punishments, new pains, Condemns to filence, and from truth restrains *; Then racks and pillories, and bonds and bars, Then ruin and impeachments, he prepares. O dreadful mercy! more than death severe ! That doubly tortures whom it seems to spare! All feem enflav'd, all bow to him alone, Nor dare their hate their juft refentments own, But inward grieve, their fighs and pangs confin'd, Which with convulfive forrow tear the mind.

Envy is mute-it is treafon to difclofe

'The baneful fource of their eternal woes. But Stilico's fuperiour foul appears

Unfhock'd, unmov'd, by base ignoble fears.

He is the polar ftar directs the ftate

When parties rage and publick tempefts beat;
He is the fafe retreat, the fweet repofe,
Can footh and calm afflicted Virtue's woes;

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315

* Alluding to the fentence then recently paffed on Dr. Sa cheverell, for whom our Author was a profeffed advocate.

He is the folid, firm, unfhaken, force

That only knows to ftem th' invader's course.
So when a river fwell'd with winter's rains
The limits of its wonted shore difdains,
Bridges, and stones, and trees, in vain oppose,
With unrefifted rage the torrent flows,

But as it rolling meets a mighty rock
Whofe fix'd foundations can repel the fhock,
Elided furges rear in eddies round,

320'

325)

The rock unmov'd reverberates the found.

329

THE STUMBLINGBLOCK,

FROM CLAUDIAN'S RUFINUS *.

TWENTY Conundrums have of late
Been buzzing in my addle pate,

If earthly things are rul'd by Heav'n,
Or matters go at fix and sev'n,

The coach without a coachman driv'n?
A pilot at the helm to guide,

Or the ship left to wind and tide?

A great First Caufe to be ador'd,
Or whether all is a lott'ry board?
For when in viewing Nature's face
Ifpy fo regular a grace,

So just a fymmetry of features

From fern to ftern in all her creatures,

See a serious translation above.