Wouldst thou be soon dispatch'd, and perish whole, Trust Maurus with thy life, and Milbourn with thy soul.

90

By chase our long liv'd fathers earn'd their food; Toil strung the nerves, and purified 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.

95

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, wandering in the dark, Physicians, for the tree, have found the bark: They, lab'ring for relief of human kind, With sharpen'd sight some remedies may find; The apothecary train is wholly blind. From files a random recipe they take, And many deaths of one prescription make. Garth, generous as his muse, prescribes and gives; The shopman sells; and by destruction lives: Ungrateful tribe! who, like the viper's brood, From medicine issuing, suck their mother's blood! Let these obey; and let the learn'd prescribe; That men may die, without a double bribe: Let them, but under their superiors, kill; When doctors first have sign'd the bloody bill;

105

He

115

scapes the best, who, nature to repair, Draws physic from the fields, in draughts of vital air. You hoard not health, for your own private use; But on the public spend the rich produce. When, often urg'd, unwilling to be great,

Your country calls you from

your

lov'd retreat,

And sends to senates, charg'd with common care,
Which none more shuns: and none can better bear:
Where could they find another form'd so fit,
To poise, with solid sense, a sprightly wit?
Were these both wanting, as they both abound,
Where could so firm integrity be found?
Well born, and wealthy, wanting no support,
You steer betwixt the country and the court:
Nor gratify whate'er the great desire,
Nor grudging give what public needs require. 130
Part must be left, a fund when foes invade;
And part employ'd to roll the watʼry trade:
E'en Canaan's happy land, when worn with toil,
Requir'd a sabbath year to mend the meager soil.
Good senators (and such as you) so give,
That kings may be supplied, the people thrive.
And he, when want requires, is truly wise,
Who slights not foreign aids, nor overbuys;
But on our native strength, in time of need, relies.
Munster was bought, we boast not the success;
Who fights for gain, for greater makes his peace.
Our foes, compell'd by need, have peace embrac'd:
The peace both parties want is like to last:
Which if secure, securely we may trade;

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Or, not secure, should never have been made.
Safe in ourselves, while on ourselves we stand,
The sea is ours, and that defends the land.
Be, then, the naval stores the nation's care,
New ships to build, and batter'd to repair.
Observe the war, in every annual course :

150

What has been done was done with British force:
Namur subdu'd is England's palm alone;
The rest besieg'd; but we constrain❜d the town:
We saw the event that follow'd our success;
France, though pretending arms, pursu'd the peace;
Oblig'd, by one sole treaty, to restore

What twenty years of war had won before.
Enough for Europe has our Albion fought:
Let us enjoy the peace our blood has bought.
When once the Persian king was put to flight,
The weary Macedons refus'd to fight:
Themselves their own mortality confess'd;
And left the son of Jove to quarrel for the rest.
E'en victors are by victories undone;
Thus Hannibal, with foreign laurels won,
To Carthage was recall'd, too late to keep his own.
While sore of battle, while our wounds are green,
Why should we tempt the doubtful dye again?
In wars renew'd, uncertain of success;

165

152 Namur subdu'd is England's palm, &c.] In the year 1695, William III. carried Namur, after a siege of one month. The garrison retired to the citadel, which capitulated upon honourable terms in another month. The courage of our men in this siege was much admired, as was the conduct of the king. D.

Sure of a share, as umpires of the peace.

A patriot both the king and country serves: Prerogative, and privilege, preserves:

Of each, our laws the certain limit show;
One must not ebb, nor t'other overflow:

170

Betwixt the prince and parliament we stand; 175
The barriers of the state on either hand :

May neither overflow, for then they drown the land.
When both are full, they feed our bless'd abode;
Like those that water'd once the paradise of God.
Some overpoise of sway, by turns, they share;
In peace the people, and the prince in war:
Consuls of moderate power in calms were made;
When the Gauls came, one sole dictator sway'd.

185

Patriots, in peace, assert the people's right; With noble stubbornness resisting might: No lawless mandates from the court receive, Nor lend by force, but in a body give. Such was your generous grandsire: free to grant In parliaments, that weigh'd their prince's want: But so tenacious of the common cause, As not to lend the king against his laws; And in a loathsome dungeon doom'd to lie, In bonds retain'd his birthright liberty, And sham'd oppression, till it set him free.

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O true descendant of a patriot line, Who, while thou shar'st their lustre, lend'st them Vouchsafe this picture of thy soul to see; [thine, 'Tis so far good, as it resembles thee: The beauties to the original I owe;

Which when I miss, my own defects I show: 200

Nor think the kindred muses thy disgrace:
A poet is not born in every race.
Two of a house few ages can afford,
One to perform, another to record.
Praiseworthy actions are by thee embrac'd;
And 'tis my praise, to make thy praises last.
For e'en when death dissolves our human frame,
The soul returns to heaven from whence it came;
Earth keeps the body, verse preserves the fame.

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EPISTLE THE FOURTEENTH.

TO SIR GODFREY KNELLER, PRINCIPAL PAINTER TO
HIS MAJESTY.

ONCE I beheld the fairest of her kind,

And still the sweet idea charms my mind:

True, she was dumb; for Nature gaz'd so long,
Pleas'd with her work, that she forgot her tongue;
But, smiling, said, She still shall gain the prize;
I only have transferr'd it to her eyes.
Such are thy pictures, Kneller: such thy skill,
That nature seems obedient to thy will:

Comes out, and meets thy pencil in the draught;
Lives there, and wants but words to speak her

thought.

At least thy pictures look a voice; and we
Imagine sounds, deceiv'd to that degree,

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