LET's take the inftant by the forward tops
For we are old, and on our quick'ft decrees
Th' inaudible and noifelefs foot of time
Steals, ere we can effect them,
A fine DESCRIPTION of a fleeping MAN, about to be deftroyed by a SNAKE and a LIONESS.
Und high top bald with dry antiquity;
NDER an oak, whofe boughs were mofs'd with age,
A wretched, ragged man, o'ergrown with hair,
Lay fleeping on his back; about his neck
A green and gilded fnake had wreath'd itself,
Who with her head, nimble in threats approach'd
The opening of his mouth, but fuddenly
Seeing Orlando, it unlink'd itfelf,
And with indented glides did flip away
Into a bush; under which bufh's fhade
A lionefs, with udders all drawn dry, 130q pi
Lay couching, head on ground, with cat-like watch,
When that the fleeping man fhould ftir: for 'tispick
The royal difpofition of that beaft
To prey on nothing that doth feem as dead,
DESCRIPTION of a beggarly CONJURER or a FORTUNE-TELLER,
Hungry, lean-fac'd villain,
A meer anatomy, a mountebank,
A thread-bare juggler, and a fortune-teller,
A needy, hollow-ey'd, fharp-looking wretch,
A living dead man this pernicious flave,.
Forfooth took on him as a conjurer;
And gazing in my eyes, feeling my pulfe,
And with no face, as 'twere, outfacing me,
Cries out, I was poffeft,
MERCY in GOVERNORS commended.
O ceremony that to great ones 'longs,
Not the king's crown nor the deputed fword,
The marshal's truncheon, nor the judge's robe,
Become them with one half fo good a grace,
As mercy does.
PRECEPTS against ILL-FORTUNE.
SALSHAKESPEARE.]
•You
To fay, extremity was the trier of fpirits 3.
That common chances common men could bear;
That, when the fea was calm, all boats alike
Shew'd mafter hip in floating. Fortune's blows,
When moft ftruck home, being gently warded, craves
A noble cunning. You were us'd to load me
With precepts, that would make invincible
The heart that conn'd them.
ENGLAND invincible, if unanimous..
[SHAKESPEARE.]
NGLAND never did, nor ever shall'
Lye at the proud foot of a conqueror,
But when it firft did help to wound itself.
Now thefe her princes are come home again,
Come the three corners of the world in arms;
And we fhall fhock them.-Nought shall make us rue,
If England to itself do reft but true.
CEREMONY
[SHAKESPEARE.]
VER note, Lucilius,
When love begins to ficken and decay,
It useth an enforced ceremony:
There are no tricks in plain and fimple faith
But hollow men, like horfes hot at hand,
Make gallant fhew and promife of their mettle;
But when they fhould endure the bloody fpur,
They fall their creft, and, like deceitful jades,
Sink in the trial.
HOUNDS and HUNTING.
[SHAKESPEARE.]
Was with Hercules and Cadmus once,
When in a wood of Crete they bay'd the boar
With hounds of Sparta. Never did I hear
Such gallant chiding; for befide the groves,
The fkies, the fountains, every region near,
Seem'd all one mutual cry. I never heard
So mufical a difcord, fuch fweet thunder!
My hounds are bred out of the Spartan-kind,
So flued, fo fanded, and their heads are hung
With ears that fweep away the morning dew,
Crook-knee'd, and dew-lapp'd; like Theffalian bulls,
Slow in purfuit, but match'd in mouths like bells,
Each under each: a cry more tunable
Was never halloo'd to, nor chear'd with horn.
Popular INGRATITUDE and CURIOSITY.
u hard hearts! You cruel men of Rome!
Knew ye not Pompey? Many a time and oft
Have you climb'd up to walls and battlements,
To towers and windows, yea to chimney-tops,
Your infants in your arms, and there have fat
The live-long day with patient expectation,
To fee great Pompey pals the streets of Rome!all wor
And when you faw his chariot but appear,
Have you not made an universal shout,
That Tyber trembled underneath his banks,
To hear the replication of your founds
Made in his concave fhores?
The LIFE of an AFRICAN.
[ADDISON.]
EHOLD the African,.
That traverses our vaft Numidian defarts
In queft of prey, and lives upon his bow:
Coarfe are his meals, the fortune of the chace,
Amidst the running ftream he flakes his thirft,
Toils all the day, and at th' approach of night,
On the first friendly bank he throws him down,
Or refts his head upon a rock till morn; H
Then rifes fresh, purfues his wonted game,
And if the following day he chance to find
A new repaft, or an untafted fpring,
Bleffes his ftars and thinks it luxury.
CATO'S ADDRESS to the SENATE.
ET us appear nor rash nor diffident; Immod'rate valour fwells into a fault; And fear admitted into public councils Betrays like treafon. Let us fhun 'em both. Fathers, I cannot fee that our affairs
Are grown thus defp'rate; we have bulwarks round us;
Within our walls are troops inur'd to toil
In Afric's heat, and feafon'd to the fun;
Numidia's fpacious kingdom lies behind us,
Ready to rife at its young prince's call..
While there is hope, do not diftruft the Gods:
But wait at leaft 'till Cæfar's near approach dials em 3x
Force us to yield. Twill never be too late tag wu oT
To fue for chains, and own a conqueror.
Why fhould Rome fall a moment ere her time?
No, let us draw her term of freedom out
In its full length, and fpin it to the laft,
So fhall we gain ftill one day's liberty:
And let me perifh, but in Cato's judgment,
A day, an hour of virtuous liberty,
Is worth a whole eternity in bondage..
DITAJTMZTV
DESCRIPTION of a HURRICANE.
O, where our wide Numidian waftes extend,
Sudden, th' impetuous hurricanes defcend,
Wheel through the air, in circling eddies play,
Tear up the fands, and fweep whole plains away..
The helpless traveller, with wild furprize
Sees the dry defart all around him rife,
And, fmother'd in the dusty whirlwind, dies. bid
CATO's ADVICE to his FRIENDS.
EMEMBER, O my friends, the laws, the rights, The gen'rous plan of pow'r deliver'd down From age to age, by your renown'd forefathers,
(So dearly bought, the price of fo much blood :)
Oh, let it never perifh in your hands!
But piously tranfmit it to your children.
Do thou, great liberty, infpire our fouls,
And make our lives in thy poffeffion happy,
Or our deaths glorious in thy juft defences
ORTIUS, draw near my fon, thou oft has feen Thy fire engag'd in a corrupted state, vilisat Wrestling with vice and faction: now thou fee'ft me Spent, overpower'd, defpairing of fuccefs; Let me advife thee to retreat betimes To thy paternal feat, the fabine field.
Where the great Cenfor toil'd with his own hands,
And all our frugal ancestors were bless'd
In humble virtues, and a rural life;
There live retir'd, pray for the peace of Rome;
Content thyself to be obfcurely good.He
When vice prevails, and impious men bear fway,
The poft of honour is a private station.
ACTION opposed to CONTEMPLATION.
[BELLERS.]
HIS were to lofe the very end of being,.
Tand render virtue ufelefs to the world.
'Tis action gives its beauteous image life,
As it diffufes health to human kind.
Which is, without it, but a fair idea,
A painted profpect, void of all the worth
Which its appearance boafts. This were to be
The mere outfide, the ftatue of a man.
AMBITION infeparable from GREAT MINDS
MBITION is the ftamp, imprefs'd by Heav'n," To mark the nobleft minds; with active heat Inform'd, they mount the precipice of pow'r,
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