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Now let your Mufe rife with expanded wings,
To fing the fate of einpires and of kings;
Great William's victories the 'll next rehearse,
And raise a trophy of immortal verse;
Thus to your art proportion the defign,
And mighty things with mighty numbers join,
A fecond Namur, or a future Boyne.

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H. BLOUNT.

POEMS

POEM S

By SIR SAMUEL GARTH.

THE DISPENSARY.

CANTO I

СА

PEAK, Goddefs! fince 'tis thou that beft canft teil,

S'

How ancient leagues to modern difcord fell;

And why Phyficians were fo cautious grown

Of others' lives, and lavifh of their own;
How by a journey to th' Elyfian plain

*

Peace triumph'd, and old Time return'd again.
Not far from that most celebrated place,
Where angry
Juftice fhews her awful face;
Where little villains muft fubmit to fate,
That great ones may enjoy the world in ftate;
There ftands a + dome, majestic to the fight,
And fumptuous arches bear its oval height;

* Old Bailey.

+ College of Phyficians. C 2

5

10

A golden

A golden globe, plac'd high with artful skill,
Seems, to the diftant fight, a gilded pill:
This pile was. by the pious patron's aim,
Rais'd for a ufe as noble as its frame
Nor did the learn'd fociety decline
The propagation of that great defign;
In all her mazes, Nature's face they view'd,
And, as the difappear'd, their fearch purfued.
Wrapt in the fhade of night the Goddess lies,
Yet to the learn'd unveils her dark disguise,
But fhuns the grofs accefs of vulgar eyes.

Now the unfolds the faint and dawning ftrife
Of infant atoms kindling into life;
How ductile matter new meanders takes,
And flender trains of twifting fibres makes;
And how the viscous feeks a closer tone,
By juft degrees to harden into bone;

While the more loofe flow from the vital urn,
And in full tides of purple ftreams return;
How lambent flames from life's bright lamps arife,
And dart in emanations through the eyes;
How from each fluice a gentle torrent pours,
To fake a feverish heat with ambient showers;
Whence their mechanic powers the fpirits claim;
How great their force, how delicate their frame;

Ver. 19.

VARIATIONS.

-they ftill purfued. They find her dubious now, and then as plain, Here the 's too fparing; there profufely vain.

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How

How the fame nerves are fashion'd to sustain
The greatest pleasure and the greatest pain;
Why bilious juice a golden light puts on,
And floods of chyle in filver currents run;
How the dim fpeck of entity began
T'extend its recent form, and stretch to man;
To how minute an origin we owe
Young Ammon, Cæfar, and the great
Why paler looks impetuous rage proclaim,
And why chill virgins redden into flame;
Why envy oft' transforms with wan disguise,
And why gay mirth fits fmiling in the eyes;,
All ice why Lucrece; or Sempronia, fire;
Why Scarfdale rages to furvive defire;

Naffau;

When Milo's vigour at th' Olympick 's shown,
Whence tropes to Finch, or impudence to Sloane;
How matter, by the vary'd fhape of pores,
Or idiots frames, or folemn fenators.

Hence 'tis we wait the wondrous caufe to find,.

How body acts upon impaflive mind;

How fumes of wine the thinking part can fire,
Paft hopes revive, and prefent joys infpire;
Why our complexions oft' our foul declare,
And how the pallions in the feature are;
How touch and harmony arife between.
Corporeal figure, and a form unfeen;

VARIATIONS.

40.

45

507

55

609

Ver. 53. Why Atticus polite, Brutus fevere,
Why Methwin muddy, Montagu why clear.

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How quick their faculties the limbs fulfil,
And act at every fummons of the will;
With mighty truths, myfterious to defcry,
Which in the womb of diftant caufes lie.

70

65

But now no grand enquiries are defcry'd,
Mean faction reigns where knowledge should prefide,
Feuds are increas'd, and learning laid afide.
Thus fynods oft' concern for faith conceal,
And for important nothings fhew a zeal':
The drooping fciences neglected pine,
And Pean's beams with fading luftre fhine.
No readers here with hectic looks are found,
Nor eyes in rheum, through midnight-watching, drown'd;
The lonely edifice in fweats complains

That nothing there but fullen filence reigns.
This place, fo fit for undifturb'd repofe,
The God of Sloth for his asylum chofe ;
Upon a couch of down in thefe abodes,
Supine with folded arms he thoughtless nods;
Indulging dreams his Godhead lull to ease,
With murmurs of foft rills, and whispering trees:
The poppy and each numbing plant dispense
Their droway virtue, and dull indolence;
No paflions interrupt his easy reign,
No problems puzzle his lethargic brain;
But dark oblivion guards his peaceful bed,
And lazy fogs hang lingering o'er his head.

As at full length the pamper'd monarch lay,
Battening in eafe, and flumbering life away;

75

86

85

90

A fpiteful

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