And floods came roaring in with mighty found,
Thou a fafe land and harbour for us found,

And favedst those that would themselves have drown'd;
A work which none but heaven and thou could do,
Thou mad❜ft us happy whether we would or no:
Thy judgment, mercy, temperance so great,
As if those virtues only in thy mind had feat:
Thy piety not only in the field, but peace,
When heaven seem'd to be wanted leaft;
Thy temples not like Janus only were
Open in time of war,

When thou hadft greater caufe to fear :
Religion and the awe of heaven pofTeft
All places and all times alike thy breast.

XVI.

Nor didft thou only for thy age provide,
But for the years to come befide;

Our after-times and late pofterity

Shall pay unto thy fame as much as we ;

They too are made by thee.

When fate did call thee too a higher throne,

And when thy mortal work was done,

When heaven did fay it, and thou must be gone,
Thou him to bear thy burden chofe,

Who might (if any could) make us forget thy lofs;
Nor hadft thou him design'd,

Had he not been

Not only to thy blood, but virtue kin, Not only heir unto thy throne, but mind :

'Tis he fhall perfect all thy cares,

And with a finer thread weave out thy loom :

So one did bring the chofen people from

Their flavery and fears,

Led them through their pathless road;

Guided himself by God,

H'as brought them to the borders; but a fecond hand Did fettle and fecure them in the promis'd land.

To a Perfon of Honour (Mr. EDWARD HOWARD) upon his Incomparable, Incomprehenfible Poem, intituled The BRITISH PRINCES.

YOUR book our old knight-errants fame revives,

Writ in a style agreeing with their lives.

All rumours ftrength their prowess did out-go,
All rumours skill your verses far out-do :

To praise the Welsh the world muft now combine,
Since to their leeks you do your laurel join :
Such lofty ftrains your country's ftory fit,
Whose mountain nothing equals but your wit.
Bonduca, were fhe fuch as here we fee
(In British paint), none could more dreadful be:
With naked armies the encounter'd Rome,
Whofe ftrength with naked nature you o'ercome.
Nor let fmall critics blame this mighty queen,
That in king Arthur's time fhe here is feen:

You

You that can make immortal by your fong,
May well one life four hundred years prolong.
Thus Virgil bravely dar'd for Dido's love,
The fettled courfe of time and years to move,
Though him you imitate in this alone,

In all things elfe you borrow help from none:
No antique tale of Greece or Rome you.take,
Their fables and examples you forfake.
With true heroic glory you display

A fubject new, writ in the newest way.

Go forth, great author, for the world's delight; Teach it, what none e'er taught you, how to write ; They talk strange things that ancient poets did; How trees and stones they into buildings lead : For poems to raise cities, now, 'tis hard,

But yours, at least, will build half Paul's churchyard.

On his MISTRESS DROWN'D.

S

WEET ftream, that dost with equal pace

Both thyself fly and thyself chace,

Forbear awhile to flow,

And listen to my woe.

Then go and tell the fea that all its brine
Is fresh, compar'd to mine :

Inform it that the gentler dame,
Who was the life of all my flame,

I' th' glory of her bud

Has pafs'd the fatal flood,

Death by this only stroke triumphs above
The greatest power of love:

Alas, alas! I must give o'er,

My fighs will let me add no more.

Go on, fweet ftream, and henceforth reft
No more than does my troubled breast ;
And if my fad complaints have made thee stay,
Thefe tears, thefe tears, fhall mend thy way.

THE

THE PLAGUE OF ATHENS,

Which happened in the fecond Year of the

PELOPONNESIAN

WAR:

First described in Greek by THUCYDIDES;
Then in Latin by LUCRETIUS.

I KNOW not what pleafure you could take in beftowing your commands fo unprofitably, unless it be that for which nature fometimes cherishes and allows monfters, the love of variety. This only delight you will receive by turning over this rude and unpolished copy, and comparing it with my excellent patterns, the Greek and Latin. By this you will fee how much a noble fubject is changed and disfigured by an ill hand, and what reafon Alexander had to forbid his picture to be drawn but by fome cele-brated

M 3