Our hoft leads forth his stranger, and does find
All fitted to the bounties of his mind.

Still on the table half-fill'd dishes stood,
And with delicious bits the floor was ftrew'd.
The courteous mouse presents him with the beft,
And both with fat varieties are bleft.

Th' induftrious peasant every where does range,
And thanks the gods for his life's happy change.
Lo! in the midst of a well-freighted pye,
They both at last glutted and wanton lie;
When, fee the sad reverse of prosperous fate,
And what fierce ftorms on mortal glories wait!
With hideous noife down the rude fervants come,
Six dogs before run barking into th' room;
The wretched gluttons fly with wild affright,
And hate the fullness, which retards their flight.
Our trembling peasant wishes now, in vain,
That rocks and mountains cover'd him again;
Oh, how the change of his poor life he curft!
This, of all lives (faid he) is fure the worst:
Give me again, ye gods, my cave and wood!
With peace, let tares and acorns be my
food!

A Para

A Paraphrase upon the 10th Epiftle of the First Book

of HORACE.

HORACE to FUSCUS ARISTIÚS.

HEALTH, from the lover of the country, me, Health, to the lover of the city, thee;

A difference in our fouls, this only proves;
In all things elfe, we agree like married doves.
But the warm neft and crowded dove-house thou
Doft like; I loosely fly from bough to bough,
And rivers drink, and all the shining day
Upon fair trees or mofly rocks I play ;
In fine, I live and reign, when I retire
From all that you equal with heaven admire
Like one at last from the priest's service fled,
Loathing the honied cakes, I long for bread.
Would I a houfe for happiness erect,
Nature alone fhould be the architect,
She'd build it more convenient than great,
And doubtlefs in the country choose her seat ;
Is there a place doth better helps supply
Against the wounds of winter's cruelty?
Is there an air, that gentlier does affuage
The mad celestial dog's, or lion's, rage?
Is it not there that fleep (and only there)
Nor noise without, nor cares within, does fear?
Does art through pipes a purer water bring,
Than that, which nature ftrains into a spring?

VOL. II.

Y

Can

Can all your tap'ftries, or your pictures, show
More beauties, than in herbs and flowers do grow?
Fountains and trees our wearied pride do please,
Ev'n in the midst of gilded palaces,

And in your towns, that prospect gives delight,
Which opens round the country to our fight.
Men to the good, from which they rafhly fly,
Return at laft; and their wild luxury

Does but in vain with those true joys contend,
Which nature did to mankind recommend.
The man who changes gold for burnish'd brass,
Or fmall right gems for larger ones of glass,
Is not, at length, more certain to be made
Ridiculous, and wretched by the trade,
Than he, who fells a folid good, to buy
The painted goods of pride and vanity.
If thou be wife, no glorious fortune choose,
Which 'tis but pain to keep, yet grief to lose;
For, when we place ev'n trifles in the heart,
With trifles too, unwillingly we part.

An humble roof, plain bed, and homely board,
More clear, untainted pleafures do afford,
Than all the tumult of vain greatness brings
To kings, or to the favourites of kings.
The horned deer, by nature arm'd so well,
Did with the horse in common pasture dwell;
And, when they fought, the field it always wan,
Till the ambitious horse begg'd help of man,
And took the bridle, and thenceforth did reign
Bravely alone, as lord of all the plain:

But

But never after could the rider get

From off his back, or from his mouth the bit.
So they, who poverty too much do fear,

T' avoid that weight, a greater burden bear;
That they might power above their equals have,
To cruel mafters they themselves enflave.
For gold, their liberty exchang'd we fee,
That faireft flower, which crowns humanity
And all this mischief does upon them light,
Only, because they know not how, aright,
That great, but fecret, happiness to prize,
That 's laid up in a little, for the wife:
That is the best and easiest estate,
Which to a man fits clofe, but not too strait ;
'Tis like a fhoe; it pinches and it burns,
Too narrow ; and too large, it overturns.
My dearest friend! stop thy defires at last,
And chearfully enjoy the wealth thou haft:
And, if me still feeking for more you fee,
Chide and reproach, defpife and laugh at me.
Money was made, not to command our will,
But all our lawful pleasures to fulfil :

Shame and woe to us, if we our wealth obey; -
The hoffe, doth with the horseman run away..

*The poet, as ufual, expreffes his own feeling : but he does more, he expreffes it very claffically. The allufion is to the ancient custom of wearing wreaths or garlands of flowers, on any occafion of joy and festivity. H.

THE

LIFE.

COUNTRY

Lib. IV. Plantarum.

BLEST be the man (and blest he is) whom e'er
(Plac'd far out of the roads of hope or fear)
A little field, and little garden, feeds:
The field gives all that frugal nature needs;
The wealthy garden liberally bestows
All she can ask, when the luxurious grows.
The fpecious inconveniences, that wait
Upon a life of business, and of state,
He fees (nor does the fight disturb his rest)
By fools defir'd, by wicked men poffeft.
Thus, thus (and this deferv'd great Virgil's praise)
The old Corycian yeoman pass'd his days;
Thus his wife life Abdolonymus spent :
Th' ambaffadors, which the great emperor fent
'To offer him a crown, with wonder found
The reverend gardener hoeing of his ground;
Unwillingly, and flow, and difcontent,

From his lov'd cottage to a throne he went ;
And oft he stopt, in his triumphant way,
And oft look'd back, and oft was heard to say,
Not without fighs, Alas! I there forfake

A happier kingdom than I go to take!
Thus Aglaüs (a man unknown to men,

But the gods knew, and therefore lov'd him then)
Thus liv'd obfcurely then without a name,
Aglaüs, now confign'd t' eternal fame,

For