The rich Buffet well-colour'd Serpents grace,
And gaping Tritons fpew to wash your face.
Is this a dinner? this a genial room *?
No, 'tis a Temple, and a Hecatomb.
A folemn Sacrifice, perform'd in ftate,
You drink by measure, and to minutes eat.

So quick retires each flying course, you'd swear
Sancho's + dread Doctor and his Wand were there.
Between each A&t the trembling falvers ring,
From foup to fweet-wine, and God bless the King.
In plenty ftarving, tantaliz'd in ftate,

And complaifantly help'd to all I hate,
Treated, carefs'd, and tir'd, I take my leave,
Sick of his civil pride from morn to eve;
I curfe fuch lavish coft, and little skill,
And fwear no day was ever past so ill.

Yet hence the poor are cloath'd, the hungry fed ;
Health to himself, and to his infants bread

The Lab'rer bears: what his hard heart denies,
His charitable Vanity fupplies.

Another age shall see the golden Ear

Imbrown the flope, and nod on the Parterre,
Deep harvests bury all his pride has plann'd,
And laughing Ceres re-affume the land.

*The proud feftivals of fome men are here fet forth to ridicule, where the pride deftroys the ease, and the formal regularity all the pleasurable enjoy

ment of the entertainment.

↑ See Don Quixote, vol. iv. chap. 6.

Who, then, fhall grace, or who improve the Soil? Who plants like Bathurft, or who builds like Boyle? 'Tis ufe, alone, that fanctifies Expence,

And Splendor borrows all her rays from Senfe.

His Father's Acres who enjoys in peace,

Or makes his Neighbours glad, if he encrease :
Whofe chearful Tenants bless their yearly toil,
Yet to their Lord owe more than to the foil;
Whose ample lawns are not asham'd to feed
The milky heifer and deferving fteed;
Whose rifing forefts, nor for pride or show,
But future Building, future Navies, grow:
Let his plantations ftretch from down to down,
First shade a Country, and then raise a Town.
You too proceed! make falling Arts your care,
Erect new wonders, and the old repair;
Jones and Palladio to themfelves reftore,
And be whate'er Vitruvius was before:
Till Kings call forth th' ideas of your mind ‡,
(Proud to accomplish what such hands defign'd)

Bid

I The poet, after having touched upon the proper objects of magnificence and expence in the private works of great men, comes to thofe great and public works which become a prince. This poem was published at the time when fome of the new churches, built by the act of queen Anne, were ready to fall, being founded on boggy land; and others vilely executed, through fraudulent cabals between undertakers, officers, &c. when Dagenhambreach

Bid Harbours open, public Ways extend,
Bid Temples, worthier of the God, afcend;
Bid the broad Arch the dang'rous Flood contain,
The Mole projected break the roaring Main;
Back to his bounds their fubject fea command,
And roll obedient Rivers thro' the Land:
These Honours, Peace to happy Britain brings,
Thefe are Imperial Works, and worthy Kings.

breach had done very great mischiefs; when the propofal of building a bridge at Weftminfter had been petitioned againft, and rejected; when many of the highways throughout England were hardly paffable, and moft of those which were repaired by turnpikes made jobbs for private lucre, and infamoufly executed, even to the entrances of London itself. At this time there had been an uninterrupted peace in Europe for above twenty years.

FROM THE

DISPENSARY.

CANTO

VI.

This fixth canto of the Difpenfary, by Dr. Garth, has more merit than the whole preceding part of the poem, and, as I am told, in the firft edition of this work it is more correct than as here exhibited; but that edition I have not been able to find. The praises bestowed on this poem are more than have been given to any other; but our approbation, at prefent, is cooler, for it owed part of its fame to party. ·

A

ND now the Delegate prepares to go

And view the wonders of the realms below. Thrice did the goddess, with her facred wand, The pavement ftrike; and ftrait, at her command, The willing furface opens, and defcries

A deep defcent, that leads to nether skies.
Hygeia to the filent region tends;

And, with his heav'nly guide, the Charge defcends,

Thus Numa, when to hallow'd caves retir'd,

Was by Egeria guarded and inspir’d.
Within the chambers of the globe they fpy
The beds where fleeping vegetables lie,
Till the glad fummons of a genial ray
Unbinds the glebe, and calls them out to day.