Unfold this sacred truth to Reason's eye, Yes, Friend! let noble deeds, and noble aims, Some worthy monument may still declare Not such as mad Ambition's votʼries raise Upon the driving sand of vulgar praise; On Virtue's adamantine rock, That to the skies shall lift its tow'ring head Superior to the surge's shock. Plann'd like a Memphian Pyramid sublime, By just degrees, and with a daring grace, Of time! no, that's a period too confin'd Which o'er the barrier leaps of added years, Of ages, æras, and revolving spheres, And leaves the flight of numbers still behind. When the loud clarion's dreadful roll Shall rend the globe from pole to pole; When worlds and systems sink in fire, And Nature, Time, and Death expire; In the bright records of the sky Shall Virtue see her honours shine; Shall see them blazing round the sacred shrine Of blest Eternity. ΤΟ CLODIO IN PRISON. BY PETER PINDAR. CLODIO, thy ruin is complete― And sleep, and breakfast too, and dine With good DUKE HUMPHRY, Duke of PHAROAH's kine; That is to say-exceeding lean, And in a jail, where sunk-eyed INANITION, Still, 'midst thy poverty and rags, Thou makest to the jail thy brags; And pleas'd, of PRINCES tellest many a story; And fanciest, that when thou art dead, A spendor will surround thy head Ev'n so!-that thou shalt lie along in GLORY! Vain Youth!-now prithee cast thine eye Sporting around thy taper's blaze:- A minute will decide his fate: Nearer, and nearer, round he flies; Still nearer, nearer-how elate! There ends existence-hark! his cries! Down drops the wretch amidst the fire- Such is the Fly's, and such thy story; THE SPLENDID SHILLING. BY PHILIPS. " Sing, heavenly Muse, Things unattempted yet, in prose or rhyme," HAPPY the man, who, void of cares and strife, A Splendid Shilling: he nor hears with pain * Two noted alehouses in Oxford, 1700. |