 | Poems on Several Occasions |  |
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An Epistle to the Honourable Henry Bathurst, Esq;
Member of Parliament for Cirencester in Gloucestershire.
To thee, dear Bathurst, this epistle's sent
To tell you how my leisure hours are spent;
To show what passions in my bosom roll,
Unfold my heart, and open all my soul.
To tell you how my leisure hours are spent;
To show what passions in my bosom roll,
Unfold my heart, and open all my soul.
You know I held it always for a rule,
To loath a villain, and despise a fool;
Nor court the vulgar for their weak applause,
To sooth my vanity, or aid my cause.
To loath a villain, and despise a fool;
Nor court the vulgar for their weak applause,
To sooth my vanity, or aid my cause.
Still the same course my steady soul pursues,
Firm to my friend, my mistress, and the muse:
Nor can o'er midnight lamps with thought grow pale,
To tell the world what wretched mortals ail;
What foul disease is working in their veins,
When the sick groan beneath their racking pains.
Firm to my friend, my mistress, and the muse:
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To tell the world what wretched mortals ail;
What foul disease is working in their veins,
When the sick groan beneath their racking pains.
Hippocrates and Galen are not read,
But Horace, Ovid, Virgil, in their stead;
And Juvenal, whose manly spirit glows
With sharp-edg'd satyr against virtue's foes:
Vice flies before him, while his honest page
Paints in strong colours a corrupted age;
A Messalina, reeking from the stews,
Improves the force of his satyric muse;
In vain her actions seek the gloom of night,
Drawn by his pen in an immortal light.
But Horace, Ovid, Virgil, in their stead;
And Juvenal, whose manly spirit glows
With sharp-edg'd satyr against virtue's foes:
Vice flies before him, while his honest page
Paints in strong colours a corrupted age;
A Messalina, reeking from the stews,
Improves the force of his satyric muse;
In vain her actions seek the gloom of night,
Drawn by his pen in an immortal light.
106
Since human life's extent is scarce a span,
And few the transitory joys of man;
How vain their toil, who spend their early days
In painful study for immortal praise?
Who search the Grecian, and the Roman store,
And the vast depth of sciences explore;
Not that the mind should be to virtue wrought,
To raise the soul, or elevate the thought;
To make mankind with equal scorn abhor
The ridicule of want, and pride of pow'r;
But like mean wretches prostitute their parts,
To serve weak heads, or base corrupted hearts;
To sooth ambition, or to flatter pride,
And make the lust of gold their actions guide;
To sell their country's glory for a post,
Enjoy the spoil, nor mourn their honour lost:
When such the motives, their superior sense
Proves a mere bawd to some despotic prince.
And few the transitory joys of man;
How vain their toil, who spend their early days
In painful study for immortal praise?
Who search the Grecian, and the Roman store,
And the vast depth of sciences explore;
Not that the mind should be to virtue wrought,
To raise the soul, or elevate the thought;
To make mankind with equal scorn abhor
The ridicule of want, and pride of pow'r;
But like mean wretches prostitute their parts,
To serve weak heads, or base corrupted hearts;
To sooth ambition, or to flatter pride,
And make the lust of gold their actions guide;
To sell their country's glory for a post,
Enjoy the spoil, nor mourn their honour lost:
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Proves a mere bawd to some despotic prince.
As women to whom lavish nature gave
Charms that can make the coldest heart their slave,
When once they deviate from virtue's rules,
And sacrifice their modesty to fools,
Each added beauty makes their guilt the more;
For still the fairest is the greatest whore.
Charms that can make the coldest heart their slave,
When once they deviate from virtue's rules,
And sacrifice their modesty to fools,
Each added beauty makes their guilt the more;
For still the fairest is the greatest whore.
While your bark fails life's navigable stream,
Let your just principles remain the same!
Let strictest honour be your firm support,
And for a pension scorn to cringe at court!
Fearless of censure act a Roman part,
And boldly speak the dictates of your heart;
Long may you live to make your virtues known,
And prove your country's interest your own.
Let your just principles remain the same!
Let strictest honour be your firm support,
And for a pension scorn to cringe at court!
Fearless of censure act a Roman part,
And boldly speak the dictates of your heart;
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And prove your country's interest your own.
Peterhouse, Cambridge, April 14, 1737.
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