Miscellanies in Verse and Prose :: :: University of Virginia Library

Sallust , whose noble Thoughts disdain
The Miser's hoarded Heaps of Gain,
Which close from Sight of dreaded Eyes
In Earth imprison'd blindly lies;
The sullen Silver casts no Rays
'Till gen'rous Use, Benevolence Divine,
To the dull Mass impart a Blaze,
The Metal burnish bright, and make it shine.

Extended to succeeding Days
Shall Proculeius' Name survive,

Who to his suff'ring Brethren, kind,
Express'd a Father's gracious Mind;
For this, his long-recorded Praise
Shall flourish ever fresh, and unextinguish'd live.

The Lust of Riches to restrain,
And ever-craving Avarice subdue,
Is greater than beneath thy sole Command
Wide Africk to reduce, and spacious Spain;
And with Majestic Glory view
Thy ample Sway stretch'd out o'er either Punic Land.

The fatal Dropsy swells within,
Indulg'd with flattering Draughts in vain;
The watry Humour puffs the pallid Skin,
Nor can th'impatient Thirst be quell'd,
'Till the dire Cause of all the Pain
Be from the Veins expell'd.

Restor'd to Cyrus' Throne, tho' proud
Phraates rules the spacious East,
Virtue, dissenting from the Croud,
Will not pronounce him blest.
The Vulgar's Style She soberly reclaims,
Which misapplys mistaken Names,
And points to Him the Diadem,
Who can, with unregarding Eye,
Pass the pil'd Heaps of Treasure by,
And the vain Sight contemn.