But if a Fever fires his Sulphurous Blood,
Io ev'ry Fit he feels the Hand of God,
And Heav'n-born Flame: Then drown'd in deep Despair,
He dares not offer one repenting Prayer;
Nor vow one Victim to preserve his Breath;
Amaz'd he lies, and sadly looks for Death :
For how can Hope with desperate Guilt agree?
And the worft Beast is worthier Life than he.

XXI:
He that once Sins, like him that flides on Ice,
Goes swiftly down the Dippery ways of Vice;
Tho' Conscience checks him, yet, those Rubs

gone

o'er
He slides on smoothly, and looks back no more.
What Sinners finish where they first begin?
And with one Crime content their- Luft to Sind
Nature, that rude, and in her fir Efsay,
Stood boggling at the roughness of the way;
Usd to the ad, unknowing to return,
Gocs boldly on, and loves the path when worn.

XXII.
Fear not, but pleas'd with this successful Bait,
Thy Perjur'd Friend will quickly tempt his Fate;
He will go on, until his Crimes provoke
The Arm Divine to strike the fatal Stroke;
Then thou shalt see him plung'd, when least he fears,
At once accounting for his deep Arrears;
Sent to those narrow ifles, which throng'd we fee
With mighty Exiles, once secure as He;
Drawn to the Gallows, or condemn'd to Chains :
Then thou shalt triumph in the Villain's Pains,
Enjoy his Groans; and with a grateful Mind
Confess, that Heav'n is neither Deaf nor Blind,

The ARGUMENT. Since domestick Examples easily corrupt our Youth,

the Poet prudently exhorts all Parents, that they themselves mould abstain from evil Practices : Amongst which, he chiefly points at Dice and Gaming, Taverns, Drunkenness, and Cruelty, which they exercis'd upon their Slaves : Left after their pernicious Example, their sons should copy them 'in their Vices, and become Gamesters, Drunkards, and Tyrants, Listrigons, and Cannibals to their Servants. For, if the Father, Jays Juvenal, love the Box and Dice, the Boy will be given to an itching Elbow: Neither is it to be expected, that the Daughter of Larga the Adulteress, fou'd be more continent than her Mother : Since we are all by Nature more apt to receive ill Impresions than good; and are besides more pliant in our In

fancy

per Years.

fancy and Youth, than when we grow up to ri

Thus we are more apt to imitate a Catiline, than a Brutus, or the Uncle of Brutus, Cato Uticensis. For these Reasons he is instant with all Parents, that they permit not their Children to hear lascivious Words, and that they banish Pimps, Whores, and Parasites from their Houses. If they are careful, says the Poet, when they make any Invitation to their Friends, that all things shall be clean, and set in order; much more is it their Duty to their Children, that nothing appear corrupt or undecent in their family. Storks and Vultures, because they are fed by the Old Ones with Snakes and Carrion, naturally, and without Instruction, feed on the same uncleanly Diet. But the generous Eaglet, who is taught by her parent to fly at Hares, and fowse on Kids, disdains afterwards to pursue a more ignoble Game. Thus the Son of Centronius was prone to the Vice of raising stately Structures, beyond his Fortune ; because his Father had ruind himfelf by Building. He whose Father is a Jew, is naturally prone to Superftition, and the Observation of his Country-Laws. From hence the Poet descends to a Satyr against Avarice, which he esteems to be of worfe Example than any of the former. The remaining part of the Poem is wholly employ’d on this Subject, to hew the Misery of this Vice. He concludes with limiting our Define of Riches to a certain Measure;, which he cona fines within the Compass of what Hunger, and Thirst, and Cold, require for our Preservation and Subsistance: With which Necesaries if we are not contented, then the Treasures of Crefus, of the Perlian King, or of the Eunuch Narcissus,

wbe

KS