fancy and Youth, than when we grow up to riper Years. Thus we are more apt to imitate a Catiline, than a Brutus, or the Uncle of Brutus, Cato Uticenfis. For thefe Reafons he is inftant with all Parents, that they permit not their Children to hear lafcivious Words, and that they banish Pimps, Whores, and Parafites from their Houfes. If they are careful, fays the Poet, when they make any Invitation to their Friends, that all things fhall 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 Inftruction, feed on the fame uncleanly Diet. But the generous Eaglet, who is taught by her Parent to fly at Hares, and fowfe on Kids, difdains afterwards to pursue a more ignoble Game. Thus the Son of Centronius was prone to the Vice of raising stately Structures, beyond bis Fortune; because his Father had ruin'd himfelf by Building. He whofe Father is a Jew, is naturally prone to Superftition, and the Obfervation of his Country-Laws. From hence the Poet defcends to a Satyr against Avarice, which he efteems to be of worfe Example than any of the former. The remaining part of the Poem is wholly employ'd on this Subject, to shew the Mifery of this Vice. He concludes with limiting our Defe of Riches to a certain Meafure; which he confines within the Compafs of what Hunger, and Thirst, and Cold, require for our Prefervation and Subfiftance: With which Neceffaries if we are not contented, then the Treasures of Crofus, of the Perfian King, or of the Eunuch Narciffus, who

K S

who commanded both the Will and the Fortunes of Claudius the Emperor, wou'd not be fufficient to fatisfy the Greediness of our Defires.

To his Friend FUSCINUS.

FUfcinas, thofe Ill Deeds that fully Fame,

And lay fuch Blots upon an honeft Name,
In Blood once tainted, like a Current run
From the lewd Father, to the lewder Son.
If Gaming does an aged Sire entice,

Then my young Mafter swiftly learns the Vice,

And thakes, in Hanging-Sleeves, the little Box and Dice
Thus the voluptuous Youth, bred up to dress,
For his fat Grandfire, fome delicious Mefs;
In Feeding high, his Tutor will furpafs,
As Heir Apparent of the Gourmand Race:
And, fhou'd a thoufand grave Philofophers
Be always hollowing Virtue in his Ears,
They wou'd at laft their lofs of Time lament,
And give him o'er for Glutton in Descent.

Can cruel Rutilus, who loves the Noife
Of Whips far better than a Syren's Voice,
Can 2 Polyphemus, or 3 Antiphates,

Who gorge themselves with Man, can such as these
Set up to teach Humanity, and give

By their Example, Rules for Us to live?

Can they preach up Equality of Birth,
And tell us how we all began from Earth?

Rutilus, fome Perfon in | Eaters. I doubt not but the the Poet's time, noted for his Cruelty.

2 Folyphemus, a famous Giant with one Eye, and a Cannibal

3 Antiphates, a King of the Laftrygons, who were all Maus

Laftrygons, who were a People of Italy, learnt this Diet of King Saturn, when he hid himfelf among 'em, and gavethis Example, by making a Meals meat of his own Children.

Th' inhuman 4 Lord, who with a cruel Guft
Can a Red Fork in his Slave's Forehead thrust:
Because th' unlucky Criminal was caught
With little Theft of two courses Towels fraught?
Can He a Son to foft Remorse incite,

Whom 6 Goals, and Blood, and Butchery delight?
Who wou'd expect the Daughter fhou'd be other
Than common Punk, if 7 Larga be the Mother?
Whofe Lovers Names in order to run o'er,
The Girl took Breath full thirty times, and more:
She, when but yet a tender Minx, began
To hold the Door, but now fets up for Man;
And to her Gallants, in her own Hand-writing,
Sends Billets-douxs of the Old Bawd's inditing.
So Nature prompts; fo foon we go aftray,
When Old Experience puts us in the Way:
Our Green Youth copies what Grey Sinners act;
When venerable Age commends the Fact.

Some Sons, indeed, fome very few, we fee
Who keep themselves from this Infection free,
Whom Gracious Heav'n for Nobler Ends defign'd,
Their Looks erected, and their Clay refin'd.
The reft are all by bad Example led,
And in their Father's flimy Track they tread.
Is't not enough we should our felves undo,
But that our Children we must ruin too?
Children, like tender Ofiers, take the Bow,
And as they firft are fashion'd, always grow.
By Nature, headlong to all Ills we run,
And Virtue, like fome dreadful Monster, fhun,

4 By this Lord, is fill meant [ kept their working Slaves in the fame cruel Rutilus. great Numbers.

Suppos'd Bath-Rubbers: The Romans were great Bathers..

7 Larga, a fictitious Name for fome very common But

Country-Goals, where they Etock,

Survey the World, and where one & Cato fhines,
Count a degenerate Herd of 9 Catilines.

Suffer no Lewdnefs, or undecent Speech,
Th' Apartment of the tender Youth to reach ;
Far be from thence the Glutton 1 Parafite,
Singing his Drunken Katches all the Night:
But farther ftill be Woman; Woman first
Was Evil's Caufe, her felf of Ills the worst.
Boys ev'n from Parents may this Rev'rence claim;
For when thou doft at fome vile Action aim,
Say, fhou'd the harmless Child with-hold thy Hand,
Wou'd it not put thy Fury to a ftand?

Then may we not conclude the Sire unjust,
Who (when his Son o'ercome with Drink and Luft,
Is by the 11 Cenfor of good Manners caught,
And fuffers publick Penance for his Fault)
Rails, and Reviles, and turns him out of Door,
For what himself fo oft has done before?
A Son fo copy'd from his Vice, fo much
The very fame in ev'ry little touch;
That fhou'd he not refemble too his Life,
The Father justly might fufpect his Wife.

This very Rev'rend Letcher, quite worn out
With Rheumatisms, and Crippled with his Gout,
Forgets what he in youthful Times has done,
And swinges his own Vices in his San.

8 Cato of Utica, a Roman Patriot, who flew himself, rather than he wou'd fubmit to Julius Cafar.

9 Catiline, a Plotter againft the Commonwealth of Rome.

10 Parafite, a Greek Word, among the Romans ufed for a Flatterer and Feaft-Hunter. This fort of Creature they

flighted in thofe Days, and us'd very fcurvily, terming fuch a one an Umbra, that is, a Shadow, an Apparition, &c.

11 This Cenfor of Good Manners, was an Officer of confiderable Power in Rome ; in fome refpects not unlike our Midnight Magiftrate, but not altogether fo Saucy.

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