Nor Law, nor checks of Confcience will be hear,
When in hot fcent of Gain, and full Career.

But hark, how ancient 22 Marfus did advise;
My Sons, let these fmall Cots and Hills fuffice
Let us the Harvest of our Labour eat;

'Tis Labour makes the coarseft Diet fweet:
Thus much to the kind Rural Gods we owe,
Who pity'd fuff'ring Mortals long ago;
When on harsh 23 Acorns hungrily they fed,
And gave 'em nicer Palates, better Bread.

The Country Peafant meditates no harm,

When clad with Skins of Beafts to keep him warm, In Winter-Weather, unconcern'd he goes

Almost Knee-deep through Mire, in clumfey Shoes: ¡Vice dwells in Palaces, is richly dreft,

There glows in Scarlet, and the Tyrian Vest.
The wifer Ancients thefe Inftructions gave:
But now a Covetous old Crafty Knave,
At dead of Night fhall rowze his Son, and cry,
Turn out, you Rogue, how like a Beast you lie :
Go, buckle to the Law; is this an Hour

To ftretch your Limbs? You'll ne'er be Chancellor
Or elfe your felf to Lalius recommend,

To fuch broad Shoulders 24 Lalius is a Friend:
Fight under him, there's Plunder to be had;
A Captain is a very gainful Trade:

And when in Service your best Days are spent,
In time you may Command a Regiment.
But if the Trumpet's Clangour you abhor,
And dare not be an Alderman of War;

22 Marfus, a thrifty Husbandman, from whom the Marfi were fo call'd, a laborious People, fome is Miles diAtant from Rome.

23 Mankind fed on Acorns, 'till Ceres the Goddess of Corn inftructed them to fow Grain.

24 Some General Officer in the Roman Army,

Take

Take to a Shop, behind a Counter lie,

Cheat half in half; none thrive by Honefty:
Never reflect upon the fordid Ware

Which you expofe; be Gain your only Care.
He that grows Rich by, fcowring of a Sink,
Gets wherewithal to justify the Stink.
This Sentence, worthy Jove himself, Record
As true, and take it on a Poet's Word:
"T' have Money, is a neceffary Task,

"From whence 'tis got the World will never ask,
Taught by their Nurfes, little Children get
This Saying, fooner than their Alphabet.
What Care a Father takes to teach his Son,
With ill-tim'd Induftry, to be undone !
Leave him to Nature, and you'll quickly find
The tender Cock'ril takes just after Kind:
The forward Youth will without driving go,
And learn t'out-shoot you in your proper Bow,
As much as Ajax his own Sire excell'd,
And was the Brawnier Blockhead in the Field.
Let Nature in the Boy but ftronger grow,
And all the Father foon it felf will fhow;
When firft the Down appears upon his Chin,
For a small Sum he swears through thick and thin ò̟.
At Ceres Altar vents his Perjury,

And blafts her Holy Image with a Lye:

If a Rich Wife he Marries, in her Bed
She's found, by Dagger, or by Poifon, Dead:
While Merchants make long Voyages by Sea,
To get Estates he cuts a fhorter way.
In mighty Mischiefs little Labour lies:
I never Counsell'd this, the Father cries.
But ftill, base Man, he Copy'd this from thee;
Thine was the prime, original Villany.
For he who covets Gain to fuch Excels,
Does by dumb Signs himself as much exprefs,

As

As if in Words at length he show'd his Mind:
Thy bad Example made him Sin by Kind.

But who can Youth, let loose to Vice, restrain?
When once the hard-mouth'd Horfe has got the Rein,
He's past thy Pow'r to ftop; Young Phaeton,
By the wild Courses of his Fancy drawn,
From Eaft to North, irregularly hurl'd,
First set on fire himself, and then the World.
Aftrologers affure long Life, you fay?

Your Son can tell you better much than they,
Your Son and Heir, whofe Hopes your Life delay.
Poison will work against the Stars: beware;
For ev'ry Meal an Antidote prepare:

And let Archigenes fome Cordial bring
Fit for a wealthy Father, or a King.

What Sight more pleasant, in his Publick Shows,
Did ever Prætor on the Stage expose,
Than are fuch Men as ev'ry Day we fee,
Whose chief Mishap, and only Mifery
Is to be over-stock with ready Coin,
Which 'now they bring to watchfuls Caftor's Shrine;
Since Mars, whom we the great Revenger call,
Loft his own Helmet, and was ftript of all.
'Tis time dull Theatres we fhou'd forfake,
When bufy Men much more Diversion make.
The Tumblers Gambols fome Delight afford,
No lefs the nimble Cap'rer on the Cord;
But these are still infipid Stuff to thee,
Coop'd in a Ship, and tofs'd upon the Sea.

25 Not that the Shrine was ( had an Eye to their God as fecur'd by the care of the God well as their Monies, left he Caftor, for Juvenal knew their Gods cou'd have no fuch thing as Care; but it was lin'd with aftrong Guard of Soldiers, who

fhould be ftoln, or unrigged, as Mars was. Our Poet calls him watchful Cafter jeeringly.

Bafe

Bafe Wretch, expos'd by thy own covetous Mind
To the deaf Mercy of the Waves and Wind.
The Dancer on the Rope, with doubtful tread,
Gets wherewithal to cloath and buy him Bread,
Nor covets more than Hunger to prevent;
But nothing less than Millions thee content:
What Shipwrecks and dead Bodies choak the Sea;
The num'rous Fools that were betray'd by thee!
For at the charming Call of pow'rful Gain,
Whole Fleets equipt appear upon the Main,
And fpight of 26 Libyan and 26 Carpathian Gale,
Beyond the limits of known Earth they fail.
A Labour worth the while, at laft to brag
(When safe return'd, and with a strutting Bag)
What Finny Sea-Gods thou haft had in view,
More than our lying Poets ever knew.
What feveral Madneffes in Men appear!
Oreftes 27 runs from fancy'd Furies here;
Ajax 28 belabours there an harmless Ox,
And thinks that Agamemnon feels the Knocks.
Nor is indeed that Man lefs Mad than thefe,
Who Freights a Ship to venture on the Seas;
With one frail interpofing Plank to fave
From certain Death, roll'd on by ev'ry Wave:

26 Libyan and Carpathian | Achilles from him to Vlyffes. Gale. The firft a South-Weft, But the miftaking Agamem the latter, as we term it at non, or his Brother Menelaus, Sea, a ftrong Levant. for Oxen, or Oxen for them, was not fo grofs; for they were both famously horn'd: And if Report fays true, Ajax need not have fpar'd Ulysses, fince Penelope knew which of her Suitors cou'd fhoot beft in her Husband's Bow.

27 Orestes, faid to be haunt ed by Furies, for killing his Mother Clytemnestra, the Wife of Agamemnon

28 Ajax the Son of Telamon, who ran Mad, because Agamemnon gave the Armour of

Yo

Yet Silver makes him all this Toil embrace,

Silver with Titles stampt, and a dull Monarch's Face.
When gath'ring Clouds o'er-fhadow all the Skies,
And fhoot quick Lightnings, Weigh, my Boys, he cries:
A Summer's Thunder, foon it will be past!
Yet, hardy Fool, this Night may prove thy laft;
When thou (thy Ship o'er-whelm'd with Waves) fhalt be
Forc'd to plunge naked in the raging Sea;

Thy Teeth hard prefs'd, a Purfe full of dear Gold,
The laft Remains of all thy Treasure hold.
Thus he

Whofe facred Hunger, all the Stores that lie
In Yellow 29 Tagus cou'd not fatisfy;

Does now in tatter'd Cloaths at fome Lane's end
A painted Storm for Charity extend.

With Care and Trouble great Eftates we gain;
When got, we keep 'em with more Care and Pain.
Rich 30 Licinus his Servants ready ftand,

Each with a Water-Bucket in his Hand,
Keeping a Guard, for fear of Fire, all Night;
Yet Licinus is always in a Fright.

His curious Statues, Amber-Works, and Plate,
Still fresh encreafing Pangs of Mind create.
The 3' naked Cynick's Jar ne'er flames; if broken
Tis quickly fodder'd, or a new bespoken.

When Alexander first beheld the Face
Of the great Cynick, in that narrow space;

them.

30 Some noted rich Mani Rome.

29 Tagus, a River in Spain, faid to be full of Gold Sand. This Tagus has loft its good Qualities time out of Mind, or the Spaniard has Coin'd it dry; for now they fetch their Gold from the Indies, and then ther Natious fetch it from Doggrel.)

31 Naked Cynick: Diogenes a fnarling Dog-Philofophe (for there have been Dog-Phi lofophers, as well as Poets i