To entertain a Gueft, with what a Care
Wou'd he his Houfhold Ornaments prepare;
Harafs his Servants, and as O'erfeer ftand,

To keep 'em Working with a threat'ning Wand:
Clean all my Plate, he cries, let not one Stain
Sully the Figur'd Silver, or the Plain;

Rub all the Floors, make all the Pillars bright,
No hanging Cobwebs leave to shock the Sight.
O wretched Man! is all this Hurry made
On this account, because thou art afraid
A dirty Hall or Entry fhou'd offend
The curious Eyes of thy invited Friend?
Reform thy Family; one Son at home
Concerns thee more than many Guefts to come.
If to fome 12 useful Art he be not bred,

He grows meer Lumber, and is worse than dead.
For what we learn in Youth, to that alone
In Age we are by fecond Nature

prone.

The callow Storks with Lizard and with Snake
Are fed, and foon as e'er to Wing they take,
At fight thofe Animals for Food pursue,
The first delicious Bit they ever knew.
Ev'n fo 'tis Nature in the Vulture's Breed,
On Dogs and Human Carkaffes to feed.
Jove's 13
13 Bird will fowse upon the tim'rous Hare,
And tender Kids with his sharp Talons tear;
Because fuch Food was laid before him first,
When from his Shell the lab'ring Eaglet burst.

that wou'd break the Hearts of our Modern Beaux.

13 Jove's Bird: The Eagle,

12 The old Romans were careful to breed up their Sons so, that afterwards they might be useful to their Country info call'd for the great Service Peace, or War, or Ploughing the Ground: Utilis agris, (as Juvenal has it.) An Exercise

he did Jupiter, in bringing Ganymede, a lovely Boy, on his Back to him.

Centronius

Centronius 14 does high cofly Villa's raile
With Grecian Marble, which the Sight amaze
Some ftand upon Cajeta's winding Shore,
At Tybur's Tow'r, and at Pranefte more.
The Dome of Hercules and Fortune fhow
To his tall Fabricks, like fmall Cots below:
So much his Palaces o'er-look 'em all,
As Gelt. Pofides does our Capitol.
His Son builds on, and never is content,
"Till the last Farthing is in Structure spent.

The Jews, like their bigotted Sires before,
By gazing on the Clouds, their 16 God adore:
So Superftitious, that they'll fooner Dine
Upon the Flesh of Men than that of Swine.
Our Roman Customs they contemn and jeer,
But learn and keep their Country-Rites with Fear.
That Worship only they in Rev'rence have,
Which in Dark Volumes their Great Mofes gave.
Ask 'em the Road, and they shall point you wrong,
Because you do not to their Tribe belong.
They'll not betray a Spring to quench your Thirft,
Unless you fhew 'em Circumcifion first.

So they are taught, and do it to obey
Their Fathers, who obferve the Sabbath-Day.
Young Men to imitate all Ills are prone,
But are compell'd to Avarice alone:

For then in Virtue's Shape they follow Vice;
Because a true Diftinction is fo nice,

14 Centronius, a famous extravagant Architect, who with his Son (who took after him) built away all his Eftate, and had fo many Palaces at laft, that he was too poor to live in any of them.

15 As Gelt Pofides, viz. The Palace of the Eunuch Pofides,

As in Virg. Jam proximus ardet
Vcalegon.

16 Juvenal, tho' he was wife enough to laugh at his own Country Gods, yet had not, or wou'd not have, a right Notion of the True Deity, which makes him ridicule the Jews Manner of Worship.

That

That the base Wretch who hoards up all he can,
Is prais'd, and call'd a careful, thrifty Man:
The fabled 7 Dragon never guarded more
The Golden Fleece, than he his ill-got Store:
What a profound Refpect where e'er he goes
The Multitude to fuch a Monster shows!

Each Father crier, "My Son, Example take,

And, led by this Wife Youth, thy Fortunes make; "Who Day and Night ne'er ceas'd to toil and fweat, "Drudg'd like a Smith, and on the Anvil beat, ""Till he had hammer'd out a vast Estate. "Side with that Sect, who learnedly deny, "That e'er Content was join'd with Poverty; "Who measure Happiness by Wealth encreas'd, "And think the Mony'd Man alone is Bleft. Parents the little Arts of Saving teach,

Ere Sons the Top of Avarice can reach ;

When with falfe Weights their Servants Guts they cheat
And pinch their own to cover the Deceit:

Keep a ftale Cruft, 'till it looks Blue, and think
Their Flesh ne'er fit for Eating 'till it ftink;
The leaft Remains of which they mince, and drefs
It o'er again, to make another Mess:

Adding a Leek, whofe ev'ry String is told,

For fear fome pilf'ring Hand fhou'd make too bold:
And with a Mark diftinct, feal up a Dish
Of Thrice-boil'd Beans, and putrid Summer-Fish:
A Beggar on the 18 Bridge wou'd loath fuch Food,
And fend it to be wash'd in Tiber's Flood.

17 This Dragon was Guardian of the Golden Fleece, which hung in the Temple of Mars at Colchos; and hereby hangs a Tale, or a long Story of Jafon and Medea, with which I will not trouble you.

18 Beggars took their Stations then, as they do now, in the greatest Thorow-fares, which were their Bridges, of which there were many over the River Tiber in Rome.

But

But, to what End these ways of ferdid Gain ?
It fhews a manifest unsettled Brain,
Living, to fuffer a low ftarving Fate,
In hopes of dying in a wealthy State.
For, as thy ftrutting Bags with Mony rise,
The Love of Gain is of an equal Size :
Kind Fortune does the poor Man better bless,
Who though he has it not, defires it lefs.
One Villa therefore is too little thought;
A larger Farm at a vast Price is bought:
Uneafy ftill within these narrow Bounds,
Thy next Design is on thy Neighbour's Grounds:
His Crop invites, to full Perfection grown,
Thy own feems thin, because it is thy own:
The Purchase therefore is demanded freight,
And if he will not fell, or makes thee wait,
A Teem of Oxen in the Night are sent
(Starv'd for the purpose, and with Labour spent)
To take Free Quarter, which in one half Hour
The Pains and Product of a Year devour:
Then, fome are basely Brib'd to vow it looks
Most plainly done by Thieves with Reaping-hooks.
Such mean Revenge, committed underhand,
Has ruin'd many an Acre of good Land.
What if Men talk, and Whispers go about,,
Pointing the Malice and its Author out?
He values not what they can fay, or do;
For who will dare a Mony'd Man to fue?
Thus he wou'd rather curs'd and envy'd be,
Than lov'd and prais'd in honeft Poverty.

But to poffefs a long and happy Life,
Freed from Difeafes, and fecure from Strife;
Give me, ye Gods, the Product of one 1 9 Field,
As large as that which the first Romans Till'd;

19 Field, viz. The Field of Mars,01 Campus Martins,which

was the greated Part of the Roman Empire, when in its In

fancy

That so I neither may be Rich nor Poor,
And having just enough, not covet more.

'Twas then, Old Soldiers cover'd o'er with Scars, (The Marks of 20 Pyrrhus, or the 21 Punick Wars,) Thought all paft Services rewarded well,

If to their fhare at laft two Acres fell:

(Their Country's frugal Bounty ;) so of old
Was Blood, and Life, at a low Market fold.

Yet, then, this little Spot of Earth well Till'd,
A num'rous Family with Plenty fill'd;
The good old Man and thrifty Housewife spent
Their Days in Peace, and fatten'd with Content.
Enjoy'd the Dregs of Life, and liv'd to fee
A long-descending healthful Progeny.

The Men were fashion'd in a larger Mould;
The Women fit for Labour, Big and Bold.
Gigantick Hinds, as foon as Work was done,
To their huge Pots of boiling Pulse wou'd run:
Fell to, with eager Joy, on homely Food;

And their large Veins beat strong with wholfome Blood.
Of old, two Acres were a bounteous Lot,
Now, scarce they serve to make a Garden-Plott.

From hence the greatest part of Ills defcend,

When Luft of getting more will have no End :
That, ftill, our weaker Paffions does command,
And puts the Sword and Poison in our Hand.
Who covets Riches, cannot brook Delay,
But spurs and bears down all that stops his Way:

fancy under Romulus and Ta-
tins the Sabine, his Copartner,
admitted for the Sake of the
Fair Ladies he brought along
with him.

20 Pyrrhus King of the Epirots, a formidable Enemy to the Romans, though at last o

vercome by 'em. He dyed a very little Death (as 'tis the Fate of fome Heroes) being Martyr'd by the Fall of a Tile from a House.

21 Wars against the Carthaginians.

Not