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

But hark, how ancient 22 Marfus did advise ;
My Sons, let thefe fmall Cots and Hills fuffice:
Let us the Harveft 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 harth 23 Acorns hungrily they fed,
And gave 'em nicer Palates, better Bread.
The Country Peasant meditates no Harm,
When clad with Skins of Beasts to keep him warm,
In Winter-Weather, unconcern'd he goes

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

There glows in Scarlet, and the Tyrian Veft.
The wifer Ancients these Inftructions gave :
But now a Covetous old Crafty Knave,

At dead of Night shall 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 else your felf to Lælius recommend,
To fuch broad Shoulders 24 Lælius is a Friend:
Fight under him, there's Plunder to be had;
A Captain is a very gainful Trade :

And when in Service your beft 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 15 Miles distant from Rome,

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

24 Some General Officer in the Raman Army.

Take to a Shop, behind a Counter lie,
Cheat half in half; none thrive by Honesty:
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 Industry, 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-fhoot 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 show:
When first the Down appears upon his Chin,
For a small Sum he fwears through thick and thin;
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 Poison, Dead:
While Merchant's make long Voyages by Sea,
To get Eftates, he cuts a shorter Way,
In mighty Mischiefs little Labour lies:
I never Counsell'd this, the Father cries.
But ftill, bafe Man, he Copy'd this from thee;
Thine was the prime, original Villainy.
For he who covets Gain in fuch Excefs,
Does by dumb Signs himself as much express,

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 Horse 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 fet 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, whose Hopes your Life delay.
Poison will work against the Stars: beware;
For ev'ry Meal an Antidote prepare:
And let Archigenes some 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 see,
Whose chief Mishap, and only Misery
Is to be overstock'd with ready Coin,

Which now they bring to watchful 25 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 forsake,
When bufy Men much more Diverfion make.
The Tumblers Gambols fome Delight afford,
No less 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 fecur'd by theCare of the God Caftor; for Juvenal knew their Gods cou'd have no fuch thing as Care; but it was lin'd with a strong Guard of Soldiers, who

had an Eye to their God at well as their Monies, left he fhould be ftoln, or unrigged, as Mars was. Our Poet calls him watchful Caster jeeringly.

Bafe

リ

Bafe Wretch, expos'd by his 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 sail.
A Labour worth the while, at last to brag
(When 'fafe return'd, and with a ftrutting 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 these,
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, the latter, as we term it at Sea, a ftrong Levant.

27 Oreftes, faid to be haunted by Furies, for killing his Mother Clytemnestra, the Wife of Agamemnon.

But the mistaking Agamemnon, or his Brother Menelaus, 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 Vlyffes, 28 Ajax the Son of Telamon, fince Penelope knew which of who ran Mad, becaufe Aga-her Suitors cou'd shoot best in memnon gave the Armour of her Husband's Bow.

Yet

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, reftrain ?
When once the hard-mouth'd Horse has got the Rein,
He's paft 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 see,
Whose chief Mishap, and only Mifery
Is to be overstock'd with ready Coin,

Which now they bring to watchful 25 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 less 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.

}

had an Eye to their God as well as their Monies, left he should be ftoln, or unrigged, as Mars was. Our Poet calls him watchful Castor jeeringly.

Bafe