Minds with Precepts of Moral Philofophy: And withal, inculcates to them the Miferies which will attend them in the whole course of their Life, if they do not apply themselves betimes to the Knowledge of Virtue, and the End of their Creation, which he pathetically infinuates to them. The Title of this Satyr, in fome ancient Manuferipts, was The Reproach of Idleness; tho' in others of the Scholiafts, 'tis infcrib'd, Against the Luxury and Vices of the Rich. In both of which the Intention of the Poet is purfa'd; but principally in the former.

Iremember I Tranflated this Satyr, when I was a King's Scho lar at Westminster-School, for a Thursday-Night's Exercife; and believe that it, and many other of my Exercises of this Nature, in English Verfe, are ftill in the Hands of my Learned Mafter, the Reverend Doctor Busby.

S this thy daily Courfe? The glaring Sun

I Breaks in at ev'ry Chink: The Cattle run

To Shades, and Noon-tide Rays of Summer fhun,
Yet plung'd in Sloth we lie; and fnore fupine,
As fill'd with Fumes of undigested Wine.

This grave Advice fome fober Student bears;
And loudly rings it in his Fellow's Ears.
The yawning Youth, scarce half awake, essays
His lazy Limbs and dozy Head to raise :
Then rubs his gummy Eyes, and fcrubs his Pate;
And cries, I thought it had not been so late:

}

My Cloaths, make hafte: Why when! If none be near,
He mutters first, and then begins to swear:
And brays aloud, with a more clam'rous Note,
Than an Arcadian Afs can stretch his Throat.

• With much ado, his Book before him laid,
And Parchment with the fmoother fide display'd;
He takes the Papers; lays 'em down again;
And, with unwilling Fingers, tries the Pen:
Some peevish Quarrel ftreight he ftrives to pick;
His Quill writes double, or his Ink's too thick;
Infuse more Water; now 'tis grown fo thin
It finks, nor can the Characters be seen.

O Wretch, and ftill more wretched ev'ry Day!
Are Mortals born to fleep their Lives away?
Go back to what thy Infancy began,

Thou who wert never meant to be a Man:
Eat Pap and Spoon-meat; for thy Gugaws cry;
Be fullen, and refufe the Lullaby.

• No more accufe thy Pen; but charge the Crime
On Native Sloth, and Negligence of Time.
Think'st thou thy Mafter, or thy Friends, to cheat?
Fool, 'tis thy felf, and that's a worse Deceit.
Beware the publick Laughter of the Town;
Thou spring'ft a Leak already in thy Crown.
A Flaw is in thy ill-bak'd Veffel found;
'Tis hollow, and returns a jarring Sound.

Yet, thy moift Clay is pliant to Command;
Unwrought, and easy to the Potter's Hand:
Now take the Mold: now bend thy Mind to feel
The first sharp Motions of the Forming Wheel.
But thou haft Land; a Country-Seat, fecure
By a juft Title; coftly Furniture;

I Parchment, &c. The Students us'd to write their Notes on Parchments; the infide, on which they wrote, was white; the other fide was hairy, and commonly yellow. Quintilian

reproves this Cuftom, and advifes rather Table-Books, lin'd with Wax, and a Style, like that we ufe in our Vellum Table-Books, as more easy.

A

A 2 Fuming-Pan thy Lares to appease:
What need of Learning when a Man's at ease?
If this be not enough to fwell thy Soul,

Then please thy Pride, and search the Herald's Roll,
Where thou shalt find thy famous Pedigree

Drawn 3 from the Root of fome old Tufcan Tree;
And thou, a Thousand off, a Fool of long Degree.
Who, clad in 4 Purple, can'ft thy Cenfor greet;
And, loudly, call him Coufin, in the Street.
Such Pageantry be to the People shown:
There boaft thy Horfe's Trappings, and thy own:
I know thee to thy Bottom; from within
Thy fhallow Centre, to the utmost Skin:
Doft thou not blush to live fo like a Beast,
So trim, fo diffolute, fo loosely dreft?

But, 'tis in vain: The Wretch is drench'd too deep;
His Soul is ftupid, and his Heart asleep:
Fatten'd in Vice; fo callous, and fo grofs,

He fins, and fees not; fenfelefs of his Lofs.

Down goes the Wretch at once, unskill'd to swim,
Hopeless to bubble up, and reach the Water's brim.
Great Father of the Gods, when, for our Crimes,
Thou fend'ft some heavy Judgment on the Times;

2 A Fuming-Pan, &c. Before Eating, it was cuftomary to cut off fome part of the Meat; which was first put into a Pan, or little Dish; then into the Fire, as an Offering to the Houshold-Gods: This they call'd a Libation.

3 Drawn from the Root, &c. The Tufcans were accounted of moft ancient Nobility. Horace obferves this, in moft of his Compliments to Mecanas,

who was deriv'd from the Old Kings of Tuscany, now the Dominion of the Great Duke.

4 Who clad in Purple, &c. The Roman Knights, attir'd in the Robe call'd Trabea, were fummon'd by the Cenfor to appear before him; and to faJute him in passing by, as their Names were call'd over. They led their Horfes in their Hand. See more of this in Pompey's Life, written by Plutarch.

Some

Some Tyrant-King, the Terror of his Age,

The Type, and true Vicegerent of thy Rage;
Thus punish him: Set Virtue in his Sight,

With all her Charms adorn'd, with all her Graces bright:
But fet her diftant, make him pale to fee
His Gains out weigh'd by loft Felicity!

Sicilian Tortures, and the Brazen Bull,
Are Emblems, rather than express the Full
Of what he feels: Yet what he fears, is more:
The Wretch, who fitting at his plenteous Board,
Look'd up, and view'd on high the pointed Sword
Hang o'er his Head, and hanging by a Twine,
Did with less dread, and more securely Dine.
Ev'n in his Sleep he starts, and fears the Knife,
And, trembling, in his Arms, takes his Accomplice Wife;
Down, down, he goes; and from his Darling-Friend
Conceals the Woes his guilty Dreams portend.
When I was young, I, like a lazy Fool,

Wou'd blear my Eyes with Oil to stay from School:

5 Sicilian Tortures, &c. Some | of the Sicilian Kings were fo great Tyrants, that the Name is become Proverbial. The Brazen Bull is a known Story of Phalaris one of thofe Tyrants; who when Perillus, a famous Artist, had presented him with a Bull of that Metal hollow'd within, which when the condemn'd Person was inclos'd in it, wou'd render the Sound of a Bull's roaring, caus'd the Workman to make the firft Experiment. Docuitque fuum mugire Juvencum.

6 The Wretch who fitting, &c.

He alludes to the Story of Dmocles, a Flatterer of one of those Sicilian Tyrants, namely Dionyfius. Damocles had infinitely extoll'd the Happiness of Kings. Dionyfius, to convince him of the contrary, invited him to a Feaft, and clothed him in Purple; but caus'd a Sword, with the Point downward, to be hung over his Head by a filken Twine; which when he perceiv'd, he cou'd eat nothing of the Delicates that were set before him.

Averse from Pains, and loth to learn the Part
Of Cato, dying with a dauntiefs Heart:

Tho' much, my Mafter, that stern Virtue prais'd,
Which o'er the Vanquisher the Vanquish'd rais'd:
And my pleas'd Father came with Pride to fee
His Boy defend the Roman Liberty.

But then my Study was to Cog the Dice,
And dext'roufly to throw the lucky Sice:
To fhun Ames-Ace, that fwept my Stakes away;
And watch the Box, for fear they shou'd convey
= Falfe Bones, and put upon me in the Play.
= Careful, befides, the whirling Top to whip,
And drive her giddy, till fhe fell asleep.

منة

Thy Years are ripe, nor art thou yet to learn What's Good or Ill, and both their Ends difcern: Thou, in the Stoick-Porch, severely bred, Haft heard the Dogma's of great Zeno read: Where on the Walls, by 8 Polygnotus' Hand, The Conquer'd Medians in Trunk-Breeches ftand. · Where the fhorn Youth to midnight Lectures rise, Rous'd from their Slumbers to be early wife: Where the coarse Cake, and homely Husks of Beans, From pamp'ring Riot the young Stomach weans: And 9 where the Samian Y directs thy Steps to run To Virtue's narrow Steep, and Broad-way Vice to fhun.

And

cles, and other Athenian Captains, on the Walls of the Portico, in their Natural Habits.

9 And where the Samian Y, &c. Pythagoras of Samos, made the Allufion of the Y, or1 Greek Upfilon, to Vice and Virtue. One fide of the Letter being broad, characters Vice, to