When I was young, I, like a lazy fool,

Would blear my eyes with oil to stay from school;
Averse from pains, and loth to learn the part
Of Cato, dying with a dauntless heart:

Tho much, my master, that stern virtue prais'd,
Which o'er the vanquisher the vanquish'd rais'd ;
And my pleas'd father came with pride to see
His boy defend the Roman liberty.

But then my study was to cog the dice, And dext'rously to throw the lucky fice: To fhun ames-ace, that swept my stakes away; And watch the box, for fear they fhould 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.

Thy years are ripe, nor art thou yet to learn What's good or ill, and both their ends difcern; Thou in the ftoick-porch, feverely bred, Haft heard the dogmas of great Zeno read: There on the walls, by Polygnotus' hand, The conquer'd Medians in trunk-breeches stand. Where the fhorn youth to midnight lectures rise, Rous'd from their flumbers to be early wife: Where the coarfe cake, and homely hufks of beans, From pamp'ring riot the young ftomach weans:

And

And where the Samian Y directs thy steps to run To Virtue's narrow steep, and broad-way Vice to fhun.

And yet thou fnor'ft; thou draw'ft thy drunken breath,

Sour with debauch; and fleep'ft the fleep of death: Thy chaps are fallen, and thy frame disjoin'd; Thy body is diffolv'd as is thy mind.

Hast thou not, yet, propos'd fome certain end,
To which thy life, thy ev'ry act may tend?
Haft thou no mark, at which to bend thy bow?
Or like a boy pursu'st the carrion crow
With pellets, and with ftones, from tree to tree:
A fruitless toil, and liv'ft extempore?

Watch the disease in time: for, when within
The dropfy rages and extends the skin,

In vain for Hellebore the patient cries,
And fees the doctor; but too late is wife :
Too late, for cure, he proffers half his wealth;
Conqueft and Guibbons cannot give him health.
Learn, wretches, learn the motions of the mind,
Why you were made, for what you were defign'd;
And the great moral end of human kind.
Study thyfelf: what rank or what degree
The wife Creator has ordain'd for thee:

And all the offices of that estate

Perform; and with thy prudence guide thy fate.
Pray justly, to be heard: nor more defire
Than what the decencies of life require.

Learn what thou ow'ft thy country, and thy friend;

What's requifite to fpare, and what to spend :
Learn this; and after, envy not the store
Of the greaz'd advocate, that grinds the poor :
Fat fees from the defended Umbrian draws ;
And only gains the wealthy client's caufe.
To whom the Marfians more provifion fend,
Than he and all his family can spend.
Gammons, that give a relish to the taste,
And potted fowl, and fifh come in so fast,
That ere the firft is out, the second stinks:
And mouldy mother gathers on the drinks.
But, here, fome captain of the land or fleet,
Stout of his hands, but of a foldier's wit;
Cries, I have sense to serve my turn, in store;
And he's a rafcal who pretends to more.

Dammee, what-e'er those book-learn'd blockheads

fay,

Solon's the very'st fool in all the play.

Top-heavy drones, and always looking down,

(As over-ballafted within the crown!)

Mutt'ring betwixt their lips fome myftic thing,
Which, well examin'd, is flat conjuring,
Meer madmen's dreams: for what the schools.)
have taught,

Is only this, that nothing can be brought
From nothing; and, what is, can ne'er be turn'd
to nought.

Is it for this they study? to grow pale,
And miss the pleasures of a glorious meal?
For this, in rags accouter'd, are they seen,
And made the may-game of the public fpleen?
Proceed, my friend, and rail; but hear me tell
A ftory, which is juft thy parallel.

my

A fpark, like thee, of the man-killing trade,
Fell fick, and thus to his physician said:
Methinks I am not right in ev'ry part;
I feel a kind of trembling at my heart:
My pulse unequal, and breath is ftrong;
Befides a filthy furr upon my tongue.
The doctor heard him, exercis'd his skill:
And, after, bid him for four days be still.
Three days he took good counsel, and began
To mend, and look like a recov'ring man:
The fourth, he could not hold from drink; but fends
His boy to one of his old trufty friends:

Adjuring him, by all the Pow'rs Divine,
To pity his diftrefs, who could not dine
Without a flaggon of his healing wine.
He drinks a fwilling draught; and, lin’d within,
Will fupple in the bath his outward skin:
Whom should he find but his physician there,
Who, wifely, bade him once again beware.
Sir, you look wan, you hardly draw your breath;
Drinking is dang'rous, and the bath is death.
'Tis nothing, fays the fool: but fays the friend,
This nothing, fir, will bring you to your end.
Do I not fee your dropfy belly fwell?

Your yellow fkin ?--No more of that; I'm well.
I have already bury'd two or three

That ftood betwixt a fair eftate and me,

And, doctor, I may live to bury thee.

Thou tell'st me, I look ill; and thou look'st worse. I've done, fays the phyfician; take your course. The laughing fot, like all unthinking men, Bathes and gets drunk; then bathes and drinks again :

His throat half throttled with corrupted phlegm, And breathing thro his jaws a belching fteam: Amidst his cups with fainting fhiv'ring seiz'd, His limbs disjointed, and all o'er difeas'd,