Be fure to turn the penny; lye and swear;

'Tis wholfome fin: but Jove, thou fay'ft, will hear:

Swear, fool, or ftarve; for the dilemma's even:
A tradefman thou! and hope to go to heav'n?
Refolv'd for fea, the flaves thy baggage pack,
Each faddled with his burden on his back:
Nothing retards thy voyage, now, unless
Thy other lord forbids, Voluptuoufnefs :
And he may ask this civil queftion: Friend,
What doft thou make a fhipboard? to what end?
Art thou of Bethlem's noble college free?
Stark, ftaring mad, that thou wouldst tempt the
fea?

Cubb'd in a cabbin, on a mattress laid,
On a brown george, with lowsy swobbers fed,
Dead wine, that stinks of the borrachio, fup
From a foul jack, or greasy maple-cup?
Say, wouldft thou bear all this, to raise thy store
From fix i' th' hundred, to fix hundred more?
Indulge, and to thy genius freely give;
For, not to live at eafe, is not to live;
Death ftalks behind thee, and each flying hour
Does fome loose remnant of thy life devour.
Live, while thou liv'ft, for death will make us all
A name, a nothing but an old wife's tale.

Speak; wilt thou Avarice, or Pleasure, chuse To be thy lord? Take one, and one refuse. But both, by turns, the rule of thee will have; And thou, betwixt 'em both, wilt be a flave.

Nor think when once thou haft refifted one, That all thy marks of fervitude are gone : The struggling greyhound gnaws his leash in vain; If, when 'tis broken, ftill he drags the chain. Says Phædra to his man, Believe me, friend, To this uneafy love I'll put an end: Shall I run out of all? My friends difgrace, And be the first lewd unthrift of my race? Shall I the neighbours nightly reft invade At her deaf doors, with fome vile serenade? Well haft thou freed thyfelf, his man replies, Go, thank the Gods, and offer facrifice. Ah, fays the youth, if we unkindly part, Will not the poor fond creature break her heart? Weak foul! and blindly to deftruction led! She break her heart! fhe'll fooper break your head. She knows her man, and when you rant and swear, Can draw you to her, with a fingle hair,

But shall I not return? Now, when the fues!

Shall I my own, and her defires refufe?

Sir, take your course but my advice is plain:

Once freed, 'tis madness to refume your chain.

Ay; there's the man, who loos'd from luft and pelf,

Lefs to the prætor owes, than to himself.

;

But write him down a flave, who, humbly proud,
With prefents begs preferments from the crowd
That early fuppliant who falutes the tribes,
And fets the mob to scramble for his bribes:
That fome old dotard, fitting in the fun,
On holidays may tell, that fuch a feat was done:
In future times this will be counted rare.

Thy fuperftition too may claim a fhare:

When flow'rs are ftrew'd, and lamps in order plac'd,

And windows with illuminations grac'd,

On Herod's day; when sparkling bowls go round,
And tunny's tails in favoury fauce are drown'd,
Thou mutter'st pray'rs obscene; nor dost refuse
The fafts and fabbaths of the curtail'd Jews.
Then a crack'd egg-fhell thy fick fancy frights,
Befides the childish fear of walking sprights.
Of o'ergrown gelding priests thou art afraid;
The timbrel, and the fquintifego maid
Of Ifis, awe thee: left the Gods for fin,
Should, with a swelling dropfy, stuff thy skin:
Unless three garlick heads the curfe avert,
Eaten each morn, devoutly, next thy heart.

Preach this among the brawny guards, fay'st

thou,

And fee if they thy doctrine will allow :
The dull fat captain, with a hound's deep throat,
Would bellow out a laugh, in a base note;
And prize a hundred Zeno's just as much
As a clipt fixpence, or a fchilling Dutch.

THE

SIXTH SATIRE

O F

PERSIUS.

This fixth fatire treats an admirable common-place of moral philofophy; of the true use of riches. They are certainly intended by the Power who beflows them, as inftruments and helps of living commodiously ourselves; and of adminiftring to the wants of others, who are oppreffed by fortune. There are two extremes in the opinions of men concerning them. One error, tho on the right band, yet a great one, is, that they are no helps to a virtuous life; the other places all our happinefs in the acquifition and possession of them; and this is, undoubtedly, the worse extream. The mean betwixt thefe, is the opinion of the Stoicks; which is, that riches may be useful to the leading a virtuous life; in case we rightly understand how to give according to right reafon; and how to receive what is given us by others. giving well, is called liberality:

The virtue of and it is of this