Shall then each Briton o'er thy ftrains

In mute attention stand? PHOEBUS and LITTLETON forbid

Such fatire on our land.

This grateful tafk has Strephon here,
To you a ftranger, chofe :

A ftranger, whom nor honour'd DEAL,
Nor high PARNASSUS knows,

Who dares, in spite of vulgar rules,
A living genius praise ;

Nor for th' unconscious buft referves
The deftin'd wreath of Bays.

To heav'n thou lift'ft the captive heart,
While ftrains impetuous roll.
Each found an echo to the fense;
Each fentence to the foul.

In thee what manly ftrength of thought,
With female grace, is found!
How fweet harmonious virtue's notes,
Thus fet to mufic, found!

A PARODY of the famous EPIGRAM of

THE

POSIDIPPUS.

Πόνην τις βιότοιο τάμοι τρίβον, &c.

By FRANCIS, Lord VERULAM,

I.

HE world's a bubble, and the life of man
Lefs than a span;

In his conception wretched, from the womb,

So to the tomb,

Curft from the cradle, and brought up to years
With cares and fears;

Who then to frail mortality fhall trust,

But limmes the water, or but writes in duft.

II.

Yet fince with forrow here we live oppreft,

What life is beft!

Courts are but only fuperficial schools

To dandle fools.

The rural parts are turn'd into a den

Of favage men.

And where's a city from all vice fo free,
But may be term'd the worst of all the three?

III.

Domestic cares afflict the husband's bed,

Or pains his head.

Or do things worse.

Those that live fingle take it for a curse,

Some would have children, thofe that have them, none,

Or with them gone.

What is it then to have or have no wife,
But fingle thraldome, or a double ftrife?

IV.

Our own affections still at home to please,

Is a difeafe."

To cross the fea to any foreign foil,

Perils and toil,

Wars with ther noise affright us: when they cease,
We're worse in peace.

What then remains? but that we still should cry,
Not to be born, or being born, to die.

1

The above poem may perhaps have appeared before, but is, it is apprehended, fo fcarce, that we could not refift the pleasure of gratifying our correfpondent, by laying it before the public.

The LIFE of RICHARD NASH, Efq.

N author can never chufe a happier fubject to A of anot Α exercise his genius upon, than the life of a notorious highwayman, a profefs'd gamefter, or a celebrated courtezan. The public are always curious to know the minutest actions of thefe fuperior beings, and are wonderfully improved by the more intimate knowledge of the world, which their philofophical biographers take every opportunity of difplaying. The prefent HISTORIAN feems to have inherited the fpirit of his hero, and in his account of that Arbiter Ineptiarum, that folemn adjufter of trifles, labours to entertain his readers. with much frippery fentiment, and great parade of reflection. "There are few, fays this author, who do "not prefer a page of Montaigne, or Calley Gibber, to

the

*the memoirs and tranfactions of Europe." A bold affertion, and it is to be hoped, for the credit of our hiftorians, not a true one. That fuch may be this writer's judgment, almoft every page will teftify by the clofe imitation of their foibles. There is an honefty in the vanity of Montaigne, that carries a pardon along with it for all his Egotifms; but if the life of Colley Cibber has its admirers, it is not for the pertnefs of his reflections, and telling us "what HE thought of the "world, and the world of HIM," but for the excellent hiftory of the ftage, which is to be met with only in that work. When we are writing our own lives, I, may with fome propriety ftand forth

"the little Hero of each Tale,"

But in the recital of the actions and adventures of another, the appearance of that great Perfonage (the first in the idea of every author) is as impertinent as infignificant. Neither will the introduction of an Egotism give an additional force or elegance to trifling obfervations. It may indeed fhew the author's confequence to himfelf, but will give him none in the eyes of the judicious reader. Yet fo barren of events is the Life or History (for fo it affects to be called) of this King of Bath, that if the good-natured editor did not step in upon all occafions, the publick must have been contented with a pamphlet inftead of a book. It were indeed no difficult matter to give a fummary account of this great man's life from the materials before us, but as it has been done already in the public papers, that labour is happily unneceffary. Our Hero was, it feems, of too volatile a difpofition to attach himself thoroughly to any profeffion. He was a college ftudent, a gay enfign, a Temple beau, and profefled gamefter, and at length to complete all, Beau Nafh, mafter of the ceremonies at Bath and Tunbridge, and prime minifter of folly throughout all her dominions. His actions in this department, with fome anecdotes of charity and benevolence,

volence, which do honour to his memory, are the fubject of this account.

It would be unfair to make large extracts from this work, and by giving the reader the few ftories contained in it, rob the book of its beft recommendation. The reader therefore will be contented with one, and that not a long one.

"At the conclufion of the treaty of peace at Utrecht, colonel M was one of the thoughtless, agree"able, gay creatures, that drew the attention of the company at Bath, He danced and talked with great vivacity; and when he gamed among the ladies, "he fhewed, that his attention was employed rather

upon their hearts than their fortunes. His own for"tune, however, was a trifle, when compared to the "elegance of his expence; and his imprudence, at last, "was fo great, that it obliged him to fell an annuity, "arifing from his commiffion, to keep up his fplendor "a little longer.

"However thoughtless he might be, he had the happiness of gaining the affections of Mifs L, "whose father defigned her a very large fortune. This

lady was courted by a nobleman of diftinction, but "the refufed his addreffes, refolving upon gratifying "rather her inclinations than her avarice. The in"trigue went on fuccefsfully between her and the colo"nel, and they both would certainly have been mar"ried, and been undone, had not Mr. Nah apprized

her father of their intentions. The old gentleman "recalled his daughter from Bath, and offered Mr. "Nafh a very confiderable prefent, for the care he had "taken, which he refufed.

.

"In the mean time, colonel M- had an intima❝tion how his intrigue came to be discovered; and by ei taxing Mr. Nah, found that his fufpicions were not "without foundation. A challenge was the immediate "confequence, which the king of Bath, confcious of "having only done his duty, thought proper to decline.

"As