Lucilius, then, by her alone impell'd, To guilty, Rome the blazing mirror held; Took his firm stand by humble Virtue's side, And stretch'd his arm 'twixt Poverty and Pride. And, hapless he, whose name or fault agreed, Nor broke the verse, that endless shame decreed. 10 15 PARAPHRASE. Horace à cette aigreur mèla son enjouement. BOILEAU, L'Art Poétique, Chant 2. A Persius, too, endued with all her fire, Swept, though with hand uncouth, his angry lyre; Compress'd the efforts of his manly pow'rs, And gave the thorns, but cast away the flow'rs. 20 25 I, too, like these, might brand a guilty age, NOTES. vitio... potens Regnat adulter SENICA: Hyppolitus, Act S. When C-m-rs pleads an "injur'd murd'rer's " cause, Defends the guilty, and insults the laws; But no!- Uncalled, 'tis not for me to stand The public Censor of a tainted band; To place the guilty in a nation's view, Or taunt the many with the worthless few. These, and ten thousand such (too few to prove To sweep 35 "the pestilence from out the land;" 40 A louder voice, a more effectual rod*, To smite the foes of Justice, and of God. Mine be an humbler task; along the road That Pope for Dulness and for Dunces trode, NOTES. * Where was thine arm, O Vengeance! where thy rod, That smote the foes of Zion and of God? CAMPBELL. When high the Goddess on her throne he rais'd, 45 The Henleys, Cibbers, Ralphs of modern times. NOTES. * When I speak of the author of the " Pursuits of Literature," I cannot help expressing my admiration of a man, whose labours, though anonymous, were always devoted to the cause of religion and virtue. Among the few prejudices discoverable in his excellent work, is a singular dislike of typographical embellishment. "If," says he," the present rage for printing on fine, creamy, wire-wove, vellum, hot-pressed paper, be not stopped, the injury done to the eye from reading, and the shameful expense of the books, will, in no very long time, annihilate the desire of reading, and the possibility of purchasing." But what would he now say, to see his own poem, containing these very opinions, supported Him, too, whos mightier arm hath swept away The airy flutt'rers of a summer's day, That, floating round the dim poetic scene, Sank 'neath the blow, and never more have been. To thee, whose lay in rising youth contemn'd -- The venal criticst, and the current stemm'd, That, rushing wildly as their native "stream‡,' " 55 60 by the "indignant words of Apuleius," printed on imperial paper, price five guineas in extra boards; for, "To this complexion is it coine at last!" Of the Baviad and Mæviad it is needless to make an observation, as to its excellence. It would not have been rendered less valuable by omitting to annex the virulent epistle to Peter Pindar, or the tedious "procès verbal" of Anthony Pasquin. |