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TABLE TALK.

Si te fortè meæ gravis uret sarcina chariæ,

Abjicito.

HOR. Lib. 1. Epift. 13.

A.

Του

ou told me, I remember, glory, built
On felfish principles, is fhame and guilt;
The deeds, that men admire as half divine,
Stark naught, because corrupt in their defign.
Strange doctrine this! that without fcruple tears
The laurel, that the very lightning fpares;
Brings down the warrior's trophy to the duft,
And eats into his bloody fword like ruft.

B. I grant that, men continuing what they are,
Fierce, avaricious, proud, there must be war.
And never meant the rule fhould be applied
To him, that fights with justice on his fide.
Let laurels, drench'd in pure Parnaffian dews,
Reward his mem'ry, dear to every mufe,
B

VOL. I.

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Who, with a courage of unfhaken root,
In honour's field advancing his firm foot,
Plants it upon the line that juftice draws,
And will prevail or perish in her cause.
'Tis to the virtues of fuch men, man owes
His portion in the good, that heaven bestows.
And when recording hiftory difplays

Feats of renown, though wrought in ancient days,
Tells of a few ftout hearts, that fought and died
Where duty placed them, at their country's fide;
The man, that is not moved with what he reads,
That takes not fire at their heroic deeds,
Unworthy of the bleffings of the brave,
Is bafe in kind, and born to be a slave.
But let eternal infamy pursue

The wretch to nought but his ambition true,
Who, for the fake of filling with one blaft
The poft-horns of all Europe, lays her waste.
Think yourself ftationed on a towering rock,
To fee a people fcattered like a flock,

Some royal maftiff panting at their heels,
With all the favage thirst a tyger feels;
Then view him felf-proclaimed in a gazette
Chief monfter that has plagued the nations yet.
The globe and fceptre in fuch hands misplaced,
Thofe enfigns of dominion, how difgraced!

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