The morning paft, the evening came,
And found this couple ftill the fame.
They walk'd and eat, good folks: what then?
Why then they walk'd and eat again:
They foundly flept the night away:
They just did nothing all the day:
And having bury'd children four,
Would not take pains to try for more :
Nor fifter either had, nor brother;
They feem'd juft tally'd for each other.
Their moral and œconomy
Moft perfectly they made agree:
Each virtue kept its proper bound,
Nor trefpafs'd on the others ground.
Nor fame, nor cenfure they regarded:
They neither punish'd, nor rewarded.
He car'd not what the footmen did :
Her maids she neither prais'd, nor chid:
So every servant took his course :
And bad at first, they all grew worse.
Slothful diforder fill'd his stable;
And fluttish plenty deck'd her table.
Their beer was ftrong; their wine was Port:
Their meal was large; their grace was short.
They gave the poor the remnant meat,
Juft when it grew not fit to eat.
They paid the church and parish rate ;
And took, but read not the receipt:
For which they claim their Sunday's due,
Of flumbering in an upper pew.
No man's defects fought they to know;
So never made themselves a foe.
No man's good deeds did they commend;
So never rais'd themfelves a friend.
Nor cherish'd they relations poor :
That might decrease their present store :
Nor barn nor house did they repair :
That might oblige their future heir.
They neither added, nor confounded:
They neither wanted, nor abounded.
Each Christmas they accompts did clear,
And wound their bottom round the year.
Nor tear, nor fmile did they employ
At news of public grief, or joy.
When bells were rung, and bonfires made;
If afk'd, they never deny'd their aid:
Their jug was to the ringers carry'd ;
Whoever either dy'd, or marry'd.
Their billet at the fire was found;
Whoever was depos'd, or crown'd.
Nor good, nor bad, nor fools, nor wise ;
They would not learn, nor could advise:
Without love, hatred, joy, or fear,
They led-a kind of—as it were :
Nor wish'd, nor car'd, nor laugh'd, nor cry'd :
And fo they liv'd, and fo they dy'd.
Septimius, Claudi, nimirum intelligit unus,
Quanti me facias: &c.
TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE MR. HARLEY.
DEAR Dick, + however it comes into his head,
Believes as firmly as he does his creed,
That you and I, Sir, are extremely great;
Though I plain MAT, you MINISTER OF STATE:
One word from me, without all doubt, he says,
Would fix his fortune in fome little place.
Thus better than myfelf, it feems, he knows,
How far my intereft with my patron goes ?
* Robert Harley, Efq; afterwards Earl of Oxford and Mortimer.
This was Richard Shelton, Efq; one of the interlocutors in the poem of Alma. Mr. Prior in his will ftiles him his dear friend and companion.
And answering all objections I can make,
Still plunges deeper in his dear mistake.
From this wild fancy, Sir, there may proceed
One wilder yet, which I foresee, and dread;
That I, in fact, a real interest have,
Which to my own advantage I would save,
And, with the ufual courtier's trick, intend
To serve myself, forgetful of my friend.
To fhun this cenfure, I all shame lay by ;
And make my reason with his will comply;
Hoping for my excufe, 'twill be confeft,
That of two evils I have chose the least.
So, Sir, with this epiftolary scroll,
Receive the partner of my inmost foul:
Him you will find in letters, and in laws
Not unexpert, firm to his country's cause,
Warm in the glorious intereft you pursue,
And, in one word, a good man and a true.
IN one great Now, fuperior to an age,
The full extremes of Nature's force we find : How heavenly virtue can exalt; or rage
Infernal, how degrade the human mind.
Antoine De Guifcard had been Abbot De Burly, near the Cevennes in France, but being of a vicious and profligate difpofition, he committed offences which obliged him to fly from his country. He afterwards entered into the army, and was made colonel of a regiment of horse, and lieutenant general, with penfions both from England and Holland. He afterwards, to make his peace with France, became a spy on the English court; was discovered, and taken before the council to be examined, when in a fit of madness and defpair he stabbed Mr. Harley with a penknife which he had fecreted. He was immediately fecured, but died in Newgate a few days after, of fome wounds he received in the fcuffle. A very particular account of this tranfaction by Dean Swift and Mrs. Manley is printed in the Supplement to the former's works.
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