The fear of death would you so watchful keep,
As not to admit the image of it, sleep.

IV.

Sleep is a god too proud to wait in palaces,
And yet so humble too, as not to scorn
The meanest country cottages:

"His poppy grows among the corn."* The halcyon Sleep will never build his nest In any stormy breast.

"Tis not enough that he does find

;

Clouds and darkness in their mind Darkness but half his work will do: "Tis not enough; he must find quiet too.

V.

The man, who in all wishes he does make,
Does only nature's counsel take,

That wise and happy man will never fear
The evil aspects of the year;

Nor tremble, though two comets should appear:
He does not look in almanacs, to see
Whether he fortunate shall be.

Let Mars and Saturn in the heavens conjoin,+
And what they please against the world design,
So Jupiter within him shine.‡

* Prettily fancied and expressed.—Hurd.

+ Let Mars and Saturn in the heavens conjoin ] i. e. Let Malice and Misfortune do their worst.

So Jupiter within him shine.] i. e. So God send him a moderate and contented mind; as reverencing that great truth παν δώρημα τελειον ανωθεν είναι, καταβαινον απο του

VI.

If of your pleasures and desires no end be found,
God to your cares and fears will set no bound.
What would content you? who can tell?
Ye fear so much to lose what ye have got,
As if ye liked it well:

Ye strive for more, as if ye liked it not.
Go, level hills, and fill up seas;

Spare nought that may your wanton fancy please;
But, trust me, when you have done all this,
Much will be missing still, and much will be amiss.*

VII. OF AVARICE.

THERE are two sorts of avarice: the one is but of a bastard kind, and that is, the rapacious appetite of gain; not for its own sake, but for the pleasure of

Пαтρоs Twν Nтw. Jam. i. 17. But the expression is pagan, though the sentiment be not, and was suggested to the poet by Virgil's

or rather by that line of Persius

"Saturnumque gravem nostró Jove frangimus una." Sat. v. 50.

• Much will be missing still, and much will be amiss.] The jingle of this line is so far from having an ill effect, that the force and pathos of the expression is increased by it. The reason is, the two corresponding words are not affected for the sake of the jingle, but are the easiest and properest that could be found to express the author's ideas: and then the iterated sound only serves to fix them upon us.-Hurd.

refunding it immediately through all the channels of pride and luxury: the other is the true kind, and properly so called; which is a restless and unsatiable desire of riches, not for any farther end or use, but only to hoard, and preserve, and perpetually increase them. The covetous man, of the first kind, is like a greedy ostrich, which devours any metal; but it is with an intent to feed upon it, and in effect, it makes a shift to digest and excern it : the second is like the foolish chough, which loves to steal money only to hide it. The first does much harm to mankind; and a little good too, to some few: the second does good to none, no, not to himself. The first can make no excuse to God, or angels, or rational men, for his actions: the second can give no reason or colour, not to the devil himself, for what he does; he is a slave to Mammon, without wages. The first makes a shift to be beloved; ay, and envied too by some people: the second is the universal object of hatred and contempt. There is no vice has been so pelted with good sentences, and especially by the poets, who have pursued it with stories, and fables, and allegories, and allusions and moved, as we say, every stone to fling at it: among all which, I do not remember a more fine and gentleman-like correction, than that which was given it by one line of Ovid:

"Desunt luxuriæ multa, avaritiæ omnia."

Much is wanting to luxury, all to avarice.

To which saying, I have a mind to add one mem ber, and tender it thus,

Poverty wants some, luxury many, avarice all things.

Somebody says * of a virtuous and wise man, "That having nothing, he has all:" this is just his antipode, who, having all things, yet has nothing. He is a guardian eunuch to his beloved gold: "Audivi eos amatores esse maximos, sed nil potesse;" they are the fondest lovers, but impotent to enjoy.

1 And, oh, what man's condition can be worse

Than his, whom plenty starves, and blessings curse!
The beggars but a common fate deplore;

The rich poor man's emphatically poor.

I wonder how it comes to pass that there has never been any law made against him : against him, do I say? I mean, for him. As there are public provisions made for all other madmen, it is very reasonable that the king should appoint some persons (and I think the courtiers would not be against this proposition) to manage his estate during his life (for his heirs commonly need not that care), and out of it to make it their business to see, that he should not want alimony befitting his condition, which he could never get out of his own cruel fingers. We relieve idle vagrants, and counterfeit beggars; but have no care at all of these really poor men, who are, methinks, to be respectfully treated, in regard of their quality. I might be endless against them, but I am almost choked with the

• Somebody says, &c.] The author, well acquainted with the taste of his readers, would not disgust their delicacy by letting them know, that this somebody was, St. Paul μηδεν εχοντες, και παντα κατεχοντες [2 Cor. vi. 10.] though the sense and expression would have done honour to Plato.-Hurd.

superabundance of the matter: too much plenty impoverishes me, as it does them.* I will conclude this odious subject with part of Horace's first satire, which take in his own familiar style:+

I admire, Mæcenas, how it comes to pass,
That no man ever yet contented was,
Nor is, nor perhaps will be, with that state
In which his own choice plants him, or his fate.
"Happy the merchant!" the old soldier cries.
The merchant, beaten with tempestuous skies,
"Happy the soldier! one half hour to thee
Gives speedy death, or glorious victory."
The lawyer, knock'd up early from his rest
By restless clients, calls the peasant bless'd :
The peasant, when his labours ill succeed,
Envies the mouth, which only talk does feed.
"Tis not (I think you'll say) that I want store
Of instances, if here I add no more;
They are enough to reach at least a mile
Beyond long orator Fabius's style.

But, hold, ye, whom no fortune e'er endears,
Gentlemen, malecontents, and mutineers,

•-as it does them.] This application of his aphorism covers the false wit of the expression, and was intended as an indirect apology for it: though the witticism be not his own, but Ovid's:

"-inopem me copia fecit." Met. iii. 466.-Hurd.

+-in his own familiar style.] Mr. Cowley has succeeded better in copying this familiar style, than most others; but he sometimes mistakes vulgar, or careless, at least, for familiar. Horace's familiarity is that of a perfectly polite and elegant speaker, as well as of an easy well-bred man. Hurd.

F