and that this divorce was not frigiditatis caufa, but an act of choice, and not of neceffity. Therefore, Sir, I fhall only call it an Humble Petition that your Majefty will please to pardon this new amour to my old miftrefs, and my difobedience to his commands to whofe memory I look up with great reverence and devotion: and making a serious reflection upon that wife advice, it carries much greater weight with it now than when it was gi ven; for when age and experience has fo ripened man's discretion as to make it fit for ufe, either in private or public affairs, nothing blasts and corrupts the fruit of it fo much as the empty airy reputation

SURE there are poets which did never dream Upon Parnaffus, nor did taste the stream. Of Helicon; we therefore may suppose Thofe made not poets, but the poçts thofe, And as courts make not kings, but kings the court, So where the Mufes and their train refoft, Parnaffus ftands; if I can be to thee 'A poet, thou Parnaffus art to me. Nor wonder if (advantag'd in my flight, By taking wing from thy aufpicious height) Through untrac'd ways and airy paths I fly,, More boundlefs in my fancy than my eye; My eye, which fwift as thought contracts the fpace That lies between, and first falutes the place Crown'd with that facred pile, To vaft, fo high, 'That whether 'tis a part of earth or sky Uncertain feems, and may be thought a proud Afpiring mountain, or defcending cloud; Paul's, the late theme of fuch a Mufe, whofe flight

Has bravely reach'd and foar'd above thy height; Now shalt thou ftand, though fword, or time or fire,

Or zeal, more fierce than they, thy fall confpire,
Secure, whilst thee the beft of poets fings,
Preferv'd from ruin by the best of kings..
Under his proud furvey the City lies,
And like a mift beneath a hill doth rife,
Whofe ftate and wealth, the bus nefs and the crowd,
Seems at this distance but a darker cloud,.
And is, to him who rightly things esteems,,
No other in effect-than what it seems-
Where, with like hafte, though feveral ways, they

run,

Some to undo, and fome to be undone;
While luxury and wealth, like war and peace,
Are each the other's ruin and increase;
As rivers loft in feas, fome fecret vein
Thence reconveys, there to be loft again,

Mr Waller,

Oh happiness of sweet retir'd content!
To be at once fecure and innocent.
Windfor the next (where Mars with Venus dwells
Beauty with ftrength) above the valley fwells
Into my eye, and doth itself prefent
With fuch an eafy and unforc'd afcent,
That no ftupend'ous precipice denies
Accefs, no horror turns away our eyes;
But fuch a rife as doth at once invite
A pleasure and a rev'rence from the fight:
Thy mighty master's emblem, in whofe face
Sat meekness, heighten'd with majestic grace;
Such feems thy gentle height, made only proud
To be the bafis of that pompous load,
Than which a nobler weight no mountain bears,
But Atlas only, which fupports the spheres.
When Nature's hand this ground did thus advance,
'Twas guided by a wifer pow'r than Chance;
Mark'd out for fuch an ufe, as if t'were meant
T'invite the builder, and his choice prevent.
Nor can we call it choice, when what we choose
Folly or blindness only could refufe.

A crown of fuch majestic towers doth grace
The god' great mother, when her heav'nly race
Do homage to her; yet the cannot boast,
Among that num'rous and celeftial hoft,
More heroes than can Windfor; nor doth Fame's
Immortal book record more noble names.
Not to look back fo far, to whom this isle
Owes the first glory of fo brave a pile,
Whether to Cæfar, Albanact, or Brute,
The British Arthur, or the Danish C'nute;
(Though this of old no lefs conteft did move
Than when for Homer's birth even cities ftrove)
(Like him in birth, thon fhouldft be like in fame,
As thine his fate, if mine had been his flame)
But whofoe'er it was, Nature defign'd
First a brave place, and then as brave a mind.
Not to recount thofe fev'ral kings to whom
It gave a cradle, or to whom a tomb

Sach was the difcord which did firft difperfe
Form, order, beauty, through the univerfe;
While drynefs moisture, coldness heat refifts,
All that we have, and that we are, fubfifts;
While the fteep horrid roughness of the wood
Strives with the gentle.calmness of the flood,
Such huge extremes when Nature doth unite,
Wonder from thence refults, from thence delight.
The ftream is fo tranfparent, pure, and clear,
That had the self-enamour'd youth † gaz'd here,
So fatally deceiv'd he had not been,
While he the bottom, not his face, had seen.
But his proud head the airy mountain hides
Among the clouds; his fhoulders and his fides
A fhady mantle clothes; his curled brows
Frown on the gentle ftream, which calmly flows,
While winds and ftorms his lofty forehead beat ;
The common fate of all that's high or great.
Low at his foot a fpacious plain is plac'd,
Between the mountain and the ftream embrac'd,
Which shade and shelter from the Hill derives,
While the kind river wealth and beauty gives,
And in the mixture of all these appears
Variety, which all the reft endears.

This fcene had fome bold Greek or British bard
Beheld of old, what stories had we heard
Of Fairies, Satyrs, and the Nymphs their dames,
Their feafts, their revels, and their am'rous flames?
Tis ftill the fame, although their airy shape
All but a quick poetic fight efcape.
There Faunus and Sylvanus keep their courts,
And thither all the horned host resorts
To graze the ranker mead; that noble herd
On whofe fublime and fhady fronts is rear'd
Nature's
's great masterpiece, to fhew how foo
Great things are made, but fooner are undone.
/Here have I feen the King, when great affairs
Gave leave to flacken and unbend his cares,
Attended to the chase by all the flow'r
Of youth, whose hopes a nobler prey devour;
Pleasure with praise and danger they would buy,
And with a foe that would not only By.
The ftag now confcious of his fatal growth,
At once indulgent to his fear and floth,
To fome dark covert his retreat had made,
Where nor man's eye, nor heaven's fhould invade
His foft repofe; when th' unexpected found
Of dogs and men his wakeful ear does wound.
Rouz'd with the noife, he fcarce believes his ear,
Willing to think th' illufions of his fear
Had given this falfe alarm, but ftraight his view
Confirms that more than all he fears is truc.
Betray'd in all his ftrengths, the wood befet,
All inftruments, all arts of ruin met,
He calls to mind his ftrength, and then his speed,
His winged heels, and then his armed head;
With these t' avoid, with that his fate to meet;
But fear prevails, and bids him trust his feet.
So faft he flies, that his reviewing eye
Has loft the chafers, and his ear the cry;
Exulting, till he finds their nobler fenfe
Their disproportion'd speed doth recompenfe;

Narcifus. I

Then curfes his confpiring feet, whofe fcent
Betrays that fafety which their swiftnels lent:
Then tries his friends; among the bafer herd,
Where he fo lately was obey'd and fear'd,
His fafety feeks: the herd, unkindly wife,
Or chases him from thence or from him flies.
Like a declining statesman, left forlorn
To his friends' pity, and purfuers' scorn,
With fhame remembers, while himself was one
Of the fame herd, himself the fame had done.
Thence to the coverts and the confcious groves,
The scenes of his past triumphs and his loves,
Sadly furveying where he rang'd alone,
Prince of the foil, and all the herd his own,
And like a bold knight-errant did proclaim
Combat to all, and bore away the dame,
And taught the woods to echo to the stream
His dreadful challenge, and his clashing beam;
Yet faintly now declines the fatal ftrife,
So much his love was dearer than his life.
Now ev'ry leaf, and ev'ry moving breath
Prefents a foe, and ev'ry foe a death.
Weary'd, forfaken, and purfu'd, at last
All fafety in defpair of fafety plac'd,
Courage he thence refumes, refolv'd to bear
All their affaults, fince 'tis in vain to fear.
And now, too late, he wishes for the fight
That ftrength he wafted in ignoble flight;
But when he fees the cager chace renew'd,
Himself by dogs, the dogs by men purfu'd,
He ftraight revokes his bold refolve, and more
Repents his courage than his fear before;
Finds that uncertain ways unfafest are,
And doubt a greater mifchief than despair.
Then to the ftream, when neither friends, nor force,
Nor speed, nor art, avail, he fhapes his courfe;
Thinks not their rage fo defp'rate to effay
An element more merciless than they.
But fearless they purfue, nor can the flood
Quench their dire thirst: alas! they thirst for blood.
So t'wards a fhip the oar-finn'd gallies ply,
Which wanting fea to ride, or wind to fly,
Stands but to fall reveng'd on thofe that dare
Tempt the laft fùry of extreme despair.
So fares the ftag; among th' enraged hounds
Repels their force, and wounds returns for wounds:
And as a hero, whom his bafer foes
In troops furround, now these affails, now those,
Though prodigal of life, difdains to die
By common hands; but if he can defcry
Some nobler foe approach, to him he calls,
And begs his fate, and then contented falls.
So when the King a mortal shaft lets fly
From his unerring hand, then glad to die,
Proud of the wound, to it refigns his blood,
And ftains the cryftal with a purple flood.
This a more innocent and happy chafe
Than when of old, but in the self-fame place,
Fair Liberty purfu'd †, and meant a prey
To lawless Power, here turn'd, and stood at bay;
When in that remedy all hope was plac'd
Which was, or should have been at least, the last.
Uij

Runny Mead, where the Magna Charta was firfl fçaled.

Here was that Charter feal'd wherein the crown All marks of arbitrary power lays down; Tyrant and flave, thofe names of hate and fear, The happier ftyle of king and subject bear: 'Happy when both to the fame centre move, When kings give liberty and subjects love. Therefore not long in force this Charter ftood; Wanting that feal, it must be feal'd in blood. The subjects arm'd, the more their princes gave, Th' advantage only took the more to crave; Till kings, by giving, give themselves away, And ev'n that power that should deny betray. "Who gives conflrain'd, but his own fear reviles, "Not thank'd, but fcorn'd; nor are they gifts, but fpoils."

Thus kings, by grafping more than they could hold, First made their subjects by oppreffion bold;

And popular fway, by forcing kings to give
More than was fit for fubjects to receive,
Ran to the fame extremes; and one excefs
Made both, by ftriving to be greater, lefs.
When a calm river, rais'd with fudden rains,
Or fnows diffolv'd, o'erflows th' adjoining plains,
The hufbandmen with high-rais'd banks fecure
Their greedy hopes, and this he can endure;
But if with bays and dams they ftrive to force
His channel to a new or narrow courfe,
No longer then within his banks he dwells,
First to a torrent, then a deluge, swells;
Stronger and fiercer by restraint, he roars,
And knows no bound, but makes his pow'r his
fhores.

Of thee could be forgotten but thy fall,
Crufh'd by imaginary treason's weight,
Which too much merit did accumulate.

As chemifts gold from brafs by fire would draw,
Pretexts are into reafon forg'd by law.
His wifdom fuch, at once it did appear
Three kingdoms' wonder, and three kingdoms' fear,
Whilt fingle he flood forth, and feem'd, although
Each had an army, as an equal foe.
Such was his force of eloquence, to make
The hearers more concern'd than he that spake.
Each feem'd to act that part he came to fee,
And none was more a looker-on than he.
So did he move our paflions, fome were known
To with, for the defence, the crime their own.

Reafon with rage, and eloquence with fate.
Now they could him, if he could them, forgive;
He's not too guilty, but too wife, to live:
Lefs fcem thofe facts which Treafon's nickname borç
Than fuch a fear'd ability for more.
They after death their fears of him exprefs,
His innocence and their own guilt confefs.
Their legislative frenzy they repent,
Enacting it should make no precedent.
This fate he could have 'fcap'd, but would not lofe
Honour for life, but rather nobly chofe
Death from their fears than fafety from his own,
That his last action all the reft might crown.