OECONOMY,
A RHAPSODY, addreffed to young POETS,
Infanis; omnes gelidis quæcunque lacernis
"Sunt tibi, Nafones Virgiliofque vides." MART
PART the FIRST.
O you, ye bards! whofe lavish breast requires
This monitory lay, the strains belong;
Nor think fome mifer vents his fapient faw,
Or fome dull cit, unfeeling of the charms
That tempt profufion, fings; while friendly zeal,
To guard from fatal ills the tribe he loves,
Infpires the meanest of the Muses' train!
Like you I loath the groveling progeny,
Whose wily arts, by creeping time matur'd,
Advance them high on power's tyrannic throne;
To lord it there in gorgeous uselessness,
And spurn fuccefsless worth that pines below!
See the rich churl, amid the focial fons
Of wine and wit, regaling! hark he joins
In the free jeft delighted! feems to shew
A meliorated heart! he laughs! he fings!
Songs of gay import, madrigals of glee,
And drunken anthems fet agape the board.
Like Demea, in the play, benign and mild.
And pouring forth benevolence of foul,
Till Micio wonders: or, in Shakespear's line,
Obftreperous Silence; drowning Shallow's voice,
And ftartling Falstaff, and his mad compeers.
He owns 'tis prudence, ever and anon,
To smooth his careful brow! to let his purfe
Ope to a fixpence's diameter!
He likes our ways; he owns the ways of wit
Are ways of pleafaunce, and deserve regard.
True we are dainty good fociety,
But what art thou? alas! confider well,
Thou bane of focial pleasure, know thyself.
Thy fell approach, like fome invasive damp
Breath'd through the pores of earth from Stygian caves,
Deftroy the lamp of mirth; the lamp which we
Its flamens boast to guard: we know not how,
But at thy fight the fading flame affumes
A ghaftly blue, and in a stench expires.
True, thou seem'ft chang'd; all fainted, all ensky'd
The trembling tears that charge thy melting eyes
Say thou art honeft, and of gentle kind,
But all is falfe! an intermitting figh
Condemns each hour, each moment giv'n to fmiles,
And deems thofe only loft, thou dost not lose.
Ev'n for a demi groat, this open'd soul,
This boon companion, this elaftic breaft
Revibrates quick; and fends the tuneful tongue
To lavish mufic on the rugged walls
Of fome dark dungeon. Hence thou caitiff, fly!
Touch not my glass, nor drain my facred bowl,
Monster, ingrate! beneath one common sky
Why shouldst thou breathe? beneath one common roof
Thou ne'er fhalt harbour; nor my little boat
Receive a foul with crimes to prefs it down.
Go to thy bags, thou recreant! hourly go,
And, gazing there, bid them be wit, be mirth,
Be converfation. Not a face that fimiles
Admit thy prefence! not a foul that glows
With focial purport, bid or ev'n or morn
Invest the happy! but when life declines,
May thy fure heirs ftand tittering round thy bed,
And, ufhering in their favourites, burst thy locks,
And fill their lamps with gold; till want and care
With joy depart, and cry, "We ask no more.'
Ah never never may th' harmonious mind
Endure the worldly! poets, ever void
Of guile, distruftlefs, fcorn the treasur'd gold,
And fpurn the mifer, fpurn his deity.
Balanc'd with friendship, in the poet's eye
The rival fcale of intereft kicks the beam,
Than lightning fwifter. From his cavern'd ftore
The fordid foul, with felf-applaufe, remarks.
The kind propensity; remarks and smiles,
And hies with impious haste to spread the snare.
Him we deride, and in our comic scenes
Contemn the niggard form Moliere has drawn.
We loath with juftice; but alas the pain
To bow the knee before this calf of gold;
Implore his envious aid, and meet his frown!
But 'tis not Gomez, 'tis not he whofe heart
Is crufted o'er with drofs, whofe callous mind
Is fenfelefs as his gold, the flighted Mufe
Intenfely loaths. 'Tis fure no equal task
To pardon him, who lavishes his wealth
On racer, fox-hound, hawk, or spaniel, all
But human merit; who with gold effays
All, but the nobleft pleasure, to remove
The want of genius, and its fimiles enjoy.
But y u, ye titled youths! whofe nobler zeal
Would burnish o'er your coronets with fame;
Who liften pleas'd when poet tunes his lay;
Permit him not, in diftant folitudes,
To pine, to languish out the fleeting hours
Of active youth! then virtue pants for praise
That feafon unadorn'd, the careless bard
Quits your worn threshold, and like honeft Gay
Contemns the niggard boon ye time fo ill.
Your favors then, like trophies given the tomb,
Th' enfranchis'd spirit foaring not perceives,
› Or fcorns perceiv'd; and execrates the smile
Which bade his vigorous bloom, to treacherous hopes
And fervile cares a prey, expire in vain! -
Two lawless powers, engag'd by mutual hate
In endless war, beneath their flags enroll
The vaffal world. This avarice is nam'd,
That luxury; 'tis true their partial friends
Affign them fofter names; ufurpers both;
That share by dint of arms the legal throne
Of just oeconomy; yet both betray'd
By fraudful minifters. The niggard chief,
Liftening to want, all faithlefs, and prepar'd
To join each moment in his rival's train,
His conduct models by the needlefs fears
The flave inspires; while luxury, a chief
Of ampleft faith, to plenty's rule resigns
His whole campaign. 'Tis plenty's flattering founds
Engrofs his ear; 'tis plenty's fmiling form
Moves ftill before his eyes. Discretion strives,
But strives in vain, to banish from the throne
The perjur'd minion. He, fecure of trust,
With latent malice to the hoftile camp
Day, night, and hour, his monarch's wealth conveys.
Ye towering minds! ye fublimated fouls!
Who, careless of your fortunes, feal and fign,
Set, let, contract, acquit, with easier mien
Than fops take fnuff! whofe oeconomic care
Your green-filk purfe engroffes! eafy, pleas'd,'
To fee gold fparkle through the fubtle folds;
Lovely, as when th' Hefperian fruitage fimil'd
Amid the verdurous grove! who fondly hope
Spontaneous harvests! harvests all the year !
Who fcatter wealth, as though the radiant crop
Glitter'd on every bough; and every bough
Like that the Trojan gather'd, once avuls'd
Were by a fplendid fucceffor fupply'd
Inftant, fpontaneous! liften to my lays.
For 'tis not fools, whate'er proverbial phrafe
Have long decreed, that quit with greatest ease
~The treasur'd gold.
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