For to instruct is greater than to rule,

And no command's so' imperious as a school.

As he whose destiny does prove

To dangle in the air above,
Does lose his life for want of air,
That only fell to be his share;
So he whom Fate at once design'd
To plenty and a wretched mind,
Is but condemn'd ť a rich distress,
And starves with niggardly excess.

THE Universal Med'cine is a trick,
That Nature never meant to cure the sick,
Unless by death, the singular receipt,
To root out all diseases by the great:

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760

765

For universals deal in no one part

Of Nature, nor particulars of Art;

And therefore that French quack that set up physic, Call'd his receipt a General Specific.

770

For though in mortal poisons every one

Is mortal universally alone,

Yet Nature never made an antidote

To cure them all as easy as they're got;
Much less, among so many variations
Of diff'rent maladies and complications,
Make all the contrarieties in Nature
Submit themselves t' an equal moderator.

A CONVERT's but a fly, that turns about,
After his head's pull'd off, to find it out.

ALL mankind is but a rabble

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780

As silly and unreasonable

As those that, crowding in the street,
To see a show or monster meet;

Of whom no one is in the right,

Yet all fall out about the sight,

And when they chance t' agree, the choice is
Still in the most and worst of vices;

And all the reasons that prevail,

Are measur'd, not by weight, but tale.

As in all great and crowded fairs
Monsters and puppet-plays are wares,
Which in the less will not go off,
Because they have not money enough;
So men in princes' courts will pass,
That will not in another place.

LOGICIANS Us'd to clap a proposition,
As justices do criminals, in prison,

And in as learn'd authentic nonsense writ
The names of all their moods and figures fit:
For a logician's one that has been broke
To ride and pace his reason by the book,
And by their rules, and precepts, and examples,
To put his wits into a kind of trammels.

THOSE get the least that take the greatest pains,
But most of all i' the drudgery of brains;
A natʼral sign of weakness, as an ant
Is more laborious than an elephant ;

And children are more busy at their play

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790

795

800

806

Than those that wisely'st pass their time away. 810

ALL the inventions that the world contains,

Were not by reason first found out, nor brains;
But pass for theirs who had the luck to light
Upon them by mistake or oversight.

A

TRIPLETS UPON AVARICE.

S misers their own laws enjoin To wear no pockets in the mine, For fear they should the ore purloin;

So he that toils and labours hard

To gain, and what he gets has spar'd,
Is from the use of all debarr'd.

And though he can produce more spankers
Than all the usurers and bankers,

Yet after more and more he hankers;

5

And after all his pains are done,

10

Has nothing he can call his own,
But a mere livelihood alone.

A

DESCRIPTION OF HOLLAND.

COUNTRY that draws fifty foot of water,

In which men live, as in the hold of Nature, And when the sea does in upon them break,

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10

And drown a province, does but spring a leak;
That always ply the pump, and never think
They can be safe, but at the rate they stink;
That live as if they had been run aground,
And, when they die, are cast away, and drown'd;
That dwell in ships, like swarms of rats, and prey
Upon the goods all nations' fleets convey;
And, when their merchants are blown up and crackt,
Whole towns are cast away in storms, and wreckt;
That feed, like Cannibals, on other fishes,
And serve their cousin-germans up in dishes:
A land that rides at anchor, and is moor'd,
In which they do not live, but go aboard.

15

TO HIS MISTRESS.

Do My guiltless breast,

O not unjustly blame

For vent'ring to disclose a flame
It had so long supprest.

In its own ashes it design'd
For ever to have lain ;

But that my sighs, like blasts of wind,
Made it break out again.

296

TO THE SAME.

O not mine affection slight,

D%

'Cause my locks with age are white: Your breasts have snow without, and snow within, While flames of fire in your bright eyes are seen.

EPIGRAM ON A CLUB OF SOTS.

HE jolly members of a toping club,

THE

Like pipe-staves, are but hoop'd into a tub,

And in a close confederacy link,

For nothing else but only to hold drink.

END OF "GENUINE REMAINS."