but

Plant to speak in) for I propofe not here to fly, only to walk in my garden, partly for health's fake, and partly for recreation.

There remains a third difficulty, which will not, perhaps, fo easily be folved. I had fome time fince been refolved in myfelf to write more verses, and made thereof fuch publick and folemn proteftation as almoft amounts to an oath :

Si quidem hercle poffim nil prius, neque fortius.

Eunuch. Scen. I.

When, behold! I have fet in anew. Concerning which matter, because I remember my felf to have formerly given an account in metre, I am willing (and Martial affirms it to be a poet's right) to close my Epiftle therewith; they were written to a learned and a moft ingenious friend, who laboured under the very fame disease, tho' not with the fame dangerous symptoms. More poetry! you'll cry. Doft thou return, Fond Man! to the difcafe thou haft forefworn? It has reach'd thy marrow, feiz'd thy inmoft fense, And force or reafon cannot draw it thence. Think'st thou that Heav'n thy liberty allows, And laughs at poets' as at lovers' vows? Forbear, my Friends! to wound with sharp difcourfe A wretched man that feels too much remorse.

Fate drags me on againft my will, in vain

I ftruggle, fret, and try to break my

chain.

10

Thrice I took bellebore, and, must confefs,

Hop'd I was fairly quit of the difeafe;

But the Moon's pow'r, to which all Herbs muft yield,
Bids me be mad again, and gains the field:

At her command for pen and ink I call,

And in one morn three bundred rhymes let fall ;
Which, in the transport of my frantick fit,
I throw, like fiones, at the next man 1 meet :
Ev'n thee, my Friend! Apollo-like, I wound,
The arrows fly, the firing and bow refound.
What methods canft thou study to reclaim
Whom nor his own nor publick griefs can tame?
Who in all feafons keep my chirping firain,

A grafbopper that fings in froft and rain.

Like her whom boys, and youths, and elders, knew, 25
1 fee the path my judgment should purfue,

But what can naked I 'gainft armed Nature do?
I'm no Tydides, whom a pow'r divine
Could overcome; 1 muft, 1 muft refign.

Ev'n thou, my Friend! (unless I much mistake)
Whofe thund'ring fermons make the pulpit fake,
Unfold the fecrets of the world to come,
And bid the trembling earth exped its doom,
As if Elias were come down in fire;
Yet thou at night doft to thy glass retire
Like one of us, and (after moderate use
Of th' Indian fume, and European juice}

20

"}

30

35

Sett'ft into rhyme, and doft thy Mufe carefs,
In learn'd conceits and harmless wantonness:
'Tis therefore juft thou shouldft excufe thy friend,
Who's none of thofe that trifle without end:
I can be ferious, too, when bus'nef's calls,
My frenzy ftill bas lucid intervals,

40

43

BOOK I. OF HERBS.

Tranflated by J. O.

LIFE's lowest but far greatest sphere I fing,
Of all things that adorn the gaudy Spring;
Such as in deferts live, whom, unconfin'd,
None but the fimple laws of Nature bind;
And those who, growing tame by human care,
The wellbred citizens of gardens are;

Those that afpire to Sol their fire's bright face,
Or ftoop into their mother-Earth's embrace;
Such as drink ftreams or wells, or thofe, dry fed,
Who have Jove only for their Ganymede;
And all that Solomon's loft work of old,
(Ah! fatal lofs!) fo wifely did unfold.
Tho' I the oak's vivacious age fhould live,
I ne'er to all their names in verfe could give.
Yet I the rife of groves will briefly show
In verfes like their trees, rang'd all a-row;
To which fome one, perhaps, new fhades may join,
Till mine at laft become a grove divine.

Affift me, Phoebus! wit of Heav'n, whofe care
So bounteously both Plants and poets fhare:
Where'er thou com'ft, hurl light and heat around,
And with new life enamel all the ground;

As when the Spring feels thee, with magick light,
Break thro' the bonds of the dead Winter's night;

20

Oft' does the head with a swift whimfy reel,
And the foul's turn'd, as on Ixion's wheel :
Oft' pains i' th' head an anvil seem to beat,
And like a forge the brain-pan burns with heat.
Some parts the palfy oft' of fenfe deprives
And motion, (strange effect!) one fide furvives
The other. This Mezentius' fury quite
Outdoes; in this disease dead limbs unite
With live ones. Some, with lethargy opprefs'd,
Under Death's weight feem fatally to reft.

75

80

Ah! Life! thou art Death's image, but that thee 85 In nought resembles fave thy brevity.

Vain phantoms oft' the mind distracted keep,

And roving thoughts poffefs the place of fleep.

Oft' when the nerves for want of juice grow dry, 89 That heav'nly juice, unknown to th' outward eye) Each feeble limb as 't were grows loofe, and quakes, Y**, the whole fabrick of the body shakes.

fe, and all evils which the brain infeft, (*** numerous faucy griefs that part moleft) 1 Pabus bade by conftant war reftrain,

"My kingdom, Child! fee you maintain,'

95

Aght he gave me arms'well-forg'd from heav'n, me "che to Æneas or Achilles giv'n.

ne wondrous leaf he wifely did create

and the darts of Sickness and of Fate, and me that a fov'reign mystick juic * Tustive heat from heav'n, h

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