’Whence is’t, Maecenas, that
so few approve
The state they’re placed in, and
incline to rove;
Whether against their will by fate imposed,
Or by consent and prudent choice espoused?
Happy the merchant! the old soldier cries,
Broke with fatigues and warlike enterprise.
The merchant, when the dreaded hurricane
Tosses his wealthy cargo on the main,
Applauds the wars and toils of a campaign:
There an engagement soon decides your
doom,
Bravely to die, or come victorious home.
The lawyer vows the farmer’s life
is best,
When at the dawn the clients break his
rest.
The farmer, having put in bail t’
appear,
And forced to town, cries they are happiest
there:
With thousands more of this inconstant
race,
Would tire e’en Fabius to relate
each case.
Not to detain you longer, pray attend,
The issue of all this: Should Jove
descend,
And grant to every man his rash demand,
To run his lengths with a neglectful hand;
First, grant the harass’d warrior
a release,
Bid him to trade, and try the faithless
seas,
To purchase treasure and declining ease:
Next, call the pleader from his learned
strife,
To the calm blessings of a country life:
And with these separate demands dismiss
Each suppliant to enjoy the promised bliss:
Don’t you believe they’d run?
Not one will move,
Though proffer’d to be happy from
above.’
(Horneck).
559. HOR. 1 Sat. i. 20.
’Were it not just that Jove, provoked
to heat,
Should drive these triflers from the hallow’d
seat,
And unrelenting stand when they entreat?’
(Horneck).
560. OVID. Met. i. 747.
‘He tries his tongue, his silence softly breaks.’
(Dryden).
561. VIRG. AEn. i. 724.
’But he
Works in the pliant bosom of the fair,
And moulds her heart anew, and blots her
former care.
The dead is to the living love resign’d,
And all AEneas enters in her mind.’
(Dryden).
562. TER. Eun. Act i. Sc. 2.
‘Be present as if absent.’
563. LUCAN. i. 135.
‘The shadow of a mighty name.’
564. HOR. 1 Sat. iii. 117.
’Let rules be fix’d that may
our rage contain,
And punish faults with a proportion’d
pain,
And do not flay him who deserves alone
A whipping for the fault that he hath
done.’
(Creech).
565. VIRG. Georg. iv. 221.
’For God the whole created mass
inspires.
Through heaven and earth, and ocean’s
depths: he throws
His influence round, and kindles as he
goes.’
(Dryden).
566. OVID, Ars Am. ii. 233.
‘Love is a kind of warfare.’
567. VIRG. AEn. vi. 493.
‘The weak voice deceives their gasping throats.’