26 THE ENGLISH GARDEN. 



By cold autumnal care, till wintry age 46 



Sinks in the frore feverity of death. 



Ah! who, when fuch life's momentary dream,. 

 Would mix in hireling ienates,. flrenuous there 

 To crufh the venal Hydra, whofe fell crefts 

 Rife with recruited venom from the wound!- 465; 



Who, for fo vain a conflict, would forego 

 Thy fylvan haunts, celeftial Solitude ! 

 Where felf-improvement, crown'd with felf- con tent, 

 Await to blefs thy votary. Nurtur'd thus 

 In tranquil groves, lift'ning to nature's voice, 470 



That preach'd from whifpering trees, and babbling brooks,., 

 A leffon feldom learnt in reafon's fchool, 

 The wife Sidonian liv'd * : and, tho' the pefl 

 Of lawlefs tyranny around him rag'd; 



Tho' Strato, great alone in Periia's gold,, 475 



Uncall'd, 



* Abdalominus. The fa&, on which this epifode is founded, is recorded by 

 Diodorus Siculus, Plutarch, Juftin, and (^ Curtius j the laft is here chiefly 

 followed. M. de Fontenellc and the Abbe Metaftafio have both of them treated 

 the fubje& dramatically. 



