IMITATION OP HORACE. $£I 



and earth and water and Iky invite to pureft pleafure. 

 Thou fitteft perhaps fighing behind thy curtain in pro- 

 found meditation on our future deftiny ; or, like a fool, 

 art hunting after the fame of a philofopher or a poet. — 

 Remember, only that is our's which we enjoy ; the reft 

 is irrevocably matched away by the fwift-footed mef- 

 fenger of time. 



My friend ! God wifely covers with a tenfold night 

 the deep recefles of futurity ; and laughs when we 

 tremble more than we need. What is prefent ftrive to 

 take with thee ; the reft is like our ftream, here it gives 

 moifture to the blades of grafs, here the cattle feed, and 

 it fills infpired men with fong, now it overwhelms the 

 time-worn rocks, roots up trees, and bears flocks and 

 houfes and fields along its fwelling torrent. 



BleiTed is the man that is mafter of himfelf ; and joy- 

 fully he lives, who every night can fay : This day I have 

 lived ; to-morrow, fhine again, thou fun ! or let the 

 tempeft hide thy glories from the earth — the iron pen 

 of time has written up to-day for me, indelible even to 

 eternity. 



Fortune, the capricious goddefs of fools, is now 

 favourable to me, and now to others — I can praife 

 her while fhe ftays. But, if the buzzard flies away on 

 rapid wings - — then welcome holy poverty ! welcome 

 thou prolific parent of arts 'and virtues — wrapped, o 

 Innocence, in thy velvet mantle, I calmly wait the 

 unfolding iky, and the c raining earth. Shall I, becaufe 

 Caius robs me of my eftate by law, or my relations 

 craftily lurk behind me, and even juftice opens her 

 wide jaws, fhall I break out into curfes, like a woman, 

 caR down vengeance from heaven, or feek to bribe it 



n n 4 by* 



