286 
The boaft of critic fill aay Worms devour, 
And all that ftudy, all chat wit eer gave, 
Await alike th’ inevitable hour: 
The backs of Ruffia cannot always fave. 
Nor you, ye fam’d, impute to thefe the fault, 
if Learning oer thofe fhelves no volumes 
raife, : 
Whete oft the hook-colle€tor loves to halt, _ 
And Lacxineton yet fwells with his 
own praife. 
Can hot-prefs’d page, or metzotinto butt, 
Back to an author call th’ expended fum ? 
Can Honour’s voice engage the Printer’s trutt, 
Or Flatt’ry foathe the dull, cold Debtor's 
room ? 
Perhaps in thofe mufe-flighte! courtsare laid 
Some hearts once pregnant with celeftial 
fire ; 
Bands. that the rod of Thefpis. might have 
fwayd, ; 
Or wak’d the modern Prnpar’s laughing 
lyre. 
Bat Themis to their eyes her ample page, 
_ Rich with the fpoils of clients, did unroll ; 
Chill Penury reprefs’d their claffic rage, 
Or Beauty warm’d the current of the foul. 
Yet many a term a lawyer, too ferene, 
The brieflefs bag to Weftminfter may bear: 
Yet many a lover’s born to figh unfeen, 
Or watte his rhet’rick on th’ obdurate fair, 
Some Nasu, that hadalike with-dauntlefs 
breaft, 
The little tyrant or the great withitood ; 
Some’ mute, inglorious Erskine there may 
reft ; ‘ 
Some ScorT, ne’er thirfting for a patriot’s 
blood. 
“Th applaufe of lift’ning juries to command, 
The caufe of Harpy and of Tooke to 
To fcatter pamphlets o’er their native land, 
And read their praifes from a foreign pen, 
t 
forbade: nor circumfcrib’d alone 
e the perfecutor’s throne, 
And fhut the gates of freedom on the mind 
The gentle charms of Chriftian Truth to hide, 
To wake her bluthes of ingenuous thame, 
Heaping the fhrine of Bigotry and Pride, 
With incenfe kindled at her facred lame— 
Far from the wrangling Bar’s high-surchas’d 
ftrife, 
On a back-feat they mark the wordy fray 3 
Along the Circuit to the vale of life, 
They keep the naifelefs tenor of their way, 
CU LS 
Yet e’en their heads from eve-drops te protea, 
Some frail umbrella ftill ereéted nich 
ai 
Co eh, 
ihe uncouth wig, as Cloudefley Shovell’s 
deck’d, 
=n Vs 
 Mecieves a-Counfellor is paflieg by. 
Origiza! Poetry- : 
fOa. 
Their name, their years, fpelt falfely in the. 
news, 
The place of Fame and BuoNAPARTE 
fupply ; - 
And many a line around the printer ftrews, 
That teach how barriters may wed or die. 
But who, to dull law-precedents a prey, 
The pleafing cares of Science e’er refizn’d ; 
Left the warm novel, or the well-wrougnt. 
Plays i : 
Nor caft one longing, ling’ring look behind 2 
On Summer’s leifure the fagg’d clerk relies, 
Some: rural eafe the Pleader’s health re- 
quires 5 
Even from the bench the Chief for leifure 
fighs,. 
E’en on Welfl mountains live his wonted — 
fires. . 
Henry! for thee, who now to Setence dead, 
Dott on law-folios reft thy claffic pate ; 
If chance, by friendly recolleétion led, 
Some kindred tpirit thall enquire thy fate, 
Happy fome drama-loving wight may fay— 
<¢ Oft have feen him, at the hour of five, 
Brufhing with hafty fteps the dirt away, 
For Drury’s pit and a front-feat to ftrive: 
<¢ There, where a whifper from the ftage can. 
reach, 
Though for the gaudy pantomime too nigh, 
At pompous nothing’s would he yawn and 
itrecche 5” 
But mark the eloquence of Srppon’s eye. 
‘< Flasd by yon band, now fiddling as in fcorn, 
Mufing on Gopwin would his fancy rove: . 
Now drooping, when he thought of men 
forlorn, 
For public weal now flighting private love. 
** One eve I mifs’d him o’er the cuftom’d pit, 
Along the Critic’s feat, near tweedle dee; 
Another came; nor where the Gods did fit, 
Nor up the flips, nor at half-price, was he. 
Next morn, *twixt lawyers two, in black array; 
Slow thro’ the hall of Rufus was he borne: 
Approach and read (if thou canft read) the lay 
Engrofs’d on parchment from an old deed 
torn.”’ 
THE EPITAPH. 
Here refts his head upon a page of Coxe 
A Youth, to Foplings and to Flirts un- 
known: 
Science frown’d 
ipoke, 
And Metaphyfics mark’d him for their own. 
Sound was his judgment, and his foul fincere:; 
Fortune a recompence did largely fend: 
Be 
wat Vii 
not on the words he 
Fran 
ote at Colchefter full many a year: 
He gain’d from Witham, all he wifh’d, a 
Friend, 
Ner, Parrissow, his civic faith difclofe, 
Nor draw his frailties in a wordy brief; 
For you alike in trembling hope repofe, _ 
To be admitted by my Lord the Chief. 
aS ES Be 
