1804.] 
The fhaggy portraits of his fathers fiame, 
Their rufty armour, and Herculean frame. 
* Though countlefs quarters fill th’ armo- 
rial fhield, 
To virtue fill nobility muft yield. 
Be by defert a Churchill ora Hyde, 
Be noble atts, not noble birth, your pride. 
Let thefe,stho’ Chancellor, precede your 
mace ; 
Let thefe, not Garter, make the crowd give 
place 
if juaft in word and deed, T afk no more. 
The patent’s clear. My Lord, you walk be- 
fore : 
Forhe, whole virtues earn a nation’s thanks, - 
Beyond a Percy or a Howard ranks. 
His country too old Egypt’s cry will jon : 
«° *Tis found—’tis found—an honeft /patriot’s 
mine : 
Nobles give way. Nor white nor fable rod 
Shall dare precede ‘** the nobleft work of 
God.” 
tCall we high-born the wretch who fhames 
his birth ? 
Shall paft fupply the want of prefent worth ? 
Then may a Watfon’s fon his God belie 
A Mansfield’s cheat, an Abercromby’s Ay: 
tWho but a fool his intant would baptize » 
Goliah, thus to {well his pigmy. fize ; 
With Cupid dream to bleach his negro’s face, 
Or cure the rickets with the name of Grace ? 
The mangy pug, Milfs Prue’s fupreme de- 
light, 
Whofe charm is uglinefs, whofe fpirit fpite, 
Call’d Hero, Prince, or fomething-more au- 
gut, 
Creates but more abhorrence and difguft. 
Beware left thus Mahon or Plaffy|| fhow 
How war-worn titles a burle({que may grow. 
§ But whither tends this Bar (th preceptive 
vein ? 
To you, OQ—., I fuit the Pui, 
Who thro’ St. James’s pace with pompous 
gait, 
As if your own deferts had made you great. 
* Hence, vulgar crew,” indignant you ex- 
claim, 
** Who fearcely know the country whence 
you came ! 
«AD sI.” Long, mighty D—-s, live, 
And tafte the joy tl ele precious letters give. 
Yet thould great D——s havea caule to 
plead, 
Some low plebeian’s talents mutt be fee’d, 
‘To empty coronets who hires his puains, 
And laws they made, to fenators explains. 
* Verfe 19—29. 
¥ 30—51. 
¢ Titles conferred for conquefts, and con- 
tinued to so families of the victors. 
| 5 3 aoa 
§ sands, 
a 
Original Poetry. 
147 
Oft from a cottage fprings fome powerful 
mind, 
Which all the fophift’s cobwebs can unwind ; 
Or fome bold warrior, who, from India’s 
fhore 
To either pole, Lids Britifh thunder roar. +* 
What excellence is your’s? ¢ A Douglas 
blood |” 
Say are you wife? «A D——! 
rood ? 
‘A D-—-—s,’ 
dull, _ 
How differs then your Grace’s noble fkull 
From your great Grandfire’s on his buft of | 
ftone ? 
A oe of marble his—and your’s ae bone. 
Ve aét more fairly with the beftial tribes, 
W as individual worth their rank pré- 
{cribes. 
The {wifteft ever is the nobleft horfe, 
Who wins the plate, and triumplis on the 
courfe ; 
Tho’ mean his pafture and obfcure his hreed, 
His blood himfelf ennohies by his fpeed. 
But fhould the colt of Diamond or High- 
Slyer 
Be diftanced on the turf, and fhame his fire, 
Off, off to Tatterfall’s, conceal his birth, 
And on his ftrength, not {wiftnets, reft his 
worth : 
Brave or 
Well—But if fo great and 
‘He ftill may ferve a brewer’s rumbling dray, 
Or amble, harnels’d, in a tradefman’s /hay. 
Hence that yourfelf, andnot your fires, may 
plead 
Some claim to rank, perform one generous 
deed, 
Which to the lofty titles we may join, 
They gain’d by merit—you, my Lord, by 
line. 
tLet this fuffice for one whom Fame Te- 
ports 
Vacant, and vain of fervitude in courts ; 
Fruitlefs the Mufe’s admonitions there, 
Where fente toread, or feel, them is fo rare. 
+On borrow’d fame ’tis wretched to re- 
pote ; 
The prop enfeebled, down the fabric goes. 
But would you gain a felf-lupported foul, 
Nor, like the yielding hop, require a pole, 
Be firmly virtuous ; true to every trutt 5 
Brave as afoldier; as an umpire jutt. 
Should you be fummon’d by a fhamelefs 
Couit, = 
Where will is law, affaffination {port, 
Tho’ o’er. your neck the guillotine they 
poile, 
Point to the criminal, and dictate lies, 
Yield not your honour in the jaws of death, 
Nor imeanly barter happinels for breath. 
* Verfe 56—70. 
+ Verfe 71—74. 
t Verfe 76—84. 
MEMOIRS 
