Better it were I liv'd at home with wants,
Than here with all these strange inhabitants,
Whose natures do with me so disagree,
I shall scoff at them, though they ruin me.
Yet being loath to turn till I had tried,
What fate my new adventure would betide,
I staid for my experience, and withall
Flattering myself with hope, there would befall
Unto my share something well worth my suit,
Which honesty might serve to execute,
Without respecting how to please the rude,
And apish, humours of this multitude.
But all in vain I that preferment sought;
Ill Fortune still my hopes confusion wrought:
Which though for ominous some understood,
Yet I presum'd upon some future good;

And though I scarce am wish'd so well of some,
Believe there is a happy time to come;

Which, when I have most need of comfort, shall

Send me true joy to make amends for all :

But

say it be not, whilst I draw this air,

I have a heart, I hope, shall ne'er despair;
Because there is a God, with whom I trust
My soul shall triumph, when my body's dust.
Yet when I found that my endeavours still
Fell out, as they would have 't that wish'd me ill;
And when I saw the world was grown so coy,

To curb me as too young then to employ;

280

300

And that her greatness thought she did not want me,
Or found no calling bad enough to grant me,
(And having scap'd some envies, which to touch
Unto this purpose appertains not much,)
Weighing both bad and therewith also this,
How great a shame and what reproach it is

v 3

To

To be still idle; and because I spied

How glad they would be, that my fate envied,
To find me so; although the world doth scorn
T' allow me action, as if I were born

Before my time; yet e'en to let her see
In spite of Fortune I'd employed be;
Casting preferment's too much care aside,
And leaving that to God that can provide;
The actions of the present time I eyed,
And all her secret villanies descried :
I strip'd Abuse from ali her colours quite,
And laid her ugly face to open sight.
I labour'd to observe her ways, and then
In general the state and tricks of men.
Wherein although my labour were not seen,
Yet, trust me, the discovery hath been
My great content: and I have for my pain,
Although no outward, yet an inward gain.
In which because I can with all my heart
Allow my countrymen to share a part,
And cause I think it may do some a pleasure,
On opportunity I'll now take seisure,

And summon up my Muse to make relation!

320

I may b' employ'd ere long; -now's my vacation. 330

The Contents of the First Book of these Satires are 1. The Occasion. 2. The Introduction. 3. Of Man. 4. Of Fond Love. 5. Of Lust. 6. Of Hate. 7. Of Envy. 8. Of Revenge. 9. Of Choler. 10. Of Jealousy. 11. Of Covetousness. 12. Of Ambition. 13. Of Fear. Despair. 15. Of Hope. 16. Of Compassion. Cruelty. 8. Of Joy. 19. Of Sorrow. 20. The clusion of the First Book.

14. Of

17. Of

Con

The Second Bock contains 1. Of Vanity. 2. Of Inconstancy. 3. Of Weakness. 4. Of Presumption.

And

And to these is added the Scourge, a Satire. To which are annexed "Certaine Epigrams to the King's most excellent Majestie, the Queene, the Prince, the Princesse, and other noble and honourable personages, and friends, to whom the author gave any of his bookes."

I transcribe one or two.

To Henry, Earl of Southampton.*

EPIGRAM 7.

Southampton, since thy province brought me forth,
And on those pleasant mountains I yet keep,
I ought to be no stranger to thy worth,
Nor let thy virtues in oblivion sleep.
Nor will I, if my fortunes give me time;

Meanwhile read this, and see what others be!
If thou can'st like 't and wilt but grace my rhyme,
I will so blaze thy Hampshire springs and thee,
Thy Arle, Test, Stour, and Avon shall share fame
Either with Humber, Severn, Trent, or Thame.

To his loving friend, and Cousin-German, Mr. William Wither.

EPIGRAM 15.

If that the Standards of the House betray

What Fortunes to the owners may

Or if their destinies, as some men say,

betide:

Be in the names of any signified,
'Tis so in thine; for that fair antique shield.
Borne by thy predecessors long ago,
Depainted with a clear pure Argent field,
The innocency of thy line did shew.

The patron of Shakspeare.

Three

Three sable crescents, with a chevron gul'd,
Tells that black fates obscur'd our house's light;
Because the planet that our fortunes rul'd,
Lost her own lustre, and was darken'd quite :
And, as indeed our adversaries say,

The very name of Wither shews decay..
But yet despair not; keep thy White unstain'd,

And then it skills not, what thy crescents be! What, though the Moon be now increas'd, now wan'd; Learn thence to know thy life s inconstancy;

Be careful, as thou hitherto hast been,

To shun th' Abuses man is tax'd for here;

And then thy soul, that's now eclips'd with sin,

When Moon and Sun are darken'd, shall look clear;
And whatsoc'er thy English name may threat,

The "Harvest's son" the Greeks entitle thee.
Ere thou shalt want, thy Hare will bring thee meat,
And to kill care, herself thy make-sport be:

Yea, yet, though Envy's mists do make them dull,
I hope to see the waned orbs at full.

N. B. For the better understanding of this Epigram, note, that his arms are, in a field Argent, a chevron gules, betwixt three crescents sable: his name, according to the Greeks, is Tubeços, and his crest is a Hare with three wheat ears in her mouth.

ART. XIX. Literary Obituary.

DR. CURRIE, CONTINUED FROM P. 80.

"James Currie, M. D. had lately become an inhabitant of Bath, and would have graced any place or society to which he belonged. He bore great pain and uneasiness, for several years, with calmness and resignation, and finished his course, with affording an ex

ample

ample of that patience and fortitude, which so eminently distinguished his character through life. His medical abilities were confessedly very great. Persevering, ingenious, and penetrating, few circumstances escaped his observation; and his talent of applying to practice the facts which he had observed, was seldom equalled. He was also a remarkable instance of the improvement which the cultivation of the moral duties produces upon the understanding. His judgment was not clouded by jealousy, or his view of the subject of case in question obscured by partiality, or darkened by prejudice. Equally ready to adopt the suggestions of others, as he was those of his own judgment, he never deviated from the point aimed at, because the whole of the path was not traced out by himself. Superior to such considerations, which never prevail in exalted minds, he rested his character on higher grounds; and the discerning part of mankind soon became sensible, that such acquiescence, when it met his own unprejudiced ideas, was an honour to his ' character. Candour and benevolence were the guides of his conduct, and led him to esteem and reputation in the present world, softened his passage to the tomb, and in his last moments disarmed the dart of death. Original however, in his ideas, he was better suited to point out the way, than to follow the speculations of others; and what he advised, obtained a kind of involuntary preference, which nothing but a consciousness of merit in the adviser could have secured. His counsels, though destitute of the recommendation of peremptory assertion, or lavish display of pretended success, which sometimes overpower when they do not convince, carried with

them