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What drives the Chariot on of Winter's Light,
And ftops the lazy Waggon of the Night.

Then fung the Bard, how the light Vapours rife
From the warm Earth, and cloud the smiling Skies.
He fung, how fome, chill'd in their airy Flight,
Fall scatter'd down in pearly Dew by Night;
How fome, rais'd higher, fit in fecret Steams
On the reflected Points of bounding Beams,
Till, chill'd with Cold, they fhade th'etherial Plain,
Then on the thirsty Earth defcend in Rain.
How fome, whofe Parts a flight Contexture fhow,
Sink, hov'ring thro' the Air in fleecy Snow.
How Part is ftrung in filken Threads, and clings
Entangled in the Grafs in glewy Strings:

How others, ftamp'd to Stones, with rufhing Sound
Fall from their chryftal Quarries to the Ground.
How fome are laid in Trains, that kindled fly

In harmless Fires by Night about the Sky.

How fome on Winds blow with impetuous Force,
And carry Ruin where they bend their Courfe;
While fome confpire to form a gentle Breeze,
To fan the Air, and play among the Trees.
How fome enrag'd, grow turbulent and loud,
Pent in the Bowels of a frowning Cloud,
That cracks as if the Axis of the World

Cowl. Virg.

(Blac.

Was broke, and Heav'n's bright Tow'rs were downwards hurl'd.
He was a fhrewd Philofopher,

And had read ev'ry Text and Glofs over.
Whatever Sceptick could enquire for,
For ev'ry Why he had a Wherefore.
He could reduce all Things to A&ts,
And knew their Nature by Abftracts:
Where Entity and Quiddity,
The Ghofts of defun&t Bodies fly.
Where Truth in Perfon does appear,
Like Words congeal'd in northern Air.
He knew what's what, and that's as high
As metaphyfick Wit can fly.

PHOENIX.

Thus all receive their Birth from other things,
But from himself the Phoenix only springs :
Self-born, begotten by the Parent Flame,
In which he burn'd, another and the fame :
Who not by orn or Herbs his Life sustains,
But the fweet Effence of Ammomum drains;
And watches the rich Gums Arabia bears,
While yet in tender Dew they drop their Tears.

Hud.

He

He (his five Centuries of Life fulfill'd)
His Neft on oaken Boughs begins to build,
Or trembling Tops of Palm: And firft he draws
The Plan with his broad Bill and crooked Claws,
Nature's Artificers; on this the Pile

Is form'd, and rifes round: Then with the Spoil
Of Caffia, Cinnamon, and Stems of Nard,

For Softnefs ftrew'd beneath, his funeral Bed is rear'd:
Funeral and bridal both; and all around

The Borders with corruptlefs Myrrh are crown'd.
On this incumbent, till ethereal Flame
Firft catches, then confumes the coftly Frame;
Confumes him too, as on the Pile he lies;
He liv'd on Odours, and in Odours dies.
An infant Phoenix from the former fprings,

His Father's Heir, and from his tender Wings

Shakes off his Parent Duft: His Method he pursues,

And the fame Leafe of Life on the fame Terms renews.

When grown to Manhood he begins to reign,

And with ftiff Pinions can his Flight fuftain:
He lightens of its Load the Tree that bore
His Father's royal Sepulchre before,
And his own Cradle; this, with pious Care
'lac'd on his Back, he cuts the buxom Air,
Seeks the Sun's City, and his facred Church,

And decently lays down his Burthen in the Porch. Dryd. Ovid.
PHYSICK.

Dryd. Pal. & Arc.

Phyfick can but mend our crafy State;
Patch an old Building, not a new create.
The firft Phyficians by Debauch were made;
Excefs began, and Sloth fuftains the Trade.

By Chace our long-liv'd Fathers earn'd their Food
Toil ftrung the Nerves and purify'd the Blood:
But we, their Sons, a pamper'd Race of Men,
Are dwindled down to threefcore Years and ten:
Better to hunt in Fields for Health unbought,
Than fee the Doctor for a pois'nous Draught.
The Wife for Cure on Exercife depend;
God never made his Work for Man to mend.
He 'fcapes the beft, who Nature to repair,"

;

Dryd.

Draws Phyfick from the Fields in Draughts of vital Air. Dryd.

PITY.

As fofteft Metals are not flow to melt,

So Pity fooneft runs in gentle Minds.
Pity on fresh Objects only ftays,

But with the tedious Sight of Woes decays.

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Dry. Pal. & Arc.

Dryd, Ind. Emp.

The

The Rocks were mov'd to Pity with his Moan,

Trees bent their Heads to hear him fing his Wrongs, (Dr. Virg.
Fierce Tygers couch'd around, and loll'd their fawning Tongues.
The Brave and Wife we pity in Misfortunes ;
But when Ingratitude and Folly fuffer,

'Tis Weaknels to be touch'd.

PLAGUE.

The rifing Vapours choak the wholesom Air, And Blafts of noifom Winds corrupt the Year. The Trees devouring Caterpillars burn,

Row. Fair Pen,

Parch'd with the Grafs, and blighted with the Corn:
Nor 'fcape the Beafts, for Sirius from on high,

With peftilential Heats infefts the Sky.

The raw Damps

With flaggy Wings fly heavily about,

Scatt'ring their peftilential Colds and Rheums
Thro' all the lazy Air: Hence Murrains follow
On bleating Flocks, and on the lowing Herds.
At laft the Malady

Grew more domeftick, and the faithful Dog

Dy'd at his Master's Feet; and next his Master.

Dryd. Virg.

For all thofe Plagues which Earth and Air had brooded,
Firft on inferiour Creatures try their Force,

And laft they fiez'd on Man:

And then a thousand Deaths at once advanc'd,
And ev'ry Dart took Place. All was fo fudden,
That fcarce a firft Man fell: One but began
To wonder, and straight fell a Wonder too;
A third, who stoop'd to raise his dying Friend,
Drop'd in the pious A&t. Heard you that Groan?
A Troop of Ghofts took Flight together there:
Now Death's grown riotous, and will play no more
For fingle Stakes, but Families and Tribes.
With dead and dying Men our Streets lie cover'd;
And Earth expofes Bodies on the Pavements
More than fhe hides in Graves.

Between the Bride and Bridegroom have I feen
The nuptial Torch do common Offices

Of Marriage and of Death. Caft round your Eyes,
Where late the Streets were fo thick-fown with Men,
Like Cadmus Brood they juftled for their Paffage;
Now look for thofe erected Heads, and fee 'em,
Like Pebbles, paving all our publick Ways.

O'er Ethiopia, and the fouthern Sands,
A mortal Influence came,

Kindled by Heav'n's angry Beam.

Dryd. Ordip.

Who

Who all the Stores of Poyfon fent,
Threat'ning at once a gen'ral Doom,
Lavish'd out all their Hate, and meant
In future Ages to be innocent.

Thofe Africk Defarts ftraight were double Defarts grown,

The rav'nous Beasts were left alone.

The rav'nous Beafts then firft began,

To pity their old En❜my Man,

(done.

And blam'd the Plague for what they would themselves have

Nor ftay'd the cruel Evil there;

Plagues presently forfake

The Wilderness which they themselves do make ;
Away the deadly Breaths their Journey take,
Driv'n by a mighty Wind;

The loaded Wind went fwiftly on,

And as it pafs'd, was heard to figh and groan :
Thence it did Perfia over-run;
In every Limb a dreadful Pain they felt;
Tortur'd with fecret Coals they melt.
The Perfians call'd their Sun in vain,
Their God increas'd their Pain:
They look'd up to their God no more,
But curfe the Beams they worshipped before.
Glutted with Ruins of the East,
She took her Wings, and down to Athens paft:
Juft Plague! which doft no Parties take,
But Greece as well as Perfia fack:
Without the Wall the Spartan Army fate,

The Spartan Army came too late,

For now there was no farther Work for Fate.
They faw the City open lay,

An eafy and a bootlefs Prey;

They faw the Rampires empty ftand,
The Fleet, the Walls, the Forts unman'd

No Need of Cruelty or Slaughter now,
The Plague had finifh'd what they came to do.
They now might unrefifted enter there,

Did they not the very Air

More than th' Athenians fear;

The Air it felf to them was Wall and Bulwarks too.
The Air no more was vital now,

But did a mortal Poyfon grow.
The Lungs, which us'd to fan the Heart,
Serv'd only now to fire each Part;
What fhould refresh, increas'd the Smart.
And now their very Breath,

The chiefeft Sign of Life, became the Caufe of Death,

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صلة

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Upon

Upon the Head first the Disease,
As a bold Conqu'ror does fieze;
Blood started thro' each Eye,"
The Redness of that Sky
Foretold a Tempeft nigh.
The Tongue did flow all o'er
With clotted Filth and Gore:

Hoarfenefs and Sores the Throat did fill,

And ftopt the Paffages of Speech and Life:
Too cruel and imperious Ill!
Which not content to kill,

With tyrannous and dreadful Pain,

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Doeft take from Men the very Power to complain.
Then down it went into the Breaft,
There all the Seats and Shops of Life poffefs'd:
Such noifom Smells from thence did come,
As if the Stomach were a Tomb.

No Food would there abide,
Or if it did, turn'd to the Enemy's Side;
The very Meat new Poyfons to the Plague fupply'd.
Next, to the Heart the Fires came,

The tainted Blood its Courfe began,
And carry'd Death where-e'er it ran:

That which before was Nature's nobleft Art,
The Circulation from the Heart,
Was more deftru&tful now,
And Nature fpeedier did undo.
The Belly felt at last its Share,
And all the fubtle Labyrinths there

Of winding Bowels, did new Monsters bear.
Here fev'n Days it rul'd and fway'd,

And oft'ner kill'd, because it Death fo long delay'd:
But if thro' Strength and Heat of Age,
The Body overcame its Rage,

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The vanquifh'd Evil took from them
Who conquer'd it, fome Part, fome Limb;

Some all their Lives before forgot,

Their Minds were but one darker Blot :
Thofe various Pictures in the Head,
And all the num'rous Shapes were fled;

They pafs'd the Lethe Lake altho they did not die:
Whatever leffer Maladies Men had,
Thofe petty Tyrants fled,

And at this mighty Conqu'ror fhrunk their Head.
Fevers, Agues, Palfies, Stone,
Gout, Cholick, and Confumption,
And all the milder Generation

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