Secure within refides the various God,
And draws a Rock upon his dark Abode,
His finny Flocks about their Shepherd play,
And rouling round him fpirt the bitter Sea.
Unweildily they wallow firft in Ooze,
Then in the fhady Covert feek Repofe.
Himfelf their Herdfman, on the middle Mount,
Takes of his muftur'd Flocks a juft Account.
So, feated on a Rock, a Shepherd's Groom,
Surveys his Ev'ning Flocks returning home;
When lowing Calves, and bleating Lambs from far,
Provoke the prowling Woolf to nightly War.

PROVIDENCE.

The holy Pow'r that cloaths the fenfelefs Earth

Dryd. Virg.

With Woods, with Fruits, with Flow'rs and verdant Grafs, Whose bounteous Hand feeds the whole brute Creation, Knows all our Wants, and has enough to give us. Row. Fair Pen, PRUDENCE. See Wifdom.

Prudence, thou vainly in our Youth art fought,
And with Age purchas'd, art too dearly bought:
We're past the ufe of Wit for which we toil:
Late Fruit, and planted in too cold a Soil.
PTGMT.

So when the Pygmys marfhall'd on the Plains,
Wage puny War against th'invading Cranes,
The Poppers to their Bodkin Spears repair,
And fcatter'd Feathers flutter in the Air.
But foon as e'er th'imperial Bird of fove,
Stoops on his founding Pinions from above:
Among the Brakes the Fairy Nation crowds,
And the Strymonian Squadron feeks the Clouds:
When Cranes invade, his little Sword and Shield
The Pigmy takes, and ftrait attends the Field;
And not one Soldier is Foot in Height;

Dryd. Auren

The Fight's foon o'er; the Cranes defcend, and bear
The fprawling Warriours thro' the liquid Air.

PYTHAGOREAN Philofophy. See Tranfmigration of Souls. Know first, that Heav'n, and Earth's compacted Frame,

And flowing Waters, and the starry Flame,

And both the radiant Lights, one common Soul
Infpires; and feeds, and animates the Whole.
This active Mind, infus'd thro' all the Space,
Unites, and mingles with the mighty Mass.
Hence Men and Beafts the Breath of Life obtain
And Birds of Air, and Monsters of the Main:
Th'ethereal Vigour is in all the fame,
And ev'ry Soul is fill'd with equal Flame :

As

As much as earthy Limbs, and grofs Allay
Of mortal Members, fubje&t to Decay,

Blunt not the Beams of Heav'n, and Edge of Day.
From this coarfe Mixture of terreftrial Parts,
Defire and Fear, by Turns, poffefs their Hearts;
And Grief and Joy: Nor can the grov'ling Mind,
In the dark Dungeon of the Limbs confin'd,
Affert the native Skies, or own its heav'nly Kind.
Nor Death' itself can wholly wash their Stains;
But long-contracted Filth, ev'n in the Soul, remains.
The Reliques of invet'rate Vice they wear;
And Spots of Sin obfcene in ev'ry Face appear.
For this are various Pennances enjoin'd;
And fome are hung to bleach upon the Wind;
Some plung'd in Waters, others purg'd in Fires;
Till all the Dregs are drain'd, and all the Ruft expires:
All have their Manes, and those Manes bear
The few, fo cleans'd, to bleft Abodes repair,
And breath in ample Fields the foft Elyfian Air.
Then are they happy, when by Length of Time,
The Scurf is worn away of each committed Crime.
No Speck is left of their habitual Stains

But the pure Æther of the Soul remains.

;

But, when a thoufand rouling Years are paft,
(So long their Punishments and Pennance laft,)
Whole Droves of Minds are, by the driving God,
Compell'd to drink the deep Lethean Flood:
In large forgetful Draughts to fteep the Cares
Of their paft Labours, and their irkfom Years;
That unrememb'ring of its former Pain,
The Soul may fuffer mortal Flesh again.

He firft the Tafte of Flesh from Tables drove,
And argu'd well, if Arguments could move.
O Mortals! from your Fellows Blood abftain,
Nor taint your Bodies with a Food profane:
While Corn and Pulfe by Nature are beftow'd,
And planted Orchards bend their willing Load;
While labour'd Gardens wholefom Herbs produce
And teeming Vines afford their gen'rous Juice:
Nor tardier Fruits of cruder Kind are loft,
But tam'd with Fire, or mellow'd by the Froft:
While Kine to Pails diftended Udders bring,
And Bees their Honey, redolent of Spring:
While Earth not only can your Needs fupply,
But lavish of her Store, provides for Luxury;
A guiltless Feast adminifters with Eafe,
And without Blood is prodigal to please.

}

Dryd. Virg.

Wild Beasts their Maws with their flain Brethren fill;
And yet not all; for fome refuse to kill:
Sheep, Goats, and Oxen, and the nobler Steed
On Browze, and Corn, and flow'ry Meadows feed.
Bears, Tygers, Wolves, the Lions angry Brood,
Whom Heav'n endu'd with Principles of Blood,
He wifely funder'd from the reft, to yell
In Forefts, and in lonely Caves to dwell
Where ftronger Beafts opprefs the weak by Might,
And all in Prey, and purple Feafts delight.
O impious Ufe! to Nature's Laws oppos'd,
Where Bowels are in other Bowels clos'd:
Where fatten'd by their Fellows Fat they thrive,
Maintain'd by Murther, and by Death they live.
'Tis then for Nought that Mother Earth provides
The Stores of all the fhews, and all the hides,
If Men with fleshy Morfels must be fed,

And chaw with bloody Teeth the breathing Bread:
What else is this, but to devour our Guests,
And barb'roufly renew Cyclopean Feafts?
We, by deftroying Life our Life sustain,
And gorge th'ungodly Maw with Meats obfcene.
Not fo the golden Age, who fed on Fruit,
Nor durft with bloody Meals their Mouths pollute.
Then Birds in airy Space might fafely move,
And tim'rous Hares on Heaths fecurely rove:
Nor needed Fish the guileful Hooks to fear,
For all was peaceful; and that Peace fincere.
Whoever was the Wretch, (and curs'd be he}
That envy'd firft our Food's Simplicity;
Th'Effay of bloody Feafts on Brutes began,
And after forg'd the Sword to murther Man.
Had he the fharpen'd Steel alone employ'd,
On Beafts of Prey, that other Beasts destroy'd,
Or Man invaded with their Fangs and Paws,
This had been juftify'd by Nature's Laws,
And Self-Defence; But who did Feafts begin
Of Flesh, he ftretch'd Neceffity to Sin.
To kill Man-Killers, Man has lawful Pow'r;
But not th'extended Licence to devour.

The Sow, with her broad Snout for rooting up
Th'intrufted Seed, was judg'd to fpoil the Crop,
And intercept the fweating Farmer's Hope.
The cov'tous Churl of unforgiving Kind,
Th'Offender to the bloody Prieft refign'd:
Her Hunger was no Plea; for that the dy'd.
The Goat came next in order to be try'd :

}

The

1

The Goat had crop'd the Tendrils of the Vine:
In Vengeance Laity and Clergy join,

Where one had loft his Profit, one his Wine.
Here was at leaft fome Shadow of Offence:
The Sheep was facrific'd on no Pretence,
But meek, and unrefifting Innocence.

A patient, useful Creature, born to bear

The warm and woolly Fleece, that cloath'd her Murderer; And daily to give down the Milk fhe bred, A Tribute for the Grafs on which the fed. Living, both Food and Raiment she supplies, And is of leaft Advantage when the dies. How did the toiling Ox his Death deserve, A downright fimple Drudge, and born to ferve? O Tyrant! with what Juftice canft thou hope The Promife of the Year, a plenteous Crop, When thou deftroy'd thy lab'ring Steer, who till'd And plough'd with Pains, thy elfe ungrateful Field? From his yet reeking Neck to draw the Yoke, That Neck, with which the furly Clods he broke And to the Hatchet yield thy Husbandman, Who finish'd Autumn, and the Spring began! From whence, O mortal Man, this Guft of Blood Have you deriv'd, and interdi&ed Food? Be taught by me this dire Delight to fhun, Warn'd by my Precepts, by my Practice won : And when you eat the well-deferving Beast, Think, on the Lab'rer of your Field you feaft. Befides; whatever lies

In Earth, or flits in Air, or fills the Skies,

All fuffer Change; and we, that are of Soul
And Body mix'd, are Members of the Whole:
Then, when our Sires or Grandfires fhall forfake
The Forms of Men, and brutal Figures take;
Thus hous'd, fecurely let their Spirits rest,
Nor violate thy Father in the Beaft
Thy Friend, thy Brother, any of thy Kin;
If none of thofe, yet there's a Man within:
O fpare to make a Thyeftaan Meal,
T'inclofe his Body, and his Soul expel.
And let not Piety be put to Flight,
To please the Taste of Glutton-Appetite;
But fuffer Inmate Souls fecure to dwell,
Left from your Seats your Parents you expel;
With rabid Hunger feed upon your Kind,
Or from a Beast diflodge a Brother's Mind.

What

What more Advance can Mortals make in Sin,
So near Perfection, who with Blood begin?
Deaf to the Calf, that lies beneath the Knife,
Looks up, and from her Butcher begs her Life:
Deaf to the harmless Kid, that e'er he dies,
All Methods to procure thy Mercy tries,
And imitates, in vain, thy Children's Cries.
Where will he ftop, who feeds with Houfhold Bread,
Then eats the Poultry, which before he fed ?

Let plough thy Steers; that when they lofe their Breath,
To Nature, not to thee, they may impute their Death.
Let Goats for Food their loaded Udders lend,
And Sheep from Winter-Cold thy Sides defend;
But neither Sprind ges, Nets, nor Snares employ,"
And be no more ingenious to destroy.
Free as in Air, let Birds on Earth remain,
Nor let infidious Glue their Wings conftrain:
Nor op'ning Hounds the trembling Stag affright,
Nor purple Feathers intercept his Flight:
Nor Hooks, conceal'd in Baits, for Fith prepare,
Nor Lines to heave them twinkling up in Ait.
Take not away the Life you cannot give :
For all things have an equal Right to live.
Kill noxious Creatures, where 'tis Sin to fave,
This only juft Prerogative we have:
But nourish Life with vegetable Food,
And fhun the facrilegious Tafte of Blood.

QUIET.

In Storms when Clouds the Moon do hide,
And no kind Stars the Pilot guide:
Shew me at Sea the boldest there,
That does not wifh for Quiet here.
For Quiet, Friend! the Soldier fights,
Bears weary Marches, fleepless Nights,
For this feeds hard, and lodges cold,

Which can't be bought with Hills of Gold.

RACE.

To their appointed Bafe the Rival Runners went;
With beating Hearts th'expected Sign receive,
And ftarting all at once, the Barrier leave.

Spread out, as on the Wings of Winds, they flew,
And fiez'd the diftant Goal with greedy View.
Shot from the Crowd, fwift Nifus all o'erpafs'd,
Nor Storms, nor Thunder equal half his Hafte
The next, but tho' the next, yet far disjoyn'd,
Came Salius, and Euryalus behind;

75

Dryd. Ovid.