Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

ALEXANDER POPE.

[1688-1744-]

THE UNIVERSAL PRAYER.

FATHER of all! in every age,

In every clime adored,
By saint, by savage, and by sage,
Jehovah, Jove, or Lord!

Thou great First Cause, least understood,
Who all my sense confined

To know but this, that thou art good,
And that myself am blind;

Yet gave me, in this dark estate,
To see the good from ill;
And, binding nature fast in fate,
Left free the human will.

What conscience dictates to be done,
Or warns me not to do,
This teach me more than hell to shun,
That more than heaven pursue.

What blessings thy free bounty gives Let me not cast away;

For God is paid when man receives:
To enjoy is to obey.

Yet not to earth's contracted span
Thy goodness let me bound,
Or think thee Lord alone of man,

When thousand worlds are round.

Let not this weak, unknowing hand
Presume thy bolts to throw,
And deal damnation round the land
On each I judge thy foe.

If I am right, thy grace impart
Still in the right to stay;

If I am wrong, O, teach my heart
To find that better way!

Save me alike from foolish pride,
Or impious discontent,
At aught thy wisdom has denied,
Or aught thy goodness lent.

Teach me to feel another's woe,
To hide the fault I see;
That mercy I to others show,
That mercy show to me.

Mean though I am, not wholly so,
Since quickened by thy breath;

[blocks in formation]

ALLAN RAMSAY.

To trust in everything, or doubt of all. Who thus define it, say they more or less Than this, that happiness is happiness? Take nature's path, and mad opinion's leave;

All states can reach it, and all heads conceive;

Obvious her goods, in no extremes they dwell;

There needs but thinking right and meaning well;

And mourn our various portions as we please,

Equal is common sense and common ease. Remember, man, “The Universal Cause Acts not by partial, but by general laws"; And makes what happiness we justly

call

Subsist not in the good of one, but all. There's not a blessing individuals find, But some way leans and hearkens to the kind;

No bandit fierce, no tyrant mad with pride,

No caverned hermit rests self-satisfied: Who most to shun or hate mankind preteud,

Seek an admirer, or would fix a friend: Abstract what others feel, what others think,

All pleasures sicken, and all glories sink: Each has his share; and who would more obtain

Shall find the pleasure pays not half the pain.

Order is Heaven's first law; and, this confessed,

Some are, and must be, greater than the rest,

More rich, more wise but who infers from hence

That such are happier shocks all common

[blocks in formation]

49

[blocks in formation]

FAREWELL to Lochaber, farewell to my Jean,

Where heartsome with thee I have mony a day been:

To Lochaber no more, to Lochaber no more,

We'll maybe return to Lochaber no

more.

These tears that I shed they are a' for my dear,

And not for the dangers attending on weir;

Though borne on rough seas to a far

bloody shore,

Maybe to return to Lochaber no more!

[blocks in formation]

LEST men suspect your tale untrue,
Keep probability in view.

The traveller, leaping o'er those bounds,
The credit of his book confounds.
Who with his tongue hath armies routed
Makes even his real courage doubted:
But flattery never seems absurd ;
The flattered always takes your word:
Impossibilities seein just;

They take the strongest praise on trust.
Hyperboles, though ne'er so great,
Will still come short of self-conceit.

So very like a painter drew,
That every eye the picture knew ;
He hit complexion, feature, air,

So just, the life itself was there.
No flattery with his colors laid,
To bloom restored the faded maid;
He gave each muscle all its strength,
The mouth, the chin, the nose's length.
His honest pencil touched with truth,
And marked the date of age and youth.
He lost his friends, his practice failed;
Truth should not always be revealed;
In dusty piles his pictures lay,
For no one sent the second pay.
Two bustos, fraught with every grace,
A Venus' and Apollo's face,
He placed in view; resolved to please,
Whoever sat, he drew from these,
From these corrected every feature,
And spirited each awkward creature.
All things were set; the hour was

come,

His pallet ready o'er his thumb.
My lord appeared; and seated right
In proper attitude and light,
The painter looked, he sketched the
piece,

Then dipped his pencil, talked of Greece,
Of Titian's tints, of Guido's air;
"Those eyes, my lord, the spirit there
Might well a Raphael's hand require,
To give them all their native fire;
The features fraught with sense and
wit,

You'll grant are very hard to hit;
But yet with patience you shall view
As much as paint and art can do.
Observe the work." My lord replied:
"Till now I thought my mouth was
wide;

Besides, my nose is somewhat long;
Dear sir, for me, 't is far too young."

[ocr errors]

"Oh! pardon me," the artist cried, "In this the painters must decide. The piece even common eyes must strike, I warrant it extremely like.'

[ocr errors]

My lord examined it anew;
No looking-glass seemed half so true.

A lady came; with borrowed grace
He from his Venus formed her face.
Her lover praised the painter's art;
So like the picture in his heart!
To every age some charm he lent;
Even beauties were almost content.
Through all the town his art they praised;
His custom grew, his price was raised.
Had he the real likeness shown,
Would any man the picture own?
But when thus happily he wrought,
Each found the likeness in his thought.

[blocks in formation]

With more of thanks and less of thought,
I strive to make my matters meet;
To seek what ancient sages sought,

Physic and food in sour and sweet:
To take what passes in good part,
And keep the hiccups from the heart.

With good and gentle-humored hearts,
I choose to chat where'er I come,
Whate'er the subject be that starts;
But if I get among the glum,
I hold my tongue to tell the truth,
And keep my breath to cool my broth.

For chance or change of peace or pain,
For Fortune's favor or her frown,
For lack or glut, for loss or gain,

- JAMES THOMSON.

I never dodge nor up nor down;
But swing what way the ship shall swim,
Or tack about with equal trim.

I suit not where I shall not speed,
Nor trace the turn of every tide;
If simple sense will not succeed,

I make no bustling, but abide;
For shining wealth or scaring woe,
I force no friend, I fear no foe.

Of ups and downs, of ins and outs,
Of they 're i' the wrong, and we're
i' the right,

I shun the rancors and the routs;
And wishing well to every wight,
Whatever turn the matter takes,
I deem it all but ducks and drakes.

With whom I feast I do not fawn,
Nor if the folks should flout me, faint;
If wonted welcome be withdrawn,

I cook no kind of a complaint:
With none disposed to disagree,
But like them best who best like me.

Not that I rate myself the rule

How all my betters should behave;

But fame shall find me no man's fool,
Nor to a set of men a slave:
I love a friendship free and frank,
And hate to hang upon a hank.

Fond of a true and trusty tie,
I never loose where'er I link;
Though if a business budges by,

51

I talk thereon just as I think; My word, my work, my heart, my hand, Still on a side together stand.

[blocks in formation]
[merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]
« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »