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In a Maid of Honour's Prayer-Took.

WHEN Ifrael's daughters mourn'd their paft offences,

They dealt in fackcloth, and turn'd cinderwenches:

But Richmond's fair ones never spoil their locks;

They use white powder, and wear holland fmocks.

O comely church! where females find clean linen

As decent to repent in, as to fin in.

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EPIGRA M.

S Thomas was cudgell'd one day by his wife,

He took to the street, and fled for his life: Tom's three dearest friends came by in the

fquabble,

And fav'd him at once from the fhrew and the rabble;

Then ventur'd to give him fome sober advice -

But Tom is a perfon of honour fo nice,

Too

Too wife to take counfel, too proud to take

warning,

That he fent to all three a challenge next morning:

Three duels he fought, thrice ventur'd his life;

Went home, and was cudgell'd again by his wife.

*The Balance of Europe.

NOW Europe's balanc'd, neither fide

prevails;

For nothing's left in either of the fcales.

*A

A

PANEGYRICAL EPISTLE

ΤΟ

MR. THOMAS SNOW,

Goldsmith, near Temple-bar;

Occafion'd by his buying and felling the third SouthSea fubfcriptions, taken in by the Directors at a thousand per cent *.

D'

ISDAIN not, Snow, my humble verfe to hear;

Stick thy black pen a while behind thy ear, Whether thy compter fhine with fums un

told,

And thy wide-grafping hand grows black with gold;

Whether thy mien erect, and fable locks, In crowds of brokers over-awe the stocks; Suspend the worldly bus'ness of the day, And, to enrich thy mind, attend my lay.

*In the year 1720 the South-Sea company, under pretence of paying the publick debt, obtained an act of parliament for enlarging their capital, by taking into it all the debts of the nation incurred before the year 1716, amountto 31,664,551 l. Part of this fum was fubfcribed into their

capital at three fubfcriptions; the first at 300l. per cent. the fecond at 400. and a third at 1000. Such was the infatuation of the time, that these fubfcriptions were bought and fold at exorbitant premiums, fo that 100l. South-Sea stock fubfcribed at 1000l. was fold for 12001, in Exchange-alley.

O tho

O thou, whose penetrative wisdom found The South-Sea rocks and fhelves, where thousands drown'd!

When credit funk, and commerce gasping lay,

Thou stood'st: no bill was fent unpaid away. When not a guinea chink'd on * Martin's boards,

And * Atwill's felf was drain'd of all his hoards,

Thou stood'ft; an Indian king in fize and hue !

Thy unexhausted shop was our Peru. Why did 'Change-alley wafte thy precious hours

Among the fools who gap'd for golden fhow'rs?

No wonder, if we find fome poets there, Who live on fancy, and can feed on air; No wonder, they were caught by SouthSea schemes,

Who ne'er enjoy'd a guinea, but in dreams; No wonder, they their third fubfcriptions fold

For millions of imaginary gold;

* Names of eminent goldsmiths.

No

No wonder, that their fancies wild can frame

Strange reafons, that a thing is ftill the fame, Though chang'd throughout in substance and in name.

But you (whose judgment fcorns poetick flights)

1

With contracts furnifh boys for paper kites. Let vultur Hopkins ftretch his rufty throat,

Who ruins thousands for a fingle groat :
I know thou scorn'ft his mean, his fordid

mind;

Nor with ideal debts would'ft plague mankind.

Madmen alone their empty dreams pursue, And still believe the fleeting vifion true; They fell the treasures which their flum

bers get,

Thenwake, and fancy all the world in debt.
If to inftruct thee all my reasons fail,
Yet be diverted by this moral tale.
Through fam'd Moorfields extends a spa-
cious feat,

Where mortals of exalted wit retreat; Where wrap'd in contemplation, and in ftraw,

The wifer few from the mad worldwithdraw.

There

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