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N:24 Vol:6. p:159.

・I. I Müller inv del, et. So.

There in full opulence a banker-dwelt, Who all the joys and pangs of riches felt : His fide-board glitter'd with imagin'd plate; And his proud fancy held a vaft eftate.

As on a time he pafs'd the vacant hours Inraifing piles of ftraw and twifted bow'rs, A poet enter'd of the neighbouring cell, And with fix'd eye obferv'd the ftructure well:

A fharpen'd fkew'r'crofs his bare fhoulders bound

A tatter'd rug, which dragg'd upon the ground.

The banker cry'd, "Behold my castlewalls,

"My ftatues, gardens, fountains, and canals, "With land of more than twenty acres "round!

"All these I fell thee for ten thousand pound. The bard with wonder the cheap purchase faw,

So fign'd the contract (as ordains the law.) The banker's brain was cool'd; the mift grew clear;

The vifionary scene was loft in air.

He now the vanifh'd profpect understood, And fear'd the fancy'd bargain was not good:

Yet

Yet loth the fum intire should be destroy'd, "Give me a penny, and thy contract's " void.'

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The startled bard with eye indignant frown'd:

"Shall I, ye Gods, (he cries) my debts compound!"

So faying, from his rug the fkew'r he takes, And on the stick ten equal notches makes; With juft refentment flings it on the ground; "There, take my * tally of ten thousand pound."

The SOUTH-SEA.

YE wife philofophers! explain

1721.

What magick makes our money rife,
When dropt into the Southern main?
Or do these jugglers cheat our eyes?

Put in your money fairly told;
Prefto be gone---'Tis here agen;
Ladies and gentlemen, behold,
Here's ev'ry piece as big as ten.

Charles II, having borrowed a confiderable fum, gave tallies as a fecurity for the repayment; but foon after, fhut

ting up the Exchequer, there tallies were as much reduced from their original value, as the South-Sea had exceeded it.

Thus

Thus in a bason drop a fhilling,

Then fill the veffel to the brim;
You shall obferve, as you are filling,
The pond'rous metal feems to swim.
It rifes both in bulk and height;
Behold it fwelling like a fop!
The liquid medium cheats your fight;
Behold it mounted to the top!

In stock three hundred thousand pound;
I have in view a lord's eftate;
My manors all contiguous round;
A coach and fix, and ferv'd in plate.

Thus the deluded bankrupt raves,
Puts all upon a defp'rate bet;
Then plunges in the Southern waves,
Dipt over head and ears--- in debt.

So, by a calenture misled,

The mariner with rapture fees
On the smooth ocean's azure bed
Enamel'd fields, and verdant trees.

With eager hafte he longs to rove
In that fantastick fcene, and thinks
It must be fome enchanted grove;
And in he leaps, and down he finks.
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