THE DISPENSARY.
Τ

C Α Ν Τ Ο Ι.

Speas, goddess: lince 'tis thou that best can tell, | Whence their mechanic powers the spirits claim
How ancient leagues to modern discord fell; How great their force, how delicate their frame;
And why physicians were so cautious grown How the same nerves are fashion'd to sustain
Of others' lives, and lavish of their own;

The greatest pleasure and the greatest pain ;
How by a journey to th’ Elysian plain

Why bilious juice a golden light puts on, Peace triumph'd, and old time return'd again. And floods of chyle in silver currents run ;

Not far from that most celebrated place, How the dim speck of entity began Where angry justice shews her awful face; T'extend its recent form, and stretch to man; Where little villains must submit to fate,

To how minute an origin we owe That great oncs may enjoy the world in ftate; Young Ammon, Cæsar, and the great Nassau ; There stands a t dome, majestic to the light, Why paler looks impetuous rage proclaim, And sumptuous arches bear its oval height; And why chill virgins redden into flame; A golden globe, plac'd high with ariful skill, Why envy oft' transforms with wan disguise, Scems, to the distant fight, a gilded pill :

And why gay rairth fits smiling in the eyes ; This pile was, by the pious patron's aim,

All ice why Lucrece; or Sempronia, fire; Rais'd for a use as noble as its frame ;

Why Scarsdale rages to survive desire; Nor did the learn'd society decline

When Milo's vigour at th' Olympick's fhown, The propagation of that great design;

Whence tropesto Finch, or impudence to Sloane;() lo all her mazes, nature's face they view'd, How matter, by the vary'd shape of pores, And, as she disappear'd, their search pursued.(a) Or ideots frames, or folemn senators. Wrapt in the shade of night the goddess lics,

Hence 'ris we wait che wondrous cause to Yet to the learn'd unveils her dark disguise,

find, But shuns the gross access of vulgar eyes.

How body acts upon impaffive mind; Now she unfolds the faint and dawning Irife How fumes of wine the thinking part can fire, of infant atoms kindling into life ;

Past hopes revive, and present joys inspire; How ductile matter new meanders takes,

Why our co:nplexions oft' our soul declare, And slender trains of wisting fibres makes ; And how the passions in the feature are ; And how the viscous seeks a closer tone,

How touch and harmony arise between
By just degrees to harden into bone ;

Corporeal figure, and a form unseen;
While the more loose flow from the vital urn, How quick their faculties the limbs fulfil,
And in full sides of purple streams return; And act at every summons of the will;
How lambent flames from life's bright lamps arisc, With migh:y truths, mysterious to descry,
And dart in emanations through the eyes;

Which in the womb of diftant causes lie.
How from cach sluice a gentle torrent pours,

But now no grand inquiries are descry'd, To Nake a feverish heat with ambient Thowers; Mean faction reigns where knowledge should

preside,

Feuds are increas ’d, and learning laid alide.
VARIATIONS.
(a) they ftill pursued.

VARIATIONS.
They find her dubious now, and theo as plain,
Here he's too sparing; there profusely vain. (6) Why Atticus polite, Brutus severe,
+ College of Physicians.

Why Mechwin muddy, Montague why clear..

+0:d Bailey,

Thus fynods oft' concern for faith conceal, Each faculty in blandishments they lull,
And for important nothings shew a zcal :

Aspiring to be venerably dull;
The drooping sciences neglected pine,

No learn’d debates moleft their downy trance, And Paan's beams with fading iuflre mine. Or disconipose their pompous ignorance ; No readers here with hectic looks are found, But, undisturb’d, they loiter lite away, Nor eyes in rheum, through midnight-watching, So wither green, and blossom in decay; drown'd;

Deep funk in down, they, by my gentle care, The lonely edifice in sweats complains

Avoid th'inclemencies of morning air, (prayer. That nothing there but sullen silence reigns. And leave to tatter'd* crape the drudgery of This place, so fit for undisturb'd repose,

Urim | was civil, and not void of sense, The god of floth for his asylum chole;

Had humour, and a courteous confidence : Up in a couch of down in these abodes,

So spruce he moves, so gracefully he cocks, Supine with folded arnis he thoughtless nods; The hallow'd rose declares him orthodox : Indulging dreams his godhead lull to ease, He pass’d his easy hours, instead of prayer, With murmurs of soft rills, and whispering trees : In madrigals, and phillysing the fair; The poppy and each numbing plant dispense Constant at feasts, and each decorum knew, Their drowzy virtue, and dull indolence ;

And, soon as the desert appear’d, withdrew; No passions interrupt his easy reign,

Always obliging, and without offence, No problems puzzle his lethargic brain ;

And fancy'd, for his gay impertinence. Lut dark oblivion guards his peaceful bed,

Bur fee how ill-miltaken parts succeed ;
And lazy fogs hang lingering o'er his head. He threw off my dominion, and would read;

As at full length the pamper'd monarch lay, Engag'd in controversy, wrangled well!
Battening in eafe, and slumbering life away; In convocation language could excel;
A friteful noise his downy chains unties,

In volumes prov'd the church without defencem Haftes forward, and increases as it flies.

By nothing guarded but by Providence; First, fome to cleave the stubborn * fint engage, How grace and moderation disagree; Till, urg'd by blows, it sparkles into rage : And violence advances charity. Some temper lute, some spacinus vessels move; Thus writ till none would read, becoming soon These furnaces erect, and those approve;

A wretched scribbler, of a rare buffoon. Here phials in nice discipline are fet,

Mankind my fond propitious power has try There gallipots are rang'd in alphabet.

Too oft" co own, too much to be deny'd. Jo this place, inagazines of pills you iny:

And all I ask are shades and silent bowers, In that, like forage, herbs in bundles lie;

To pass in soft forgetfulness my hours. While lifted peitles, brar:dish'd in the air,

Oft' have my fears some distant villa chose, Defcend in peals, and civil wars declare. (rend, v'er their quietus where fat judges dose, Loud frokes, with pounding spice, the fabric And lull their cough and conscience to repose : And aromatic clouds in spires ascend.

Or, if some cloister's refuge I implore, (6) So when the Cyclops o'er their anvils sweat, Where holy drones o'er dying capers (nore, And swelling finews echoing blows repeat; The peals of * Naflau's arms these eyes unclose; From the volcanos gross eruprions rise,

Mine he molefts, to give the world repose. And curling feet of Imoke obscure the skics. That ease I offer with contempt he fies,

The flumbering God, amaz'd at this new din, His couch a trench, his canopy the skies. Thrice strove to rise, and thrice ruok down again, Nor clinies nor seafons his refolves controul, Listless he firetch'd, and gaping rubb'd his eyes, Th’equator has no heat, no ice the pole. Then falter'd thus betwixt half words and sighs : With arms reliftless o'er the globe he flies, How impotent a deity am !!

And leaves to Jove the empire of the skies. With godhead born, but curs'd, that cannot die! But, as the slothful god to yawn begun, Through my indulgence, mortals hourly share He took off the duu mitt, and thus went on: A grateful negligence, and case from care. Lull'd in my arnis, how long have ) with-held The northern monarchs from the dusty field! How I have kepr the British feet at case, From tempting the rough dangers of the feas! (c) Sometimes among the Caspian cliffs I creep, Hibernia owns the mildness of my reign,

Where folitary loats and swallows sleep; And my divinity's ador'd in Spain.

Or, if fome cloister's refuge Linplore,
I tw::ins to Sylvan folitudes convey,

Where holy drones o'er dying tapers snore,
Where, stretch'd on molly beds, they walte away Still Nailau's arms a fof: repote deny,
In gentle joys the night, in vows the day.

Keep me awake, and follow where I fly,
What marks of wondrous clemency I've thown,

Since he has bless'd the weary world with peace, Some reverend worthies of the gown can uwn:

And with a nod has bid Bellona ceafe; Triumphant plerty, with a cheerful grace, I fought the covert of some peaceful cell, Balks in their eyes, and sparkles in their face. Where filent thades in harmless raptures dwell; I low fleck their looks, how goudly is their mien, That reit mighe past tranquillity restore, When big they frut behind a double chin! And mortal never interrupt me more.

VARIATIONS.

!Txas in this reverend dome I fought repose,

Since mortals will dispute my power, I'll try These walls were that asylom I had chose. (d) Who has the greatest empire, they or l. Here have I sulla long unaifturb'd with broils, Find envy out, some prince's court attend, And laugh'd at herocs, and their glorious toils. Most likely there you'll meet the famish'd My annals are in mouldy mildews wrought,

fiend;(e) With easy insignificance of thought.

Or where dull critics authors' fate foretell; But now some busy, enterprising brain

Or where fale maids, or meagre eunuchs, dwell; Invents new fapcies to renew my pain,

Tell the bleak fury what new projects reign And labours to dissolve my easy reign.

Among the homicides of Warwick-lane ; With that, the god his darling phantom calls, And what th' event, unless the strait inclines And from his faltering lips this metrage falls : To blast their hopes, and baffle their deligns.

More he had spoke, but sudden vapours rise,

And with their filken cords tie down his eyes. VARIATIONS.

VARIATIONS,

(4) Nought underneath this roof but damps are

found, Nought heard but drowsy beetles buzzing round, '(e) Or in cabals, or camps, or at the bar, spread cobwebs hide the walls, and dust the floors, Or whore ill poets pennyless confer, And midnight filence guards the noiseless doors. Or in the senate-house at Westminster.

CAN TO II.

Soon as the evening veil'd the mountains heads
And winds lay hushi'd in subterranean beds ;
Whilft fickening flowers drink up the silver dew,
And beaux for some assembly dress anew;
The city saints to prayers and play-house haste;
The rich to dinner, and the poor to reft :
Th' officious phantom then prepar'd with care
To lide on tender pinions through the air.
Oft' he attempts the summit of a rock,
And oft' the hollow of some blasted oak;
At length approaching where bleak envy lay;
The hilling of her snakes proclaim'd the way.

Beneath the gloomy covert of an yew,
That taints the grass with fickly sweats of dew;
No verdant beauty entertains the fight,
But baneful hemlock, and cold aconite;
In a dark grot the baleful haggard lay,
Breathing black vengeance, and infe&ing day.
But how deform'd, and worn with spiteful woes,
When Accius has applause, Dorsenpus news.
The cheerful blood her meagre cheeks forsook,
And basilisks sate brooding in her look;
A bald and bloated toad-tool rail'd her head;
The plumes of boding ravens were her bed :
From her chapp'd nostrils (calding torrents fall,
And her funk eyes boil o'er in floods of gall.
Volcanos labour thus with inward pains,
While seas of melted ore lay waste the plains.

Around the fiend in hideous order sate
Foul bawling infamy, and bold debate;
Gruff disconcept, through ignorance milled,
And clamorous faction at ber paray's head;
Restless fedition ftill diffembling fear,
And by hypocrisy with pious leer.

Glouting with fullen spite the fary shook
Her clotted locks, and blasted with each look ;
Then tore with canker'd teeth the pregnant scrolls,
Where fame the acts of demi-gods enrols;
And, as the rent-records in pieces fell,
Each scrap did some immortal action tell.

This show'd, how fix'd as fate Torquatus stood,
That, the fam'd passage of the Granic flood;
The Julian cagles, here, their winge display,
And there, like fetting stars, the Decii lay;
This does Camillus as a god extol,
That points at Manlius in the capitol;
How Cocles did the Tiber's surges brave,
How Curtius plung'd into the gaping grave.
Great Cyrus, here, the Medes and Perfans join,
And, there, th' immortal battle of the Boyne.

As the light messenger the fury spy'd,
Awhile his curdling blood forgot to glidc:
Confusion on his fainting vitals hung,
And faltering accents flutter'd on his tongue:
At length, assuming courage, he convey'd
His errand, then he Thrunk into a fhade.

The hag lay long revolving what might be
The blest event of such an enibaly :
Then blazons in dread smiles her hideous form;
So lightning gilds the unrelenting storm. (f)

VARIATIONS.

(6) Then she: Alas: how long in vain have I
Aim'd at these noble ills the fates deny?
Within this ifle for ever mult [ bind
Ditafters to distract my reti less mind?

Thus the--Mankind are blest, they riot still The patient's ears remorseless he assalls,
Unbounded in exorbitance of ill.

Murders with jargon where his medicine fails. By devastation the rough warrior gains,

The fury thus assuming Colon's grace, And farmers fatten most when famine reigns; So llung her arms, so thufil'd in her pace. For sickly seasons the physicians wajt,

Onward the haftens to the fam'd abodes, And politicians thrive in broils of state;

Where Horoscope * invokes th' infernal gods ; The lover's easy when the fair-one lighs,

And reach'd the mansion where the vulgar run, And gods sublist not but by sacrifice.

For ruin throng, and pay to be undone. Each other being some indulgence knows : This visionary various projects trics, Few are my joys, but infinite my woes.

And knows that to be rich is to be wise. My present pain Britannia’s genius wills,

By useful observations he can tell And thus the fates record my future ills.

The sacred charms that in true sterling dwell; A heroine shall Albion's sceptre bear,

How gold makes a patrician of a Nave, With arms shall vanquish earth, and heaven with A dwarf an Atlas, a Therlites brave. prayer.

It cancels all defects, and in their place She on the world her clemency shall shower, Finds sense in Browolow, charms in Lady Grace And only to preserve exert her power.

It guides the fancy, and directs the niind; Tyrants shall then their impious aims forbear, No bankrupt ever found a fair-one kind. And Blenheim's thunder more than Ætna's fear. So truly Horoscope its virtues knows, Since by no arts I therefore can defeat

To cbis lov'd idol 'tis, alone, he bows;.. The happy enterprises of the great,

And fancies such bright heraldry can prove, l'll calmly stoop to more inferior things,

The vile plebcian but the third from Jove.
And try if my lov'd snakes have teeth or stings. Long has he been of that amphibious fry,
She said; and ftraight fhrill Colon's perfon Bold co prescribe, and busy to apply.
enok,

His shop the gazing vulgar's eyes employé
In morals loose, but molt precise in look.

With foreign trinkets, and domestic toys. Black-friars annals lately pleas'd to call

Here mummies lay most reverendly stale ; Him warden of apothecarics-hall;

And there the tortoise hung her coat of mail; And, when su dignify'd, did not forbear

Not far from some huge shark's devouring head That operation which the learn'd declare

The flying fish their finny pinions spread; Gives colics ease, and makes the ladies fair. Aloft in rows large poppy-heads were strung, In trifling show his tinsel talent lies;

And near, a scaly alligator hung ; And form the want of intellects supplies.

In this place, drugs in musty heaps decay'd; In aspect grand and goodly he appears,

In that, dry'd bladders and drawn teeth were laid. Rever'd as patriarchs in primæval years.

An inner room receives the numerous shoals Hourly his learn'd impertinence affords

Of such as pay to be reputed fools.
A barren superfluity of words ; (g)

Globes stand by globes, volumes on volumes lie,'
And planetary schemes amuse the eye.
The tage, in velvet chair, here lolls at ease,
To promise future health for present sces;

Then, as from tripod, folemn Thame reveals,
Good Tenison's celestial piety

And what the stars know nothing of, forecels. At last has rais'd him to the sacred fee.

One asks how soon Panthea may be won, Somers does fickening equity restore,

And longs to feel the marriage-fetters on : And helpless orphans are oppress'd no more. Others, convinc'd by melancholy proof, Pembroke to Britain endless blessings brings. Inquire when courteous fates will Irike them off. He spoke; and peace clapp'd her triumphant wings. Some, by what means they may redress theis Great Ormond shines illustriously bright

wrong, With blazes of hereditary right.

When fathers the poffeflion keep too long. The noble ardour of a royal fire

And some would know the issue of their cause, Inspires the generous breast of Devonshire. And whether gold can folder up its flaws. And Macclesfield is active to defend

Poor pregnant Lais his advice would have, His country with the zeal he loves his friend. To lose by art what fruitful nature gave; Like Leda's radiant fons divinely clear,

And Portia, old in expectation grown, Portland and Jersey deck'd in rays appear,

Laments her barren curse, and begs a fon : To gild by turns the Gallic hemisphere.

Whilft Iris his cosmetic wash would try, Worth in distress is rais'd by Montague;

To make her bloom revive, and lovers dic. Auguftus liftens if Mæcenas sue;

Some ask for charms, and others philters choose, And Vernon's vigilance no Plumber takes,

To gain Corinna, and their quartans lose. Whilft faction peeps abroad, and anarchy awakes, Young Hylas, botch'd with stains too foul to name,

In cradle here renews his youthful frame; (5) lo halte he strides along, to recompense

Cloy'd with desire, and surfeited with charms, The want of business with its vain pretence.

A hoc-house he prefers to Julia's arms.

VARIATIONS.

Lee, an apothecary,

* Dr. Barnard,

And old Lucullus would th' arcanum prove, So glow-wornis may compare with Titan's beams,
Of kindling in cold veins the sparks of love, And Hare-court pump with Aganippe's streams.
Bleak envy these dull frauds with pleasure Our mannfactures now they meanly rell,
fees,

And their true value treacherously tell ;
And wonders at the senseless mysteries.

Nay, they discover too, their spite is such, In Colon's voice she thus calls out aloud

That health, that crowns more valued, costs not On Horoscope caviron'd by the crowd :

much ; For bear, forbear, thy vain amusements cease, Whilst we must steer our conduct by these rules, Thy woodcocks from their gins awhile release ; To cheat as tradesmen, or to starve as fools. (a) And to that dire misfortune listen well,

At this fam'd Horoscope turn'd pale, and Which thou should'It fear to know, or I co tell.

straight 'Tis true, thou ever wast esteem'd by me

In silence tumbled from his chair of state : The great Alcides of our company.

The crowd in great confusion sought the door, When we with noble scorn resolv'd to ease And left the magus fainting on the floor ; Ourselves from all parochial offices;

Whilst in his breast the fury breath'd a storm, And to our wealthier patients left the carç Then sought her cell, and re-alsum'd her forma. And draggled dignity of fcavenger;

Thus from the fore although the insed flics, Such zeal in that affair thou didst express,

It leaves a brood of maggots in disguse. Noughe could be equal, but the great success. Officious Squirt * in haste forsook his hop, Now call to mind thy generous prowess patt, To succour the expiring Horoscope. Be what thou should'tt, by thinking what thou Oft' he essay'd the magus to restore, walt :

By falt of fuccinum's prevailing power ; The faculty of Warwick-lace design,

Yet still fupine the Solid lumber lay, It not to storm, at least to undermine.

An image of fear ce-animated clay; Their gates each day ten thousand night-caps Till fates, indulgent when disasters call, crowd,

By Squire's nice hand apply'd a urinal. And mortars utter their attempts aloud.

The wight no sooner did the stream receive, If they should once uomalk our mystery,

But rouz'd, and bless'd the tale restorative.
Each nurse, ere long, would be as learn'd as we; The springs of life their former vigour feel;
Our art expos'd to every vulgar ege;

Such zeal he had for that vile utensil.
And cone, in complaisance to us, would die. So when the great Pelides Thetis found,
What if we ciaim iheir right t'affullinare,

He knew the sea-weed (cent, and th' azure god. Muft they needs turn apothecaries straight?

dess own'd.
Prevent it, gods! all stratagems we try,
To crowd with new inhabitants your sky.
'Tis we who wait the destinies' command,

VARIATIONS,
To purge the troubled air, and weed che land.
And dare the college insolently aim

() Whilst we, at our expence, must persevere, To equal our fraternity in fame?

And for another world, be ruin'd here.
Then let crabs-eyes with pearl for virtue try,
Dr Highgate-hill with lofty Pindus vie ;

+ Dr. Barnard's man

of what frill Colon said the day before.
Cowlips and poppies o'er his eyes he spread,
And Salmon's works he laid beneath his head.
But those bless'd opiates still in vain he tries,
Sleep's gentle image his embraces flies :
Tumultuous cares lay rolling in his breast,
And thus his anxious choughts the fage exprelt.

Oft has this planet roll'd around the fun,
Since to confult che skies I first begua:

Such my applause, co mighty my success,
Some granted my predi&ions more than guest.
But, doubtful as I am, I'll entertain
This faith, there can be no mistake in gain.
For the dull world must honour pay to those,
Who on their understanding most impose.
First man creates, and then he fears the elf ;
Thus others cheat him not, but he himself;
Hclothes the substance, and he loves the

fhow;
You'll ne'er convince a fool, himself is so :
He hates realities, and hugs the cheat,
And still the only pleasure's the deceit.