To dance, dress, sing, and serenade the fair,' "Conduct a singer, or reclaim a hair," O'er baleful tea with females taught to blame, Behold a star emblazon C- -n's coat! ร To murder science, and my cause defend, Now shoals of Grub-street garreteers descend; From schools and desks the writing insects crawl, Unlade their dulness, and for Appius bawl. Lo! to thy darling Osborne turn thine eyes, See him o'er politics superior rise: While Caleb feels the venom of his quill, And wond'ring ministers reward his skill: Unlearn'd in logic, yet he writes by rule, And proves himself in syllogism-a fool; Now flies obedient, war with sense to wage, And drags th' idea through the painful page; Unread, unanswer'd, still he writes again, Still spins the endless cobweb of his brain; Charm'd with each line, reviewing what he writ, Blesses his stars, and wonders at his wit. Nor less, O Walsingham, thy worth appears! Alike in merit, though unlike in years: Ill-fated youth! what stars malignant shed Their baneful influence o'er thy brainless head, Doom'd to be ever writing, never read! For bread to libel liberty and sense, And damn thy patron weekly with defence. As dunce to dunce in endless numbers breed, Full-fam'd for tuneless rhymes, and short-liv'd plays. Write on, my luckless bard, still unasham'd, Though burnt thy journals, and thy dramas damn'd; These, goddess, view, the choicest of the train, ADVICE AND REPROOF: Two Satires. BY TOBIAS SMOLLET, M. D. -Sed podice levi Cæduntur tumidæ medico ridente Mariscæ.- -nam quis Peccandi nem posuit sibi? quando recepit Juvenai. Ibid. |