58
Epistles.
Let others wither gay, but I'd appear
With sage decorum in my easy chair;
Grave as Libanius slumb'ring o'er the laws,
Whilst gold and party zeal decide the cause.
A nobler task our riper age affords 70
Than scanning syllables and weighing words.
To make his hours in even measures flow,
Nor think some fleet too fast and some too slow;
Still equal in himself, and free to taste
The Now, without repining at the Past; 75
Nor the vain prescience of the spleen t'employ,
To pall the flavour of a promis'd joy;
To live tenacious of the golden mean,
In all events of various fate serene;
With virtue steel'd, and steady to survey 80
Age, death, disease, or want, without dismay:
These arts, my Lambard! useful in their end,
Make man to others and himself a friend.
Happiest of mortals he who, timely wise,
In the calm walks of truth his bloom enjoys; 85
With books and patrimonial plenty blest,
Health in his veins, and quiet in his breast!
Him no vain hopes attract, no fear appals,
Nor the gay servitude of courts enthrals,
Unknowing how to mask concerted guile 90
With a false cringe, or undermining smile;
His manners pure, from affectation free,
And prudence shines thro' clear simplicity.
With sage decorum in my easy chair;
Grave as Libanius slumb'ring o'er the laws,
Whilst gold and party zeal decide the cause.
A nobler task our riper age affords 70
Than scanning syllables and weighing words.
To make his hours in even measures flow,
Nor think some fleet too fast and some too slow;
Still equal in himself, and free to taste
The Now, without repining at the Past; 75
Nor the vain prescience of the spleen t'employ,
To pall the flavour of a promis'd joy;
To live tenacious of the golden mean,
In all events of various fate serene;
With virtue steel'd, and steady to survey 80
Age, death, disease, or want, without dismay:
These arts, my Lambard! useful in their end,
Make man to others and himself a friend.
Happiest of mortals he who, timely wise,
In the calm walks of truth his bloom enjoys; 85
With books and patrimonial plenty blest,
Health in his veins, and quiet in his breast!
Him no vain hopes attract, no fear appals,
Nor the gay servitude of courts enthrals,
Unknowing how to mask concerted guile 90
With a false cringe, or undermining smile;
His manners pure, from affectation free,
And prudence shines thro' clear simplicity.
