Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 4.djvu/60

When ſober Damon thus began:
(And Damon is a clever man)

I now grow old; but ſtill from youth,
Have held for modeſty and truth,
The men, who by theſe ſea-marks ſteer,
In life’s great voyage, never err;
Upon this point I dare defy
The world: I pauſe for a reply.

Sir, either is a good aſſiſtant,
Said one, who ſat a little diſtant:
Truth decks our ſpeeches, and our books,
And modeſty adorns our looks:
But farther progreſs we mull take;
Not only born to look and ſpeak,
The man mull act. The Stagyrite
Says thus, and ſays extremely right:
Strict juſtice is the ſovereign guide,
That o’er our actions ſhould preſide:
This queen of virtue is confeſs’d
To regulate and bind the reſt.
Thrice happy, if you can but find
Her equal balance poiſe your mind:
All diff’rent graces ſoon will enter,
Like lines concurrent to their center.

’Twas thus, in ſhort, theſe two went on,
With yea and nay, and pro and con,
Thro’ many points divinely dark,
And Waterland aſſaulting Clarke;
’Till, in theology half loſt,
Damon took up the Evening-Poſt;
Confounded Spain, compos’d the North,
And deep in politics held forth.

Methinks, we’re in the like condition,
As at the treaty of partition;

That