Better it were I liv'd at home with wants, And though I scarce am wish'd so well of some, Which, when I have most need of comfort, shall Send me true joy to make amends for all : But say it be not, whilst I draw this air, I have a heart, I hope, shall ne'er despair; To curb me as too young then to employ; 280 300 And that her greatness thought she did not want me, v 3 To To be still idle; and because I spied How glad they would be, that my fate envied, Before my time; yet e'en to let her see And summon up my Muse to make relation! 320 I may b' employ'd ere long; -now's my vacation. 330 The Contents of the First Book of these Satires are 1. The Occasion. 2. The Introduction. 3. Of Man. 4. Of Fond Love. 5. Of Lust. 6. Of Hate. 7. Of Envy. 8. Of Revenge. 9. Of Choler. 10. Of Jealousy. 11. Of Covetousness. 12. Of Ambition. 13. Of Fear. Despair. 15. Of Hope. 16. Of Compassion. Cruelty. 8. Of Joy. 19. Of Sorrow. 20. The clusion of the First Book. 14. Of 17. Of Con The Second Bock contains 1. Of Vanity. 2. Of Inconstancy. 3. Of Weakness. 4. Of Presumption. And And to these is added the Scourge, a Satire. To which are annexed "Certaine Epigrams to the King's most excellent Majestie, the Queene, the Prince, the Princesse, and other noble and honourable personages, and friends, to whom the author gave any of his bookes." I transcribe one or two. To Henry, Earl of Southampton.* EPIGRAM 7. Southampton, since thy province brought me forth, Meanwhile read this, and see what others be! To his loving friend, and Cousin-German, Mr. William Wither. EPIGRAM 15. If that the Standards of the House betray What Fortunes to the owners may Or if their destinies, as some men say, betide: Be in the names of any signified, The patron of Shakspeare. Three Three sable crescents, with a chevron gul'd, The very name of Wither shews decay.. And then it skills not, what thy crescents be! What, though the Moon be now increas'd, now wan'd; Learn thence to know thy life s inconstancy; Be careful, as thou hitherto hast been, To shun th' Abuses man is tax'd for here; And then thy soul, that's now eclips'd with sin, When Moon and Sun are darken'd, shall look clear; The "Harvest's son" the Greeks entitle thee. Yea, yet, though Envy's mists do make them dull, N. B. For the better understanding of this Epigram, note, that his arms are, in a field Argent, a chevron gules, betwixt three crescents sable: his name, according to the Greeks, is Tubeços, and his crest is a Hare with three wheat ears in her mouth. ART. XIX. Literary Obituary. DR. CURRIE, CONTINUED FROM P. 80. "James Currie, M. D. had lately become an inhabitant of Bath, and would have graced any place or society to which he belonged. He bore great pain and uneasiness, for several years, with calmness and resignation, and finished his course, with affording an ex ample ample of that patience and fortitude, which so eminently distinguished his character through life. His medical abilities were confessedly very great. Persevering, ingenious, and penetrating, few circumstances escaped his observation; and his talent of applying to practice the facts which he had observed, was seldom equalled. He was also a remarkable instance of the improvement which the cultivation of the moral duties produces upon the understanding. His judgment was not clouded by jealousy, or his view of the subject of case in question obscured by partiality, or darkened by prejudice. Equally ready to adopt the suggestions of others, as he was those of his own judgment, he never deviated from the point aimed at, because the whole of the path was not traced out by himself. Superior to such considerations, which never prevail in exalted minds, he rested his character on higher grounds; and the discerning part of mankind soon became sensible, that such acquiescence, when it met his own unprejudiced ideas, was an honour to his ' character. Candour and benevolence were the guides of his conduct, and led him to esteem and reputation in the present world, softened his passage to the tomb, and in his last moments disarmed the dart of death. Original however, in his ideas, he was better suited to point out the way, than to follow the speculations of others; and what he advised, obtained a kind of involuntary preference, which nothing but a consciousness of merit in the adviser could have secured. His counsels, though destitute of the recommendation of peremptory assertion, or lavish display of pretended success, which sometimes overpower when they do not convince, carried with them |