Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 7.djvu/27

Rh That this new, noble, and delightful scene, Is wonderfully mov'd by some exalted men, Who have well studied in the world's disease, (That epidemick errour and depravity, Or in our judgment or our eye) That what surprises us can only please. We often search contentedly the whole world round, To make some great discovery; And scorn it when 'tis found. Just so the mighty Nile has suffer'd in its fame, Because 'tis said (and perhaps only said) We've found a little inconsiderable head, That feeds the huge unequal stream. Consider human folly, and you'll quickly own, That all the praises it can give, By which some fondly boast they shall for ever live, Won't pay th' impertinence of being known: Else why should the fam'd Lydian king, (Whom all the charms of an usurped wife and state, With all that power unfelt, courts mankind to be great, Did with new unexperienc'd glories wait) Still wear, still doat, on his invisible ring?

VII.

Were I to form a regular thought of Fame, Which is perhaps as hard t' imagine right, As to paint Echo to the sight; I would not draw th' idea from an empty name; Because, alas! when we all die, Careless and ignorant posterity, Although they praise the learning and the wit, And though the title seems to show The name and man by whom the book was writ, Yet