Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 8.djvu/240

( 230 ) AN EPISTLE TO ROBERT NUGENT,.

WITH A PICTURE OF DR. SWIFT.

BY DR. DUNKIN.

O gratify thy long desire (So Love and Piety require), From Bindon's colours you may trace The patriot's venerable face, The last, O Nugent! which his art Shall ever to the world impart; For know, the prime of mortal men, That matchless monarch of the pen (Whose labours, like the genial sun, Shall through revolving ages run, Yet never, like the sun, decline, But in their full meridian shine), That ever-honour'd, envied sage, So long the wonder of his age, Who charm'd us with his golden strain, Is not the shadow of the dean: He only breathes Bœotian air — "O! what a falling off was there!" Hibernia's Helicon is dry, Invention, Wit, and Humour die; And