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

50 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