Long work perhaps may spoil thy colours quite, +/ But never will reduce the native white 10 í

To all the ports of honour and of gain,

I often steer my course in vain, he do
Thy gale comes cross, and drives me back agains
Thou slack'nest all my nerves of industry, tiguo I
By making them so oft to be ell no that of
The tinkling strings of thy loose minstrelsiedeni
Whoever this world's happiness would seejutab ot
Must as entirely cast off thee,

As they who only heaven desire, to blue.12
Do from the world retire.

This was my error, this my gross mistake,

Myself a demy-votary to make.

Thus with SAPPHIRA, and her husband's fate,
(A fault which I like them am taught too late)
For all that I gave up, I nothing gain,
And perish for the part which I retain.

VIII.

Teach me not then, O thou fallacious Muse,
The court, and better king, t' accuse

The heaven under which I live is fair;

The fertile soil will a full harvest bear;

Thine, thine is all the barrenness; if thou

Mak'st me sit still and sing, when I should plough;

When I but think, how many a tedious year
Our patient sov❜reign did attend

His long misfortunes fatal end;

How chearfully, and how exempt from fear,
On the Great Sovereign's will he did depend,
I ought to be accurst, if I refuse

To wait on his, O thou fallacious Muse!

Kings have long hands (they say) and though I be So distant, they may reach at length to me.

However, of all princes, thou

Should'st not reproach rewards for being small or

slow;

Thou, who rewardest but with popular breath,
And that too after death.

DIALOGUE III.

ON THE

GOLDEN AGE OF QUEEN ELIZABETH:

BETWEEN

THE HON. ROBERT DIGBY,

DR. ARBUTHNOT,

AND

MR. ADDISON,

་

DIALOGUE III.

ON THE AGE OF QUEEN ELIZABETH.

MR. DIGBY, DR. ARBUTHNOT,
MR. ADDISON.

IT happened, in the summer of the year

1716, that Dr. ARBUTHNOT and Mr. ADDISON had occasion to take a journey together into Warwickshire. Mr. DIGBY, who had received intelligence of their motions, and was then at Coleshill, contrived to give them the meeting at Warwick; where they intended to pass a day or two, in visiting the curiosities of that fine town, and the more remarkable of those remains of antiquity that are to be seen in its neighbourhood. These were matter of high entertainment to all of them; to Dr. ARBUTHNOT, for the pleasure of recollecting the ancient times; to Mr. ADDISON, on account of