I know your Day-dreams, and I know the Snare Hid in your flow’ry path, and cry “Beware.” Thoughtless of Ill, and to the future blind, A sudden Couplet rushes in your Mind; Here you may nameless print your idle Rhymes, And read your first-born Work a thousand times; Th’ Infection spreads, your Couplet grows apace, Stanzas to Delia’s Dog or Celia’s Face; You take a Name; Philander’s Odes are seen, Printed, and prais’d, in every Magazine; Diarian Sages greet their brother Sage, And your dark Pages please th’ enlighten’d Age.-- Alas! what Years you thus consume in vain, Rul’d by this wretched Bias of the Brain! Go! to your Desks and Counters all return; Your Sonnets scatter, your Acrostics burn; Trade, and be rich; or should your careful Sires Bequeath you Wealth! indulge the nobler Fires; Should Love of Fame your youthful Heart betray, } Pursue fair Fame, but in a glorious Way, } Nor in the idle Scenes of Fancy’s Painting stray.} Of all the good that mortal Men pursue, The Muse has least to give and gives to few; Like some coquettish Fair, she leads us on, With Smiles and Hopes, till Youth and Peace are gone; Then, wed for Life, the restless wrangling Pair, Forget how constant one and one how fair: Meanwhile Ambition, like a blooming Bride, Brings Power and Wealth to grace her Lover’s Side; And tho’ she smiles not with such flattering Charms, The Brave will sooner win her to their Arms. Then wed to her, if Virtue tie the Bands, Go spread your Country’s Fame in hostile Lands; Her Court, her Senate, or her Arms adorn, And let her Foes lament that you were born: Or weigh her Laws, their ancient Rights defend, Tho’ Hosts oppose, be theirs and Reason’s Friend; Arm’d with strong Powers, in their Defence engage, And rise the THURLOW of the future Age. [Illustration: text decoration] THE BIRTH OF FLATTERY. ARGUMENT. The Subject:--Poverty and Cunning described:--When united, a jarring Couple.--Mutual Reproof.--The Wife consoled by a Dream.--Birth of a Daughter.--Description and Prediction of Envy:--How to be rendered ineffectual, explained in a Vision.--Simulation foretells the future Success and Triumphs of Flattery.--Her Power over various Characters and different Minds;--over certain Classes of Men;--over Envy himself.--Her successful Art of softening the Evils of Life;--of changing Characters;--of meliorating Prospects, and affixing Value to Possessions, Pictures, &c.--Conclusion. THE BIRTH OF FLATTERY. Omnia habeo, nec quicquam habeo; Quidquid dicunt, laudo; id rursum si negant, laudo id quoque: Negat quis, nego; ait, aio: Postremò imperavi egomet mihi Omnia assentari. TERENT, in Eunuch.