If e'er Melissa, lovely spouse!
Life's companion! crown your vows.
Such, such a consort choose to wed,
Worthy of your board and bed.
Prefixed to TABLES of ancient COINS, WEIGHTS and
MEASURES; In the YEAR 1727. By Mr. CHARLES
ARBUTHNOT, Student of Christ-Church, Oxford.
GREAT name *, which in our rolls recorded stands,
Leads, honours, and protects the learned bands,
Accept this offering to thy bounty due,
And Roman wealth in English sterling view.
Read here, how Britain, once despis'd, can raise
As ample sums, as Rome in Cæsar's days;
Pour forth as numerous legions on the plain,
And with more dreadful navies awe the main.
Tho' shorter lines her fix'd dominions bind,
Her floating empire stretches unconfin'd.
* The King's name stands first in the buttery-book of Christ-Church College.
Validis ab annis ad senectam, si tuæ
Melissa sit vitæ comes;
Quam, Marce, cum ducetur uxor, elige,
Mensæque consortem et tori.
AUGUSTUM nomen, nostro qui primus in albo
Præfulges, doctasque auges, quas protegis, artes;!
Externas digneris opes, veterumque monetam,
Et Romæ Angliacâ librare numismata lance.
Hîc lege, quas, olim neglecta, Britannia jactet,
Queis neque, devicti spoliis orientis onusta,
Roma recensebat plures sub Cæsare gazas ;
Quot campum agminibus stipet, quo fulmine, quantis
Per mare diffusas classes terroribus armet,
Et tua quam late pandat vexilla per orbem.
From Thetis' stores, and not her neighbours' spoils,
She draws her treasure, fruit of honest toils.
Rome sack'd, and plunder'd; Britain clothes and
feeds;
Acquires their riches, but supplies their needs.
Sweet seat of freedom! be thy happier doom, To 'scape the fate, as well as guilt of Rome: Where riot, offspring of unwieldy store, Enerv'd those arms, that snatch'd the spoil before; With costly cates she stain'd her frugal board, Then with ill-gotten gold she bought a lord. Corruption, discord, luxury combin'd,
Down sunk the far-fam'd mistress of mankind. '
Hear, righteous prince! O hear us loud invoke Thy worth unblemish'd, to avert this stroke: Yourself so free from ev'ry lawless view, You scarce admit the homage that is due. Let other monarchs, with invasive bands, Lessen their people, and extend their lands; By gasping nations hated and obey'd,
Lords of the deserts, that their sword has made
Clausa licet terras spatiis brevioribus, udum,
Qua pontus patet usque ambos porrectus ad Indos,
Vendicat imperium: nec passim, ut Roma, rapinis
Omnia divexans, armis sua furta tuetur,
Audax grassatrix; sed cultu divitis arvi
Proventus, peregrino auro, telæque labores
Mutat lanificæ, vestire et pascere gentes
Læta magis, quam vi nudare, et perdere ferro.
Esto tibi, O libertatis pulcherrima sedes,
Sors melior, nescire et fata et crimina Romæ,
Cui studiosa dapum inventrix, et prodiga mensæ
Luxuries, et copia iners, visuque libido
Obscoena, in tantum nervos animosque resolvit,
Degener ut prorsus morum, fœcundaque culpæ,
Servitii pretiosa emptrix, plebemque patresque
Corrupta, et discors armis, et perdita luxu,
Corruerit victrix orbis, rerumque potita.
O pater! O princeps! nec frustra assuete vocari:
Audi, obtestamur majestatemque fidemque
Virtutemque tuam, nobisque averte malorum
Hanc faciem; ipse adeo procul ambitionis ab œstro,
Ut tibi vix solvi meritos patiaris honores.
Injustis alii reges dominentur in armis,
Quos aut cædis amor, famæve insana cupido
Imperii fines late signare ruinâ
For thee kind heav'n a nobler task design'd,
To fix thy empire on thy people's mind;
High on thy British throne, to mark from far,
And calm the billows of the rising war;
To smooth the frowns on fair Europa's face,
And force reluctant nations to embrace.
As late the jarring winds, with mingled roar,
Struggled to wreck, yet wafted you to shore:
So shall the storm, that threats your peaceful land,
Roll harmless o'er, or burst, where
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