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Above the clouds let thy proud mufick found,
Thy humble nest build on the ground.

wife nature, to afpire to the fublimity of fong, and, for the reft, to content myself with a finger's lowly temper and condition

Above the clouds let thy proud mufick found,

Thy humble neft build on the ground.

So that, as to the argument drawn from the inftinct of animals, the poet's careleffness and the worldling's care, are equally favoured by it.

-After all, the poet's ferious defign was only to introduce that pretty addrefs to himfelf, and the wellfancied name, with which he qualifies his wife example

Thy fellow-pott, Cowley, mark!

X. The

I

X.

The Danger of Procraftination.

A Letter to Mr. S. L.

A M glad that you approve and applaud my defign, of withdrawing myfelf from all tumult and bufinefs of the world; and confecrating the little reft of my time to thofe ftudies, to which nature had fo motherly inclined me, and from which fortune, like a step-mother, has fo long detained me. But nevertheless (you fay, which, but, is "ærugo mera [m]," a rust which fpoils the good metal it grows upon. But you fay) you would advife me not to precipitate that refolution, but to stay a while longer with patience and complaifance, till I had gotten fuch an eftate as might afford me (according to the faying of that perfon, whom you and I love very much, and would believe as foon as another man)" cum dignitate otium." This were excellent advice to Joshua, who could bid the fun ftay too. But there is no fooling with life, when it is once turned beyond forty. The feeking for a fortune then, is but a desperate after-game : it is a hundred to one, if a man fling two fixes, and recover all; especially, if his hand be no luckier than mine.

[m] Horat. 1 S. iv. 100.

There

There is some help for all the defects of fortune; for if a man cannot attain to the length of his wishes, he may have his remedy by cutting of them fhorter. Epicurus writes a letter to Idomeneus (who was then a very powerful, wealthy, and, it feems, bountiful perfon) to recommend to him, who had made fo many men rich, one Pythocles, a friend of his, whom he defired might be made a rich man too; "" but I intreat you that you would not do it just the fame way, as you have done to many less deferving perfons, but in the most gentlemanly manner of obliging him, which is, not to add any thing to his estate, but to take fomething from his defires."

The fum of this is, that, for the uncertain hopes of fome conveniencies, we ought not to defer the execution of a work, that is neceffary; especially, when the ufe of those things, which we would stay for, may otherwife be fupplied, but the loss of time, never recovered: nay, farther yet, though we were fure to obtain all that we had a mind to, though we were fure of getting never so much by continuing the game, yet, when the light of life is fo near going out, and ought to be so precious," le jeu ne vaut pas la chandelle," the play is not worth the expence of the candle: after having been long toft in a tempeft, if our mafts be ftanding, and we have ftill fail and tackling enough to carry us to our port, it is no matter for the want of ftreamers

and

and top-gallants; "Utere velis, totos pande finus." A gentleman in our late civil wars, when his quarters were beaten up by the enemy, was taken prisoner, and lost his life afterwards, only by staying to put on a band, and adjust his per riwig: he would escape like a person of quality, or not at all, and died the noble martyr of ceremony and gentility. I think, your counsel of "Feftina lente" is as ill to a man who is flying from the world, as it would have been to that unfortunate well-bred gentleman, who was fo cautious as not to fly undecently from his enemies; and therefore I prefer Horace's advice before yours.

Incipe

Sapere aude,

Begin; the getting out of doors is the greatest part of the journey. Varro [n] teaches us that Latin proverb, "portam itineri longiffimam effe:" but to return to Horace,

"Sapere aude,

“Incipe, vivendi qui recte prorogat horam
"Rufticus expectat dum labitur amnis, at ille

46

Labitur, & labetur in omne volubilis ævum [•].

Begin, be bold, and venture to be wife;

He who defers this work from day to day,
Does on a river's bank expecting stay,

[n] Lib. i. Agric.
[0] 1 Ep. ii. 40.

Till the whole ftream, which stopt him, should be gone,

That runs, and as it runs, for ever will run on [p].

Cæfar (the man of expedition above all others) was fo far from this folly, that whensoever, in a journey, he was to cross any river, he never went one foot out of his way for a bridge, or a ford, or a ferry; but flung himself into it immediately, and fwam over: and this is the course we ought to imitate, if we meet with any stops in our way to happiness. Stay, till the waters. are low; stay, till fome boats come by to transport you; stay, till a bridge be built for you; you had even as good stay, till the river be quite paft. Perfius (who, you use to say, you do not know whether he be a good poet or no, because you cannot understand him, and whom therefore, I fay, I know to be not a good poet) has an odd expreffion of these procrastinators, which, methinks, is full of fancy :

"Jain cras hefternum confumpfimus, ecce aliud

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[] This tranflation gives the fenfe, but not the grace, of the original. The following does more juftice to the Latin poet :

"To mend his life who has it in his power,
Yet ftill defers it to a future hour,

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Waits, like the peofant, till the fiream be dry'd:
Still glides the fiream, and will for ever glide.'
Mr. Nevile's Imit. of Horace, p. 85.

[q] Perf. Sat: v. 68.

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