PO E MS.

It is affirmed by Sir John Hawkins, and denied by Mr. Boswell, that Mr. Savage is the Thales spoken of in line 2. The dispute is trivial. Dr. Johnson introduces a friend, whom he calls Thales, departing from London, because Juvenal describes his friend Umbricius departing from Rome.-L.

The readings at the bottom of the page are those of the first Edition.

LONDON; A POEM:

IN IMITATION OF THE

THIRD SATIRE OF JUVENAL.

WRITTEN IN 1738.

-Quis ineptæ
Tam patiens urbis, tam ferreus ut teneat se?--Juv.

*THOUGH grief and fondness in my breast rebek
When injur'd Thales bids the town farewell,
Yet still my calmer thoughts his choice commend,
I praise the hermit, but regret the friend,
Resolv'd at length, from vice and London far
To breathe in distant fields a purer air,
And, fix'd on Cambria’s solitary shore,
Give to St. David one true Briton more.

*For who would leave, unbrib'd, Hibernia's land,
Or change the rocks of Scotland for the Strand ?
There none are swept by sudden fate away,
But all, whom hunger spares, with age decay:
Here malice, rapine, accident, conspire

, y
And now a rabble rages, now a fire;
Their ambush here relentless ruffians lay,
And here the fell attorney prowls for prey ;

famous Here falling houses thunder on your head, And here a female Atheist talks you dead.

JUV. Sat. Ill.
* Quamvis digressu veteris confusus amici,
Laudo tamen, vacuis quòd sedem figere Cumis
Destinet, atque unum civem donare Sibyllæ.

6- Ego vel Prochytam præpono Suburæ.
Nam quid tam miserum, tam solum vidimus, ut non
Deterius credas horrere incendia, lapsus
Tectorum assiduos, et mille pericula sævæ
Urbis, et Augusto recitantes mense poetas?

“While Thales waits the wherry that contains
Of dissipated wealth the small remains,
On Thames's banks, in silent thought we stood.
Where Greenwich smiles upon the silver flood-;
Struck with the seat that gave ELIZA* birth,
We kneel, and kiss the consecrated earth;
In pleasing dreams the blissful age renew,
And call Britannia's glories back to view;.
Behold her cross triumphant on the main, .
The guard of commerce, and the dread of Spain,
Ere masquerades debauch'd, excise oppress'd,
Or English honour grew a standing jest.