There in full opulence a banker dwelt, Who all the joys and pangs of riches felt: His fide-board glitter'd with imagin'd plates And his proud fancy held a vaft eftate.

As on a time he pass'd the vacant hours In raifing piles of ftraw and twisted bow'rs, A poet enter'd of the neighbouring cell, And with fix'd eye obferv'd the structure

well:

A fharpen'd skew'r'crofs his bare fhoulders bound.

A tatter'd rug, which dragg'd upon the

ground.

The banker cry'd, "Behold my castlewalls,

My ftatues, gardens, fountains, and canals, "With land of more than twenty acres "round!

"All these I fell thee for ten thousand pound." The bard with wonder the cheap purchase faw,

So fign'd the contract (as ordains the law.) The banker's brain was cool'd; the mist grew clear;

The vifionary fcene was loft in air.

He now the vanish'd profpect understood, And fear'd the fancy'd bargain was not good:

Yet

Yet loth the fum intire should be deftroy'd; "Give me a penny, and thy contract's " void."

The ftartled bard with eye indignant frown'd:

"Shall I, ye Gods, (he cries) my debts compound!

So faying, from his rug the skew'r he takes, And on the stick ten equal notches makes; With juftrefentment flings it on the ground; “There, take my tally of ten thousand "pound.

The SOUTH-SEA. 1721.

YE wife philofophers! explain

What magick makes our money rife,
When dropt into the Southern main?
Or do thefe jugglers cheat our eyes?

Put in your money fairly told;
Prefto be gone---'Tis here agen;
Ladies and gentlemen, behold,
Here's ev'ry piece as big as ten.

Charles II, having bor rowed a confiderable fum, gave tallies as a fecurity for the repayment; but foon after, fhut

ting up the Exchequer, these tallies were as much reduced from their original value, as the South-Sea had exceeded it. Thus

Thus in a bafon drop a fhilling,
Then fill the veffel to the brim;
You shall obferve, as you are filling,
The pond'rous metal feems to fwim,

It rifes both in bulk and height;
Behold it fwelling like a fop!
The liquid medium cheats your fight;
Behold it mounted to the top!

In stock three hundred thousand pound;
I have in view a lord's eftate;
My manors all contiguous round;

A coach and fix, and ferv'd in plate.

Thus the deluded bankrupt raves,
Puts all upon a defp'rate bet;
Then plunges in the Southern waves,
Dipt over head and ears---in debt.

So, by a calenture misled,

The mariner with rapture fees
On the smooth ocean's azure bed
Enamel'd fields, and verdant trees.

With eager hafte he longs to rove
In that fantastick scene, and thinks
It must be fome enchanted grove;
And in he leaps, and down he finks.
VOL. VI.

M

Two

Two hundred chariots, juft befpoke,
Are funk in thefe devouring waves,
The horses drown'd, the harness broke;
And here the owners find their graves.

Like Pharaoh, by directors led,

They with their poils went fafe before;
His chariots, tumbling out the dead,
Lay fhatter'd on the Red-fea fhore.

Rais'd up on hope's afpiring plumes,
The young
advent'rer o'er the deep
An eagle's flight and state affumes,
And fcorns the middle way to keep.

On paper wings he takes his flight;
With wax the father bound them faft;
The wax is melted by the height,
And down the tow'ring boy is caft.

His wings are his paternal rent; :
He melts his wax at ev'ry flame;
His credit funk, his money spent,
In Southern feas he leaves his name.

Inform us, you that best can tell,

Why in your dang'rous gulph profound, Where hundreds and where thoufands fell, Fools chiefly float, the wife are drown'd?

So