"Forsince Daphne to shun me grew into a laurel, "With the sex I have sworn still to keep up

quarrel."

the

I thought it a joke, 'till by writing to you,
I have prov'd his resentment, alas! but too true.

SIR CHARLES'S REPLY.

I'LL not believe that Phoebus did not smile : Unhappily for you I know his style;

To strains like yours, of old his harp he strung, And while he dictated, Orinda sung.

Did beauteous Daphne's scorn of proffer'd love Against the sex his indignation move?

It rather made you his peculiar care,

Convinc'd from thence, ye were as good as fair.
As mortals who from dust receiv'd their birth,
Must when they die return to native earth;
So, too, the laurel, that your brow adorns,
Sprang from the fair, and to the fair returns.

TAR WATER,

A BALLAD:

INSCRIBED TO THE

RIGHT HONOURABLE

PHILIP EARL OF CHESTERFIELD.

SINCE good Master Prior,

The Tar-water 'squire,

Without being counted to blame,
Vulgar patrons hath scorn'd,

And his treatise adorn'd

With the lustre of Chesterfield's name ;

Great Mecænas of arts!

And all men of parts,

(Tho' they're not much the growth of the time)

I hope 'twill be meet

To lay at your feet

The same lofty subject in rhyme.

Then come, let us sing!

Death, a fig for thy sting!

I think we shall serve thee a trick;

For the Bishop of Cloyne*

Hast at last laid a mine,

That will blow up both thee and old Nick,

Have but faith in his treatise,t

Tho' you've stone, diabetes, Gout, or fever, tar-water 's specific; If you're costive, 'twill work ; If you purge, 'tis a cork;

And, if old, it will make you prolific.

* Bishop Berkeley.

+ The title of the excellent Bishop Berkeley's work on this subject is "Siris," a chain of philosophical reflections and inquiries concerning the virtues of Tar-water, and divers other subjects, connected together and arising one from another; which was followed by "An authentic Narrative of the success of Tar-water, in curing a great number and variety of distempers; with remarks and occasional papers relative to the subject: to which are subjoined, two Letters from the author of Siris, shewing the medicinal properties of Tar-water, and the best manner of making it." By Thomas Prior, Esq.

All ye fair ones, who lie sick,
Leave off doctors and physic,

Tar-water will cure all your ails;

Have

you rheums or defluctions,

Or whims, or obstructions,

It will set right your heads and

your

tails.

See, each tall slender maid

Now lifts up her head,

Like a beautiful fir on the mountain!

While, salubrious, flow,

From a fissure below,

The streams of a turpentine * fountain.

Each Nymph from afar,

Is so scented with tar,

That unless they're permitted to

All the Devils in hell

(So alike is the smell)

Can't know a

from a cart wheel.

Turpentine the principal ingredient of Tar, is thus extracted from the fir-tree.