THE BIRTH OF MANLY VIRTUE

INSCRIBED TO LORD CARTERET[1]
1724

Gratior et pulcro veniens in corpore virtus.—­VIRG., Aen., v, 344.

Once on a time, a righteous sage,
Grieved with the vices of the age,
Applied to Jove with fervent prayer—­
“O Jove, if Virtue be so fair
As it was deem’d in former days,
By Plato and by Socrates,
Whose beauties mortal eyes escape,
Only for want of outward shape;
Make then its real excellence,
For once the theme of human sense;
So shall the eye, by form confined,
Direct and fix the wandering mind,
And long-deluded mortals see,
With rapture, what they used to flee!”
  Jove grants the prayer, gives Virtue birth,
And bids him bless and mend the earth. 
Behold him blooming fresh and fair,
Now made—­ye gods—­a son and heir;
An heir:  and, stranger yet to hear,
An heir, an orphan of a peer;[2]
But prodigies are wrought to prove
Nothing impossible to Jove. 
  Virtue was for this sex design’d,
In mild reproof to womankind;
In manly form to let them see
The loveliness of modesty,
The thousand decencies that shone
With lessen’d lustre in their own;
Which few had learn’d enough to prize,
And some thought modish to despise. 
  To make his merit more discern’d,
He goes to school—­he reads—­is learn’d;
Raised high above his birth, by knowledge,
He shines distinguish’d in a college;
Resolved nor honour, nor estate,
Himself alone should make him great. 
Here soon for every art renown’d,
His influence is diffused around;
The inferior youth to learning led,
Less to be famed than to be fed,
Behold the glory he has won,
And blush to see themselves outdone;
And now, inflamed with rival rage,
In scientific strife engage,
Engage; and, in the glorious strife
The arts new kindle into life. 
  Here would our hero ever dwell,
Fix’d in a lonely learned cell: 
Contented to be truly great,
In Virtue’s best beloved retreat;
Contented he—­but Fate ordains,
He now shall shine in nobler scenes,
Raised high, like some celestial fire,
To shine the more, still rising higher;
Completely form’d in every part,
To win the soul, and glad the heart. 
The powerful voice, the graceful mien,
Lovely alike, or heard, or seen;
The outward form and inward vie,
His soul bright beaming from his eye,
Ennobling every act and air,
With just, and generous, and sincere. 
  Accomplish’d thus, his next resort
Is to the council and the court,
Where Virtue is in least repute,
And interest the one pursuit;
Where right and wrong are bought and sold,
Barter’d for beauty, and for gold;
Here Manly Virtue, even here,
Pleased in the person of a peer,
A peer; a scarcely bearded youth,
Who talk’d of justice and of truth,