[Page 5]
TYPOGRAPHIA. AN ODE, ON PRINTING.
I.
YE NYMPHS, who o'er
Castalian Springs,
With joint Command preside,
Who trill the Lyre's sonorous Strings,
Record the great and glorious Things,
Of Godlike
Rulers, matchless
Kings,
And poetic Numbers guide;
Daughters of eternal
Iove,
Gently to my Assistance move:
[Page 6]Whether on
Pindus' lofty Top you play,
Or, with Heav'n-kindled Fire,
M
[...]ouian Notes inspire,
And shew another
Ilium's fatal Day;
Or, if upon the
Elian Plain
You sing the Victor's glorious Deeds,
Where
[...]in
[...]ar lash'd his fiery-footed Steed▪
His fiery-footed Steeds impatient of the Rein
II.
Or if your more exalted Will
To those sweet Seats of blissful Quiet leads,
Where gentle
CAM the slow'ry Mead.
With genial Moisture overflows;
Or, where the Silver
ISIS, smooth and still.
Does, like a bashful Bride,
Into the Arms of amorous
THAME
Without a Murmur glide:
Hence
ADDISON, the
British Maro, rose,
Thence
DRYDEN soar'd the highest Pitch of Fame:
Leave, leave awhile those blest Abodes,
To view a new-arising
Land,
A
Land, whose fertile Plains,
And peaceful shady Woods,
May well demand
[Page 7]Your sweetest Notes, and loftiest Strains,
Where, with supreme Command, your own
AUGUSTUS reigns.
III.
AUGUSTUS reigns;
His far-extended Sway,
Nor Length of boundless Land restrains,
Nor separating Sea.
But oh! much more extended is the Pow'r,
Than o'er the Length of boundless Land,
Or o'er the Sea's remotest Strand,
Where Goodness and paternal Care
The Sovereign's native Vertues are,
And Subjects Hearts with Loialty run o'er:
Where envious Thoughts abortive die,
Nor Malice rowls her low'ring Eye:
Where, with contending Zeal,
The
Prince and
People strive,
The
Prince to make his
People thrive,
Their Grievances to heal;
And all their good and adverse Fortune shares;
They, in Return to
Him,
Pay mutual Rev'rence and Esteem,
And all his Pow'r, his Honour, Happiness, is theirs.
[Page 8]
IV.
Such BRITAIN is, — "Oh happy envy'd Isle,
"Sea-wall'd Commander of
EUROPA's Trade,
(Mournful
VIRGINIA, sighing said)
"Plac'd in thy Sovereign's Smile,
"Whose Presence, like th' enliv'ning Sun,
("Who, where his genial Rays appear,
"Productive of a fruitful Year.
"The lab'ring Hind's most greedy Hopes does bless)
"Does a diffusive Course of Goodness run,
"And ripens all thy Hopes into Success.
"Whilst I — and yet thy
eldest Forei
[...] Care —
"Am numb'd with Winters cold and bare,
"And toilsome Summers fruitless Harvests share.
"O happy were my Lot,
"Would that kind
Sun dispense
"On me a nearer Ray of his mild Influence!
"I see his Light, I guess his Warmth, — I feel it not.
V.
She said, she sigh'd, —
AUGUSTUS heard;
And straight, with willing Mind,
For her Relief prepar'd,
[Page 9]Her Sufferings to remove;
He knew the MAN design'd
To be
VIRGINIA's future Boast and Love;
He knew His native Vertue and His Worth;
Nor long He staid,
But all Things ready made,
With eager Haste He sent Him forth.
VI.
He came, He saw, and was belov'd;
Like Lightning, quick, but strong,
An universal Gladness mov'd
Throughout th' admiring Throng.
No sooner was He seen,
His calm, yet awful Look,
Majestic, yet serene,
The very Pow'r of Prejudice remov'd,
And ev'n His
Silence spoke.
But when His graceful
Tongue,
Copious of Reason, did display
To Happiness, our nearest, surest Way,
Ev'n Party-Rancour dy'd away,
And private Spleen.
[Page 10]We found whence
Britain is so blest▪
Which had so much our Envy bore,
We found — and griev'd we found it not before —
We found, that when by Love and Peace,
A Prince has fix'd his Throne
In ev'ry Subject's loial Breast,
No wonder Factions end, and Murmurs cease, —
Since now, what
GEORGE is there,
GOOCH here has amply shewn.
VII.
Great
REPRESENTATIVE!
What Thanks shall we return? What Honours shew?
To whom our
Staple does its Being owe,
By whom our Hopes revive:
By whom all
Arts recov'ring live,
That erst like drooping Plants had dropt their Head▪
And once again, with native Vigour thrive:
From whom
VIRGINIA's Laws, that lay
In blotted
Manuscripts obscur'd,
By vulgar Eyes unread,
Which whilome scarce the Light endur'd,
Begin to view again the Day,
As rising from the Dead.
For this the careful
Artist wakes,
And o'er his countless Brood he stands,
[Page 11]His numerous Hoards,
Of
speechless Letters,
unform'd Words,
Unjointed Questions, and
unmeaning Breaks,
Which into Order rise, and Form, at his Commands.
VIII.
At his Commands they rise,
And cloath themselves with Sense,
Whether an antient Law that dormant lies,
The
sage judicious FIVE revise,
(Great is your Care, your Pains be blest,
In all you undertake or do,
Ye
separated FEW
[...] Genius of the rest▪)
Or where the newer Acts commence:
Or where, on
solemn Subjects to enlarge,
In more harmonious Word▪ they shine;
New Beauties crowding every Line
Come forth their
Patron's
CHARGE.
There, PARKS, thy Pains are lost — We find
The
Eloquence employs the Mind,
The
Artist lags behind.
HIS lab'ring Thoughts with Wisdom teem,
And struggle with the mighty Birth;
[Page 12]Thy
Art does like
Lucina seem,
And only helps to send the
[...]fect
Embrio forth.
IX.
Yet fair befal His Fame,
And may his Mem'ry long
In latest Annals live,
Who first contriv'd the
wondrous Frame,
That to
dead Types supply'd a
Tongue,
And
Speech to
lifeless Characters could give.
O well was he employ'd the while,
And happy was the vent'rous Toil!
His Breast had compass'd some great Thought,
Tho' formless yet, and void,
His busy Faculties were all employ'd,
How future Ages might be surest taught,
By old Examples, long since done,
What Paths to follow, what to shun,
How Vertue ev'n in Death befriends,
And how Ambition ends,
How
Socrates instructed,
Caesar fought;
Long Time, his swelling Breast
The great
Idea had opprest,
'Till, fix'd at Length, be in a Rapture bid,
Come up a
glorious, great Design, — And so it did.
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X.
With less Expence of Care and Thought
Did th' antient
Sage surmise
The
Frame, (thus
Epicurus taught)
And
Order of the Earth to rise;
And first he told the
Dance
Of
Atoms through th' expanded
Vast,
With
Accidents endu'd,
Of
Figure, Gravity, and
Magnitude;
By whose
Cohesion fast,
As each to other did advance,
The
homogeneous Parts ally'd,
Were in the strictest
Closure ty'd,
And
Matter hence arose▪
Directed thence by sightless
Chance,
The jumbled Mass
fortuitous was hurl'd,
Where
Hap a beauteous Fabric did compose,
And made an
accidental World.
XI.
Thus sung
Neocles' unenlighten'd Son,
When
Nature, not improv'd by
Grace,
But dimly on her
Vot'ries shone,
And half conceal'd her Face:
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Foolish Wise-men! Nor was their Sense
Acuter to perceive a
Providence.
To
Us, a surer Doctrine's shewn,
Which
Truth it self has spoke;
And faithful
TYPES, by Time unbroke,
Through many Ages have continu'd down
The mighty Works to
Them unknown
In Clouds of wilful Ignorance
They err'd,
Peccant in wild Conjectures of their own,
And each his own preferr'd.
Hence
some the World
eternal Thought.
To
Discord some its
Origin assign'd,
Others a perfect
Harmony could find,
Destructive of that Scheme;
All with delusive Fancies fraught,
Dreamt idle Whims —
Creation only was
no Dream.
XII.
Happy the
Art, by which we learn
The Gloss of Errors to detect,
The Vice of Habits to correct,
And sacred Truths, from Falshood to discern!
By which we take a far-stretch'd View▪
And learn our Fathers Vertues to pursue,
Their Follies to eschew.
[Page 15]And may that
Art to latest Times proclaim
Its PATRON's Honourable Name.
As some
Sybillin Book of old,
Had
Sybils known the Times to come,
Wrapt in
Futurity's dark Womb,
Would thus these happy Days have told:
"Revolving Ages hence,
"In Climates now unknown,
"A
Ruler's gentle Influence
"Shall o'er his Land be shewn;
"
Saturnian Reigns shall be renew'd,
"Truth, Justice, Vertue, be pursu'd,
"Arts flourish, Peace shall crown the Plains,
"Where
[...]OOCH administers,
AUGUSTUS reigns.
FINIS.