Reader,

If thou art a BRITON,

Behold this Tomb with Reverence and Regret:
Here lie the Remains of
DANIEL PULTENEY,

The kindest Relation, the trueft Friend,
The warmeft Patriot, the worthieft Man ;
He exercised Virtues in this Age,
Sufficient to have diftinguish'd him even in the beft.
Sagacious by Nature,
Induftrious by Habit,
Inquifitive with Art;

He gain'd a complete Knowledge of the State of Britain,
Foreign and domeftic.

In moft the backward Fruit of tedious Experience,
In him the early Acquifition of undiffipated Youth:
He ferv'd the Court feveral Years:

M.

Abroad, in the aufpicious Reign of Queen Anne, At home, in the Reign of that excellent Prince K. George the first. He ferved his Country always, At Court independent, In the Senate unbiass'd, At every Age, and in every Station : This was the bent of his generous Soul, This the Bufinefs of his laborious Life.

Public Men, and Public Things,
He judged by one conftant Standard,
The true Intereft of Britain:
He made no other Diftinction of Party,
He abhorred all other:

Gentle, humane, difinterested, beneficent,
He created no Enemies on his own Account:
Firm, determin'd, inflexible,

He feared none he could create in the Caufe of Britain.

Reader,

In this Misfortune of thy Country lament thy own :
For know,

The Lofs of fo much private Virtue
Is a public Calamity.

That poignant fatire, as well as extravagant praife, may be conveyed in this manner, will be feen by the following Epitaph written by Dr. Arbuthnot on Francis Chartres; which

is too well known, and too much admired, to need our commendation.

HERE continueth to rot

The Body of FRANCIS CHARTRES,
Who with an INFLEXIBLE CONSTANCY,
And INIMITABLE UNIFORMITY of Life,
PERSISTED,

In fpite of AGE and INFIRMITIES,
In the Practice of EVERY HUMAN VICE,
Excepting PRODIGALITY and HYPOCRISY:
His infatiable AVARICE exempted him from the first,
His matchlefs IMPUDENCE from the fecond.
Nor was he more fingular

In the undeviating Pravity of his Manners,
Than fuccefsful

In Accumulating WEALTH:

For, without TRADE OF PROFESSION,
Without TRUST of PUBLIC MONEY,
And without BRIBE-WORTHY Service,
He acquired, or more properly created,
A MINISTERIAL ESTATE.

He was the only Person of his Time

Who could CHEAT without the Mask of HONESTY,
Retain his Primeval MEANNESS

When poffefs'd of TEN THOUSAND a year;

And having daily deserved the GIBBET for what he did, Was at laft condemn'd to it for what he could not do. Oh Indignant Reader !

Think not his Life ufelefs to Mankind;

PROVIDENCE Conniv'd at his execrable Designs,
To give to After-ages

A confpicuous PROOF and EXAMPLE,
Of how small Eftimation is EXORBITANT WEALTH
in the Sight of GOD,

By his bestowing it on the moft UNWORTHY OF ALL
MORTALS.

This fort of Epitaph may alfo admit of humour and ridicule, as will appear by the following on a boon companion who is fuppofed to have loft his life to obtain his friend a borough.

An EPITAPH on Mr. Dove, an Apothecary; who unfortunately murdered himself by canvaffing at Elections.

Here lie

Sequefter'd from the various calamities of life,
The remains of Benjamin Dove,
Doctor, and dealer in politics;
Whofe courage and intrepidity expofed him
to many dangers and difficulties, and at
laft to death itself; for on the 26th
of May, 1754, he fell a victim,
not to the word, but to the glass.
He was in all refpects a truly worthy man ;
A kind and steady friend,
A generous benefactor,
A warm patriot,
An agreeable companion,
A cutter of jokes,
And a great canvaffer at elections.

In the most corrupt and abandon'd age,
He maintain'd his independency,
Difdain'd every bribe;

Nor cou'd the arts and infinuations of the wicked
Induce him once to play

The part of a Jack-of-both fides;

But ever fix'd and determin'd in his choice,
And aided by the arms of Bacchus,
He gain'd many profelytes to the caufe
For which he died.

He was a good Chriftian in his day, And rather inclin'd to the Church than to the Synagogue;

A man of Virtue,

Tho' a lover of the Wenches.

Some faults he had,

But none that his friends could fee,
Or that his enemies can remember..
Farewel, dear friend, thy glass is run ;
Death has a FINIS Fix d to FUN.
Thofe jokes which o'er the mantling bowl
Regal'd the heart, and chear'd the foul,
And gain'd thy patriot friend a vote,
Muft, with thy virtues, be forgot :
Yet, of a thousand, one in ten,
May fhrug, perhaps, and cry- POOR BEN!

We fhall conclude this fpecies of poetry with a droll and fatirical Epitaph written by Mr. Pope, which we transcribed from a nonument in Lord Cobham's gardens at Stow in Buckinghamshire.

To the Memory
of

SIGNIOR FIDO,

An Italian of good Extraction;
Who came into England,

Not to bite us, like most of his Countrymen,
But to gain an honeft Livelyhood.
He hunted not after Fame,
Yet acquir'd it;

Regardless of the Praife of his Friends,
but moft fenfible of their Love.
Tho' he liv'd amongst the Great,
He neither learnt nor flatter'd any Vice.
He was no Bigot,

"Tho' he doubted of none of the 39 Articles.
And, if to follow Nature,

and to refpect the Laws of Society,

be Philofophy,

he was a perfect Philofopher;

a faithful Friend,
an agreeable Companion,
a loving Hufband,

diftinguish'd by a numerous Offspring,

all which he liv'd to fee take good Courses.
In his old Age he retired

to the House of a Clergyman in the Country,
where he finished his earthly Race,

and died an Honour and an Example to the whole Species.

Reader,
This Stone is guiltlefs of Flattery,

for he to whom it is infcrib'd

was not a MAN,

but a GREY-HOUND.

CHAP. X.

Of the ELEGY.

was firit

HE Elegy is a mournful and plaintive, but yet a sweet and to bewail the death of a friend, and afterwards us'd to exprefs the complaints of lovers, or any other doleful and melancholy subject. In process of time not only matters of grief, but joy, wifhes, prayers, expoftulations, reproaches, admonitions, and almost every other fubject, were admitted into Elegy; however, funeral lamentations and affairs of love seem most agreeable to its character.

The plan of an Elegy, as indeed of all other poems, ought to be made before a line is written; or else the author will ramble in the dark, and his verses have no dependance on each other. No epigrammatic points or conceits, none of thofe fine things which moft people are fo fond of in every fort of poem, can be allow'd in this, but must give place to nobler beauties, thofe of Nature and the Paffions. Elegy rejects whatever is facetious, fatirical, or majestic, and is content to be plain, decent, and unaffected; yet in this humble state is the fweet and engaging, elegant and attractive. This poem is adorn'd with frequent commiferations, complaints, exclamations, addresses to things or perfons, fhort and proper digreffions, allufions, comparisons, prosopopaias or feigned perfons, and fometimes with fhort descriptions. The diction ought to be free from any barfbnefs; neat, eafy, perfpicuous, expreffive of the manners, tender, and pathetic; and the numbers fhould be smooth and flowing, and captivate the ear with their uniform fweetness and delicacy.

For an example of a good and mournful Elegy, I fhall infert one written by Mr. Pope, which will give the reader a juft idea of the tender and plaintive character of this kind of poem.

To the memory of an unfortunate LADY.

What beck'ning ghoft along the moonlight shade Invites my step, and points to yonder glade?