Page:Johnson - Rambler 3.djvu/268

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
258
THE RAMBLER.
N° 149.

than, through the tediousness of decrepitude, to be reproached by the kindness of his own children, to receive not the tribute but the alms of attendance, and to owe every relief of his miseries, not to gratitude but to mercy.




Numb. 149. Tuesday, August 20, 1751.


Quod non sit Pylades hoc tempore, non sit Orestes,
    Miraris? Pylades, Marce, bibebat idem.
Nec melior panis, turdusve dabatur Oresti:
    Sed par, atque eadem cœna duobus erat.—
Te Cadmea Tyrus, me pinguis Gallia vestit:
    Vis te purpureum, Marce, sagatus amem?
Ut præstem Pyladem, aliquis mihi præstet Orestem.
    Hoc non fit verbis, Marce: ut ameris, ama.

 You wonder now that no man sees
Such friends as those of ancient Greece.
Here lay the point————Orestes' meat
Was just the same his friend did eat;
Nor can it yet be found, his wine
Was better, Pylades, than thine.
In home-spun russet I am drest,
Your cloth is always of the best;
But, honest Marcus, if you please
To choose me for your Pylades,
Remember, words alone are vain;
Love————if you would be lov'd again.

F. Lewis.

TotheRAMBLER

SIR,

NO depravity of the mind has been more frequently or justly censured than ingratitude. There is indeed sufficient reason for looking on those that can return evil for good, and repay kindness and assistance with hatred or neglect, as cor-