As to Clio's Picture

A FRAGMENT . [H ILL has some verses " To Mr. Dyer, on his attempting Clio's Picture; " and in Savage's works is a poem " To Mr. John Dyer, a painter, advising him to draw a certain noble and illustrious person; occasioned by seeing his picture of the celebrated Clio. " The following poem was perhaps written about the same time. It occurs in the same book as the preceding epistle to a famous painter, and it may be difficult to say whether its allusions express a wish to visit Rome, or a regret at departing from it. The first and second lines are copied, with slight variations, from Pope's verses upon an Unfortunate Lady.]

O DEEPLY learned, wisely modest, tell —
Is it a fault to like thy praise so well?
Pleased to be praised by thee, my spirits glow,
And could I ever, I could paint her now.
I meet her beauties in a brighter ray,
And in my eyebeams all her graces play.

Painting, great goddess, mocks my vain desires,
Her lofty art a lofty soul requires;
Long studies too, and fortune at command,
An eye unwearied, and a patient hand;
And, if I cannot brook to be confined,
What scenes of nature should instruct my mind;
At home, abroad, in sunshine, and in storms,
I should observe her in a thousand forms;
Beneath the morning and the evening sky,
Beneath the nightly lamp with patient eye;
Where princes oft, and oft where slaves resort,
In fleets and camps, at cities and at court;
Low at the base of every pillared dome,
And in the awful fields of ruined Rome.

But what receives the man, but what return
Before his ashes fill the silent urn?
A very little of his life remains,
And has he no reward for all his pains?
None by the thoughtless and the gay arise,
None shine with merit in the miser's eyes,
A veil the envious over beauties throw,
And proud ambition never looks below.
Were it not better seek the arms of ease,
And sullen time with mirth and music please,
Hold pleasant parle with Bacchus over wine?

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