He to his labour hies
Gladsome, intent on somewhat that may ease
Unhealthy mortals, and with curious search
Examines all the properties of herbs,
Fossils and minerals, &c.
or else his thoughts
Are exercised with speculations deep,
Of good, and just, and meet, and th' wholesome rules
Of temperance, and ought that may improve
The moral life; &c.
[98] Lord Lansdowne.—Croker.
[99] This is taken from Horace's epistle to Tibullus:
An tacitum silvas inter reptare salubres,
Curantem quidquid dignum sapiente bonoque est?—Wakefield.
Pope remembered Creech's translation of the passage:
Or dost thou gravely walk the healthy wood,
Considering what befits the wise and good.
——servare modum, finemque tenere,
Naturamque sequi. Lucan.—Warburton.
[101] Dryden's Virgil, Geor. ii. 673:
Ye sacred muses! with whose beauty fired,
My soul is ravished, and my brain inspired.—Wakefield.