SWEET Stream, that doft with equal Pace
Both thyself fly, and thyfelf chace,
Forbear awhile to flow,

And liften to my Woe.

Then go, and tell the Sea that all its Brine
Is fresh, compar'd to mine ;

Inform it that the gentler Dame,
Who was the Life of all my Flame,
In th' Glory of her Bud

Has pafs'd the fatal Flood,
Death by this only Stroke triumphs above
The greatest Power of Love;

Alas, alas! I must give o'er,

My Sighs will let me add no more.

Go on, fweet Stream, and henceforth reft
No more than does my troubled Breaft;

And if my fad Complaints have made thee stay,
These Tears, these Tears shall mend thy Way.

THE

THE

PLAGUE of ATHENS,

Which happen'd in the

Second Year of the Peloponnefian War.

Firft defcrib'd in Greek by THUCYDIDES; Then in Latin by LUCRETIUS.

To my Worthy and Learned Friend,

Dr. WALTER POPE,

Late Proctor of the

University of OXFORD.

8 1 R,

Know not what Pleafure you could take in beftowing your Commands fo unprofitably, unless it be that for which Nature fometimes cherishes and allows Monsters, the Love of Variety. This

only Delight you will receive by turning over this rude and unpolifh'd Copy, and comparing it with my excellent Patterns, the Greek and Latin. By this you will fee how much a noble Subject is changed and disfigured by an ill Hand, and what Reafon Alexander had to forbid his Picture to be drawn but by fome celebrated Pencil. In Greek, Thucydides fo well and fo lively expreffes it, that I know not which is more a Poem, his Description or that of Lueretius. Though it must be faid, that the Hiftorian had a vaft Advantage over the Poet; he having been prefent on the Place, and affaulted by the Difeafe himself, had the Horror familiar to his Eyes, and all the Shapes of the Mifery