Paulus: An Epigram

By Mr. Lindsay

Dublin, Sept. 7, 1728.

"A SLAVE to crowds, scorch'd with the summer's heats,
In courts the wretched lawyer toils and sweats;
While smiling Nature, in her best attire,
Regales each sense, and vernal joys inspire.
Can he, who knows that real good should please,
Barter for gold his liberty and ease?"—
This Paulus preach'd:—When, entering at the door,
Upon his board the client pours the ore:
He grasps the shining gift, pores o'er the cause,
Forgets the sun, and dozes on the laws.

[Footnote 1: A polite and elegant scholar; at that time an eminent
pleader at the bar in Dublin, and afterwards advanced to be one of the
Justices of the Common Pleas.—H.]