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Wife Peter fees the World's refpect for Gold, And therefore hopes this Nation may be fold: Glorious Ambition! Peter, fwell thy store, And be what Rome's great Didius was before.

The Crown of Poland, venal twice an age, To just three millions ftinted modeft Gage. But nobler fcenes Maria's dreams unfold, Hereditary Realms, and worlds of Gold. Congenial fouls! whofe life one Av'rice joins, And one fate buries in th'Afturian Mines.

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Much injur❜d Blunt! why bears he Britain's hate? A wizard told him in these words our fate:

NOTES.

VER. 123. Wife Peter] PETER WALTER, a perfon not only eminent in the wifdom of his profeffion, as a dextrous attorney, but allowed to be a good, if not a fafe, conveyancer; extremely refpected by the Nobility of this land, tho' free from all manner of luxury and oftentation: his Wealth was never seen, and his bounty never heard of, except to his own fon, for whom he procured an employment of confiderable profit, of which he gave him as much as was neceffary. Therefore the taxing this gentleman with any Ambition, is certainly a great wrong to him. P

VER. 126. Rome's great Didius] A Roman Lawyer, fo rich as to purchase the Empire when it was set to fale upon the death of Pertinax. P.

VER. 127. The Crown of Poland, &c.] The two perfons here mentioned were of Quality, each of whom in the Miffifippi defpis'd to realize above three hundred thousand pounds; the Gentleman with a view to the purchase of theCrown of Poland, the Lady on a vifion of the like royal nature. They fince retired into Spain, where they are still in fearch of gold in the mines of the Afturies. P.

VER, 133. Much_injur'd Blunt!] Sir JOHN BLUNT,

"At length Corruption, like a gen'ral flood, 135

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(So long by watchful Minifters withstood)

"Shall deluge all; and Av'rice creeping on, ἐσ Spread like a low-born mist, and blot the Sun; "Statesman and Patriot ply alike the stocks, "Peerefs and Butler fhare alike the Box',

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"And Judges job, and Bishops bite the town, "And mighty Dukes pack cards for half a crown. "See Britain funk in lucre's fordid charms, "And France reveng'd of ANNE's and EDWARD'S <c arms ?"

NOTES.

which he had indeed lived to fee many miserable examples. He died in the year 1732. P.

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VER. 137. Avrice creeping on, Spread like a low born mist, and blot the Sun ;] The fimilitude is extremely appofite, implying that this vice is of bafe and mean original; hatched and nursed up amongst Scriveners, Stock-jobbers, and Citts; and unknown, 'till of

originally a fcrivener, was one of the first projectors of the South-fea company, and afterwards one of the directors and chief managers of the famous scheme in 1720. He was alfo one of those who fuffer'd most severely by the bill of pains and penalties on the faid directors. He was a Diffenter of a moft religious deportment, and profess'd to be a great believer. Whether he did real-late, to the Nobles of this land: ly credit the prophecy here But now, in the fulness of time, mentioned is not certain, but fhe rears her head, and afpires it was conftantly in this very to cover the most illuftrious style he declaimed against the ftations in her dark and pefticorruption and luxury of the lential fhade. The Sun, and age, the partiality of Parlia- other luminaries of Heaven, ments, and the mifery of party- fignifying, in the high eaftern fpirit. He was particularly ftyle, the Grandees and Noeloquent againft. Avarice in bles of the earth. great and noble perfons, of

'Twas no Court-badge,greatScriv'ner! fir'd thy brain, Nor lordly Luxury, nor City Gain:

No, 'twas thy righteous end, asham'd to see

Senates degen'rate, Patriots disagree,

And nobly wishing Party-rage to cease,

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To buy both fides, and give thy Country peace. 150 "All this is madness," cries a fober sage: But who, my friend, has reason in his rage? "The ruling Paffion, be it what it will, "The ruling Paffion conquers Reason ftill."

COMMENTARY.

VER. 151. All this is madness," &c.] But now the Sage, who has confined himself to books, which prescribe the government of the paffions; and never looked out upon the world, where he might fee them let loose, and, like Milton's devils, riding the air in whirlwind, cries out, All this is madness. True, replies the poet (from 151 to 177) but this madness is a common one, and only to be prevented by a fevere attention to the rule laid down in the Efay,

Reafon fill ufe, to Reafon fill attend, Ep. ii. 68. for with the generality of men, and without the greatest circumfpection,

The ruling Paffion, be it what it will,

The ruling Paffion conquers Reafon ftill.

But then (continues he) as wild as this paffion appears, by the fway of its overbearing bias, it would be ftill more fenseless had it no bias at all. You have feen us here intermix with the real the most fantastical and extravagant that imagination could form; yet even these are less extravagant than a ruling Paffion without a conftant aim. Would you know the reafon? then liften to this important truth: ""Tis HEAVEN itself that gives "the ruling Paffion, and thereby directs different men to dif"ferent ends: But these being exerted through the ministry of

Lefs mad the wildeft whimsey we can frame, 155

Than ev'n that Paffion, if it has no Aim;
For tho' fuch motives Folly you may call,

The Folly's greater to have none at all.

Hear then the truth: ""Tis Heav'n each Paffion "fends,

"And diff'rent men directs to diffrent ends. 160 "Extremes in Nature equal good produce, "Extremes in Man concur to gen'ral use.

COMMENTARY.

"NATURE (of whom the great Bacon truly obferves, modum " tenere nefcia eft, Aug. Scient. 1. ii. c. 13.) they are very apt to run into extremes: To correct which, Heaven, at the fame time, added the moderatrix Reafon; not to take the " ruling Paffion out of the hands and miniftry of Nature, but "to reftrain and rectify its irregular impulfes (See Essay, Ep. ii. "151, & feq.) and what extremes, after this, remained un

corrected in the administration of this weak Queen (†140, "Ep. ii.) the divine artist himself has, in his heavenly skill and "bounty, fet to rights; by fo ordering, that these of the moral, like those of the natural world, fhould, even by the very " means of their contrariety and diverfity, concur to defeat the malignity of one another:

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Extremes in Nature equal good produce,

Extremes in Man concur to gen'ral ufe.

"For as the various feasons of the year are supported and suf"tained by the reconciled extremes of Wet and Dry, Cold and "Heat; fo all the orders and degrees of civil life are kept up " by Avarice and Profufion, Selfishness and Vanity. The Mifer "being but the Steward of the Prodigal; and only fo much the "more backward as the other is violent and precipitate:"

This year a Refervoir, to keep and spare;
The next a Fountain, Spouting thro' his heir.

Ask we what makes one keep, and one bestow?
That Pow'R who bids the Ocean ebb and flow,
Bids feed-time, harvest, equal course maintain, 165
Thro' reconcil'd extremes of drought and rain,
Builds Life on Death, on Change Duration founds,
And gives th'eternal wheels to know their rounds.
Riches, like infects, when conceal'd they lie,
Wait but for wings, and in their season fly.
Who fees pale Mammon pine amidst his store,
Sees but a backward steward for the Poor;
This year a Refervoir, to keep and spare;
The next, a Fountain, fpouting thro' his Heir,
In lavish streams to quench a Country's thirst, 175
And men and dogs fhall drink him till they burft.

NOTES.

VER. 173. This year a Refervoir, to keep and fpare; The next, a Fountain, spouting thro' his Heir,] Befides the obvious beauties of this fine fimilitude, it has one ftill more exquifite, tho' lefs obfervable, which is its being taken from a circumftance in the most elegant part of improved life. For tho' in Society, the follies of hoarding and fquandering may correct each other, and produce real advantage to the whole; as Reservoirs and Fountains

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may be both ufeful and ornamental amongst the other im-provements of art; yet in a State of Nature either kind of excefs would be pernicious; becaufe, in that State, the quantity of natural goods, unimproved by art, would not fuffer, without great danger of want to the whole body, either an immoderate hoarding, or a lavish profufion. And therefore Providence has wifely ordered that, in that State, by there being no fantastic

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