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CHAPTER XLI

1733

The "Epistle to Lord Bathurst

"The First

Imitation of the Second Book of Horace"

THIS year is memorable in the annals of

Twickenham for the publication of three important poems. Early in January Pope wrote to tell Caryll that the post would bring him the

Epistle to Lord Bathurst," which was not the worst thing he had written, and abounded in moral examples, for which reason it would certainly be obnoxious to the age.

"I believe," he adds, "you will receive from the care of your poor goddaughter a prettier poem. I call her poor, for she deserves pity, both from the strange, unnatural usage she meets with in her own family, and from her weak but wellnatured submission to it."

Taking the Epistle first, we find that, like the other "Moral Essays," it was intended as part of a great comprehensive scheme which was never

1 Afterwards known as the third "Moral Essay."

This may have been either the "Imitation of Horace" or "The Characters of Women."

439 destined to be carried out in its entirety. When Pope was preparing the final edition of his "Works " he was persuaded by Warburton to change the Epistle into a Dialogue. Poor Lord Bathurst used to say that he had often read the Epistle with pleasure, but he was surprised to see how little he contributed to the Dialogue, and what a shabby, indifferent figure he made.

"I hope," he told Warton, "I had generally more to say for myself in the many charming conversations I used to hold with Pope, Swift, and my old poetical friends."

According to the Argument, the proper use of riches is known to few, most persons falling into extremes, either of avarice or profusion. The question is discussed, whether the invention of money has been more convenient or more pernicious to men. Examples are given of prodigals, misers, and philanthropists. It is pointed out that money cannot buy happiness, and that the conduct of men with respect to riches can only be accounted for by the order of Providence, which works the general good out of the extremes of vice or virtue. We find here the first statement of Pope's favourite "ruling passion" theory, which was further developed in the "Essay on Man" and the "Epistle to Lord Cobham."

The ruling passion, be it what it will,

The ruling passion conquers reason still,

The most scathing satire in the Epistle is directed against the discreditable commercial ventures of the period-the South Sea Bubble, the Charitable

Corporation,1 the York Buildings Company, and the fraudulent sale of Lord Derwentwater's forfeited estates. Walpole had shown himself averse from holding parliamentary inquiries into the great public frauds, and the Whig party was supposed to encourage the moneyed interest in opposition to the landed interest. Pope, who had been "bit" in the South Sea Bubble, displayed the bitterness of personal feeling in his denunciation of commercial corruption.

The poem opens with an imaginary discussion between Pope and his friend on the good or evil attributes of gold. But, to quote the poet's own words— Who shall decide when doctors disagree,

And soundest casuists doubt, like you and me?

Bathurst points out the very obvious uses of a currency, while Pope retorts with an equally obvious catalogue of the evils it creates, more especially in the form of paper credit

Blest paper credit! last and best supply!

That lends Corruption lighter wings to fly.

In a delightfully humorous passage the satirist looks back longingly to the good old days of barter, and sketches the various difficulties that would arise

1 In 1730 a corporation was founded under this name to lend money to the poor upon pledges; but the whole was turned only to an iniquitous method of enriching particular people to the ruin of such numbers that it became a parliamentary concern to endeavour the relief of those unhappy sufferers, and three of the managers, who were members of the House, were expelled.

2 Lord Hervey states that Walpole opposed the Bill for vacating the fraudulent sales of Lord Derwentwater's estate, by which the trustees had cheated the public of an immense sum and acted in flat contradiction to an Act of Parliament.

if it became necessary to bribe with goods instead of with bank-notes.

A statesman's slumbers how this speech would spoil:
"Sir, Spain has sent a thousand jars of oil,

Huge bales of British cloth blockade the door,

A hundred oxen at your levee roar !"

Pope next inquires what good things money can buy, and, having proved that it cannot purchase health or happiness, reduces its benefits to the bare necessaries of food, clothes, and fire. The corrupt commercial enterprises of the time are next touched upon, enterprises by which great fortunes were fraudulently made or foolishly lost, and instances are given of misers, sharp practitioners, and spendthrifts.

The career of the Man of Ross is quoted as an example of the public good that may be done by a man of moderate fortune.

Whose causeway parts the vale with shady rows?
Whose seats the weary traveller repose?
Who taught that heaven-directed spire to rise?
"The Man of Ross," each lisping babe replies.
Behold the market-place with poor o'erspread!
The Man of Ross divides the weekly bread;
He feeds yon almshouse, neat but void of state,
Where Age and Want sit smiling at the gate.
Him portioned maids, apprenticed orphans blessed,
The young who labour, and the old who rest.

1 John Kyrle (1637-1724). He was a country gentleman who lived on his estate at Ross, and devoted the whole of his surplus income to works of charity. He kept open house on every marketday, and the remains of the feast were distributed to the poor. He promoted the erection of some waterworks near the Wye, founded an almshouse, and planted a shady walk, about a mile and a half in length, called Kyrle's Walk. The Kyrle Society, inaugurated in 1877, was named after him.

Then comes the revelation that these and other miracles of benevolence were accomplished on an income of five hundred pounds a year.1 Pope had taken a good deal of trouble to "get up get up" the facts relating to the Man of Ross, whose story had fired his imagination. Two years before he had written to Jacob Tonson, who lived in the neighbourhood of Ross, to ask exact particulars about John Kyrle. Tonson sent him such information as he could gather, and Pope touched up the details, excusing his exaggeration on the ground that, since the world is bad enough to be always extenuating and lessening the virtue that is among us, it is but reasonable to pay it sometimes a little over-measure to balance that injustice, especially when it is done for example and encouragement to others. "If any man shall ever happen to endeavour to emulate the Man of Ross, it will be no manner of harm if I make him think he was something more charitable and more beneficent than he really was, for so much more good it would put the imitator upon doing."

"2

However warm his admiration for the virtues of the Man of Ross, Pope rises to greater heights of poetry when he deals with the death-bed scene of George Villiers, the famous second Duke

1 This income, however, was explained to be clear of debts and taxes, as well as wife and children. Johnson says that the Man of Ross was assisted in his good works by rich people who had faith in his integrity and benevolence.

In the same spirit he paints Sir John Cutler as a miser of unrelieved parsimony. Cutler was a well-known alderman of London who was scarcely less renowned for his public munificence than for his private frugality; but, as Sir John was to serve as a warning, Pope thought himself justified in ignoring the worthy man's generosity.

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