True, confcious Honour is to feel no fin,
He's arm'd without that's innocent within;
Be this thy Screen, and this thy Wall of Brass ;95
Compar'd to this a Minister's an Afs.

1

S

'And fay, to which shall our applaufe belong, This new Court jargon, or the good old fong? The modern language of corrupted Peers, Or what was spoke at CRESSY and POITIERS? * Who counfels beft? who whispers, "Be but great, "With Praise or Infamy leave that to fate; 102 "Get Place and Wealth, if poffible, with grace; "If not, by any means get Wealth and Place. For what? to have a Box where Eunuchs fing, And foremost in the Circle eye a King. 106

Or "he, who bids thee face with steddy view Proud Fortune, and look shallow Greatnefs thro': And, while he bids thee, fets th' Example too?

NOTES.

" à fa mode, & demande des remarques proportionnées à fon "goût:" he then fets himself in good earnest about this important inquiry; and, by a paffage in Vegetius, luckily discovers, that it fignified an old veteran armed cap-a-pie in brass, and PLACED TO COVER HIS FELLow. Our Poet has happily ferved himself of this impertinence to convey a very fine ftroke of fatire.

Thefe four lines greatly fuperior

1

VER. 97. And fay, etc.] to any thing in the Original. VOL. IV.

y Quod fi me Populus Romanus forte roget, cur

Non, ut porticibus, fic judiciis fruar îfdem ;

Nec fequar aut fugiam, quae diligit ipse vel odit:

Olim quod vulpes aegroto cauta leoni

Refpondit, referam: Quia me veftigia terrent
Omnia te adverfum spectantia, nulla retrorfum.

Belua multorum es capitum. nam quid fequar,
aut quem?

Pars hominum geftit conducere publica: funt qui

a

NOTES.

VER. 117. Full many a Beaft goes in, but none come out.] This expreffion is used for the joke's fake; but it hurts his moral; which is, that they come out beafts. He fhould here have ftuck to the terms of his Original, veftigia omnia te adverfum Spectantia.

VER. 118. Adieu to Virtue, etc.] These two lines are intended for the application or moral of a fable, which needed no explaining; fo that, they impair the grace of it, at best, inferior to his Original. For Horace fpeaks of the common people, Populus Romanus, to whom one of Æfop's Fables was properly addreffed but, this is too fimple a method of conveying truth to the well-dreft Rabble of St. James's.

110

If y fuch a Doctrine, in St. James's air,
Shou'd chance to make the well-dreft Rabble stare;
If honeft S*z take fcandal at a Spark,

That lefs admires the Palace than the Park:
Faith I fhall give the answer Reynard gave:
"I cannot like, dread Sir, your Royal Cave: 115
"Because I fee, by all the tracks about,

a

"Full many a Beast goes in, but none come out.”.
Adieu to Virtue, if you're once a Slave:
Send her to Court, you fend her to her grave.
Well, if a King's a Lion, at the leaft

b

The People are a many-headed Beast:
Can they direct what measures to purfue,
Who know themselves fo little what to do?
Alike in nothing but one Luft of Gold,
Juft half the land would buy, and half be fold:125
Their 'Country's wealth our mightier Mifers drain,
Or cross, to plunder Provinces, the Main;

120

NOTES.

VER. 124. Alike in nothing but one Luft of Gold, Juft half the land would buy, and half be fold:] Here the argument fuffers a little for the fake of the fatire. The reason why the People fhould not be followed is because

Belua multorum eft capitum. nam quid fequar, aut quem? they are fo divers in their purfuits (fays Horace) that one cannot follow this man without being condemned by that. The imitator fays, they all go on one common principle, the luft

a Cruftis et pomis viduas venentur avaras,

Excipiantque fenes, quos in vivaria mittant:

• Multis occulto crefcit res fenore.

f

verum

Esto, aliis alios rebus ftudiifque teneri:
Iidem eadem poffunt horam durare probantes?

8 Nullus in orbe finus Baiis praelucet amoenis,

h

Si dixit dives; lacus et mare fentit amorem

Feftinantis heri: cui fii vitiofa libido

Fecerit aufpicium; cras ferramenta Teanum

NOTES.

of gold. This inaccuracy, tho' Horace has a little of it, yet he has however artfully disguised it, by fpeaking of the various objects of this one Paffion, avarice, as of fo many various paffions, Pars hominum geftit conducere publica: funt qui, etc. Cruftis et pomis

Multis occulto, etc.

but his imitator has unwarily drawn them to a point, by the introductory addition of the two lines above,

Alike in nothing, etc.

VER. 126. Their Country's wealth aur mightier Mifers drain,] The undertakers for advancing Loans to the Public on the Funds. They have been commonly accused of making it a job. But in fo corrupt times, the fault is not always to be imputed to

The rest, some farm the Poor-box, fome the Pews;
Some keep Affemblies, and would keep the Stews;
Somed with fat Bucks on childlefs Dotards fawn;
Some win rich Widows by their Chine and Brawn;
While with the filent growth of ten per cent,
In dirt and darkness, hundreds ftink content.
Of all these ways, if each f pursues his own,
Satire, be kind, and let the wretch alone:
But shew me one who has it in his pow'r
To act confiftent with himself an hour.

135

e

cc

Sir Job fail'd forth, the ev'ning bright and still, 'No place on earth (he cry'd) like Greenwich hill !" hUp ftarts a Palace, lo, th' obedient base

140 Slopes at its foot, the woods its fides embrace, The filver Thames reflects its marble face. Now let fome whimfy, or that Dev'l within Which guides all those who know not what they

mean,

But give the Knight (or give his Lady) fpleen;

NOTES.

a Ministry it having been found, on trial, that the wisest and most virtuous citizen of this or any other age, with every requifite talent in fuch matters, and fupported by all the weight an honeft Adminiftration could afford him, was, they fay, unable to abolish this inveterate mystery of iniquity.

• VER. 143. Now let fome whimfy, etc.] This is very fpirited,