Si virtus hoc una poteft dare, fortis omiffis Hoc age deliciis. y virtutem verba putes, et Lucum ligna? cave ne portus occupet alter. Ne Cibyratica, ne Bithyna negotia perdas. a * Mille talenta rotundentur, totidem altera, porro et Tertia fuccedant, et quæ pars quadret acervum. Scilicet NOTES. Mallet, to diffuade him, but in vain, from publishing a very offenfive digreffion on the Old Teftament, in Lord Bolingbroke's Letters on Hiftory. "I must fay to you, Sir, for the world's fake, and for his fake, that part of the work ought by no means to be communicated further. If this digreffion be made public, it will be cenfured, it must be cenfured, it ought to be cenfured. It will be criticifed too by able pens, whose erudition, as well as their reafonings, will not eafily be an fwered." He concludes by faying, "I therefore recommend to you to fupprefs that part of the work, as a good citizen of the world, for the world's peace, as one intrufted and obliged by Lord Bolingbroke, not to raise florms to his memory." WARTON. VER. 61. Whatever CORNBURY difdains ;] When Lord Cornbury returned from his travels, the late Earl of Effex, his brother-in-law, told him he had got a handfome penfion for him To which Lord Cornbury anfwered with a composed dig. nity-How could you tell, my Lord, that I was to be fold; or, at least, how came you to know my price fo exactly? To this anecdote Pope alludes. RUFFHEAD. VER. 63. art thou one,] Here we have a direct and decifive cenfure of a celebrated infidel writer; at this time, therefore, which was 137, Pope was strongly and openly on the side of Religion, as he knew the great lawyer to be, to whom he was writing. Horace, it is faid, alludes to the words of a dying Hercules in a Greek Tragedy; and Dion Caffius relates, in the twentyfeventh Book of his History, that thefe were the words which Brutus ufed just before he stabbed himself, after his defeat at Philippi. But it is obfervable, that this fact refts folely on the credit of this fawning and fulfome Court Hiftorian; and the Plutarch, who treats largely of Brutus, is filent on the fubject. If Brutus had " But art thou one, whom new opinions fway, One who believes as Tindal leads the way, Who Virtue and a Church alike difowns, 65 Thinks that but words, and this but brick and ftones? Z Fly then, on all the Wings of wild Defire, Is Wealth thy paffion? Hence! from Pole to Pole, Where winds can carry, or where waves can roll, 70 For Indian spices, for Peruvian Gold, Prevent the greedy, and outbid the bold : a * Advance thy golden Mountain to the skies; On the broad bafe of Fifty Thousand rise, Add one round hundred, and (if that's not fair) 75 For, mark th' advantage; juft fo many score b Procure NOTES. had adopted this paffage, I cannot bring myfelf to believe, that Horace would fo far have forgotten his old republican principles, as to have mentioned the words adopted by the dying patriot, with a mark of reproach and reprobation, It must be added, to what is faid above, of our Author's orthodoxy at this time, that he wrote a very respectful letter to Dr. Waterland, to thank him for his Vindication of the Athanafian Creed, dated October 16, 1737. Which letter was given by Dr. Waterland to Mr. Seed, and was in the poffeffion of Mr. Seed's widow, 1767, who fhewed it to Mr. Bowyer the eminent and learned Printer. WARTON. VER. 65. Who Virtue and a Church alike difowns,] The one he renounces in his party-pamphlets; the other, in his Rights of the Chriftian Church. WARBURTON. Tindal was of All-Souls College Oxford, and remarkable for his excentricities. b Scilicet uxorem cum dote, fidemque, et amicos, Qui poffum tot? ait: tamen et quæram, et quot habebo Mittam poft paulo fcribit, fibi millia quinque е h Si NOTES. VER. 77. For, mark] Not imitated with the vigour and energy of the Original. This 77th line is uncommonly weak and languid. Three Divinities, for fuch Horace has defcribed them, Pecunia, Suadela, and Venus, confpire in giving their various accomplishments to this favourite of Fortune. WARTON, VER. 85. His Wealth] By no means equal to the Original: there is fo much pleafantry in alluding to the known ftory of the Prætor coming to borrow dreffes (paludamenta) for a chorus in a public fpectacle that he intended to exhibit, who asked him to lend him a hundred, fays Plutarch; but Lucullus bade him take two hundred. Horace humorously has made it five thousand. We know nothing of Timon, except it be the Nobleman introduced in the Fpiitle to Lord Burlington, Ver. 99. There is ftill another beauty in Horace; he has fuddenly, according to his manner, introduced Lucullus fpeaking; "qui poffum," &c. He is for ever introducing thefe little interlocutions, which give his Satires and Epiftles an air fo lively and dramatic. WARTON. d Procure her beauty, make that beauty chafte, * His Wealth brave Timon gloriously confounds; 85 Takes the whole House upon the Poet's day. Not for yourself, but for your Fools and Knaves; h If Wealth alone then make and keep us bleft, 95 Still, still be getting, never, never rest. 80 90 But NOTES. VER. 52. Anflis Birth.] Anftis, whom Pope often mentions, was Garter King of Arms. VER. 87. Or if three Ladies like a lucklefs Play,] The common Reader, I am fenfible, will be always more folicitous about the names of these three Ladies, the unlucky Play, and every other trifling circumstance that attended this piece of gallantry, than for the explanation of our Author's fenfe, or the illuftration of his poetry; even where he is moft moral and fublime. But had it been Mr. Pope's purpose to indulge fo impertinent a curiofity, he had fought elsewhere for a commentator on his writings. WA BURTON. Notwithstanding this remark of Dr. Warburton, I have taken fome pains, though indeed in vain, to afcertain who thefe Ladies L4 were 'Si fortunatum fpecies et gratia præstat, *Mercemur fervum, qui dictet nomina, lævum Qui fodicet latus, et cogat trans pondera dextram Porrigere: Hic multum in Fabia valet, ille Velina : Cui libet, is fafces dabit; eripietque curule, Cui volet, importunus ebur: " Frater, Pater, adde: Ut cuique eft atas, ita quemque °facetus adopta. Si è bene qui cœnat, bene vivit; lucet, eamus Quo ducit gula: pifcemur, venemur, ut a olim Gargilius: qui mane plagas, venabula, fervos, Differtum tranfire forum populumque jubebat, Unus ut e multis populo fpectante referret. Emptum mulus aprum. ' crudi, tumidique lavemur, Quid deceat, quid non, obliti; Cærite cera Digni; 'remigium vitiofum Ithacenfis Ulyffei; Cui potior patria fuit interdicta voluptas. Si, NOTES. were, and what the play they patronized. It was once faid to be Young's Bufiris. WARTON. VER. 104. Who rules in Cornwall, &c.] Pope here feems to allude to Viscount Falmouth, who brought into Parliament feveral members for the Cornish boroughs. VER. 107. laugh at your own jet.] An admirable picture of feptennial fully and meannefs during an election canvass, in which the arts of English folicitation are happily applied to Roman. Some strokes of this kind, though mixed with unequal trafh, in the Pafquin of Fielding, may be mentioned as capital, and full of the trueit humour. WARTON. See in Anity's Latin Epistle to Bampfield, a truly humourous defeription of this kind: “ Tum numerat quot habet fenior Por-WOBLER amicos," |