Si virtus hoc una potest 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. NOTES. Scilicet Mallet, to diffuade him, but in vain, from publishing a very offenlive 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 anfwered." 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. દ 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 pension for him To which Lord Cornbury anfwered with a compofed 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 fide 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 these were the words which Brutus ufed juft 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 subject. 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 disowns, 65 Thinks that but words, and this but brick and ftones? Fly 2 then, on all the Wings of wild Defire, Admire whate'er the maddeft can admire : Is Wealth thy paffion? Hence! from Pole to Pole, Where winds can carry, or where waves can roll, 70 For Indian fpices, for Peruvian Gold, s; Prevent the greedy, and outbid the bold: For, mark th' advantage; just so many score b Will gain a Wife with half as many more, NOTES. Procure 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 learned Printer. eminent and WARTON. The one he Rights of the WARBURTON. VER. 65. Who Virtue and a Church alike difowns,] renounces in his party-pamphlets; the other, in his Chriftian Church. Tindal was of All-Souls College Oxford, and remarkable for his excentricities. C Scilicet uxorem cum dote, fidemque, et amicos, Et d genus, et formam, regina Pecunia donat; Ac bene nummatum decorat Suadela, Venusque. Mancipiis locuples, eget aeris Cappadocum rex. Ne fueris hic tu. chlamydes Lucullus, ut aiunt, Si poffet centum fcenæ præbere rogatus, Qui poffum tot? ait: tamen et quæram, et quot habebo Mittam poft paulo fcribit, fibi millia quinque NOTES. h Si 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 described 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 : therę 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 afked 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 still another beauty in Horace; he has fuddenly, according to his manner, introduced Lucullus fpeaking; “ qui possum," &c. He is for ever introducing thefe little interlocutions, which give his Satires and Epiftles an air fo lively and dramatic. WARTON. C Procure her beauty, make that beauty chaste, f e 80 His Wealth brave Timon gloriously confounds; 85 A noble Superfluity it craves, 90 Not for yourself, but for your Fools and Knaves; Something, which for your Honour they may cheat, And which it much becomes you to forget. h If Wealth alone then make and keep us bleft, 95 Still, ftill be getting, never, never rest. NOTES. But 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 circumftance that attended this piece of gallantry, than for the explanation of our Author's fenfe, or the illustration 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 ascertain who these Ladies k 'Si fortunatum fpecies et gratia præftat, * Mercemur fervum, qui dictet nomina, lævum m : Cui volet, importunus ebur: " Frater, Pater, adde: t NOTES. Si, 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 seems to allude to Viscount Falmouth, who brought into Parliament feveral members for the Cornish boroughs. VER. 107. laugh at your own jest.] An admirable picture of feptennial folly 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 truest humour. WARTON. See in Anfty's Latin Epiftle to Bampfield, a truly humourous defeription of this kind: "Tum numerat quot habet fenior POT-WOBLER amiços,” |