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P. But how unequal it beftows, observe;

'Tis thus we riot, while, who fow it, ftarve:

COMMENTARY.

or not; (which he does from Ver. 20 to 77.) It is commonly observed, fays he, (from Ver. 20 to 35.) That gold moft

NOTES.

HERE continueth to rot

The Body of FRANCIS CHARTRES,
Who, with an INFLEXIBLE CONSTANCY,
and INIMITABLE UNIFORMITY of Life,

PERSISTED,

In fpite of AGE and INFIRMITIES,
In the Practice of EVERY HUMAN VICE;
Excepting PRODIGALITY and HYPOCRISY :
His infatiable AVARICE exempted him from the first,
His matchlefs IMPUDENCE from the fecond.
Nor was he more fingular

in the undeviating Pravity of his Manners,
Than fuccessful

in Accumulating WEALTH;

For, without TRADE or PROFESSION,
Without TRUST of PUBLIC MONEY,
And without BRIBE-WORTHY Service,
He acquired, or more properly created,
A MINISTERIAL ESTATE.

He was the only Perfon of his Time,
Who could CHEAT without the Mafk of HONESTY,
Retain his Primeval MEANNESS

When poffeffed of TEN THOUSAND a Year,
And having daily deferved the GIBBET for what he did,
Was at last condemned to it for what he could not do.
Oh indignant Reader!

Think not his Life ufelefs to Mankind!
PROVIDENCE Connived at his execrable Designs,
To give to After-ages

A confpicuous PROOF and EXAMPLE,
Of how fmall Eftimation is EXORBITANT WEALTH
in the Sight of GOD,

By his bestowing it on the most UNWORTHY of ALL MORTALS.

What Nature wants (a phrase I much diftruft) 25

Extends to Luxury, extends to Lust:

COMMENTARY.

comm dioufly fupplies the wants of Nature: "Let us firft con"fider the propofition in general, both in matter and ex

preffion; 1. As it regards the fupply; and this we shall find "to be very unequal: 2. As it regards the wants; and thefe, we fall fee, are very ambigutus; under that term, all our "fantastic and imaginary, as well as real wants being comprized. Hitherto the ufe is not very apparent. Let us in the fecond place, therefore, confider the propofition in par "ticular, or how Gold fupplies the wants of nature both in private and public life: 1. As to private; it aids us, in"deed, to fupport life; but, at the fame time, it hires the "affaffin. 2. As to Sciety; it may procure friendships and extend trade; but it allures robbers, and corrupts our ac

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NOTES.

This Gentleman was worth feven thousand pounds a year estate in Land, and about one hundred th ufand in Money. P.

Mr. WATERS, the third of thefe worthies, was a man no way refembling the former in his military, but extremely fo in his civil capacity; his great fortune having been raised by the like diligent attendance on the neceffities of others. But this gentleman's history must be deferred till his death, when his rth may be known more certainly. P.

VER. 20.-Chartres end the Devil.] Alluding to the vulgar opinion, that all mines of metal and fubterraneous treafures are in the guard of the Devil: which feems to have taken its rife from the pagan fable of Plutus the God of Riches.

VER. 21. What Nature wants, commodious Gold beflows,] The epithet commodious gives us the very proper idea of a Bawd or Pander; and this thought produced the two following lines, which were in all the former editions, but, for their bad reafoning, omitted:

And if we count amongst the needs of life
Another's Toil, why not another's Wife?

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Ufeful, I grant, it ferves what life requires,
But dreadful too, the dark Affaffin hires.

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COMMENTARY.

quaintance. 3. As to Government; it pays the guards neceffary for the fupport of public liberty; but it may, with "the fame eafe, bribe a Senate to overturn it."

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The matter, therefore, being thus problematical, the Poet, instead of formally balancing between the good and ill, chuses to leave this previsus Queftion undetermined (as Tacitus had done before him; where, fpeaking of the antient Germans, he fays, Argentum et aurum propitii aut irati Di negaverint dubito;) and falls at once upon what he esteems the principal of these abuses, public Corruption.

For having in the laft inftance, of the Ufe of Riches in Government, fpoken of venal Senates, he goes on to lament the mifchief as defperate and remedilefs; Gold, by its power to corrupt with Secrecy, defeating all the efforts of public fpirit, whether exerted in the courage of Heroes, or in the wifdom of Patriots.

It is true, indeed, (continues the Poet, from Ver. 34 to 49.) the very weight of the bribery has fometimes detected the corruption :

"From the crack'd bag the dropping Guinea fpoke," &c.

But this inconvenience was foon repaired, by the invention of paper credit: whofe dreadful effects on public Liberty he defcribes in all the colouring of his poetry, heightened by the warmeft concern for virtue; which now makes him willing to give up, as it were, the previous question, in a paffionate wish (from Ver. 48 to 59.) for the return of that incumbrance attendant on public Corruption, before the fo common use of money.

And pleased with this flattering idea, he goes on (from Ver. 58 to 77.) to fhew the other advantages which would accrue from riches, only in kind; thefe are, that neither

B. Trade it may help, Society extend.

P. But lures the Pyrate, and corrupts the

Friend.

B. It raifes Armies in a Nation's aid.

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P. But bribes a Senate, and the Land's betray'd,
In vain may Heroes fight, and Patriots rave;
If fecret Gold fap on from knave to knave.

COMMENTARY.

Avarice could contrive to hoard, nor Prodigality to lavish, in fo mad and boundless a manner as they do at present. Here he fhews particularly, in a fine ironical defcription of the embarras on Gaming, how naturally it tends to eradicate that execrable practice.

But this whole Digreffion (from Ver. 34 to 77.) has another very uncommon beauty; for, at the fame time that it arifes naturally from the laft confideration, in the debate of the previous question, it artfully denounces, in our entrance on

NOTES.

VER. 33 and Patriots rave;] The character of modern patriots was, in the opinion of our Poet, very equivocal; as the name was undistinguishingly beftowed on every one who was in oppofition to the court; of this he gives a hint in Ver. 139. of this Epiftle. And agreeable to these fentiments is the equivocal turn of his expreffion here,

"In vain—may Patriots rave;"

which they may do either in earnest or in jeft; and in the opinion of Sempronius in the Play, nothing is better adapted to their pretences.

VER. 34. If fecret Gold sap on from knave to knave.] The expreffion is fine, and gives us the image of a Place invefted; where the approaches are made by communica

Once, we confefs, beneath the Patriot's cloak, 35
From the crack'd bag the dropping Guinea fpoke,
And gingling down the back-stairs, told the crew,
"Old Cato is as great a Rogue as you."
Bleft paper-credit! last and best supply!
That lends Corruption lighter wings to fly! 40
Gold imp'd by thee, can compass hardest things,
Can pocket States, can fetch or carry Kings;

COMMENTARY.

the main question, the principal topics intended to be employed for the dilucidation of it; namely AVARICE, PROFUSION, and PUBLIC CORRUPTION.

NOTES.

tions, which fupport one another: juft as the connexions amongst knaves, after they have been taken in by a state-engineer, ferve to fcreen and encourage each other's private corruptions.

VER. 35.-beneath the Patriot's cloak,] This is a true story, which happened in the reign of William III. to an unfufpected old Patriot, who coming out at the back-door from having been closetted by the King, where he had received a large bag of Guineas, the bursting of the bag difcovered his bufinefs there. P.

"Sir Chriftopher Mufgrave, the wifeft man of the party, "(the Tories) died before the laft Seffion; and, by their "conduct after his death, it appeared that they wanted his "direction: He had been at the head of the oppofition that "was made in the last reign, from the beginning to the end; "but he gave up many points of great importance in the "critical minute; for which I have good reafon to believe "that he had twelve thousand pounds from the late King, at "different times." Burnet under the year 1705.

VER. 42.-fetch or carry Kings;] In our Author's time, many Princes had been fent about the world, and great

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