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Is this too little? would you more than live? Alas! 'tis more than Turner finds they give. Alas! 'tis more than (all his Vifions paft) Unhappy Wharton, waking, found at last! What can they give? to dying Hopkins, Heirs; 85 To Chartres, Vigour; Japhet, Nofe and Ears?

COMMENTARY.

But now admit, pursues our author (from 90 to 97) that wealth might, in fome cafes, alleviate the unmerited miferies of life, by procuring medicines both for the mind and body; yet it

NOTES.

VER. 82. Turner] One, who, being poffeffed of three hundred thousand pounds, laid down his Coach, because Interest was reduced from five to four per cent. and then put feventy thousand into the Charitable Corporation for better intereft; which fum having loft, he took it fo much to heart, that he kept his chamber ever after. It is thought he would not have outlived it, but that he~ was heir to another confiderable eftate, which he daily expected, and that by this course of life he faved both cloaths and all other expences. P.

VER. 84. Unhappy Wharton,] A Nobleman of great qualities, but as unfortunate in the application of them, as if they had been vices and follies. See his Character in the, first Epiftle. P.

VER. 85. Hopkins,] A Citizen, whofe rapacity obtained him the name of Vulture Hopkins. He lived worthless, but died worth three hundred thousand pounds, which he would give to no perfon living, but left it fo as not to be inherited till after the fecond generation. His counfel reprefenting to him how many years it must be, before this could take effect, and that his money could only lie at intereft all that time, he expreffed great joy thereat, and faid, "They would then be as "long in fpending, as he had been in getting it." But the Chancery afterwards fet afide the will, and gave it to the heir at law. P.

VER. 85. Japhet Nofe and Ears?] JAPHET CROOK, alias

Can they, in gems bid pallid Hippia glow,
In Fulvia's buckle eafe the throbs below;
Or heal, old Narfes, thy obscener ail,

With all th'embroid'ry plaister'd at thy tail? 90
They might (were Harpax not too wife to spend)
Give Harpax self the bleffing of a Friend;
Or find fome Doctor that would fave the life
Of wretched Shylock, spite of Shylock's Wife:
But thoufands die, without or this or that, 95
Die, and endow a College, or a Cat.

COMMENTARY.

is not to be thought it should operate like a charm, while only worn about one: Yet this, these poor men of pelf expect from it; while Avarice on the one hand, with-holds them from giving at all, even to the Doctor in extremity; or Vanity diverts the donation from a Friend in life, to the Endownent of a Cat or College at their death. It is true, Riches might give the greatest of all bleffings, a virtuous confcioufnefs of our having employed them as became the fubftitutes of Providence,

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To eafe or emulate the care of Heav'n, in acts of BENEFICENCE and CHARITY; and this Ufe is next to be confidered.

NOTES.

Sir Peter Stranger, was punished with the lofs of those parts, for having forged a conveyance of an Estate to himself, upon which he took up feveral thousand pounds. He was at the fame time fued in Chancery for having fraudulently obtained a Will, by which he poffeffed another confiderable Estate, in wrong of the brother of the deceafed. By thefe means he was worth a great fum, which (in reward for the fmall lofs of his ears) he enjoyed in prifon till his death, and quietly left to his execu、 tor. P.

VER. 96. Die, and endow a College, or a Cat.] A famous

To fome, indeed, Heav'n grants the happier fate, T'enrich a Baftard, or a Son they hate.

Perhaps you think the Poor might have their part. Bond damns thePoor,and hates them from his heart:

COMMENTARY.

VER. 97. To fome, indeed, &c.] For now the poet comes, in the fecond place, to examine, II. Of what ufe Riches are to others; which he teaches, as is his way throughout this poem, by the abuse that stands opposed to it: Thus he fhews (from ✯ 96 to 107) that with regard to acts of Beneficence, the utmost Heaven will grant to thofe who fo greatly abufe its bleffings, is either to enrich fome favourite Baftard, and fo perpetuate their vice and infamy; or elfe, contrary to their intent, a legitimate Son they hated, and fo expose to public fcorn and ridicule, the defeat of their unnatural cruelty. But with regard to acts of Charity, they are given up to fo reprobate a fenfe, as to believe they are then seconding the designs of Heaven, when they purfue the indigent with imprecations, or leave them in the midft of their diftreffes unrelieved, as the common enemies of God and Man.

NOTES.

Dutchefs of R. in her laft Will left confiderable legacies and annuities to her Cats. P.

VER. 100. Bond damns the Poor, &c.] This epiftle was written in the year 1730, when a corporation was established to lend money to the poor upon pledges, by the name of the Charitable Corporation; but the whole was turned only to an iniquitous method of enriching particular people, to the ruin of fuch numbers, that it became a parliamentary concern to endeavour the relief of thofe unhappy fufferers, and three of the managers, who were members of the house, were expelled. By the report of the Committee, appointed to enquire into that iniquitous affair, it appears, that when it was objected to the intended removal of the office, that the Poor, for whose use it was erected, would be hurt by it, Bond, one of the Directors, replied, Damn the Poor. That "God hates the poor," and, "That every man in want is knave or fool," &c. were the genuine apopthegms of fome of the perfons here mentioned. P.

The grave Sir Gilbert holds it for a rule

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105

That ev'ry man in want is knave or fool: "God cannot love (fays Blunt, with tearless eyes) "The wretch he ftarves"-and piously denies : But the good Bishop with a meeker air, Admits, and leaves them, Providence's care. Yet to be just to thefe poor men of pelf, Each does but hate his neighbour as himself;

COMMENTARY.

VER. 107. Yet, to be juft, &c.] Having thus fhewn the true ufe of Riches in a defcription of the abufe, and how that use is perpetually defeated by Profufion and Avarice; it was natural to enquire into the fpring and original of thefe vices; as the mifchiefs they occafion, muft be well understood, before they can be corrected. The difpofition of his matter, therefore, now calls upon him to come to the Philofophy of his fubject: And he examines particularly into the Motives of Avarice: But what is obfervable, he, all along, fatirically intermixes with the real mo

NOTES.

VER. 102. That ev'ry man in want is knave or fool:] None are more fubject to be deluded by this vain miftake, that pru dence does all in human affairs, than those who have been moft befriended by Fortune. The reafon is, that, in this fituation Prudence has never been brought to the teft, nor Vanity ever mortified. So that Prudence will be always ready to take to herfelf what fortune encourages Vanity to call her due. And then want of fuccefs will of course be imputed to want of wit.

VER. 105. But the good Bishop, &c.] In this place, and in the firft Dialogue of 1738, the Poet had named a very worthy Perfon of condition, who for a courfe of many years had shined in public Stations much to the advantage and honour of his Country. But being at once oppreffed by popular prejudice and a public cenfure, it was no wonder, the poet, to whom he

Damn'd to the Mines, an equal fate betides

The Slave that digs it, and the Slave that hides, B. Who fuffer thus, mere Charity should own,

Must act on motives pow'rful, tho' unknown. P. Some War,fome Plague, or Famine they foresee, Some Revelation hid from you and me.. Why Shylock wants a meal, the cause is found, He thinks a Loaf will rife to fifty pound. 116

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tives, feveral imaginary; and thofe as wild as imagination could conceive. This, which at firft fight might feem to vitiate the purpose of his philofophical inquiry, is found, when duly confidered, to have the highest art of defign. His business, the reader fees, was to prove that the real motives had the utmost extravagancy: Nothing could more conduce to this end, than the setting them by, and comparing them with, the most whimfical, the fancy itself could invent; in which fituation it was feen, that the real were full as wild as the fictitious. To give these images all the force they were capable of, he first describes (from 118 to 123.) the real motive, and an imaginary,

NOTES.

was perfonally a stranger, should think hardly of him. I had the honour to be well known to this truly illuftrious Perfon, and to be greatly obliged by him. From my intimate knowledge of his Character, I was fully perfuaded of his innocence, and that he was unwarily drawn in by a pack of infamous Cheats, to his great lofs of fortune as well as reputation. At my requeft, therefore, the poet with much fatisfaction retracted, and ftruck out, in both places, his ill-grounded cenfure. I have fince had the pleasure to understand, from the best authority, that my favourable fentiments of him have lately been fully juftified in the course of fome proceedings in the high court of Chancery, the most unerring inveftigator of Truth and Falsehood.

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