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Things change their titles, as our manners turn:
His Counting-house employ'd the Sunday-morn ;
Seldom at Church ('twas such a busy life),

But duly sent his family and wife.

There (so the Dev'l ordain'd) one Christmas-tide
My good old Lady catch'd a cold, and died.

381

A Nymph of Quality admires our Knight; 385 He marries, bows at Court, and grows polite : Leaves the dull Cits, and joins (to please the fair) The well-bred cuckolds in St. James's air:

First, for his Son a gay Commission buys,

395

Who drinks, whores, fights, and in a duel dies: 390
His Daughter flaunts a Viscount's tawdry wife;
She bears a Coronet and P-x for life.
In Britain's Senate he a seat obtains,
And one more Pensioner St. Stephen gains.
My Lady falls to play; so bad her chance,
He must repair it; takes a bribe from France;
The House impeach him; Coningsby harangues;
The Court forsake him, and Sir Balaam hangs :
Wife, son, and daughter, Satan! are thy own,
His wealth, yet dearer, forfeit to the Crown:

400

NOTES.

imagined he saw, at every new station, a new door of science opening to him, without so much as staying for a Flatterer to let him in !

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Ver, 394. And one more Pensioner St. Stephen gains.]

“――atque unum civem donare Sibyllæ."

W.

Juv.

The Devil and the King divide the Prize,

And sad Sir Balaam curses God and dies.

NOTES.

Ver. 401. The Devil and the King divide the Prize,] This is to be understood in a very sober and decent sense; as a Satire only on such Ministers of State (which history informs us have been found) who aided the Devil in his temptations, in order to foment, if not to make, Plots for the sake of confiscations. So sure always, and just, is our Author's satire, even in those places where he seems most to have indulged himself only in an elegant badinage. But this Satire on the abuse of the general laws of forfeiture for hightreason, which laws all well-policied communities have found necessary, is by no means to be understood as a reflection on the Laws themselves; whose necessity, equity, and even lenity, have been excellently well vindicated in that very learned and elegant Discourse, entitled, Some Considerations on the Law of Forfeiture for High-Treason. Third Edition, London, 1748. W.

Methinks it was better in the former Editions, because shorter :
Wife, son, and daughter, Satan! are thy prize,
And sad Sir Balaam curses God and dies.

Ver. 402. curses God] Alluding to the second chapter of the Book of Job; on which passage Warburton made (Divine Legation, Book vi.) the following remarkable observation: "The wife of Job acts a small part in this drama, but a very spirited one. Then said his wife unto him, 'Dost thou still retain thy integrity? Curse God and die.' Tender and pious! He might see by this prelude of his spouse, what he was to expect from his friends. The Devil, indeed, assaulted Job, but he seems to have got possession of his wife." p. 261.

EPISTLE IV.

ΤΟ

RICHARD BOYLE, EARL OF BURLINGTON.

ARGUMENT.

Of the Use of RICHES.

THE Vanity of Expense in People of Wealth and Quality. The abuse of the Word Taste, Ver. 13. That the first Principle and foundation in this, as in every thing else, is Good Sense, Ver. 40. The chief proof of it is to follow Nature, even in works of mere Luxury and Elegance. Instanced in Architecture and Gardening, where all must be adapted to the Genius and Use of the Place, and the Beauties not forced into it, but resulting from it, Ver. 50. How men are disappointed in their most expensive undertakings, for want of this true Foundation, without which nothing can please long, if at all; and the best Examples and Rules will be but perverted into something burdensome and ridiculous, Ver. 65, &c. to 92. A description of the false Taste of Magnificence; the first grand Error of which is to imagine that Greatness consists in the Size and Dimension, instead of the Proportion and Harmony, of the whole, Ver. 97. and the second, either in joining together Parts incoherent, or too minutely resembling, or in the Repetition of the same too frequently, Ver. 105, &c. A word or two of false Taste in Books, in Music, in Painting, even in Preaching and Prayer, and lastly in Entertainments, Ver. 133, &c. Yet PROVIDENCE is justified in giving Wealth to be squandred in this manner, since it is dispersed to the Poor and laborious

part of mankind, Ver. 169. [recurring to what is laid down in the first book, Ep. ii. and in the Epistle preceding this, Ver. 159, &c.] What are the proper Objects of Magnificence, and a proper field for the Expense of Great Men, Ver. 177, &c. and finally the Great and public Works which become a Prince, Ver. 191 to the end.

7

EPISTLE IV.

'Tis strange, the Miser should his Cares employ To gain those Riches he can ne'er enjoy:

5

Is it less strange, the Prodigal should waste
His wealth, to purchase what he ne'er can taste?
Not for himself he sees, or hears, or eats;
Artists must choose his Pictures, Music, Meats:
He buys for Topham, Drawings and Designs,
For Pembroke, Statues, dirty Gods, and Coins;
Rare monkish Manuscripts for Hearne alone,
And Books for Mead, and Butterflies for Sloane. 10
Think we all these are for himself? no more

Than his fine Wife, alas! or finer Whore.

NOTES.

Ver. 1. 'Tis strange,] This Epistle was written and published before the preceding one; and the placing it after the third, has occasioned some awkward anachronisms and inconsistencies.

Ver. 7. Topham,] A gentleman famous for a judicious collection of Drawings. P.

Ver. 8. For Pembroke, Statues,] "The soul of Inigo Jones," says Mr. Walpole, "which had been patronised by the ancestors of Henry Earl of Pembroke, seemed still to hover over its favourite Wilton, and to have assisted the Muses of Arts in the education of this noble person. The towers, the chambers, the scenes, which Holbein, Jones, and Vandyck, had decorated, and which Earl Thomas had enriched with the spoils of the best ages, received the last touches of beauty from Earl Henry's hand.

Ver. 10. And Books for Mead, and Butterflies for Sloane.] Two eminent Physicians; the one had an excellent Library, the other the finest collection in Europe of natural curiosities; both men of great learning and humanity. P.

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Ver. 11. Think we all these] The ostentation of this man of false taste is only here ridiculed; he has no enjoyment of either of the two objects of false magnificence here mentioned.

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