My lord advances with majestic mien, Smit with the mighty pleasure to be seen: But foft-by regular approach-not yet— First thro' the length of yon hot terrace sweat; 130 And when up ten fteep flopes you've drag'd your thighs, His study with what authors is it ftor'd? And now the chapel's filver bell you hear, That fummons you to all the pride of pray'r : Where sprawl the faints of Verrio and Laguerre *, But hark! the chiming clocks to dinner call; 135 140 145 150 155 A folemn facrifice, perform'd in state, You drink by measure, and to minutes eat. 160 * Verrio (Antonio) painted many ceilings, &c. at Wind or, HamptonCourt, &c. and Laguerre at Blenheim-castle, and other places. In In plenty ftarving, tantaliz'd in ftate, 165 And swear no day was ever paft so ill. Yet hence the poor are cloath'd, the hungry fed; Health to himself, and to his infants bread 170 The lab'rer bears: what his hard heart denies, Another age fhall fee the golden ear Imbrow the flope, and nod on the parterre, Deep harveft bury all his pride has plann'd, 175 And laughing Ceres reaffume the land. Who then shall grace, or who improve the foil ? Who plants like BATHURST, or who builds like BOYLE. 'Tis ufe alone that fanctifies expence, 180 And splendor borrows all her rays from sense. 185 190 You too proceed! make falling arts your care, Erect new wonders, and the old repair; 'Till kings call forth th' ideas of your mind, 195 Bid temples, worthier of the God, ascend; Bid * The poet after having touched upon the proper objects of magnificence and expence, in the private works of great men, comes to thofe great and public Bid the broad arch the dang'rous flood contain, 200 public works which become a prince. This poem was published in the year 1732, when fome of the new-built churches, by the act of Queen Anne, were ready to fall, being founded in bøggy land (which is fatirically alluded to in our author's imitation of Horace, Lib. ii. Sat. 2. Shall half the new-built churches round thee fall) others very vilely executed, through fraudulent cabals between undertakers, officers, &c. Dagenham-breach had done very great mischiefs; many of the highways throughout England were hardly paffable; and most of those which were repaired by turnpikes were made jobs for private lucre, and infamously executed, even to the entrance of London itself: the proposal of building a bridge at Westminster had been petitioned against and rejected; but in two years after the publication of this poem, an act for building a bridge paffed through both Houses. After many debates in the committee, the execution was left to the carpenter above-mentioned, who would have made it a wooden one; to which our author alludes in these lines, Who builds a bridge that never drove a pile ? Should Ripley venture, all the world would fmile. MORAL MORAL ESSAYS. EPISTLE V*. To Mr. ADDISON. Occafioned by his DIALOGUES on MEDALS. EE the wild wafte of all devouring years! How Rome her own fad fepulchre appears, 5 ΤΟ *This was originally written in the year 1715, when Mr. Addifon intended to publish his book of Medals; it was fome time before he was fecretary of state; but not published 'till Mr. Tickell's Edition of his works; at which time the verfes on Mr. Craggs, which conclude the poem, were added, viz. in 1720. ,, As the third Epistle treated of the extremes of avarice and profusion; and the fourth took up one particular branch of the latter, namely, the vanity of expence in people of wealth and quality, and was therefore a corollary to the third; fo this treats of one circumstance of that vanity, as it appears in the common collectors of old coins: and is, therefore, a corollary to the fourth. VOL. I. Y y Perhaps, 346 MORAL ESSAY S. Perhaps, by its own ruins fav'd from flame, 15 20 Ambition figh'd: she found it vain to trust The faithlefs column and the crumbling buft: Huge moles, whose shadow ftretch'd from shore to shore, Their ruins perifh'd, and their place no more! Convinc'd, the now contracts her vaft defign, And all her triumphs fhrink into a coin. A narrow orb each crouded conqueft keeps, Beneath her palm here fad Judea weeps. Now fcantier limits the proud arch confine, And scarce are seen the proftrate Nile or Rhine; A fmall Euphrates thro' the piece is roll'd, 25 And little eagles wave their wings in gold. The Medal, faithful to its charge of fame, 30 Thro' climes and ages bears each form and name : 35 40 Can tafte no pleasure fince his fhield was fcour'd: And Curio, reftless by the fair-one's fide, Sighs for an Otho, and neglects his bride.. Their's is the vanity, the learning thine : 45 Touch'd by thy hand, again Rome's glories fhine; Her gods, and godlike heroes rise to view, And all her faded garlands bloom a-new. Nor blush, these ftudies thy regard engage; 50 Oh |