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

But duly fent his family and wife.

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

381

385

A Nymph of Quality admires our Knight; 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 Commiffion buys,

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 feat obtains,

And one more Penfioner St. Stephen gains.

NOTES.

My

that this does not proceed so often from downright vice as is imagined, but frequently from mere infirmity; of which the reafon is evident; for, having small knowledge, and yet an exceffive opinion of ourselves, we estimate our merit by the paffions and caprice of others; and this perhaps would not be fo much amifs, were we not apt to take their favours for a declaration of their fense of our merits. How often, for instance, has it been seen, in the three learned profeffions, that a Man, who, had he continued in his primeval meannefs, would have circumfcribed his knowledge within the modeft limits of Socrates; yet, being pushed up, as the phrafe is, has felt himself growing into a Hooker, a Hales, or a Sydenham; while, in the rapidity of his course, he imagined he faw, at every new ftation, a new door of science opening to him, without fo much as staying for a Flatterer to let him in ?

VER. 394. And one more Penfioner St. Steven gains.]

W.

Juv.

My Lady falls to play; fo bad her chance,
He must repair it; takes a bribe from France;
The House impeach him; Coningsby harangues;
The Court forfake him, and Sir Balaam hangs :
Wife, fon, and daughter, Satan! are thy own,
His wealth, yet dearer, forfeit to the Crown:
The Devil and the King divide the Prize,
And fad Sir Balaam curfes God and dies.

395

400

VER. 401. The Devil and the King divide the Prize,] This is to be understood in a very fober and decent sense; as a Satire only on fuch Minifters 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 fake of confifcations. So fure always, and juft, is our Author's fatire, even in thofe 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 neceffary, is by no means to be understood as a reflection on the Laws themselves; whofe neceffity, equity, and even lenity have been excellently well vindicated in that very learned and elegant Difcourfe, intitled, Some Confiderations on the Law of Forfeiture for High Treafon. Third Edition, London, 1748.

W.

Methinks it was better in the former Editions, because shorter:

Wife, fon, and daughter, Satan! are thy prize,
And fad Sir Balaam curfes God and dies.

VER. 402. Curfes God] Alluding to the second chapter of the Book of Job; on which paffage Warburton made (Divine Legation, Book vi.) the following remarkable obfervation: "The wife of Job acts a small part in this drama, but a very spirited one. Then faid his wife unto him, Doft thou ftill retain thy integrity? Curse God and die.' Tender and pious! He might fee by this prelude of his spouse, what he was to expect from his friends. The Devil, indeed, affaulted Job, but he seems to have got poffeffion of his wife." p. 261.

EPISTLE IV.

то

RICHARD BOYLE, EARL OF BURLINGTON.

ARGUMENT.

Of the Ufe of RICHES.

THE Vanity of Expence in People of Wealth and Quality. The abufe of the Word Tafte, Ver. 13. That the firft Principle and foundation in this, as in every thing elfe, is Good Senfe, Ver. 40. The chief proof of it is to follow Nature, even in works of mere Luxury and Elegance. Inftanced in Architecture and Gardening, where all must be adapted to the Genius and Ufe of the Place, and the Beauties not forced into it, but refulting from it, Ver. 50. How men are disappointed in their most expensive undertakings, for want of this true Foundation, without which nothing can pleafe long, if at all; and the best Examples and Rules will be but perverted into fomething 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 confifts in the Size and Dimension, inftead of the Proportion and Harmony of the whole, Ver. 97. and the fecond, either in joining together Parts incoherent, or too minutely refembling, or in the Repetition of the fame too frequently, Ver. 105, &c. A word or two of falfe Tafte in Books, in Mufic, in Painting, even in Preaching and Prayer, and

laftly

lafly in Entertainments, Ver. 133, &c. Yet PROVIDENCE is juftified in giving Wealth to be fquandered in this manner, fince it is difperfed 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 Epiftle preceding this, Ver. 159. &c.] What are the proper Objects of Magnificence, and a proper field for the Expence of Great Men, Ver. 177, &c. and finally the Great and Public Works which become a Prince, Ver. 191. to the end.