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What late he call'd a Bleffing, now was Wit,
And God's good Providence, a lucky Hit.
Things change their titles, as our manners turn:
His Compting-house employ'd the Sunday-morn:
Seldom at Church ('twas such a bufy life) 381
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.

A Nymph of Quality admires our Knight; 385 He marries, bows at Court, and grows polite:

NOTES.

VER. 377. What late he call'da Bleffing, now was IVit, &c.] This is an admirable picture of human nature: In the entrance on life, all, but coxcombs born, are modeft; and efteem the favours of their fuperiors to be marks of their benevolence: But, if these favours happen to increafe; then, inftead of advancing in gratitude to our benefactors, we only improve in the good opinion of ourselves; and the conftant returns of fuch favours make us confider them no longer as accommodations to our wants, or the hire of our fervice, but debts due to our merit: Yet, at the fame time, to do juftice to our common nature, we should obferve, that this does not proceed fo often from downright vice as is imagined, but frequently from mere infirmity; of which, the reafon is evident; for, having fmall knowledge, and yet an exceffive opinion, o` ourfelves, 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 the fenfe of our merits. How often, for instance, has it been seen, in the feveral 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

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:
His daughter flaunts a Vifcount's tawdry wife; 391
She bears a Coronet and P--x for life.
In Britain's Senate he a feat obtains,

And one more Penfioner St. Stephen gains.
My Lady falls to play; fo bad her chance, 395
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: 400

NOTES.

push'd up, as the phrafe is, has felt himfelf growing into a Hooker, a Hales, or a Sydenham; while, in the rapidity of his courfe, 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?

-Beatus enim jam

Cum pulchris tunicis fumet nova confilia.

IMITATIONS.

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

atque unum civem donare Sibylla

Juv.

The Devil and the King divide the prize,

And fad Sir Balaam curfes God and dies.

NOTES.

VER. 401. The Devil and the King divide the Prize.] This is to be understood in a very fober and decent fenfe; as a Satire only on fuch Minifters of State which Hiftory 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 feems moft to have indulged himself only in an elegant badinage. But this Satire on the abuse of the general Laws of forfeiture for high treafon, which all well-policied communities have found expedient to provide themfelves withal, is by no means to be understood as a reflexion 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.

VER. ult. curfes God and dies.] i. e. Fell under the temp tation; alluding to the ftory of Job referred to above.

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MORAL ESSAYS.

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 abuse of the word Tafte, y 13. That the first principle and foundation in this, as in every thing else, is Good Senfe, 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, 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 but be perverted into fomething burdenfome or ridiculous, & 65, &c. to 92. A defcription of the falfe Tafte of Magnificence; the first grand Error of which is to imagine that Greatnefs confifts in the Size and Dimenfion, inftead of the Proportion and Harmony of the whole, y 97. and the fecond, either in joining together

Parts incoherent, or too minutely refembling, or in the Repetition of the fame too frequently, 105, &c. A word or two of falfe Tafte in Books, in Mufic, in Painting, even in Preaching and Prayer, and lastly in Entertainments, 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, 169. [recurring to what is laid down in the first book, Ep. ii. and in the Epistle preceding this, 159, &c.] What are the proper Objects of Magnificence, and a proper field for the Expence of Great Men, 177, &c. and finally the Great and Public Works which become a Prince, 191, to the end.

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