Is

Him portion'd maids, apprentic'd orphans bleft, The young who labour, and the old who reft. any fick? the MAN of Ross relieves, Prescribes, attends, the med'cine makes, and gives.

270

Is there a variance; enter but his door,
Balk'd are the Courts, and conteft is no more.
Defpairing Quacks with curfes fled the place,
And vile Attorneys, now an useless race.

B. Thrice happy man! enabl'd to pursue 275 What all so wish, but want the pow'r to do! Oh say, what fums that gen'rous hand supply ? What mines, to fwell that boundless charity?

P. Of Debts, and Taxes, Wife and Children clear,

279 This man poffeft---five hundred pounds a year. Blush, Grandeur, blush! proud Courts withdraw your blaze!

Ye little Stars! hide diminish'd rays.

your

NOTES.

VER. 275. Thrice happy man! enabl'd to pursue, &c. -boundless charity?]

These four lines (which the Poet, with the highest propriety, puts in the mouth of his noble friend) very artfully introduces the two following, as, by the equivocal expreffion, they had raised our expectations to hear of millions; which prove, at laft, to be only five hundred pounds a year. A circumftance (as we fee in the Comment) of great importance to be inculcated.

VER. 281. Blush, Grandeur, blush! proud Courts, withdraw your blaze, &c.] In this fublime apostrophe, proud Courts are

B. And what? no monument, infcription,

ftone?

His race, his form, his name almost unknown?

P. Who builds a Church to God, and not to

Fame,

285

Will never mark the marble with his Name:
Go, fearch it there, where to be born and die,
Of rich and poor, makes all the history ;
Enough, that Virtue fill'd the space between ;
Prov'd, by the ends of being, to have been. 290
When Hopkins dies, a thousand lights attend
The wretch, who living fav'd a candle's end:
Should'ring God's altar a vile image ftands,
Belies his features, nay extends his hands;

VARIATIONS.

VER. 287. thus in the MS.

The Regifter inrolls him with his Poor,
Tells he was born and dy'd, and tells no more.
Juft as he ought, he fill'd the Space between;
Then ftole to reft, unheeded and unfeen.

NOTES.

not bid to blush because outflript in virtue; for no fuch contention is fuppofed: but for being outshined in their own proper pretenfions to Splendor and Magnificence. SCRIBL.

VER. 287. G, fearch it there,] The Parish-register. VER. 293. Should'ring God's altar a vile image flands, Belies his features, nay extends his hands ;] The defcription is inimitable. We fee him fhould'ring the altar like one who impiously affected to draw off the reve rence of God's worshipers, from the facred table, upon himfelf; whofe Features too the fculptor had belied, by giving

That live-long wig which Gorgon's felf might

own,

Eternal buckle takes in Parian stone.

295

Behold what bleffings Wealth to life can lend! And fee, what comfort it affords our end.

In the worst inn's worst room, with mat halfhung,

The floors of plaifter, and the walls of dung, 300

COMMENTARY.

VER. 297. Behold what bleffings Wealth to life can lend! And fee, what comfort it affords our end.] In the first part of this Epistle, the author had fhewn, from Reason, that riches abufed afford no comfort either in life or death. In this part, where the fame truth is taught by examples, he had, in the cafe of Cotta and his fon, fhewn, that they afford no comfort in life: the other member of the divifion remained to be spoken to,

"Now fee what comfort they afford our end."

And this he illuftrates (from Ver. 298 to 339.) in the unhappy deaths of the last Villers, Duke of Buckingham, and Sir J. Cutler; whofe profufion and avarice he has beautifully contrafted. The miferable end of these two extraordinary perfons naturally leads the Poet into this reflection, truly humane, however ludicrously as well as ironically expressed,

"Say, for fuch worth, are other worlds prepar'd? "Or are they both, in this, their own reward?"

NOTES.

them the traces of humanity: And, what was a still more impudent flattery, had infinuated, by extending his hands, as if that humanity had been, fome time or other, put into act.

VER. 296. Eternal buckle takes in Parian flone.] The Poet ridicules the wretched tafte of carving large perriwigs on bufto's, of which there are feveral vile examples in the tombs at Westminster and elsewhere.

P.

On once a flock-bed, but repair'd with straw, With tape-ty'd curtains, never meant to draw, The George and Garter dangling from that bed Where tawdry yellow ftrove with dirty red, Great Villers lies---alas! how chang'd from him, That life of pleasure, and that soul of whim! 306 Gallant and gay, in Cliveden's proud alcove, The bow'r of wanton Shrewsbury and love;

COMMENTARY.

And now, as if fully determined to refolve this doubtful queftion, he affumes the air and importance of a Profeffor ready addressed to plunge himself into the very depths of Theology:

"A knotty point! to which we now proceed-"

when, on a fudden, the whole scene is changed,

"But you are tir'd-I'll tell a tale- Agreed."

And thus, by the most easy tranfition, we are come to the concluding doctrine of his poem.

NOTES.

VER. 305. Great Villers lies-] This Lord, yet more famous for his vices than his misfortunes, having been poffeffed of about 50,000l. a year, and paffed through many of the highest posts in the kingdom, died in the year 1687, in a remote inn in Yorkshire, reduced to the utmost mifery. P.

VER. 307. Cliveden] A delightful palace, on the banks of the Thames, built by the D. of Buckingham.

P.

VER. 308. Shrewsbury] The Countefs of Shrewsbury, a woman abandoned to gallantries. The Earl her husband was killed by the Duke of Buckingham in a duel; and it has been faid, that during the combat fhe held the Duke's horfes in the habit of a page.

P.

Or just as gay, at Council, in a ring

merry King.

Of mimick'd Statefmen, and their
No Wit to flatter, left of all his ftore!

311

No Fool to laugh at, which he valu'd more. There, Victor of his health, of fortune, friends, And fame; this lord of useless thousands ends.

His Grace's fate fage Cutler could foresee, 315 And well (he thought) advis'd him, "Live like me." As well his Grace reply'd, " Like you, Sir John? "That I can do, when all I have is gone." Refolve, me Reason, which of these is worse, Want with a full, or with an empty purse? 320

NOTES.

VER. 312. No Fool to laugh at, which he valu'd more.] That is, he liked difguised flattery better than the more direct and open. And no wonder a man of wit fhould have this taste. For the taking pleasure in fools, for the fake of laughing at them, is nothing elfe but the complaifance of flattering ourselves, by an advantageous comparison which the mind makes between itself and the object laughed at. Hence too we may fee the reafon of men's preferring this to every other kind of Flattery. For we are always inclined to think that work done best which we do ourselves."

VER. 319. Refolve me, Reafen, which of thefe is worse, Want with a full, or with an empty purje?] The Poet did well in appealing to Reafon, from the Parties concerned; who, it is likely, had made but a very foolish decifion. The abhorrence of an empty purfe would have certainly perverted the judgment of Want with a full one: And the longings for a full one would probably have as much mifled Want with an empty one. Whereas Reafon refolves this