If honest S*z take scandal at a Spark, a Faith I fhall give the answer Reynard gave: "I cannot like, dread Sir, your Royal Cave: "Because I fee, by all the tracks about, 115 "Full many a Beast goes in, but none come out." Adieu to Virtue, if you're once a Slave: Send her to Court, you fend her to her grave. Well, if a King's a Lion, at the leaft b The People are a many-headed Beaft: Can they direct what measures to pursue, 120 Who know themselves fo little what to do? Just half the land would buy, and half be fold: 125 NOTES. fon why the People should not be followed is because Bellua multorum eft capitum. nam quid fequar, aut quem ? they are fo divers in their purfuits (fays Horace) that one cannot follow this man without being condemned by that. The imitator fays, they all go on one common principle, the luft of gold. This inaccuracy, tho' Horace has a little of it, yet he has however artfully disguised it, by speaking of the various objects of this one Paffion, avarice, as of fo many various paffions, Pars hominum geftit conducere publica: funt qui, etc. Multis occulto, etc. but his imitator has unwarily drawn them to a point, by the introductory addition of the lines above, Alike in nothing, etc. h Si dixit dives; 1 lacus et mare fentit amorem i Feftinantis heri: cui fi vitiofa libido Fecerit aufpicium; cras ferramenta Teanum NOTES. VER. 126. Their Country's wealth our mightier Mifers drain,] The undertakers for advancing Loans to the Public on the Funds. They have been commonly accused of making it a job. But in fo corrupt times, the fault is not always to be imputed to a Ministry: it having been found, on trial, that the wifeft and most virtuous citizen of this or any other age, with every requifite knowledge in fuch matters, and fupported by all the weight an honeft Admi Their Country's wealth our mightier Mifers drain, Or cross, to plunder Provinces, the Main; a The reft, fome farm the Poor-box, fome the Pews; f Satire be kind, and let the wretch alone : To act confiftent with himself an hour. 135 Sir Job & fail'd forth, the ev'ning bright and ftill, "No place on earth (he cry'd) like Greenwich hill !” b Up ftarts a Palace, lo, th' obedient base Slopes at its foot, the woods its fides embrace, The filver Thames reflects its marble face. i 140 Now let some whimfy, or that Dev'l within Which guides all those who know not what they mean, But give the Knight (or give his Lady) fpleen; 145 NOTES. nistration could afford him, was, they fay, unable to abolifh this inveterate mystery of iniquity. VER. 143. Now let fome whimfy, etc.] This is very spirited, but much inferior to the elegance of the Original, Cui fi vitiofa Libida Fecerit aufpicium which no modern imitation can reach. Tolletis, fabri. * lectus genialis in aula eft? Nil ait effe prius, melius nil coelibe vita : ! Si non eft, jurat bene folis effe maritis. n ° Quid " pauper? ride: mutat coenacula, lectos, P Balnea, tonfores; conducto navigio aeque Naufeat, ac locuples quem ducit priva triremis. a Si curatus inaequali tonfore capillos Occurro; rides. fi forte fubucula pexae Trita fubeft tunicae, vel fi toga diffidet impar; Rides. quid, mea Cum pugnat fententia fecum ; Quod petiit, fpernit; repetit quod nuper omifit; $ Aeftuat, et vitae difconvenit ordine toto; NOTES. VER. 155. They change their weekly Barber, etc.] Thefe fix lines much more fpirited than the Original. In that, the inconftancy of temper in the common people is fati "Away, away! take all your fcaffolds down, "For Snug's the word: My dear! we'll live in Town." k At am'rous Flavio is the * ftocken thrown? That very night he longs to lie alone. 1 The Fool whofe Wife elopes fome thrice a quarter, For matrimonial folace dies a martyr. Did ever Proteus, Merlin, any witch, Transform themselves fo ftrangely as the Rich? n 151 Well, but the Poor-The Poor have the fame itch; They change their weekly Barber, weekly News, Prefer a new Japanner to their fhoes, 156 Discharge their Garrets, move their beds, and run (They know not whither) in a Chaife and one; P They hire their fculler, and when once aboard, I But when no Prelate's Lawn with hair-shirt lin❜d, When (each opinion with the next at ftrife, NOTES. 166 rized only in a fimple exposure of the cafe. Here the ri dicule on the folly is heightened by a ridiculous reprefentation of each circumftance that is the object of it. |