N.Blakey inv.& del».

G Scotin fculp. Who sees pale Mammon pine amidst his Store, Sees but a backward Steward for the Poor; -This Year a Reservoir, to keep and spare; The next, a Fountain, spouting thro his Heir...

Ep:on
:on Riches.

P.

EPISTLE III.

WH

HO fhall decide, when Doctors difagree, And foundest Cafuifts doubt, like you and me?

You hold the word, from Jove to Momus giv'n, That Man was made the standing jeft of Heav'n;

COMMENTARY.

EPISTLE III.] This Epiftle was written after a violent outcry against our Author, on a fuppofition that he had ridiculed a worthy nobleman merely for his wrong tafte. He juftified himfelf upon that article in a letter to the Earl of Burlington; at the end of which are thefe words: "I have learnt that there are "fome who would rather be wicked than ridiculous; and there«fore it may be safer to attack vices than follies. I will there"fore leave my betters in the quiet poffeffion of their idols, their "groves, and their high places; and change my fubject from "their pride to their meanness, from their vanities to their mi

feries; and as the only certain way to avoid mifconftructions, "to leffen offence, and not to multiply ill-natured applications, "I may probably, in my next, make ufe of real names inftead ❝ of fictitious ones." P.

VER. 1. Who fhall decide, &c.] The addrefs of the Introduction (from 1 to 21) is remarkable: The poet reprefents himfelf and the noble Lord his friend, as in a converfation, philofophifing on the final caufe of Riches; and it proceeds by way of

NOTES.

VER. 3. Momus giv'n,] Amongst the earlieft abufes of reason, one of the first was to cavil at the ways of Providence. But as, in thofe times, every Vice as well as Virtue, had its Patron-God, MOMUS

came to be at the head of the old Free-thinkers. Him, the Mythologifts very ingeniously made the Son of Sleep and Night, and fo, confequently, half-brother to Dulness. But having been much employed,

And Gold but fent to keep the fools in play,
For fome to heap, and some to throw away.

But I, who think more highly of our kind, (And furely, Heav'n and I are of a mind) Opine, that Nature, as in duty bound,

5

Deep hid the shining mischief under ground: 10

COMMENTARY.

dialogue, which moft writers ufe to hide want of method; our Author only to foften and enliven the drynefs and feverity of it. You (fays the poet)

hold the word from Jove to Momus giv❜n, But I, who think more highly of our kind, &c. Opine that Nature, &c.

As much as to fay, "You, my Lord, hold the fubject we are upon as fit only for Satire; I, on the contrary, esteem it a cafe of Philofophy and profound Ethics: But as we both agree in the main Principle, that Riches were not given for the "reward of Virtue, but for very different purposes (See Essay on "Man, Ep. iv.) let us compromife the matter, and confider "the fubject jointly, both under your idea and mine, i. e. Sati"rically and Philofophically."—And this, in fact, we shall find to be the true character of this poem, which is a Species peculiar to itfelf, and partaking equally of the nature of his Ethic Epiftles and his Satires, as the beft pieces of Lucian arose from a combination of the Dialogues of Plato, and the Scenes of Aristophanes. This it will be neceflary to carry with us, if we would fee either the Wit or the Reafoning of this Epiftle in their true light.

NOTES.

in after ages, by the Greek Satirifts, he came, at laft, to pafs for a Wit; and under this idea, he is to be confidered in the place before us.

facred to controversy and high debate.

VER. 9. that Nature, as in duty bound,] This, though ludicrously, is yet exactly, ex

VER. 9. Opine,] A term preffed; to fhew, that, by

But when by Man's audacious labour won,

Flam'd forth this rival to, its Sire, the Sun,
Then careful Heav'n fupply'd two forts of Men,
To fquander Thefe, and Thofe to hide agen.
Like Doctors thus, when much difpute has paft,
We find our tenets juft the fame at last.
Both fairly owning, Riches, in effect,

16

No grace of Heav'n or token of th' Elect;
Giv'n to the Fool, the Mad, the Vain, the Evil,
To Ward, to Waters, Chartres, and the Devil. 20

NOTES.

Nature, the poet meant, not the God of nature, but the inftrument and substitute of his providence.

VER. 12. Flam'd forth this rival to, its Sire, the Sun,] The rival of its Sire in its brightness, and in its power of drawing mankind into error and delufion; the two first idols of the world, natural and moral, being the Sun and Gold.

VER. 20. JOHN WARD of Hackney Efq; Member of Parliament, being profecuted by the Duchefs of Buckingham, and convicted of Forgery, was first expelled the House, and then stood in the Pillory on the 17th of March 1727. He was fufpected of joining in

a conveyance with Sir John Blunt, to fecrete fifty thoufand pounds of that Director's Eftate, forfeited to the SouthSea company by Act of Parliament. The Company recovered the fifty thoufand pounds against Ward; but he fet up prior conveyances of his real estate to his brother and son, and conceal'd all his perfonal, which was computed to be one hundred and fifty thousand pounds. These conveyances being alfo fet afide by a bill in Chancery, Ward was imprisoned, and hazarded the forfeiture of his life, by not giving in his effects till the last day, which was that of his examination. During his confinement, his amufement was