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Can they, in gems bid pallid Hippia glow,
In Fulvia's buckle ease the throbs below;

99

Or heal, old Narfes, thy obscener ail,
With all th'embroid'ry plaister'd at thy tail?
They might (were Harpax not too wife to spend)
Give Harpax felf the bleffing of a Friend;

Or find fome Doctor that would fave the life
Of wretched Shylock, fpite of Shylock's Wife =
But thousands die, without or this or that,
Die, and endow a College, or a Cat.

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COMMENTARY.

95

is not to be thought it fhould operate like a charm, while only worn about one: Yet this, thefe poor men of pelf expect from while Avarice, on the one hand, with-holds them from giving at all, even to the Doctor in extremity; or Vanity diverts the donation from a Friend in life, to the Endowment of a Cat of College at their death. It is true, Riches might give the greatest of all bleflings, a virtuous confcioufnefs of our having employed them as became the fubftitutes of Providence,

To cafe or emulate the care of Heav'n,

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230.

in acts of BENEFICENCE and CHARITY; and this Use is next be confidered...

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NOTES.

parts, for having forged a conveyance of an Eftate to himelf, upon which he took up feveral thousand pounds. He was at the fame time fued in Chancery for having frauduently obtained a Will, by which he poffeffed another confiderable Eftate, in wrong

of the brother of the deceased. By these means he was worth a great fum, which (in reward for the fmall lofs of his ears) he enjoyed in prifon till his death, and quietly left to his executor. P.

VER. 96. Die, and endow a College, or a Cat.] A famous

To fome, indeed, Heav'n grants the happier fate, T'enrich a Bastard, or a Son they hate.

Perhaps you

think the Poor might have their part?

Bond damns the Poor,and hates them from his heart:

COMMENTARY.

VER. 97. To fome, indeed, &c.] For now the poet comes in the second place, to examine, II. Of what use Riches are to others; which he teaches, as is his way throughout this poem by the abuse that stands opposed to it: Thus he fhews (from ✯ 96 to 107) that with regard to acts of Beneficence, the utmost Heaven will grant to those who so greatly abufe its bleffings, is either to enrich fome favourite Baftard, and fo perpetuate their vice and infamy; or elfe, contrary to their intent, a legitimate Son they hated, and fo expofe to public fcorn and ridicule, the defeat of their unnatural cruelty. But with regard to acts of Charity, they are given up to fo reprobate a sense, as to believe they are then feconding the defigns of Heaven, when they purfue the indigent with imprecations, or leave them in the midst of their diftreffes unrelieved, as the common enemies of God and Man.

NOTES.

Dutchefs of R. in her laft Will left confiderable legacies and annuities to her Cats. P.

VER. 100. Bond damns the Poor, &c.] This epiftle was written in the year 1730,when a corporation was established to lend money to the poor upon pledges, by the name of the Charitable Corporation; but the whole was turned only to an iniquitous method of enriching particular people, to the ruin of fuch numbers, that it became a parliamentary concern to endeavour the relief of those unhappy fufferers, and

three of the managers, who were members of the house, were expelled. By the report of the Committee, appointed to enquire into that iniquitous affair, it appears, that when it was objected to the intended. removal of the office, that the Poor, for whofe use it was erected, would be hurt by it, Bond, one of the Directors, replied, Damn the Poor. That "God hates the poor," and, "That every man in want is "knave or fool," &c. were the genuine apothegms of fome of the perfons here mentioned. P.

The grave Sir Gilbert holds it for a rule,

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That "ev'ry man in want is knave or fool: "God cannot love (fays Blunt, with tearless eyes) "The wretch he ftarves"-and piously denies : But the good Bishop, with a meeker air, Admits, and leaves them, Providence's care. Yet, to be just to these poor men of pelf, Each does but hate his neighbour as himself:

COMMENTARY.

105

VER 107. Yet, to be just, &c.] Having thus fhewn the true ufe of Riches in a defcription of the abufe, and how that ufe is perpetually defeated by Profufion and Avarice; it was natural to enquire into the fpring and original of these vices; as the abuse they occafion, must be well understood, before it can be corrected. The difpofition, therefore, of his fubject now calls upon him to come to the Philofophy of it: And he examines particularly into the Motives of Avarice: But what is observable, he, all along, fatirically intermixes with the real motives, several

NOTES.

due. And then want of fuccefs will of course be imputed to want of wit.

VER. 105. But the good BiShop, &c.) In this place, and in the firft Dialogue of 1738, the Poet had named a very

VER. 102. That ev'ry man in want is knave or fool:] None are more fubject to be deluded by this vain mistake, that prudence does all in human affairs | than those who have been moft befriended by Fortune. The reafon is, that, in this fitua-worthy Perfon of Condition, tion Prudence has never been who, for a courfe of many brought to the teft, nor Vanity years had fhined in public Staever mortified. So that the firft tions much to the advantage and will be always ready to take to honour of his Country. But beherfelf what fortune encour-ing at once oppreffed by popuages the other to call her lar prejudice and a public cen

Damn'd to the Mines, an equal fate betides The Slave that digs it, and the Slave ́that hides. B. Who fuffer thus, mere Charity should own,

Muft act on motives pow'rful, tho' unknown.
P. Some War, fome Plague, or Famine they foresee,
Some Revelation hid from you
and me.

Why Shylock wants a meal, the cause is found,
He thinks a Loaf will rife to fifty pound. 116

COMMENTARY.

imaginary; and those as wild as imagination could conceive. This, which at first fight might feem to vitiate the purpose of his philofophical inquiry, is found, when duly confidered, to have the highest art of defign. His bufinefs, the reader fees, was to prove that the real motives had the highest extravagancy: Nothing could more conduce to this end, than the fetting them by, and comparing them with, the moft extravagant that the fancy itself could invent; in which fituation it was feen, that the real were full as wild as the fictitious To give thefe images all the force they were capable of, he first describes (from ✯ 118 to 123;

NOTES.

fure, it was no wonder, the At my request, therefore, the poet, to whom he was perfon-poet with much fatisfaction really a stranger, fhould think hardly of him. I had the honour to be well known to this truly illuftrious Person, and to be greatly obliged by him. From my intimate knowledge of his Character, I was fully perfuaded of his innocence, and that he was unwarily drawn in by a pack of infamous Cheats, to his great lofs of fortune as well as reputation.

tracted, and ftruck out, in both places, his ill-grounded cenfure. I have fince had the pleasure to understand, from the beft authority, that my favourable fentiments of him have lately been fully justified in the courfe of fome proceedings in the high court of Chancery, the most unerring inveftigator of Truth and Falfehood.

What made Directors cheat in South-fea year?

To live on Ven'fon when it fold fo dear.

Afk you why Phryne the whole Auction buys ? Phryne forefees a general Excife.

129

Why she and Sappho raife that monstrous fum ?
Alas! they fear a man will cost a plum.

COMMENTARY.

the real and a different imaginary motive in the fame perfon: and then (from ✯ 122 to 133) an imaginary one, and a real the very fame with the imaginary, in different perfons. This addrefs the poet himself alludes to, 155.

Lefs mad the wildest whimsey we can frame, &c.

Let me obferve, that this has ftill a further beauty, arifing from the nature of the poem, which (as we have fhewn) is partly fatirical, and partly philofophical.-With regard to the particular beauties of this difpofition, I fhall only take notice of one; where the poet introduces the fictitious motive of Blunt's avarice, by a wizard's prophecy :

"At length Corruption, like a gen'ral flood
"(So long by watchful Minifters withstood)
"Shall deluge all; and Av'rice creeping on
"Spread like a low-born mift, and blot the Sun, &c.
"See Britain funk in lucre's fordid charms,

"And France reveng'd on Anne's and Edward's arms! For it was the poet's purpose, in this poem, to fhew, that the main and principal abufe of Riches arifes from AVARICE.

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