To reft, the Cushion and foft Dean invite,

150

Who never mentions Hell to ears polite.
But hark! the chiming Clocks to dinner call;
A hundred footsteps fcrape the marble Hall:
The rich Buffet well-colour'd Serpents grace,
And gaping Tritons fpew to wash your face.
Is this a dinner? this a Genial room?
No, 'tis a Temple, and a Hecatomb.
A folemn Sacrifice, perform'd in ftate,
You drink by measure, and to minutes eat.
So quick retires each flying course, you'd swear
Sancho's dread Doctor and his Wand were there.

NOTES.

VER. 150. Who never mentions Hell to ears polite.] This is a fact; a reverend Dean preaching at Court, threatned the finner with punishment in "a place "which he thought it not "decent to name in fo po"lite an affembly." P.

VER. 153. Taxes the incongruity of Ornaments (tho' fometimes practifed by the ancients) where an open mouth ejects the water into a fountain, or where the fhocking images of ferpents,

155

&c. are introduced in Grotto's or Buffets. P.

VER. 155, Is this a dinner? &c.] The proud Feftivals of some men are here fet forth to ridicule, where pride destroys the ease, and formal regularity all the pleasurable enjoyment of the entertainment. P.

VER. 156-a Hecatomb] Alluding to the hundred footfreps before.

VER. 160. Sancho's dread Doctor] See Don Quixote, chap. xlvii. P.

Between each Act the trembling falvers ring,

161

From foup to sweet-wine, and God bless the King. In plenty ftarving, tantaliz'd in ftate,

And complaifantly help'd to all I hate,

Treated, carefs'd, and tir'd, I take my leave,
Sick of his civil Pride from Morn to Eve;
I curfe fuch lavish coft, and little skill,
And swear no Day was ever past so ill.

165

Yet hence the Poor are cloath'd, the Hungry fed ; Health to himself, and to his Infants bread

The Lab'rer bears: What his hard Heart denies,
His charitable Vanity supplies.

Another age fhall fee the golden Ear

Imbrown the Slope, and nod on the Parterre,
Deep Harvests bury all his pride has plann'd,

And laughing Ceres re-affume the land.

170

175

Who then shall grace, or who improve the Soil? Who plants like BATHURST, or who builds like

BOYLE.

NOTES.

VER. 169. Yet hence the Poor, &c.] The Moral of the whole, where PROVIDENCE is juftified in giving Wealth to thofe who fquander it in this manner. A bad Tafte employs more

hands, and diffufes Expence more than a good one. This recurs to what is laid down in Book i. Epift. II. 230 -7, and in the Epistle preceding this, † 161, &c. P.

'Tis Ufe alone that fanctifies Expence,

180

185

And Splendor borrows all her rays from Senfe.
His Father's Acres who enjoys in peace,
Or makes his Neighbours glad, if he encrease:
Whose chearful Tenants bless their yearly toil,
Yet to their Lord owe more than to the foil
Whose ample Lawns are not afham'd to feed
The milky heifer and deserving steed;
Whose rising Forefts, not for pride or show,
But future Buildings, future Navies, grow:
Let his plantations stretch from down to down,
First shade a Country, and then raife a Town. 190

NOTES.

VER. 179, 180. 'Tis Ufe alone that fanctifies Expence, And Splendor borrows all her rays from fenfe.] Here the poet, to make the examples of good Taste the better understood, introduces them with a fummary of his Precepts in these two fublime lines: for, the confulting Ufe is beginning with Senfe; and the making Splendor or Tafte borrow all its rays from thence, is going on with Senfe, after fhe has led us up to Tafte. The

art of this can never be fufficiently admired. But the ExpreÃion is equal to the Thought. This fanctifying of expence gives us the idea of fomething confecrated and fet apart for facred ufes; and indeed, it is the idea under which it may be properly confidered For wealth employed according to the intention of Providence, is its true confecration; and the real ufes of humanity were certainly firft in its intention.

You too proceed! make falling Arts your care, Erect new wonders, and the old repair; Jones and Palladio to themselves restore, And be whate'er Vitruvius was before: 'Till Kings call forth th' Ideas of your mind, (Proud to accomplish what fuch hands defign'd,) Bid Harbours open, public Ways extend, Bid Temples, worthier of the God, ascend;

195

was published in the year 1732, when fome of the new-built churches, by the act of Queen Anne, were ready to fall, being founded in boggy land (which is fatirically alluded to in our author's imitation of Hor. Lib. ii. Sat. 2.

Shall half the new-built Churches round thee fall) ·

others were vilely executed, thro' fraudulent cabals between undertakers, officers, &c. Dagenham breach had done very great mischiefs; many of the Highways throughout England were hardly paffable; and most of those which were repair

ed by Turnpikes were made jobbs for private lucre, and infamously executed,, even to the entrances of London itself: The propofal of building a Bridge at Weftminfter had been petition'd against and rejected ; but in two years after the publica

Bid the broad Arch the dang'rous Flood contain,

The Mole projected break the roaring Main; 200
Back to his bounds their fubject Sea command,
And roll obedient Rivers thro' the Land:
These Honours, Peace to happy Britain brings,
These are Imperial Works, and worthy Kings.

NOTES.

tion of this poem, an Act | left to the carpenter abovefor building a Bridge pafs'd thro' both houfes. After many debates in the committee, the execution was

mentioned, who would have
made it a wooden one; to
which our author alludes in
these lines,

Who builds a Bridge that never drove a pile?
Should Ripley venture, all the world would smile.

See the notes on that place. P.