Back to his bounds their subject fea command, ` of Queen Anne, were ready to fall, being founded in boggy land (which is fatyrically alluded to in our author's imitation of Horace, 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 repaired by Turnpikes were made jobs for private lucre, and infamoufly executed, even to the entrance of London itself. The propofal of building a Bridge at Westminster had been petitioned against and rejected; but in two years after the publication of this poem, an Act for building a Bridge paffed through both houses. After many debates in the committee, the execution was left to the carpenter above-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. MORAL ESSAYS. EPISTLE V. To Mr. ADDISON. Occafioned by his Dialogues on MEDALS. EE the wild Wafte of all-devouring years! SEE How Rome her own fad Sepulchre appears, NOTES. THIS was originally written in the year 1715, when Mr. Addifon intended to publifh his book of Medals; it was fometime before he was Secretary of State; but not published till Mr. Tickell's Edition of his works; at which time the verfes on Mr. Craggs, which conclude the poem, were added, viz. in 1720. P. EPIST. V. As the third Epiftle treated of the extremes of Avarice and Profufion; and the fourth took up one particular branch of the latter, namely, the vanity of expence 5 Imperial wonders rais'd on Nations spoil'd, Where mix'd with Slaves the groaning Martyr toil'd: Now drain'd a diftant country of her Floods: NOTES. ΙΟ in people of wealth and quality, and was therefore a corollary to the third; fo this treats of one circumstance of that vanity, as it appears in the common collectors of old coins; and is, therefore, a corollary to the fourth. VER. 6. Where mix'd with Slaves the groaning Martyr toil'd:} The inattentive reader might wonder how this circumstance came to find a place here. But let him compare it with ver. 13, 14. and he will fee the Reason, "Barbarian blindness, Chriflian zeal confpire, "And Papal piety, and Gothic fire. For the Slaves mentioned in the 6th line were of the fame nation with the Barbarians in the 13th; and the Chriftians in the 13th, the Succeffors of the Martyrs in the 6th: Providence ordaining, that these should ruin what thofe were fo injuriously employed in rearing: for the Poet never lofeth fight of his great principle. VER. 9. Fanes which admiring Gods with pride furvey,] Thefe Gods were then the Tyrants of Rome, to whom the Empire raised Temples. The epithet, admiring, conveys a strong ridicule; that paffion, in the opinion of Philofophy, always conveying the ideas of ignorance and mifery. "Nil admirari prope res eft una, Numici, Solaque quæ poffit facere et fervare beatum. Admiration implying our ignorance of other things; pride, Our ignorance of ourselves. VOL. III. Z Some felt the filent ftroke of mould'ring age, Perhaps by its own ruins fav'd from flame, Ambition figh'd: She found it vain to trust The faithless Column and the crumbling Buft: 15 20 Huge moles, whofe fhadow ftretch'd from fhore to fhore, Their ruins perifh'd, and their place no more! NOTES. 25 VER. 18. And give to Titus old Vefpafian's due.] A fine infinuation of the entire want of Tafte in Antiquaries; whofe ignorance of characters mifleads them (fupported only by a name) against reafon and history. VER. 25. A narrow Orb each crouded Conqueft keeps,] A ridicule on the pompous title of Orbis Romanus, which the Romans gave to their Empire. VER. 72.-the proud arch] i. e. The triumphal Arch, which was generally an enormous mass of building. A small Euphrates thro' the piece is roll'd, The Medal, faithful to its charge of fame, Thro' climes and ages bears each form and name: In one short view fubjected to our eye Gods, Emp'rors, Heroes, Sages, Beauties, lie. With sharpen'd fight pale Antiquaries pore, Th' inscription value, but the rust adore. This the blue varnish, that the green endears, The facred ruft of twice ten hundred years! To gain Pefcennius one employs his Schemes, One grafps a Cecrops in ecftatic dreams. Poor Vadius, long with learned spleen devour'd, Can tafte no pleasure fince his Shield was fcour'd: And Curio, restless by the Fair-one's fide, Sighs for an Otho, and neglects his bride. Theirs is the Vanity, the Learning thine: Touch'd by thy hand, again Rome's glories fhine; NOTES. 30 35 40 45 VER. 35. With fharpen'd fight pale Antiquaries pore,] Microscopic glaffes, invented by philofophers to discover the beauties in the minuter works of nature, ridiculously applied by Antiquaries, to detect the cheats of counterfeit medals. VER. 37. This the blue varnish, that the green endears,] i. e. This a collector of filver; That, of brafs coins. VER. 41. Poor Vadius,] See his hiftory, and that of his Shield, in the Memoirs of Scriblerus. Z z |