My Lady falls to play; fo bad her chance, 395
He must repair it; takes a bribe from France;
The House impeach him; Coningsby harangues;
The Court forfake him, and Sir Balaam hangs:
Wife, fon, and daughter, Satan! are thy own,
His wealth, yet dearer, forfeit to the Crown: 400
The Devil and the King divide the Prize,
And fad Sir Balaam curfes God and dies.

NOTES.

VER. 401. The Devil and the King divide the Prize,] This is to be understood in a very fober and decent fenfe; as a Satire only on fuch Minifters of State (which Hiftory informs us have been found) who aided the Devil in his temptations, in order to foment, if not to make, Plots for the fake of confifcations. So fure always, and juft, is our Author's fatire, even in thofe places where he feems most to have indulged himself only in an elegant badinage. But this Satire on the abufe of the general laws of forfeiture for high-treason, which laws all well-policied communities have found necessary, is by no means to be understood as a reflection on the Laws themselves; whofe neceffity, equity, and even lenity have been excellently well vindicated in that very learned and elegant Difcourfe, intitled, Some Confiderations on the Law of Forfeiture for High Treafon. Third Edition, London, 1748.

VER. ult. curfes God and dies] i. e. Fell under the temptations; alluding to the ftory of Job, referred to above.

MORAL ESSAY S.

EPISTLE IV.

то

Richard Boyle, Earl of Burlington.

ARGUMENT.

Of the Ufe of RICHES.
1735

THE Vanity of Expence in People of Wealth and Qua-
lity. The abufe of the Word Tafte, Ver. 13. That
the first principle and foundation in this, as in every
thing else, is Good Senfe, Ver. 40.
The chief
proof of it is to follow Nature, even in works of mere
Luxury and Elegance. Inftanced in Architecture and
Gardening, where all must be adapted to the Genius
and Ufe of the Place, and the Beauties not forced
into it, but refulting from it, Ver. 50. How men are
disappointed in their most expensive undertakings, for
want of this true Foundation, without which nothing
can please long, if at all; and the best Examples and
Rules will be but perverted into fomething burdensome

VOL. III.

Y

and

and ridiculous, Ver. 65, etc. to 92. A defcription of the falfe Tafte of Magnificence; the first grand Error of which is to imagine that Greatness confifis in the Size and Dimenfion, instead of the Proportion and Harmony of the whole, Ver. 97. and the fecond either in joining together Parts incoherent, or too minutely resembling, or in the Repetition of the fame too frequently, Ver. 105, etc. A word or two of falfe Tafte in Books, in Mufic, in Painting, even in Preaching and Prayer, and lastly in Entertainments, Ver. 133, etc. Yet PROVIDENCE is juftified in giving Wealth to be fquandered in this manner, fince it is difperfed to the Poor and laborious part of mankind, Ver. 169. [recurring to what is laid down in the first book, Ep. ii. and in the Epistle preceding this, Ver. 159, etc.] What are the proper Objects of Magnificence, and a proper field for the Expence of Great Men, Ver. 177, etc. and finally the Great and Public Works which become a Prince, Ver. 191, to the end.