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"Where once I went to church, I'll now go twice--"And am fo clear too of all other vice."

The Tempter faw his time; the work he ply'd; Stocks and Subscriptions pour on ev'ry fide, "Till all the Dæmon makes his full defcent In one abundant fhow'r of Cent per Cent, Sinks deep within him, and poffeffes whole, Then dubs Director, and secures his foul.

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Behold Sir Balaam, now a man of spirit, Afcribes his gettings to his parts and merit; What late he call'd a Bleffing, now was Wit, And God's good Providence, a lucky Hit. Things change their titles, as our manners turn: His Compting-houfe employ'd the Sunday-morn: Seldom at Church ('twas fuch a bufy life) But duly fent his family and wife.

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There (fo the Dev'l ordain'd) one Christmas-tide My good old Lady catch'd a cold, and dy'd.

A Nymph of Quality admires our Knight; 385 He marries, bows at Court, and grows polite: Leaves the dull Cits and joins (to please the fair) The well-bred cuckolds in St. James's air: First, for his Son a gay Commiffion buys, Who drinks, whores, fights, and in a duel dies: His daughter flaunts a Viscount's tawdry wife; 391 She bears a Coronet and P--x for life.

In Britiain's Senate he a feat obtains,

And one more Penfioner St. Stephen gains.

My Lady falls to play; fo bad her chance,

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He must repair it; takes a bribe from France;
The House impeach him; Coningsby haranges;
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.

VER. 401. The Devil and the King divide the Prize.] This is to be understood in a very sober and decent sense; as a Satire only on fuch Minifters of State which History 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 those places where he seems moft to have indulged himself only in an elegant badinage. But this Satire on the abuse of the general Laws of forfeiture for high treason, which all well-policied communities have found expedient to provide themselves withal, 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 bigh Treafon. Third Edition, London 1748.

VER. ult.-curfes God and dies.] i. e. Fell under the temptation; alluding to the story of Job referred to above.

IMITATIONS.

VER. 394. And one more Penfioner St. Stephen gains.]

atque unum civem donare Sibylla.

Juv.

MORAL ESSAYS.

EPISTLE IV.

то

Richard Boyle, Earl of Burlington.

ARGUMENT.

Of the Ufe of RICHES.

THE Vanity of Expence in People of Wealth and Quality. The abufe of the word Tafte, y 13. That the first principle and foundation in this, as in every thing else, is Good Senfe, 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, 50. How men are disappointed in their most expenfive undertakings, for want of this true Foundation, without which nothing can pleafe long, if at all; and the best Examples and Rules will but be perverted into fomething burdenfome or ridiculous, 65, &c. to 92. A

defcription of the false Taste of Magnificence; the firft grand Error of which is to imagine that Greatnefs confifis in the Size and Dimenfion, inftead of the Proportion and Harmony of the whole, ✯ 97and the fecond, either in joining together Parts incoherent, or too minutely refembling, or in the Repetition of the fame too frequently, † 105, &c. A word or two of false Tafte in Books, in Mufic, in Painting, even in Preaching and Prayer, and lafly in Entertainments, 133, &c. 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, 169. [recurring to what is laid down in the firft Book, Ep. ii. and in the Epifle preceding this, 159, &c.] What are the proper Objects of Magnificence, and a proper field for the Expence of Great Men, 177, &c. and finally the Great and Public Works which become a Prince, 191, to the end.

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