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Blends, in exception to all general rules,

275

Your Taste of Follies, with our Scorn of Fools:
Reserve with Frankness, Art with Truth ally'd,
Courage with Softness, Modesty with Pride;
Fix'd Principles, with Fancy ever new;
Shakes all together, and produces---You. 280
Be this a Woman's Fame: with this unbleft,

Toafts live a fcorn, and Queens may

die a jest. This Phoebus promis'd (I forget the year) When those blue eyes first open'd on the sphere; Afcendant Phoebus watch'd that hour with care, Averted half your Parents' fimple Pray'r; And gave you Beauty, but deny'd the Pelf That buys your Sex a Tyrant o'er itself.

NOTES.

286

VER. 285, &c. Afcendant Phoebus watch'd that hour with care, Averted half your Parents' fimple Pray'r;

And gave you Beauty, but deny'd the Pelf] The Poet concludes his epiftle with a fine Moral, which deferves the serious attention of the public: It is this, that all the extravagancies of thefe vicious characters here defcribed, are much inflamed by a wrong education, hinted at in Ver. 203; and that even the best are rather fecur'd by a good natural, than by the prudence and providence of parents: Which obfervation is conveyed under the fublime claffical machinery of Phoebus in the afcendant, watching the natal hour of his fav'rite, and averting the ill effects of her parents mistaken fondnefs: For Phoebus, as the God of Wit, con

The gen'rous God, who Wit and Gold refines, And ripens Spirits as he ripens Mines,

290

Kept Drofs for Ducheffes, the world fhall know it,

To you gave Sense, Good-humour, and a Poet.

NOTES.

fers genius; and, as one of the aftronomical influences, defeats the adventitious bias of education.

In conclufion, the great Moral from both these epistles together is, that the two rarest things in all nature are a DISINTERESTED MAN, and a REASONABLE WOMAN.

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Of the Ufe of RICHES.

THAT it is known to few, most falling into one of the extremes, Avarice or Profufion, Ver. 1, &c. The Point difcuffed, whether the invention of Money has been more commodious, or pernicious to Mankind, Ver. 21 to 77. That Riches either to the Avaricious or the Prodigal, cannot afford Happiness, fcarcely Neceffaries, Ver. 89 to 160. That Avarice is an abfolute Frenzy, without an End or Purpose, Ver. 113, &c. 152. Conjectures about the Motives of Avaricious Men, Ver. 121 to 153. That the conduct of Men, with refpect to Riches, can only be accounted for by the ORDER OF PROVIDENCE, which works the general Good out of Extremes, and brings all to its great End

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by perpetual Revolutions, Ver. 161 to 178. How a Mifer acts upon Principles which appear to him reasonable, Ver. 179. How a Prodigal does the fame, Ver. 199. The due Medium, and true Ufe of Riches, 219. The Man of Rofs, Ver. 250. The fate of the Profufe and the Covetous, in two examples; both miferable in Life and in Death, Ver. 300, &c. The Story of Sir Balaam, Ver. 339 to the End.

THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

ASTOR, LENOX AND
TILDEN FOUNDATIONS.

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