Builds Life on Death, on Change Duration founds,

And gives th' eternal wheels to know their rounds.

Riches, like infects, when conceal'd they lie, Wait but for wings, and in their season fly.

170

Who fees pale Mammon pine amidst his store,
Sees but a backward steward for the Poor;
This year a Reservoir, to keep and fpare ;
The next, a Fountain, fpouting thro' his Heir,

NOTES.

VER. 173. This year a Refervoir, to keep and fpare; The next, a Fountain, Spouting thro' his Heir.] Besides the obvious beauties of this fine fimilitude, it has one still more exquifite, tho' lefs obfervable; and this is, that it is taken from a circumstance in the most elegant part of improved life. For though in Society, the follies of hoarding and fquandering may correct each other, and produce real advantage to the Whole; as Refervoirs and Fountains may be both useful and ornamental, amongst the other improvements of arts; yet in a State of Nature either kind of excefs would be pernicious; because, in that State, the quantity of natural goods, unimproved by art, would not fuffer, without great danger of want to the whole body, either an immoderate hoarding, or a lavish profufion. And therefore Providence has wifely ordered, that as there are no fantaflic wants in that State, there fhould be no poffible temptation to either. Which noble truth our Poet hints at in the beginning of the Epiftle:

"But when by Man's audacious labour won; "Flam'd forth this Rival to its Sire, the Sun, "Then careful Heav'n fupply'd two forts of men, "Tofquander These, and Those to hide agen." Ver. 11, &c.

In lavish streams to quench a Country's thirst, 175 And men and dogs shall drink him till they burst. Old Cotta sham'd his fortune and his birth, Yet was not Cotta void of wit or worth:

COMMENTARY,

VER. 177. Old Cotta sham'd his fortune, &c.] The Poet now proceeds to fupport the principles of his Philofophy. by examples: but before we come to thefe, it will be neceffary to look back upon the general economy of the poem.

In the first part, to Ver. 109, the ufe and abufe of Riches are fatyrically delivered in precept. From thence to Ver. 177, the causes of the abuse are philofophically enquired into: And from thence to the end, the ufe and abufe are hiftorically illuftrated by examples. Where we may obferve, that the conclufion of the first part, concerning the Mifer's cruelty to others, naturally introduceth the fecond, by a fatyrical apology, which fhews that he is full as cruel to himself: The explanation of this extraordinary phænomenon brings the Author into the Philofophy of his fubject; and this ending in an obfervation of Avarice and Profufion's correcting and reconciling one another, as naturally introduces the third, which proves the truth of the obfervation from fact. And thus the Philof phy of his fubject ftanding between his Precepts and Examples, gives ftrength and light to both, and receives it reflected back again from both.

He first gives us two examples (from Ver. 176 to 219.) of thefe oppofite ruling Paffuns, and (to fee them in their full force) taken from fubjects, as he tells us, not void of wit or worth; from fuch as could reafon themfelves (as we fee by Ver. 183, & feq. and Ver. 205, & feq.) into the whole length of each extreme: For the Poet had obferved of the ruling Paffion, that

"Wit, Spirit, Faculties, but make it worse; "Reason itself but gives it edge and power.'

Efay, Ep. ii. Ver. 146.

Old Cotta and his Son therefore afforded him the most happy

illuftration of his doctrine.

What tho' (the use of barb'rous fpits forgot)

His kitchen vy'd in coolness with his grot? 180
His court with nettles, moats with creffes ftor'd,
With foups unbought and fallads blefs'd his board?
If Cotta liv'd on pulse, it was no more
Than Bramins, Saints, and Sages did before;
To cram the Rich was prodigal expence, 185
And who would take the Poor from Providence?
Like fome lone Chartreux ftands the good old
Hall,

Silence without, and fafts within the wall;
No rafter'd roofs with dance and tabor found,
No noon-tide bell invites the country round: 190
Tenants with fighs the fmoakless tow'rs furvey,
And turn th' unwilling steeds another way:
Benighted wanderers, the foreft o'er,

Curs'd the fav'd candle, and unop'ning door;
While the gaunt mastiff, growling at the gate, 195
Affrights the beggar whom he longs to eat.
Not fo his Son, he mark'd this oversight,
And then mistook reverfe of wrong for right,

IMITATIONS.

VER. 182. With foups unbought,]

dapibus menfas onerabat inemptis. VIRG. P,

(For what to shun will no great knowledge need, But what to follow, is a task indeed.)

200

Yet fure, of qualities deferving praise,

More go to ruin Fortunes, than to raise.
What flaughter'd hecatombs, what floods of wine,
Fill the capacious 'Squire, and deep Divine !
Yet no mean motive this profufion draws, 205
His oxen perish in his country's cause ;

NOTES.

VER. 199. For what to fhun will no great knowledge need, But what to follow, is a task indeed.]

The Poet is here fpeaking only of the knowledge gained by experience. Now there are fo many miferable examples of ill conduct, that no one, with his eyes open, can be at a loss to know what to shun; but, very inviting examples of a good conduct are extremely rare: Befides, the mischiefs of folly are eminent and obvious; but the fruits of prudence, remote and retired from common obfervation; and if feen at all, yet their dependance on their caufes not being direct and immediate, they are not eafily understood.

VER. 200. Here I found two lines in the Poet's MS.

"Yet fure, of qualities deferving praise,

"More go to ruin Fortunes, than to raise."

which, as they feemed to be necessary to do juftice to the fictitious Character going to be described, 1 advised him to infert in their place,

VER. 201, 202. Yet fure, of qualities deferving praise,

More go to ruin Fortunes, than to raife.] This, though a true maxim, will, as I apprehend, never make its fortune in the City: yet, for all that, the Poet has fully approv'd it in the example of a character truly amiable for its beneficence, though carried to an extreme.

"Tis GEORGE and LIBERTY that crowns the

cup,

up.

And Zeal for that great House which eats him
The woods recede around the naked feat,
The sylvans groan--no matter--for the Fleet: 210
Next goes his wool--to clothe our valiant bands;
Laft, for his Country's Love, he fells his Lands.
To town he comes, completes the nation's hope,
And heads the bold Train-bands, and burns a Pope.
And shall not Britain now regard his toils, 215
Britain, that pays her Patriots with her Spoils ?
In vain at Court the Bankrupt pleads his cause,
His thankless Country leaves him to her Laws.
The Sense to value Riches, with the Art
T'enjoy them, and the Virtue to impart,

VARIATIONS.

After Ver. 218 in the MS.

Where one lean herring furnish'd Cotta's board,
And nettles grew, fit porridge for their Lord;
Where mad good-nature, bounty mifapply'd,
In lavish Curio blaz'd a-while and dy'd;
There Providence once more shall shift the scene,
And fhewing H-Y, teach the golden mean.

COMMENTARY.

220

VER. 219. The Senfe to value Riches, &c.] The Author having now largely expofed the ABUSE of Riches by ex

NOTES.

VER. 219, 220. The Sense to value Riches, with the Art Tenjoy them, and the Virtue to impart.] The Senfe to value Riches, is not, in the City-meaning, the fenfe in valuing them: for as Riches may be enjoyed without