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Thy life more wretched, Cutler, was confefs'd,
Arife, and tell me, was thy death more blefs'd?
Cutler faw tenants break, and houses fall,
For very want; he could not build a wall.
His only daughter in a ftranger's pow'r,
For very want; he could not pay a dow'r.
A few grey hairs his rev'rend temples crown'd,
'Twas very want that fold them for two pound.
What ev'n deny'd a cordial at his end,
Banish'd the doctor, and expell'd the friend? 330
What but a want, which you perhaps think mad,
Yet numbers feel, the want of what he had!
Cutler and Brutus, dying both exclaim,
"Virtue! and Wealth! what are ye but a name!"

NOTES.

matter in a trice: there being a poffibility that Want with an empty purse may be relieved; but none, that Want with a full pufe ever can.

VER. 321-Cutler-Arife and tell me, &c.] This is to be understood as a folemn evocation of the Shade of this illustrious Knight, in the manner of the Ancients; who used to call up their departed Heroes by the things they principally loved and detefted, as the maft potent of all charms. Hence this Sage is called up by the powerful adjuration of a full, and of an empty purse.

VER. 333. Cutler and Brutus, dying both exclaim,

"Virtue! and Wealth! what are ye but a name!”] There is a greater beauty in this comparison than the common reader is aware of. Brutus was, in morals, at least, a Stoic, like his uncle. And how much addicted to that fect in general, appears from his profeffing himself of the old Academy,

Say, for fuch worth are other worlds prepar❜d? Or are they both, in this their own reward? 336 A knotty point! to which we now proceed. But you are tir'd---I'll tell a tale---B. Agreed. P. Where London's column, pointing at the fkies

Like a tall bully, lifts the head, and lies; 340

VARIATIONS.

VER. 337. in the former Editions,

That knotty point, my Lord, fhall I difcufs,
Or tell a tale?-A Tale.-It follows thus.

COMMENTARY.

VER. 339. Where London's Column, &c.] For, the foregoing examples of profufion and avarice having been given to fhew, that wealth mifapplied, was not enjoyed; it only remained to prove, that, in fuch circumstances, wealth became the heaviest punishment; and this was the very point

NOTES.

and being a moft paffionate admirer of Antiochus Afcalonites, an effential Stoic, if ever there was any. Now Stoical virtue was, as our Author truly tells us, not exercife, but apathy, Contracted all, retiring to the breaft. In a word, like Sir 7: Cutler's purfe, nothing for ufe, but kept close fhut, and cen⚫tered all within himself.-Now virtue and wealth, thus circumstanced, are, indeed, no other than mere names.

VER. 339. Where London's column,] The Monument built in memory of the fire of London, with an inscription importing that city to have been burnt by the Papists.

P.

VER. 340. Like a tall bully, lifts the head, and lies.] It were to be wished, the City monument had been compared to fomething of more dignity: As, to the Court-champion, for inftance, fince, like him, it only fpoke the fenfe of the Go

vernment.

SCRIBL.

There dwelt a Citizen of fober fame,

A plain good man, and Balaam was his name;

COMMENTARY..

to conclude with, as it is the great MORAL of this instructive Poem; which is to teach us, how miferable men make themfelves by not endeavouring to reftrain the ruling Paffion, though it be indeed implanted in us by the conftitution of things; while, at the fame time, it is an anfwer to the latter part of the queftion,

"Say, for fuch worth are other worlds prepar'd?

"Or are they both, in this their own reward?”

.

For the folution of which only, this Example was jocularly pretended to have been given.

All this, the Poet has admirably fupported, in the artful conftruction of his fable of Sir Balaam; whose character is fo drawn, as to let the Reader fee he had it in his power to regulate the ruling Paffion by reafon, as having in himself the feeds of integrity, religion, and fobriety. These are all gradually worked out by an infatiable thirst of wealth; and this again (through a falfe fenfe of his own abilities in acquiring it) fucceeded by as immoderate a vanity: Which will lead us to another beauty in the management of the Story. For, in order to fee, in one concluding Example, the miseries of exorbitant wealth, ill employed, it was neceffary to fet before the Reader, at once, all the mifufe that flowed both from avarice and profufion. The vices of the CITIZEN and the NOBLE, therefore, which were feparated and contrasted in the foregoing inftances, are here fhewn incorporated in a Courtly Cit. Perhaps it will be faid, that the character has, by this means, the appearance of two ruling Paffions: but thofe ftudied in human nature know the contrary: and that alieni appetens fui profufus, is frequently as much one as either. the profufe or avaricious apart. Indeed, this is fo far from an inaccuracy, that it produces a new beauty. The Ruling Paffion is of two kinds, the fimple and the complex. The first fort, the Poet had given examples of before. Nothing then remained to complete his philofophic plan, but conclud

Religious, punctual, frugal, and so forth;
His word would pass for more than he was worth.
One folid dish his week-day meal affords, 345
An added pudding folemniz'd the Lord's :
Conftant at Church, and 'Change; his gains were

fure,

His givings rare, fave farthings to the

poor.

The Dev'l was piqu'd fuch faintship to behold, And long'd to tempt him like good Job of old: 350 But Satan now is wifer than of yore,

And tempts by making rich, not making poor. Rouz'd by the Prince of Air, the whirlwinds

fweep

The furge, and plunge his Father in the deep; Then full against his Cornish lands they roar, 355 And two rich ship-wrecks bless the lucky shore.

COMMENTARY.

ing with the other. Let me only obferve further, that the Author, in this Tale, has artfully fummed up and recapitulated those three principal mifchiefs in the abuse of money, which the fatyrical part of this Poem throughout was employ

NOTES.

VER. 355. Cornish] The Author has placed the fcene of thefe fhipwrecks in Cornwall, not only from their frequency on that coaft, but from the inhumanity of the inhabitants to those to whom that misfortune arrives: When a fhip happens to be stranded there, they have been known to bore holes in it, to prevent its getting off; to plunder, and fometimes

Sir Balaam now, he lives like other folks, He takes his chirping pint, and cracks his jokes : "Live like yourself," was foon my Lady's word; And lo! two puddings fmoak'd upon the board. 360 Asleep and naked as an Indian lay,

An honeft factor ftole a Gem away:

He pledg'd it to the Knight, the Knight had wit, So kept the Di'mond, and the rogue was bit. 364 Some fcruple rofe, but thus he eas'd his thought, "I'll now give fix-pence where I gave a groat;

COMMENTARY.

ed to expose, namely, AVARICE, PROFUSION, and PUBLIC CORRUPTION.

"Conftant at Church, and 'Change; his gains were fure, "His givings rare, fave farthings to the poor.

"Leaves the dull Cits, and joins (to please the fair)
"The well-bred Cuckolds in St. James's air.

"In Britain's Senate he a feat obtains,
"And one more Penfioner St. Stephen gains."-

NOTES.

even to maffacre the people: Nor has the Parliament of England been yet able wholly to fupprefs these barbarities.

P.

VER. 360. And lo! &c.] The Poet had obferved above, that when the luxuriously selfish had got more than they knew how to use, they would try to do more than live; instead of imparting the leaft pittance of it to those whom fortune had reduced to do lefs: The Vanity of which chimerical project he hath well expofed in thefe lines;

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