What made Directors cheat in South-sea year? To live on Ven'fon when it fold fo dear. Afk you why Phryne the whole Auction buys? Phryne forefees a general Excife. 120 Why she and Sappho raise that monftrous fum? Alas! they fear a man will coft a plum. COMMENTARY. one different from the real, in the fame perfon: and then (from 122 to 133) an imaginary one, and a real the very fame with the imaginary, in different perfons. This address the poet himself hints at, 155. Lefs mad the wildeft whimfey we can frame, &c. Let me obferve, that this has ftill a further beauty, arifing from the nature of the poem, which (as we have fhewn) is partly fatirical, and partly philofophical.-With regard to the particular beauties of this difpofition, I fhall only take notice of one; where the poet introduces the fictitious motive of Blunt's avarice, by a wizard's prophecy: "At length Corruption, like a gen'ral flood "And France reveng'd on Anne's and Edward's arms! For it was the poet's purpose to fhew, that the main and prin. cipal abufe of Riches arifes from AVARICE. NOTES. VER. 118. To live on Ven'fon] In the extravagance and luxury of the South-fea year, the price of a haunch of Venison was from three to five pounds. P. VER. 120. general Excife] Many people about the year 1733, had a conceit that fuch a thing was intended, of which it is not improbable this lady might have fome intimation. P. Wife Peter fees the World's refpect for Gold, And therefore hopes this Nation may be sold : Glorious Ambition! Peter, fwell thy ftore, 125. And be what Rome's great Didius was before. The Crown of Poland, venal twice an age, To just three millions stinted modest Gage. But nobler scenes Maria's dreams unfold, Hereditary Realms, and worlds of Gold. Congenial fouls! whose life one Av'rice joins, And one fate buries in th'Afturian Mines. 130 Much injur❜d Blunt! why bears heBritain's hate? A wizard told him in these words our fate: NOTES. VER. 123. Wife Peter] PETER WALTER, a person not only eminent in the wifdom of his profeffion, as a dextrous attorney, but allowed to be a good, if not a fafe, conveyancer; extremely respected by the Nobility of this land, tho' free from all manner of luxury and oftentation: his Wealth was never feen, and his bounty never heard of, except to his own fon, for whom he procured an employment of confiderable profit, of which he gave him as much as was necessary. Therefore the taxing this gentleman with any Ambition, is certainly a great wrong to him. P. VER. 126. Rome's great Didius] A Roman Lawyer, so rich as to purchase the Empire when it was fet to fale upon the death of Pertinax. P. VER. 127. The Crown of Poland, &c.] The two perfons here mentioned were of Quality, each of whom in the Missisippi defpis'd to realize above three hundred thousand pounds; the Gentleman with a view to the purchase of the Crown of Poland, the Lady on a vifion of the like royal nature. They fince retired into Spain, where they are still in search of gold in the mines of the Afturies. P. VER. 133. Much injur'd Blunt !] Sir JOHN BLUNT, origi "At length Corruption, like a gen'ral flood, 135 "(So long by watchful Ministers withstood) "Shall deluge all; and Av'rice creeping on, Spread like a low-born mist, and blot the Sun; "Statesman and Patriot ply alike the stocks, Peerefs and Butler share alike the Box, "And Judges job, and Bishops bite the town, "And mighty Dukes pack cards for half a crown. "See Britain funk in lucre's fordid charms, "And France reveng'd of ANNE's and EDWARD'S " arms!" 140 NOTES. nally a fcrivener, was one of the firft projectors of the South-fea company, and afterwards one of the directors and chief managers of the famous fcheme in 1720. He was alfo one of thofe who fuffer'd moft feverely by the bill of pains and penalties on the said directors. He was a Diffenter of a most religious deportment, and profefs'd to be a great believer. Whether he did really credit the prophecy here mentioned is not certain, but it was conftantly in this very style he declaimed against the corruption and luxury of the age, the partiality of Parliaments, and the mifery of party-fpirit. He was particularly eloquent against Avarice in great and noble persons, of which he had indeed lived to fee many miferable examples. He died in the year 1732. P. - VER. 137. Av'rice creeping on, Spread like a low-born mift, and blot the Sun ;] The fimilitude is extremely appofite, implying that this vice is of base and mean original; hatched and nurfed up amongst Scriveners, Stock-jobbers, and Cits; and unknown, 'till of late, to the Nobles of this land: But now, in the fulness of time, fhe rears her head, and afpires to cover the most illuftrious ftations in her dark and peftilential fhade. The Sun, and other luminaries of Heaven, fignifying, in the high castern style. the Grandees and Nobles of the earth. "Twas noCourt-badge,greatScriv'ner! fir'd thy brain, Nor lordly Luxury, nor City Gain: No, 'twas thy righteous end, asham'd to see And nobly wishing Party-rage to cease, 146 To buy both fides, and give thy Country peace. 150 "All this is madness," cries a fober fage: But who, my friend, has reason in his rage? "The ruling Paffion, be it what it will, "The ruling Paffion conquers Reason still." COMMENTARY. VER. 151. "All this is madness," &c.] But now the Sage, who has confined himself to books, which prefcribe the government of the paffions; and never looked out upon the world, where he might fee them let loose, and, like Milton's devils, riding the air in whirlwind, cries out, All this is madness. True, replies the poet (from 151 to 177.) but this madness is a common one, and only to be prevented by a fevere attention to the rule laid down in the Essay, Reason still use, to reason ftill attend, Ep. ii. 68. for amongst the generality of men, and without the greatest circumfpection, The ruling paffion, be it what it will, The ruling Paffion conquers reafon ftill. But then (continues he) as fenfeless as this paffion appears, by the fway of its overbearing bias, it would be ftill more fenfelefs had it no bias at all. You have seen us here intermix with the real, the most fantaftical and extravagant that imagination could invent; yet even these are less extravagant than a ruling Paffion without a conftant aim. Would you know the reason? then liften to this important truth: "'Tis HEAVEN itself that gives "the ruling Paffion; and thereby directs different men to dif"ferent ends: But these being exerted through the ministry of Lefs mad the wildeft whimsey we can frame, 1 55 Than ev'n that Paffion, if it has no Aim; The Folly's greater to have none at all. Hear then the truth: ""Tis Heay'n each Paffion "fends, "And diff'rent men directs to diff'rent ends, 160 "Extremes in Nature equal good produce, "Extremes in Man concur to gen'ral use. COMMENTARY. "NATURE (of whom the great Bacon truly obferves, modum "tenere nejcia eft, Aug. Scient. 1. ii. c. 13.) they are very apt "to run into extremes: To correct which, Heaven, at the "fame time, added the moderatrix Reason; not to take the "ruling Paffion out of the hands and miniftry of Nature, but "to reftrain and rectify its irregular impulfes (See Efay Ep. ii. "151, & feq.) and what extremes, after this, remained un"corrected in the adminiftration of this weak Queen († 140. « Ep. ii.) the divine artift himself has, in his heavenly skill "and bounty, fet to rights; by fo ordering, that these of the "moral, like thofe of the natural world, fhould, even by the "very means of their contrariety and diverfity, concur to de"feat the malignity of one another: Extremes in Nature equal good produce, Extremes in Man concur to gen'ral ufe. "For as the various feafons of the year are fupported and fu"stained by the reconciled extremes of Wet and Dry, Cold and "Heat; fo all the orders and degrees of civil life are kept up "by Avarice and Profufion, Selfishness and Vanity. The Mifer "being but the Steward of the Prodigal; and only fo much "the more backward as the other is violent and precipitate:" This year a Refervoir, to keep and spare ; The next a Fountain spouting thro' his heir. |