Pagina-afbeeldingen
PDF
ePub

And gave you Beauty, but deny'd the Pelf
That buys your fex a Tyrant o'er itself.

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 Senfe, Good-humour, and a Poet.

Beauty, but deny'd the Pelf] The poet concludes his Epiftle with a fine Moral, that deferves the ferious attention of the public: It is this, that all the extravagances of thefe vicious Characters here described, are much inflam'd by a wrong Education, hinted at in 203; and that even the best are rather fecured by a good natural than by the prudence and providence of parents; which obfervation is conveyed under the fublime claffical machinery of Phœbus in the afcendant, watching the natal hour of his favourite, and averting the ill effects of her parents mistaken fondness: For Phœbus, as the god of Wit, confers Genius; and, as one of the aftronomical influences, defeats the adventitious byas of education.

In conclufion, the great Moral from both thefe Epiftles together is, that the two rarest things in all Nature area DISINTERESTED MAN, and a REASONABLE WOMAN,

MORAL ESSAYS.

EPISTLE III.

ΤΟ

Allen, Lord Bathurst.

ARGUMENT.

Of the Ufe of RICHES.

THAT it is known to few, most falling into one of the extremes, Avarice or Profufion, y 1, &c. The Point difcufs'd, whether the invention of Money has been more commodious, or pernicious to Mankind, 21 to 77. That Riches, either to the Avaricious or the Prodigal, cannot afford Happiness, fcarcely Neceffaries, 89 to 160. That Avarice is an abfolute Frenzy, without an End or Purpose, † 113, &c. 152. Conjectures about the Motives of Avaricious men, † 121 to 153. That the conduct of men, with respect 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 by perpetual Revolutions, 161 to 178. How a Mi

fer acts upon Principles which appear to him reafonable, 179. How a Prodigal does the fame, 199. † The due Medium, and true ufe of Riches, y 219. The Man of Rofs, 250. The fate of the Profufe and the Covetous, in two examples; both miserable in Life and in Death, $ 300, &c. The Story of Sir Balaam, 339 to the end.

EPISTLE III.

P. WH

HO fhall decide, when Doctors disagree, And foundeft Cafuifts doubt, like you and me?

You hold the word, from Jove to Momus giv'n, That Man was made the standing jest of Heav'n ;

EPISTLE III.] This Epiftle was written after a violent outcry against our Author, on a fuppofition that he had ridiculed a worthy nobleman merely for his wrong taste. He juftified himself upon that article in a letter to the Earl of Burlington; at the end of which are these words: "I have learnt that there "are fome who would rather be wicked than ridiculous; and "therefore it may be safer to attack vices than follies. I will "therefore leave my betters in the quiet poffeffion of their idols, "their groves, and their high places; and change my subject "from their pride to their meanness, from their vanities to their "miseries; and as the only certain way to avoid misconstructions, "to leffen offence, and not to multiply ill-natured applications, "I may probably, in my next, make use of real names instead "of fictitious ones."

VER. 3. Momus giv'n,] Amongst the earliest abuses of reafon, one of the firft was to cavil at the ways of Providence. But as, in those times, every Vice as well as Virtue, had its Patron-God, MOмUS came to be at the head of the old Freethinkers. Him, the Mythologifts very ingeniously made the Son of Sleep and Night, and fo, confequently, half-brother to Dulness. But having been much employed, in after ages, by the Greek Satirifts, he came, at laft, to pass for a Wit; and under this idea, he is to be confidered in the place before us.

Who sees paler Mammon pine amidst his Store Sees but a backward Steward for the Poor This Year a Reservoir, to keep and spares. The next a Fountain, spouting thro his Heir

Ep.on Riches

« VorigeDoorgaan »