200 Bid Harbours open, public Ways extend, MORAL ESSAYS. EPISTLE V. To Mr. ADDISON. Occafion'd by his Dialogues on MEDALS. EE the wild Waite of all-devouring years! SEE How Rome her own fad fepulchre appears, With nodding arches, broken temples spread ! The very Tombs now vanish like their dead! EPISTLE V.] This was originally written in the year 1715, when Mr. Addison intended to publish his book of Medals; it was fome time before he was Secretary of State; but not publifhed 'till Mr. Tickell's Edition of his works; at which time the verses on Mr. Craggs, which conclude the poem, were added, viz. in 1720. As the third Epiftle treated of the extremes of Avarice and Profufion; and the fourth took up one particular branch of the latter, namely, the vanity of expence in people of wealth and quality, and was therefore a corollary to the third; fo this treats of one circumftance of that Vanity, as it appears in the common collectors of old coins; and is, therefore, a corollary to the fourth. 5 Imperial wonders rais'd on Nations spoil'd, Perhaps, by its own ruins fav'd from flame, Ambition figh'd: She found it vain to trust 10 The faithlefs Column and the crumbling Buft: 20 VER. 6. Where mix'd with flaves the groaning Martyr toil'd:} The inattentive reader might wonder how this circumftance came to find a place here. But let him compare it with y 13, 14 and he will fee the Reafon, Barbarian blindnefs, Chriftian zeal confpire, And Papa' piety, and Gothic fire. For the Slaves mentioned in the 6th line were of the fame nation with the Barbarians in the 13th: and the Chriftians in the 13th, the Succeffors of the Martyrs in the 6th: Providence ordaining, that these should ruin what those were fo injuriously employed in rearing: for the poet never lofeth fight of his great principle. Huge moles, whofe fhadow ftretch'd from fhore to shore, Their ruins perifh'd, and their place no more! 25 30 35 The Medal, faithful to its charge of fame, Thro' climes and ages bears each form and name: In one short view fubjected to our eye Gods, Emp'rors, Heroes, Sages, Beauties, lie. With fharpen'd fight pale Antiquaries pore, Th' infcription value, but the ruft adore. This the blue varnish, that the green endears, The facred ruft of twice ten hundred years! To gain Pefcennius one employs his Schemes, One grafps a Cecrops in ecftatic dreams. Poor Vadius, long with learned fpleen devour'd, Can taste no pleasure fince his Shield was fcour'd: And Curio, restlefs by the Fair-one's fide, Sighs for an Otho, and neglects his bride. 40 Their's is the Vanity, the Learning thine: 45 Touch'd by thy hand, again Rome's glories fhine; Her Gods, and god-like Heroes rife to view, Nor blufh, thefe ftudies thy regard engage; Oh when shall Britain, confcious of her claim, agree; 50 55 60 VER. 49. Nor bluf, thefe Studies thy regard engage;] A fenfelefs affectation which fome writers of eminence have betrayed; who when fortune, or their talents have raised them to a condition to do without thofe arts, for which only they gained our esteem, have pretended to think letters below their Character. This falfe fhame M. Voltaire has very well, and with proper indignation, expofed in his account of Mr. Congreve: "He had one Defect, which was, his entertaining too mean an Idea of his firft Profeflion, (that of a Writer) tho' "'twas to this he ow'd his Fame and Fortune. He spoke of "his Works as of Trifles that were beneath him; and hinted to me in our first Converfation, that I fhould vifit him upon no other foot than that of a Gentleman, who led a Life of plainnefs and fimplicity. I anfwer'd, that, had he been fo unfortunate as to be a mere Centleman, I fhould never "have come to fee him; and I was very much disgusted at "fo unfeafonable a piece of vanity." Letters concerning the English Nation, xix. VOL. III. |