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At home in lonefome Solitarinefs
Mypiteous Soul began the Wretchedness
Of Suiters at Court to mourn, and a Trance
Like his, who dreamt he faw Hell, did advance
It felf o'er me: Such Men as he faw there
I faw at Court, and worfe and more. Low Fear
Becomes the Guilty, not th' Accufer: Then,
Shall I, none's Slave, of high-born or rais'd Men
Fear Frowns; and my Mistress Truth, betray thee
For the huffing, braggart, puft Nobility?
No, no, thou which fince Yesterday haft been,
Almoft about the whole World, haft thou feen,
O Sun, in all thy Journey, Vanity,
Such as fwells the Bladder of our Court? I
Think he which made your (*) Waxen-garden, and
Transported it from Italy, to ftand

With us at London, flouts our Courtiers; for
Just fuch gay painted Things, which no Sap, nor
Tafte have in them, ours are; and natural
Some of the Stocks are, their Fruits Baftard all..

(*) A Show of the Italian Gardens in Wax-work, in the Time of King James the First.

POPE

Than mine to find a Subject ftay'd and wife,
Already half turn'd Traytor by Surprize.
I fear'd th' Infection flid from him to me,
As in the Pox, fome give it to get free;
And quick to fwallow me, methought I saw
One of our Giant Statutes ope its Jaw!

In that nice Moment, as another Lye
Stood juft a-tilt, the Minifter came by.
To him he flies, and bows, and bows again-
Then clofe as Umbra, joins the dirty Train.
Not Fannius felf more impudently near,
When Half his Nofe is in his Prince's Ear.
I quak'd at Heart; and ftill afraid to fee
All the Court fill'd with ftranger Things than he,
Run out as faft, as one that pays his Bail
And dreads more Actions, hurries from a Jail.
Bear me, fome God! oh quickly bear me hence
To wholesome Solitude, the Nurse of Sense:
There Contemplation prunes her ruffled Wings,
And the free Soul looks down to pity Kings.
The fober Thought purfu'd th' amufing Theme
'Till Fancy colour'd it, and form'd a Dream.
A Vifion Hermits can to Hell transport,
And force ev'n me to see the Damn'd at Court.
Not Dante dreaming all th' infernal State,
Beheld fuch Scenes of Envy, Sin, and Hate.
Bafe Fear becomes the Guilty, not the Free;
Suits Tyrants, Plunderers, but suits not me:
Shall I, the Terror of this finful Town,
Care if a livery'd Lord or fimile or frown?
Who cannot flatter, and deteft who can,
Tremble before a noble Serving-man?
O my fair Miftrefs, Truth! fhall I quit thee,
For huffing, braggart, puft Nobility?
Thou, who fince Yefterday haft roll'd o'er all
The bufy, idle Blockheads of the Ball;

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Haft

Haft thou, oh Sun! beheld an emptier Sort,
Than fuch as fwell this Bladder of a Court?
Now Pox on those who fhew a (†) Court in Wax!
It ought to bring all Courtiers on their Backs:
Such painted Puppets, fuch a varnish'd Race
Of hollow Gewgaws, only Drefs and Face,
Such waxen Nofes, ftately ftaring Things-
No Wonder fome Folks bow, and think them Kings.

(†) A famous Show of the Court of France in Wax-work."

These were the laft Satires Mr. Pope wrote, except the new Dunciad, which was his last poetical Work of all; but before we enter into Difcourfe about that, it is proper that we omit not speaking of the Effay on Man, this Poem has a large Party of Admirers, and a large Party against it, it is addrefs'd. to the Lord Bolingbroke. As this is a very improper Place and Time for Debate, we fhall only tell the Matter generally contain'd in it, and the Principles it chiefly builds upon.

He defires his Friend Lælius, that is my Lord, to expatiate freely with him over all this Scene of Man, which is a very generous Way of thinking, Epiftle the First, Line 4; by which Means he thinks there will be found Subject for Laughter, but Motive for Candour, and fufficient Argument to vindicate the Ways of God to Man. Line 16, he fays, that of God or Man we can only reafon from what we know, that is, that there is an Extent of human Knowledge, and then immediately he checks the Searcher after Knowledge in ten Lines together, From Line 34 to Line 44, he fays, that there is an infinite. Chain of depending Beings, among which there must be fuch an one as Man, and that the

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only Question is, whether God has plac'd him in his right Place or no? which becomes no Question at at all, if all the Chain of Beings are in a natural Relation, and can't be otherways than where they are: He fays, whatever feems wrong respecting Men, is right, as relative to all, which he does not attempt to prove, because he fays, we fee but a Part and not the Whole Then he checks the Searcher again in eight Lines, from 60 to 68; all future Things he fays are hid from Men, therefore he recommends inftead of Knowledge unattainable, what he here calls Hope, but in his Definition it is Faith:

Hope humbly then; with trembling Pinions foar, Wait the great Teacher Death, and God adore, What Bliss above he gives not thee to know, But gives that Hope to be thy Bleffing now. Hope fprings eternal in the human Breast, Man never is, but always to be bleft : The Soul uneafy and confin'd at home Refts, and expatiates in a Life to come.

He speaks very freely of Angels, tho' before he fays, what can we reafon but from what we know? He fays, that of the ftupendous Whole, the Soul is God, and the Body Nature, and inftead of farther Search, allows all to be unfearchable, and fays, fubmit, and in Spight of erring Reafon-Whatever is is right,

In the fecond Epiftle, he begins with checking Searchers in the first 48 Lines, and then goes on difcourfing of the Paffions, and his favourite Theme the ruling Paffion; but at laft afferts, that all the Paffions may be called Modes of Self-love; he quotes an allegorical Paffage of the Bible, to prove that God is not always in the still Calm, but that he walks upon the Wind. The ruling Paffion he affirms is brought into the World with us, and like Aaron's Serpent, fwallows

P 3

fwallows all the reft; that Spirit, and Wit, and Refon, are aiding and affifting to it: Virtue and Vice, he fays, are fo blended together in our Natures, that we can't fee where the Virtue ends, or the Vice begins, and he looks on Pride as our great and common Friend, and concludes, that tho' Man is a Fool, yet God is wife, and thus by him vindicated.

The third Epiftle promifes to fpeak of Man with Refpect to Society, as the former had done as an Individual: This he begins with checking the Searcher, and talks again about the Chain; he proceds to call him Fool; he prefers Inftinct to Reafon, from Line 86 to Line 98, and afterwards fays, that the Business of Reason was but to copy Inftinct, and as to Government (let it be arbitrary or what it will) that which is beft adminiftred is beft; and concludes this Epiftle, that Self-love and focial are the fame.

The fourth Epiftle of Happiness, is where he says, that common Senfe and Eafe are equal; he fays, the Rich are no happier than the Poor, the Great than the Little; but that Happiness is Health, Peace, and Competence; yet, he fays, fome are happy (but wrongly fo) in other Things:

And grant the Bad what Happinefs they wou'd,
One they must want, which is to pafs for Good.
In this Epiftle he checks the Searcher again, and calls
him Fool, as he does many other contemptuous
Names, thro' the whole Poem.

And difcourfing further, (for Happiness is a Theme, of which every one may speak in their own Way) he. reflects on fome Courtiers, and now fays, VIRTUE is the only Happinefs, and not Health, Peace, and Competence; he concludes,

What

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