Afk we what makes one keep, and one beftow?
That Pow'r who bids the Ocean ebb and flow,
Bids feed-time, harveft, equal courfe maintain, 165
Thro' reconcil'd extremes of drought and rain,
Builds Life on Death, on Change Duration founds,
And gives th'eternal wheels to know their rounds,
Riches, like infects, when conceal'd they lie,
Wait but for wings, and in their season fly. 170
Who fees pale Mammon pine amidst his store,
Sees but a backward fteward for the Poor;
This year a Reservoir, to keep and spare;
The next, a Fountain, spouting thro' his Heir,
In lavish streams to quench a Country's thirst, 175
And men and dogs shall drink him till they burst.

NOTES.

VER. 173. This year a Refervoir, to keep and spare; The next, a Fountain, spouting thro' his Heir,] Befides the obvious beauties of this fine fimilitude, it has one ftill more exquifite, tho' lefs obfervable, which is its being taken from a circumstance in the most elegant part of improved life. For tho' in Society, the follies of hoarding and fquandering may correct each other, and produce real advantage to the whole; as Refervoirs and Fountains may be both ufeful and ornamental amongst the other improvements of art; yet in a State of Nature either kind of excefs would be pernicious; because, in that State, the quantity of natural goods, unimproved by art, would not fuffer, without great danger of want to the whole body, either an immoderate hoarding, or a lavish profufion. And therefore Providence has wifely ordered that, in that State, by there being no fantaflic wants, there fhould be no

Old Cotta fham'd his fortune and his birth, Yet was not Cotta void of wit or worth: What tho' (the use of barb'rous fpits forgot) His kitchen vy'd in coolness with his grot? 180 His court with nettles, moats with creffes ftor'd, With foups unbought and fallads blefs'd his board? If Cotta liv'd on pulfe, it was no more

Than Bramins, Saints, and Sages did before;

COMMENTARY.

VER. 177. Old Cotta fham'd his fortune &c.] The poet now proceeds to fupport the principles of his Philofophy by examples: But before we come to thefe, it will be neceffary to look back upon the general economy of the poem.

In the first part, to 109, the xfe and abufe of Riches are fatirically delivered in precept. From thence, to 177, the caufes of the abuse are philofophically inquired into: And from thence to the end, the ufe and abuse are hiftorically illustrated in examples. Where we may obferve, that the conclufion of the first part, concerning the Mifer's cruelty to others, naturally introduces the fecond, by a fatirical apology, fhewing that he is full as cruel to himself: The explanation of which extraordinary phænomenon brings the author into the Philofophy of his fubject;

NOTES.

poffible temptation to either. Which noble truth our hints at in the beginning of the Epistle:

poet

But when by Man's audacious labour won,
Flam'd forth this Rival to it's Sire, the fun,
Then careful Heav'n fupply'd two forts of men,
To fquander Thefe, and Thefe to hide again. 11, &c.

IMITATIONS.

VER. 182. With foups unbought,]

dapibus menfas onerabat inemptis. VIRG. P.

To cram the rich was prodigal expence,

185

And who would take the Poor from Providence ?,
Like fome lone Chartreux stands the good old Hall,
Silence without, and fafts within the wall;
No rafter'd roofs with dance and tabor found,
No noontide..bell invites the country round: 190
Tenants with fighs the fmoakless towr's survey,
And turn th'unwilling fteeds another way:
Benighted wanderers, the foreft o'er,

Curs'd the fav'd candle, and unop'ning door;
While the gaunt mastiff growling at the gate, 195
Affrights the beggar whom he longs to eat.

Not fo his Son, he mark'd this overfight, And then mistook reverse of wrong for right.

COMMENTARY.

and this ending in an observation of Avarice and Profufion's correcting and reconciling one another, as naturally introduces the third, which proves the truth of the obfervation from fact. And thus the Philofophy of his fubject standing between his Precepts and Examples, gives ftrength and light to both, and receives it reflected back again from both.

He firft gives us two examples (from 176 to 219) of these oppofite ruling Paffions, and (to fee them in their full force) taken from fubjects, as he tells us, not void of wit or worth; from fuch as could reafon themselves (as we fee by 183, & feqq. and 205, &feqq.) into the whole length of each extreme: For the Poet had obferved of the ruling paffion that Wit, Spirit, Faculties, but make it worse; Reafon itself but gives it edge and pow'r. Effay, Ep. ii. 146.

Old Cotta therefore and his Son afforded him the most happy illuftration of his doctrine.

VOL. III.

S

(For what to fhun will no great knowledge need›
But what to follow, is a task indeed.).
Yet fure, of qualities deferving praise,
More go to ruin Fortunes, than to raise.
What flaughter'd hecatombs, what floods of wine,
Fill the capacious 'Squire, and deep Divine!
Yet no mean motive this profufion draws, 205
His oxen perish in his country's caufe;

"Tis GEORGE and LIBERTY that crowns the cup, And Zeal for that great House which eats him up.

VARIATIONS.

VER. 200. Here I found two lines in the Poet's MS. "Yet fure, of qualities deferving praise,

"More go to ruin fortunes than to raise.

which, as they seemed to be necessary to do juftice to the general Character going to be defcribed, I advised him to infert in their place.

NOTES.

VER. 199. (For what to fhun will no great knowledge needs But what to follow, is a task indeed.)] The poet is here speaking only of the knowledge gained by experience. Now there are fo many miferable examples of ill conduct, that no one, with his eyes open, can be at a lofs to know what to fhun; but, very inviting examples of a good conduct are extremely rare: Befides, the mischiefs of folly are eminent and obvious; but the fruits of prudence, remote and retired from common obfervation; and if feen at all, yet their dependance on their caufes not being direct and immediate, they are not easily understood.

VER. 201, 202, Yet fure, of qualities deferving praife, More go to ruin fortunes than to raife.] This, tho' a certain truth, will, as I apprehend, never make its fortune in the City: yet, for all that, the poet has fully approved his maxim by the example of a character truly amiable for its beneficence, tho sarried to an extreme,

The Woods recede around the naked feat,
The fylvans groan-no matter-for the Fleet: 210
Next
goes his Wool-to clothe our valiant bands,
Laft, for his Country's love, he fells his Lands.

To town he comes, completes the nation's hope,
And heads the bold Train-bands, and burns a Pope.
And shall not Britain now reward his toils, 215
Britain, that
pays her Patriots with her Spoils ?
In vain at Court the Bankrupt pleads his cause,
His thankless Country leaves him to her Laws.

The Senfe to value Riches, with the Art
T'enjoy them, and the Virtue to impart,

VARIATIONS.

After 218. in the MS.

Where one lean herring furnish'd Cotta's board,
And nettles grew, fit porridge for their Lord;
Where mad good-nature, bounty mifapply'd,
In lavish Curio blaz'd awhile and dy'd ;
There Providence once more fhall fhift the scene,
And fhewing H-y, teach the golden mean.

COMMENTARY.

220

VER. 219. The Senfe to value Riches, &c.] Having now largely expofed the ABUSE of Riches by example, not only the Plan, but the Philofophy of his Poem, required, that he should in the

NOTES.

VER. 219, 220. The Senfe to value Riches, with the Art, Tenjoy them, and the Virtue to impart.] The Senfe to value