What broughts Vistos ill got Wealth to waste? Some Dæmon whisperd Visto! have a Taste

E P I S T L E IV.

Τ

'IS frange, the Miser should his Cares employ

gain those riches he can ne'er enjoy: Is it less strange, the Prodigal should waste His wealth, to purchase what he ne'er can tafte ? Not for himself he fees, or hears, or eats ; 5 Artists must chuse his Pictures, Music, Meats : He buys for Topham, Drawings and Designs, For Pembroke Statues, dirty Gods, and Coins ;

EPISTLE IV.] The extremes of Avarice and Profusion being treated of in the foregoing Epiftle; this takes up one particular branch of the latter, the Vanity of Expence in people of wealth and quality; and is therefore a corollary to the preceding, just as the Epistle on the Characters of Women is to that of the Knowledge and Characters of Men. It is equally remarkable for exactness of method with the rest. But the nature of the subject, which is less philosophical, makes it capable of being analy fed in a much narrower compass.

Ver. 7. Topbam,] A Gentleman famous for a judicious collection of Drawings.

VER. 8. For Pembroke Statues, dirty Gods, and Cains ;] The author speaks here not as a Philofopher or Divine, but as a Connoisseur and Antiquary; consequently the dirty attribute here assigned these Gods of old renown, is not in disparagement of their worth, but in high commendation of their genuine gre. tenfions,

Rare monkish Manuscripts for Hearne alone,
And Books for Mead, and Butterflies for Sloane, 10
Think we all these are for himself? no more
Than his fine Wife, alas ! or finer Whore.

For what has Virro painted, built, and planted ?
Only to Thew, how many Tastes he wanted.
What brought Sir Vifto's ill got wealth to waste?
Some Dæmon whisper’d, 56 Vifto! have a Taste,".
Heav'n visits with a Taste the wealthy fool,
And needs no Rod but Ripley with a Rule.
See! sportive fate, to punish aukward pride,
Bids Bubo build, and sends him such a Guide :

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VER. 10. And Books for Mead, and Butterflies for Sloane.] Two eminent Physicians; the one had an excellent Library, the other the finest collection in Europe of natural curiofities; both men of great learning and humanity.

Ver. 12. Than his fine Wife, alas! or finer Wbore.] By the Author's manner of putting together these two different Utensils of false Magnificence, it appears, that, properly speaking, neither the Wife nor the Whore is the real object of modern taste, but the Finery only: And whoever wears it, whether the Wife or the Whore, it matters not; any further than that the latter is thought to deserve it best, as appears from her having most of it; and so indeed becomes, by accident, the more fashionable Thing of the two.

Ver. 18. Ripley] This man was a carpenter, employed by a first Minister, who raised him to an Architect, without any genius in the art ; and after some wretched proofs of his insufticiency in public Buildings, made him Comptroller of the Board titorks,

A standing sermon, at each year's expence,
That never Coxcomb reach'd Magnificence !

You show us, Rome was glorious, not profuse,
And pompous buildings once were things of Use.
Yet shall (my Lord) your just, your noble rules 25
Fill half the land with Imitating-Fools;
Who random drawings from your feets fhall take,
And of one beauty many blunders make;
Load some vain Church with old Theatric state,
Turn Arcs of triumph to a Garden-gate ; 30
Reverse your Ornaments, and hang them all
On some patch'd dog-hole ek'd with ends of wall;
Then clap four slices of Pilaster on't,
That, lac'd with bits of rustic, makes a Front.
Shall call the winds thro' long arcades to roar, 35
Proud to catch cold at a Venetian door;
Conscious they act a true Palladian part,
And if they starve, they starve by rules of art.
Oft have
you

brother Peer, A certain truth, which many buy too dear : 40

hinted to your

VER.

23. The Earl of Burlington was then publishing the Designs of Inigo Jones, and the Antiquities of Rome by Palladio,

VARIATIONS,
After x 22. in the MS.

Must Bishops, Lawyers, Statesmen, have the skill
To build, to plant, judge painting, what you will ?
Then why not Kent as well our treaties draw,
Bridgman explain the Gospel, Gibs the Law ?

Something there is more needful than Expence,
And something previous ev'n to Tafte---'tis Sense :
Good Sense, which only is the gift of Heav’n,
And tho' no Science, fairly worth the seven :
A Light, which in yourself you must perceive; 4;
Jones and Le Nôtre have it not to give.

To build, to plant, whatever you intend,
To rear the Column, or the Arch to bend,
To swell the Terras, or to fink the Grot;
In all, let Nature never be forgot.

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But treat the Goddess like a modeft fair,
Nor over-dress, nor leave her wholly bare ;
Let not each beauty ev'ry where be fpyd,
Where half the skill is decently to hide.
He gains all points, who pleasingly confounds, 5;
Surprizes, varies, and conceals the Bounds.

Consult the Genius of the Place in all; That tells the Waters or to rise, or fall;

Ver. 46. Inigo Jones the celebrated Architect, and M. Is Nôtre, the designer of the best Gardens in France,

Ver. 57. Consult the Genius of the Place, etc. -- to defiga, $ 64.] The personalizing or rather deifying the Genius of ti place, in order to be consulted as an Oracle, has produced or of the noblest and most sublime descriptions of Dehga, thi poetry could express. Where this Genius, while presiding are the work, is represented by little and little, as advancing free a simple adviser, to a creator of all the beauties of improved Nature, in a variety of bold metaphors and allusions, all nta: one above another, 'till they complete the unity of the genda idea,