Be furious, envious, slothful, mad, or drunk, A Switz, a High-dutch, or a Low-dutch Bear; 65 'Tis the first Virtue, Vices to abhor; And the first Wisdom, to be Fool no more. But to the world no bugbear is so great, To either India see the Merchant fly, Scar'd at the spectre of pale Poverty! 70 See him, with pains of body, pangs of soul, Burn through, the Tropic, freeze beneath the Pole! 75 Here, Wisdom calls: "Seek Virtue first, be bold! 80 From him whose quills stand quiver'd at his ear3, To him who notches sticks at Westminster". 85 "Pray then, what wants he?" Fourscore thousand pounds; As Bug now has, and Dorimant would have. Barnard, thou art a Cit, with all thy worth; But Bug and D*1, Their Honours, and so forth. Yet ev'ry child another song will sing: "Virtue, brave boys! 'tis Virtue makes a King." Be this thy Screen, and this thy wall of Brass7; And say, to which shall our applause belong, 1 [Warburton points that this line gives the meaning neither of Pope nor of the Horatian: 'Vilius est auro argentum, virtutibus aurum.'] 2 [Referring to the opposite schools of theology in favour at court and in the metropolitan Chapter.] 3 [i.e. a scrivener with his pen in his ear.] 4 [i.e. Exchequer tallies. Warburton.] 90 95 100 5 [Sir John Barnard, a quaker who joined the Church of England, member for the City and a great financial authority in Walpole's era. He was Lord Mayor in 1738. Cf. Epil. to Sat. Dial. II. v. 99.] 6 [These allusions here and in v. 112 remain unexplained.] 7 Hic murus aheneus esto. Hor. For what? to have a Box where Eunuchs sing1, 105 Or he, who bids thee face with steady view "Full many a Beast goes in, but none come out." Send her to Court, you send her to her grave. 120 The People are a many-headed Beast: Alike in nothing but one Lust of Gold, Just half the land would buy, and half be sold: 125 The rest, some farm the Poor-box5, some the Pews; 130 135 Sir Job sail'd forth, the ev'ning bright and still, "No place on earth (he cry'd) like Greenwich hill!" Slopes at its foot, the woods its sides embrace, } Which guides all those who know not what they mean, 66 "For Snug's the word: My dear! we'll live in Town." 1 [The Italian Opera, with singers like Senesino and Farinelli, and Cuzzoni and Faustina, was at the zenith of its reputation in London in the reign of George II.] 2 [Augustus Schutz, who held court offices near the person of George II. both before and after his accession to the throne. Carruthers.] 3 Quia me vestigia terrent Hor. [from Aesop's well-known fable.] A Their Country's wealth our mightier Misers drain,] The undertakers for advancing Loans to the Public on the funds. Warburton. 5 Alluding most probably to a Society calling itself the 'Charitable Corporation;' by which thousands were cheated and ruined. Bowles. [V. Pope's note to Moral Essays, Ep. 1. v. Omnia te adversum spectantia, nulla retrorsum. 100.] That very night he longs to lie alone. The Fool, whose Wife elopes some thrice a quarter, 150 Did ever Proteus, Merlin, any witch, 155 Discharge their Garrets, move their beds, and run I plant, root up; I build, and then confound; Turn round to square, and square again to round; 160 165 170 175 This, he who loves me, and who ought to mend? 180 185 1 Dr Hale, of Lincoln's Inn Fields, a physician employed in cases of insanity. Carruthers. 2 [The titles by which Pope addresses Bolingbroke in the Essay on Man, Ep. IV. v. 390.] THE SIXTH EPISTLE OF THE FIRST BOOK OF HORACE. EPISTLE VI. To MR MURRAY1. [HORACE'S Epistle, addressed to an otherwise unknown Minucius, is designed to prove that Virtue is the sole means of true happiness. The celebrated Nil Admirari which it preaches is the expression of the doctrine that the wonder or admiration which leads to desire destroys the peace of mind essential to a happy condition.] 66 N OT to admire, is all the Art I know2, "To make men happy, and to keep them so." This Vault of Air, this congregated Ball, All the mad trade of Fools and Slaves for Gold? Or Popularity? or Stars and Strings? The Mob's applauses, or the gifts of Kings? If weak the pleasure that from these can spring, [William Murray (a younger son of Lord Stormont) began his public career by appearing at the Bar of the House of Commons as one of the Counsel for the British American merchants aggrieved by the Spaniards in 1738, just after the date of Pope's Epistle. He became SolicitorGeneral in Lord Wilmington's Cabinet 1742; and ultimately rose to the Chief Justiceship and a barony, which was afterwards raised to an Earldom. It was he who gave judgment in the case of Wilkes, who presided at the trial of Horne Tooke, and who lived to have his house burnt over his head by the 'Protestant' rioters of 1780. 15 20 Whether we joy or grieve, the same the curse, Th' unbalanc'd Mind, and snatch the Man away; Will any mortal let himself alone? See Ward by batter'd Beaux invited over, And desp'rate Misery lays hold on Dover5. 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 There all Men may be cur'd, whene'er they please. Be virtuous, and be happy for your pains. 1 [Horace merely preaches the Mŋdèv ayav in his lines: Insani sapiens nomen ferat, aequus iniqui, Ultra quam satis est virtutem si petat ipsam.] 2 Craggs's,] (See note to Epitaph Iv.) His father had been in a low situation; but, by industry and ability, got to be Postmaster-General and agent to the Duke of Marlborough. Warton. 3 [A piece of bathos, says Mr Hayward, thus parodied by Cibber: Persuasion tips his tongue whene'er he talks, And he has chambers in the King's Bench walks.'] 4 [The great Lord Clarendon.] бо 5 [Ward and Dover: celebrated for their quack medicines. Roscoe.] 6 [Lord Cornbury, afterwards Lord Hyde, great-grandson of the first Lord Clarendon, a young Tory nobleman of literary tastes, to whom Bolingbroke addressed his Letters on History. Of Lord C., says Mr Macknight, even Horace Walpole spoke with enthusiasm.' He died in 1753. Carruthers points out that he refused a pension obtained for him by his brother-in-law, Lord Essex.] |