P. Who builds a Church to God, and not to Fame,

Will never mark the marble with his Name: 286
Go, fearch it there, where to be born and die,
Of rich and poor makes all the history;

Enough, that Virtue fill'd the space between;
Prov'd, by the ends of being, to have been. 290
When Hopkins dies, a thousand lights attend
The wretch, who living fav'd a candle's end:
Should'ring God's altar a vile image ftands,
Belies his features, nay extends his hands;

That live-long wig which Gorgon's felf might own,
Eternal buckle takes in Parian ftone.

VARIATIONS.

VER. 287. thus in the MS.

The Register inrolls him with his Poor,
Tells he was born and dy'd, and tells no more.
Just as he ought, he fill'd the Space between;
Then ftole to reft, unheeded and unfeen.

NOTES.

VER. 287, Go, fearch it there,] The Parish-regifter.

VER. 293. Should'ring God's altar a vile image stands, Belies his features, nay extends his hands] The defcription is inimitable. We fee him fhould'ring the altar like one who impioufly affected to draw off the reverence of God's worhippers, from the facred ta

296

| ble, upon himself; whofe Features too the fculptor had belied by giving them the traces of humanity: And, what was ftill a more impudent flattery, had infinuated, by extending his hands, as if that humanity had been, fome time or other, brought into act.

VER. 296. Eternal buckle takes in Farian fone.] The

Behold what bleffings Wealth to life can lend! And fee, what comfort it affords our end.

In the worst inn's worst room, with mat half-hung, The floors of plaifter, and the walls of dung, 300 On once a flock-bed, but repair'd with straw, With tape-ty'd curtains, never meant to draw,

COMMENTARY.

VER. 297. Behold what bleffings Wealth to life can lend!
Now fee what comfort it affords our end.]

In the first part of this Epiftle the author had fhewn, from Reafon, that Riches abused afford no comfort either in life or death. In this part, where the fame truth is taught by examples, he had, in the cafe of Cotta and his fon, fhewn, that they afford no comfort in life: the other member of the divifion remained to be spoken to,

Now fee what Comfort they afford our end.

And this he illuftrates (from 298 to 339) in defcribing the unhappy deaths of the laft Villers, Duke of Buckingham, and Sir J. Cutler; whofe profufion and avarice he has beautifully contrafted. The miferable end of thefe two extraordinary perfons naturally leads the poet into this humane reflexion, however ludicrously expreffed,

Say, for fuch worth, are other worlds prepar’d?
Or are they both, in this, their own reward?

NOTES.

poet ridicules the wretched tafte of carving large perriwigs on bufto's, of which there are feveral vile examples in the tombs at Westminster and elsewhere. P.

VER. 299. In the worst inn's worst room, &c.] It is remarkable, that, in the defcription

of the scene of action, in feveral parts of this poem, the poet's imagination has painted with fuch truth and fpirit, that one would believe he had been upon the spot, whereas he only hit upon what was, from a clear conception of what was natural and likely,

The George and Garter dangling from that bed
Where tawdry yellow ftrove with dirty red,
Great Villers lies-alas! how chang’d from him,
That life of pleasure, and that foul of whim! 306
Gallant and gay, in Cliveden's proud alcove,
The bow'r of wanton Shrewsbury and love;
Or just as gay, at Council, in a ring

Of mimick'd Statesmen, and their merry King. 310
No Wit to flatter, left of all his ftore!

No Fool to laugh at, which he valu'd more.

COMMENTARY.

And now, as if fully determined to refolve this doubtful question, he affumes the air and importance of a Profeffor ready addrefs'd to plunge himself into the very depths of theology:

A knotty point! to which we now proceed― when, on a fudden, the whole fcene is changed, But you are tir'd.—I'll tell a tale―Agreed.

And thus, by the most easy transition, we are come to the concluding doctrine of his poem.

NOTES.

VER. 305. Great Villers lies- This Lord, yet more famous for his vices than his misfortunes, after having been poffefs'd of about 50,000 7. a year, and paffed thro' many of the highest pofts in the kingdom, died in the year 1687, in a remote inn in Yorkfhire, reduced to the utmost misery. P.

VER. 307. Cliveden] A delightful palace, on the banks of

the Thames, built by the D. of Buckingham. P.

VER. 308. Shrewsbury] The Countess of Shrewsbury, a woman abandoned to gallantries. The Earl her husband was kill'd by the Duke of Buckingham in a duel; and it has been faid, that during the combat fhe held the Duke's horfes in the habit of a page. P.

VER. 312. No Fool to laugh at, which he valued more.] That

There, Victor of his health, of fortune, friends, And fame; this lord of useless thousands ends.

His Grace's fate fage Cutler could foresee, 315 And well (he thought) advis'd him, "Like like me.” As well his Grace reply'd, " Like you, "Like you, Sir John? "That I can do, when all I have is gone." Refolve me, Reason, which of these is worse, Want with a full, or with an empty purse?

NOTES.

is, he had a greater gout for oblique and difguised flattery than for the more direct and bare-faced. And no wonder a man of wit should have this taste. For the taking pleafure in fools, for the fake of laughing at them, is nothing elfe but the complaifance of flattering ourselves, by an advantageous comparison, which the mind, in that emotion, makes between itself and the object laughed at. Hence too we may fee the Reafon of mens preferring this to other kinds of flattery. For we are always inclined to think that work beft done which we do ourselves.

VER. 313. There, Victor of his health, of fortune, friends, And fame-] The term implies the difficulty he had to get the better of all thefe incumbrances. And it is true,

as

320

his hiftory informs us, he had the impediment of good parts, which, from time to time, a little hindered, and retarded his Victories.

VER. 319. Refolve me, Reafon, which of thefe is worfe Want with a full, or with an empty purse 2] The poet did well in appealing to Reason, from the parties concerned; who, it is likely, had made but a very forry decifion. The abhorrence of an empty purfe would have certainly perverted the judgment of Want with a full one: And the longings for a full one would probably have as much mifled IVant with an empty one. Whereas Reafon refolves this matter in a trice. There being a poffibility that Want with an empty purje may be relieved; but none, that Want with a full purfe ever can.

325

Thy life more wretched, Cutler, was confefs'd,
Arife, and tell me, was thy death more blefs'd ?
Cutler faw tenants break, and houses fall,
For very want; he could not build a wall.
His only daughter in a stranger's pow'r,
For very want; he could not pay a dow'r.
A few
grey hairs his rev'rend temples crown'd,
'Twas very want that fold them for two pound.
What ev'n deny'd a cordial at his end,
Banish'd the doctor, and expell'd the friend? 330
What but a want, which you perhaps think mad,
Yet numbers feel, the want of what he had!
Cutler and Brutus, dying both exclaim,
"Virtue! and Wealth! what are ye but a name !"

NOTES.

VER. 322.-Cutler-Arife" a name!"] There is a greater and tell me, &c.] This is to beauty in this comparison than be understood as a folemn evothe common reader is aware cation of the Shade of this illuftrious knight, in the manner of the Ancients; who ufed to call up their departed Heroes by two things they principally loved and detefted, as the most potent of all charms. Hence this Sage is conjured by the powerful mention of a full, and of an empty purfe. SCRIBL. VER. 333. Cutler and Brutus,dying both exclaim," Virtue! "and wealth! what are ye but

of. Brutus was, in morals at leaft, a Stoic, like his uncle. And how much addicted to that fect in general, appears from his profeffing himself of the old academy, and being a moft paffionate admirer of Antiochus Afcalonites, an effential Stoic, if ever there was any. Now Stoical virtue was, as our author truly tells us, not exercife, but apathy-Contracted all, retiring to the breast. In