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Than mine to find a Subject stay'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 faw
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 close 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 Ba
And dreads more Actions, hurries from a Jail.

Bear me, fome God! oh quickly bear me hence To wholesome Solitude, the Nurse of Senfe: 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 Vision Hermits can to Hell transport, And force ev'n me to fee 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 fuits not me: Shall I, the Terror of this finful Town, Care if a livery'd Lord or fmile 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 Yesterday haft roll'd o'er all The bufy, idle Blockheads of the Ball;

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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 Noses, ftately ftaring Things-
No Wonder fome Folks bow, and think them Kings.

(t) 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 Difcourse 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 Lelius, 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 says, 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 and that the only

as Man,

only Question is, whether God has plac'd him in his right Place or no? which becomes no Queftion 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 feeins 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 Blifs 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 fpeaks 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, Jubmit, and in Spight of erring Reafon-Whatever is is right.

In the fecond Epifle, 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 ftill 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

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fwallows all the reft; that Spirit, and Wit, and Reafon, 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 promises to speak of Man wìth 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 says, fome are happy (but wrongly fo) in other Things:

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And grant the Bad what Happiness they wou'd,
One they must want, which is to pafs for Good.

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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 Happiness, and not Health, Peace, and Competence; he concludes,

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Whatever is, is right,

That Reafon, Paffion, answer one great Aim,
That true Self-love and focial are the fame,
That Virtue only makes our Blifs below,
And all our Knowledge is ourselves to know.

We refer the Reader to the Effays, which upon the Whole seem to have been Notes collected from different Books, and by Mr. Pope turn'd into these fine Verfes; for the Sentiments of different Authors differing in Opinion, we think may be easily trac'd; there has been a Commentary wrote on it, which is rejected by most Philofophers and Scholars, and is indeed a very mean Performance.

This Effay has been (tho' but indifferently) tranflated into French, and a confiderable Price has been offer'd a Gentleman here in England, who refided many Years in Italy, and has tranflated feveral Pieces out of Italian, to render it into that Language, but he has hitherto refus'd it; it would abundantly please the Jefuits, and the following eight Lines are of the College :

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Thus Nature gives us (let it check our Pride)
The Virtue nearest to our Vice allied;
Reafon the Biafs turns from Good to Ill,
And Nero reigns a Titus if he will:
The fiery Soul abhor'd in Cataline,
In Decius charms, in Curtius is divine.
The fame Ambition can deftroy or fave,
And makes a Patriot as it makes a Knave.

When thefe Epiftles were publifh'd, they came out fingly and without a Name. A little after the Appearance of the firft, a certain Gentleman, who has attempted fome Things in the poetical Way particularly a Piece for Mufick, which was perfor P 4

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