Since then, my Lord, on such a world we fall,

What say you? B. Say? Why take it, gold and

P. What riches give us let us then enquire :

[all.

Meat, fire, and clothes. B. What more? P. Meat,

clothes, and fire.

Is this too little? would you more than live?

80

Alas! 'tis more than Turner finds they give.
Alas! 'tis more than (all his visions past)
Unhappy Wharton, waking, found at last!
What can they give? to dying Hopkins, heirs; 85
To Chartres, vigour; Japhet, nose and ears?

VER. 77. Since then, &c.] In the former editions,

Well then, since with the world we stand or fall,
Come take it as we find it, gold and all.

Can

VER. 82. Turner] One who, being possessed of three hundred thousand pounds, laid down his coach, because interest was reduced from five to four per cent. and then put seventy thousand into the Charitable Corporation for better interest; which sum having lost, he took it so much to heart, that he kept his chamber ever after. It is thought he would not have outlived it, but that he was heir to another considerable estate, which he daily expected, and that by this course of life he saved both clothes and all other expences.

VER. 84. Unhappy Wharton,] A nobleman of great qualities, but as unfortunate in the application of them, as if they had been vices and follies.

VER. 85. Hopkins,] A citizen, whose rapacity obtained him the name of Vulture Hopkins. He lived worthless, but died worth three hundred thousand pounds, which he would give to no person living, but left it so as not to be inherited till after the second ge neration. His counsel representing to him how many years it must be before this could take effect, and that his money could only lie at interest all that time, he expressed great joy thereat, and said, "They would then be as long in spending, as he had been in getting it." But the Chancery afterwards set aside the will, and gave it to the heir at law.

Can they, in gems bid pallid Hippia glow,
In Fulvia's buckle ease the throbs below:
Or heal, old Narses, thy obscener ail,
With all th' embroid'ry plaster'd at thy tail?
They might (were Harpax not too wise to spend)
Give Harpax self the blessing of a friend;
Or find some doctor that would save the life
Of wretched Shylock, spite of Shylock's wife:
But thousands die, without or this or that,
Die, and endow a college, or a cat.

To some, indeed, heav'n grants the happier fate,
T'enrich a bastard, or a son they hate.

00

95

Perhaps you think the poor might have their part? Bond damns the poor, and hates them from his heart: The grave Sir Gilbert holds it for a rule That ev'ry man in want is knave or fool:

ΙΟΙ

"God

VER. 86. Japhet, nose and ears?] JAPHET CROOK, alias Sir Peter Stranger, was punished with the loss of those parts, for having forged a conveyance of an estate to himself, upon which he took up several thousand pounds. He was at the same time sued in Chancery for having fraudulently obtained a will, by which he possessed another considerable estate, in wrong of the brother of the deceased. By these means he was worth a great sum, which (in reward for the small loss of his ears) he enjoyed in prison till his death, and quietly left to his executor.

VER. 100. Bond damns the poor, .] This Epistle was written in the year 1730, when a corporation was establishe i to lend money to the poor upon pledges, by the name of the Charitable Corporation; but the whole was turned only to an iniquitous method of enriching particular people, to the ruin of such numbers, that it became a parliamentary concern to endeavour the relief of those unhappy sufferers; and three of the managers, who were members of the House, were expelled.

"God cannot love (says Blunt, with tearless eyes) "The wretch he starves"-and piously denies : But the good bishop, with a meeker air, 105 Admits, and leaves them, Providence's care. Yet, to be just to these poor men of pelf, Each does but hate his neighbour as himself: Damn'd to the mines, an equal fate betides The slave that digs it, and the slave that hides. B. Who suffer thus, mere charity should own,

II

Must act on motives pow'rful, tho' unknown.
P. Some war, some plague, or famine they foresee,
Some revelation hid from you
and me.
Why Shylock wants a meal, the cause is found,
He thinks a loaf will rise to fifty pound.

What made directors cheat in South-sea year?
To live on ven'son when it sold so dear.
Ask you why Phryne the whole auction buys?
Phryne foresees a general excise.

116

I20

Why she and Sappho raise that monstrous sum?
Alas! they fear a man will cost a plum.

Wise Peter sees the world's respect for gold,
And therefore hopes this nation may be sold:

Glorious

VER. 118. To live on ven'son] In the extravagance and luxury of the South-sea year, the price of a haunch of venison was from three to five pounds.

VER. 120. general excise.] Many people, about the year 1733, had a conceit that such a thing was intended, of which it is not improbable this lady might have some intimation.

125'

Glorious ambition! Peter, swell thy store,
And be what Rome's great Didius was before.
The crown of Poland, venal twice an age,
To just three millions stinted modest Gage.
But nobler scenes Maria's dreams unfold,
Hereditary realms, and worlds of gold.
Congenial souls! whose life one av❜rice joins,
And one fate buries in th' Asturian mines.
Much injur'd Blunt! why bears he Britain's hate?
A wizard told him in these words our fate:

130

"At

VER. 123. Wise Peter] PETER WALTER, a person not only eminent in the wisdom of his profession, as a dexterous attorney, but allowed to be a good, if not a safe, conveyancer; extremely respected by the nobility of this land, though free from all manner of luxury and ostentation: his wealth was never seen, and his bounty never heard of, except to his own son, for whom he procured an employment of considerable profit, of which he gave him as much as was necessary. He purchased Stalbridge Park, near Sherborne, a seat of the Boyle Family, now in possession of the Earl of Uxbridge, where he lived many years. He was a neighbour of Henry Fielding, who lived at East Stour, about four miles distant, and was supposed to be the character described by him in Tom Jones, the important " Peter Pounce."

VER. 126. Rome's great Didius] A Roman lawyer, so rich as to purchase the empire when it was set to sale upon the death of Pertinax.

VER. 127. The crown of Poland, &c.] The two persons here mentioned, Mr. Gage, and Lady Mary Herbert, daughter of William, Marquis of Powis, in the Mississippi despised to realise above three hundred thousand pounds; the gentleman with a view to the purchase of the crown of Poland, the lady on a vision of the like royal nature.

VER. 133. Much injur'd Blunt!] Sir JOHN BLUNT, originally a scrivener, was one of the first projectors of the South-Sea Company, and afterwards one of the directors and chief managers of

the

"At length corruption, like a gen❜ral flood,

(So long by watchful ministers withstood,) "Shall deluge all; and av'rice creeping on,

135

140

Spread like a low-born mist, and blot the sun; "Statesman and patriot ply alike the stocks, "Peeress and butler share alike the box, "And judges job, and bishops bite the town, "And mighty dukes pack cards for half a crown. "See Britain sunk in lucre's sordid charms, "And France reveng'd on ANNE'S and EDWARD'S "arms!"

'Twas no court-badge, great scriv'ner! fir'd thy

brain,

Nor lordly luxury, nor city gain:

No, 'twas thy righteous end, asham'd to see

Senates degen'rate, patriots disagree,

And nobly wishing party-rage to cease,

145

To buy both sides, and give thy country peace. 150 "All this is madness," cries a sober sage: But who, my friend, has reason in his rage? "The ruling passion, be it what it will, "The ruling passion conquers reason still." Less mad the wildest whimsey we can frame, Than ev'n that passion, if it has no aim;

For tho' such motives folly you may call,

155

The folly's greater to have none at all,

Hear

the famous scheme in 1720. He was also one of those who suffered most severely by the bill of pains and penalties on the said

directors.