ARGUMENT.

Of the Use of RICHES.

THE Vanity of Expence in People of Wealth and Quality. The abuse of the Word Taste, ver. 13. That the first principle and foundation in this, as in every thing else, is Good Sense, ver. 40. The chief proof of it is to follow Nature, even in works of mere Luxury and Elegance. Instanced in Architecture and Gardening, where all must be adapted to the Genius and Use of the Place, and the Beauties not forced into it, but resulting from it, ver. 50. How men are disappointed in their most expensive undertakings, for want of this true Foundation, without which nothing can please long, if at all; and the best Examples and Rules will be but perverted into something burdensome and ridiculous, ver. 65, &c. to 92. A description of the false Taste of Magnificence; the first grand Error of which is to imagine that Greatness consists in the Size and Dimension, instead of the Proportion and Harmony of the whole, ver. 97; and the second, either in joining together Parts incoherent, or too minutely resembling, or in the Repetition of the same too frequently, ver. 105, &c. word or two of false Taste in Books, in Music, in Painting, even in Preaching and Prayer, and lastly in Entertainments, ver, 133, &c. Yet PROVIDENCE is justified in giving Wealth to be squandered in this manner, since it is dispersed to the Poor and laborious part of mankind, ver. 169. [recurring to what is laid down in the first book, Ep. ii. and in the Epistle preceding this, ver. 159, &c.] What are the proper Objects of Magnificence, and a proper field for the Expence of Great Men, ver. 177, &c. and finally the Great and Public Works which become a Prince, ver. 191 to the end.

A

EPISTLE IV.

"TIS strange, the miser should his cares employ
To 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 taste?
Not for himself he sees, or hears, or eats;
Artists must chuse his pictures, music, meats:
He buys for Topham, drawings and designs,
For Pembroke, statues, dirty gods, and coins:
Rare monkish manuscripts for Hearne alone,
And books for Mead, and butterflies for Sloane.
Think we all these are for himself? no more
Than his fine wife, alas! or finer whore.

5

ΙΟ

For

VER. I. 'Tis strange,] This epistle was written and published before the preceding one; and the placing it after the third, has occasioned some aukward anachronisms and inconsistencies.

VER. 7. Topham,] A gentleman famous for a judicious collection of drawings.

VER 8. For Pembroke, statues,] The soul of Inigo Jones, which had been patronized by the ancestors of Henry Earl of Pembroke, seemed still to hover over its favourite Wilton, and to have assisted the muses of arts in the education of this noble person.

VER. 9. Hearne] Well known as an antiquarian.

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 curiosities; both men of great learning and humanity.

For what has Virro painted, built, and planted?
Only to show, how many tastes he wanted.

What brought Sir Visto's ill-got wealth to waste? 15
Some demon whisper'd, "Visto! 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 send him such a guide:
A standing sermon, at each year's expence,
That never coxcomb reach'd magnificence!

20

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 sheets shall 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

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 insufficiency in public buildings, made him Comptroller of the Board of Works.

VER. 20. Bids Bubo build, He means Bub Dodington's magnificent palace at Eastbury, near Blandford, which he had just finished.

After ver. 22. in the MS.

Must bishops, lawyers, statesmen have the skill
To build, to plant, judge paintings, what you will?
Then why not Kent as well our treaties draw,
Bridgman explain the gospel, Gibbs the law?

VER. 23.] The Earl of Burlington was then publishing the designs of Inigo Jones, and the antiquities of Rome by Palladio.

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,
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 hinted to your brother peer,
A certain truth, which many buy too dear:
Something there is more needful than expence,
And something previous ev'n to taste—'tis sense:
Good sense, which only is the gift of Heav'n,
And though no science, fairly worth the seven:
A light, which in yourself you must perceive;
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 sink the grot;
In all, let nature never be forgot.
But treat the goddess like a modest fair,
Nor over-dress, nor leave her wholly bare ;
Let not each beauty ev'ry where be spy'd,
Where half the skill is decently to hide.

35

40

45

50

He gains all points, who pleasingly confounds,
Surprizes, varies, and conceals the bounds.

55

Consult

VER. 46. Le Nôtre] The architect of the groves and grottos of Versailles: he came hither on a mission to improve our taste. He planted St. James's and Greenwich parks,