While with the filent growth of ten per cent, e In dirt and darkness, hundreds stink content. Of all these ways, if each pursues his own, To act confiftent with himself an hour. 132 135 Sir Job fail'd forth, the ev'ning bright and still, "No place on earth (he cry'd) like Greenwich-hill!” h 140 Up ftarts a Palace, lo, th' obedient base Slopes at its foot, the woods its fides embrace, The filver Thames reflects its marble face. Now let fome whimsey, or that ' Dev'l within Which guides all those who know not what they mean, But give the Knight (or give his Lady) fpleen; "Away, away! take all your fcaffolds down, 146 "For Snug's the word: My dear! we'll live in Town." k At am'rous Flavio is the stocking thrown? That very night he longs to lie alone. The Fool, whofe Wife elopes fome thrice a quarter, For matrimonial folace dies a martyr. Did ever TM Proteus, Merlin, any witch, Transform themselves fo ftrangely as the Rich? n Well, but the Poor-The Poor have the fame itch; 151 They change their weekly Barber, weekly News, Prefer a new Japanner to their shoes, NOTES. 156 Discharge fays, he will not build at all, he will again retire to town. He has, I think, destroyed the connection by this alteration. Mutability of temper is indeed equally exhibited in both instances, but Horace keeps clofer to his fubject. WARTON. t Balnea, tonfores; conducto navigio æque Naufeat, ac locuples, quem ducit priva triremis. Trita fubeft tunicæ, vel fi toga diffidet impar; r Rides. quid, mea cum pugnat fententia fecum ; Quod petiit, fpernit; repetit quod nuper omifit; Diruit, ædificat, mutat quadrata rotundis ? "Infanire putas folennia me, neque rides, VER. 163. You laugh, if coat] I am inclined to think that. Horace laughs at himself, not at Virgil as hath been fuppofed, for the ungraceful appearance he fometimes made among the courtiers of Auguftus, on account of the incongruity of his dress. WARTON. VER. 177. Philofopher, and Friend?] Bentley was for reading, in the original, with Heinfius, fufpicientis, instead of refpicientis; which reading Gefner oppofes. Horace, in thefe concluding lines, laughs at the high-flown and unnatural doctrines of the Stoics. Pope has turned this piece of irony into a great compliment to Bolingbroke, whom he fo much idolized; little imagining what this friend would fay of him foon after his decease. WARTON. VER. 177. Is this my Guide, &c.] Pope in another place calls Bolingbroke his Guide, Philofopher, and Friend." He This is an high-flown panegyric. With all Bolingbroke's pretenfions to wisdom, no one had self more at heart; fo different was his character from that of the floic painted by Horace. would willingly have placed the Pretender on the throne, and he would as willingly have ferved George the First, if, by doing Discharge their Garrets, move their beds, and run r But when no Prelate's Lawn with hair-fhirt lin❜d, Is half fo incoherent as my Mind, When (each opinion with the next at ftrife, S One ebb and flow of follies all my life) I' plant, root up; I build, and then confound; 166 Turn round to fquare, and square again to round; "You never change one mufcle of your face, You think this Madness but a common cafe, W Nor once to Chanc'ry, nor to Hale apply; Yet hang your lip, to fee a Seam awry! Kind to my dress, my figure, not to Me. X Is this my Guide, Philofopher, and Friend? 171 175 This he, who loves me, and who ought to mend? Who ought to make me (what he can, or none) That Man divine whom Wisdom calls her own; 180 Great NOTES. either, he thought he could have obtained that rank and station, which he confidered as due to his tranfcendental abilities. He feems in no inftance to have acted from fteady principles. He would have compromifed, after George the First was called to Cum fis, et prave fectum ftomacheris ob unguem, De te pendentis, te refpicientis amici. Ad fummam, fapiens uno minor est Jove, dives, a b * Liber, honoratus, pulcher, rex denique regum; Præcipue fanus, nifi cum pituita molesta est. NOTES. the throne, with any Party, fo he could have gratified his ambition, and the lofty idea he entertained of himself. When he was in the fervice of the Pretender, he difdained the employment and the employer. "Eftuat indignans angufto limite." He merely wanted a prouder scene of action, and the foremost rank among th actors. VER. 188. clouds this Demy. God.] In this Imitation, Pope evidently dwells con amore, as ufual, on his own virtues, opulence, &c. It is fingular, however, that he fhould have made fuch a boast of his native moderation." All his friends were Tories, many of them profeffed Jacobites. Blount had fome connection, it was thought, with the leaders of the Rebellion in 1715. Atterbury was convicted; Bolingbroke, "his guide and friend,” had been in the fervice of the Pretender; Shippen never denied his real politics, though the heat of Party dignified him with the name of "Patriot." Sir William Wyndham, Murray, &c. were all of the fame fide. Pope fhews evident caution whenever he introduces Sir Robert Walpole; he treats him with a fort of diftant refpect, but he was indebted to him for recommending his friend the Abbe Southcote to Cardinal Fleuri, and it might be more wife to attack kings, than their prime minifter. He courted Craggs and Addison, before he felt his own import ance. Warton has paid a juft tribute of applaufe to Lyttelton. Lyttelton confulted Pope about his Paftorals*. As it elucidates Pope's concern in his young Friend's Poems, the reader, perhaps, will excufe my inferting an original letter from Lyttelton to Dodington, on this subject. "Dear Four Paftorals by Lord Lyttelton, published in DodЛley's collection. Great without Title, without Fortune blefs'd; Richev'n when plunder'd, honour'd while op prefs'd; Lov'd without youth, and follow'd without pow'r; At home, tho' exil'd; 'free, tho' in the Tow'r; In fhort, that reas'ning, high, immortal Thing, 185 Just less than Jove, and much above a King, с d Nay, half in heav'n- except (what's mighty odd) A Fit of Vapours clouds this Demy-God. " "Dear Sir, NOTES. Hagley, November 24, 1731. "The approbation you exprefs of my verfes, and the praise you bestow, cannot but be extremely pleafing to me, as they are the effects of a friendship upon which I set so high a value. "When I fent my Paftorals to Mr. Pope, I desired him to make any corrections he fhould judge proper, and accordingly he has "favoured me with fome alterations, which I beg you will give "yourself the trouble of inferting in your copy. At the end of "the first page, after this line, "When now the fetting fun lefs fiercely burn'd," "be pleased to add the two following: "Blue vapours rofe along the mazy rills, And light's lalt blushes ting'd the distant hills.” 66 66 66 In the third, inftead of " And fills with frantic pains, &c." "And blackens each fair image in our breast." Again, inftead of "Pleas'd by not studying, &c." "He pleas'd, because he studied not to please.” Perhaps, too, the verses would run better, if, instead of “ A "Town, with fpiring towers is crown'd;" you were to put, " with fpiring turrets crown'd;" but then the verb "is," must "be understood. "I don't |