Glorious Ambition! Peter, fwell thy ftore, And be what Rome's great Didius was before. 125 NOTES. But ner of luxury and oftentation: his Wealth was never feen, and his Bounty never heard of, except to his own fon, for whom he procured an employment of confiderable profit, of which he gave him as much as was necessary. Therefore the taxing this gentleman with any Ambition, is certainly a great wrong to him. . P. VER. 126. Rome's great Didius] A Roman Lawyer, fo rich as to purchase the Empire when it was set to sale upon the death of Pertinax. P. VER. 127. The Crown of Poland, &c.] The two persons here mentioned were of Quality, each of whom in the Miffiffippi despised to realize 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. They fince retired into Spain, where they are ftill in search of gold in the mines of the Afturies. P. A country devoted to ruin by its ambitious and unjust neighbours; who deferve the severest strokes of fuch a fatirist as our Author. VER. 128. Stinted modeft Gage.] "The names of these two perfons were Mr. Gage, and Lady Mary Herbert, daughter of William Marquis of Powis, who, dying October 1745, left in the hands of his executors and trustees an annuity of 200 l. a year to be paid to the use of this daughter, not for the payment of her many debts which she had contracted, but to keep her from wanting neceffaries. William Marquis of Powis, fon of the former, litigated the faid will, but died while the fuit was pending in the Ecclefiaftical Court, leaving the refidue of the lands and profits of his estates, after his debts should be paid, in the hands of trustees for the use of the Right Honourable Henry Arthur, then Lord Herbert, afterwards Earl of Powis, with whom he had no relation, friendship, or acquaintance, which Arthur afterwards married Barbara Herbert, niece and heir at law of the latter Earl Powis. This man, by fair promifes and threats, got the trustees of But nobler fcenes Maria's dreams unfold, 130 Much injur❜d Blunt! why bears he Britain's hate? A wizard told him in these words our fate: NOTES. 66 At of the firft Earl to agree in obtaining administration with the will and codicil of the Marquis the father, annexed in May 1749, and then repented paying the annuity of 200l. to Mary Herbert, daughter of the faid Marquis. As fhe now refided in France, fhe had obtained a promise there of being made Dame of Honour to the Queen of France; which Lord Herbert hearing of, went out of England to diffuade her from accepting it, as being a disgrace to her and the family; and promised he would pay her all the arrears of the annuity of 200 1. due by her father's will, and would give her, over and above, 2001. a year more. This he never performed, till after several suits of law the cause was brought to the Houfe of Lords, who decreed both her annuities to be paid, with all arrears due in the year 1766. Throughout a long life, fo little difference has this lady found between dreams and realities." From MSS. notes of Mr. Bowyer. VER. 133. Much injur'd Blunt !] Sir JOHN BLUNT, originally a fcrivener, was one of the first projectors of the South-fea Company, and afterwards one of the directors and chief managers of the famous scheme in 1720. He was also one of those who fuffered most severely by the bill of pains and penalties on the faid directors. He was a diffenter of a moft religious deportment, and profeffed to be a great believer. Whether he did really credit the prophecy here mentioned is not certain, but it was constantly in this very ftyle he declaimed against the corruption and luxury of the Age, the partiality of Parliaments, and the misery of Partyfpirit. He was particularly eloquent against Avarice in great and noble perfons, of which he had indeed lived to fee many miferable examples. He died in the year 1732. P. VER. 134. A wizard told him] Is there fuch a thing as a calm and candid spectator of our present manners to be found, who will inform us, whether the direful prophecy of this wizard be founded on truth or not? "At length Corruption, like a gen❜ral flood, "(So long by watchful Ministers withstood,) "Shall deluge all; and Avarice creeping on, "Spread like a low-born mist, and blot the Sun; "Statesman and Patriot ply alike the stocks, "Peerefs and Butler fhare alike the Box, 135 140 "And Judges job, and Bishops bite the town, "And mighty Dukes pack cards for half a crown. "See Britain funk in lucre's fordid charms, "And France reveng'd of 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 And nobly wishing Party-rage to cease, 146 To buy both fides, and give thy Country peace. 150 "All this is madnefs," cries a fober fage: But who, my friend, has reafon in his rage? Lefs Spread like a low-born mift, and blot the Sun ;] The fimilitude is extremely appofite, implying that this vice is of bafe and mean original; hatched and nursed up among Scriveners and Stock-jobbers, and unknown, till of late, to the Nobles of this land: But now, in the fulness of time, fhe rears her head, and aspires to cover the most illustrious stations in her dark and pestilential shade. The Sun, and other luminaries of Heaven, fignifying, in the high eaftern ftyle, the Grandees and Nobles of the earth. SCRIBL.A ftrained interpretation. VER. 145. Fir'd thy brain,] A court-badge firing the brain, is furely an uncouth and improper expreffion. Lefs mad the wildeft whimsey we can frame, Than ev❜n that Paffion, if it has no Aim; 155 For though fuch motives Folly you may call, Hear then the truth: ""Tis Heav'n each Paffion «fends, "And diff'rent men directs to diff'rent ends. 160 "Extremes in Nature equal good produce, "Extremes in Man concur to gen'ral use." This year a Refervoir, to keep and spare; NOTES. 170 In VER. 154. Conquers Reason ftill.] See what is said before of the pernicious tenet of a Ruling Paffion. VER. 158. The Folly's greater] Verbatim from Rochefoucault. VER. 162. Extremes in Man] See the fine paffage quoted above, in Effay on Man, from Dr. Bulguy's Treatife on Divine Benevolence, p. 100. VER. 173. This year a Refervoir,] The fame comparison was before used by Young, Sat. vi. line 34. Pope collected gold from many a dunghill; for this allufion is taken from Fuller's Church Hiftory, p. 28. In lavish streams to quench a Country's thirst, 175 And men and dogs fhall drink him till they burft. NOTES. 180 If VER. 181. His court with nettles,] The ufe, the force, and the excellence of language, certainly confists in raising clear, complete, and circumstantial images, and in turning readers into fpectators. Here is an eminent example of this excellence, of all others the moft effential in poetry. Every epithet here used paints its object, and paints it distinctly. After having paffed over the moat full of creffes, do you not actually find yourself in the middle court of this forlorn and folitary manfion, overgrown with docks and nettles? And do you not hear the dog that is going to affault you? Among the other fortunate circumftances that attended Homer, it was not one of the least that he wrote before general and abftract terms were invented. Hence his muse (like his own Helen standing on the walls of Troy) points out every person and thing accurately and forcibly. All the views and prospects he lays before us appear as fully and perfectly to the eye as that which engaged the attention of Neptune when he was fitting (Iliad, b. xiii. v. 12.) Ὑψῶ ἐπ' ακροτάτης κορυφης Σαμε ύληεσσης, Φαινετο δε Πριάμοιο πολις, και υηες Αχαιών. Those who are fond of generalities may think the number of natural, little circumftances, introduced in the beautiful narration of the expedition of Dolon and Diomed, (book the tenth,) too particular and trifling, and below the dignity of epic poetry. But every IMITATIONS. VER. 182. With foups unbought] "-dapibus menfas onerabat inemptis." VIRG. P. |