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Sir Balaam now, he lives like other folks,

He takes his chirping pint, and cracks his jokes:
"Live like yourself," was soon my Lady's word;
And lo! two puddings smoak'd upon the board. 360
Afleep and naked as an Indian lay,

An honeft factor ftole a Gem away:

He pledg'd it to the knight, the knight had wit,
So kept the Di'mond, and the rogue was bit.

Some fcruple rofe, but thus he eas'd his thought, 365
"I'll now give fixpence where I gave a groat;
"Where once I went to church, I'll now go twice-
"And am fo clear too of all other vice."

370

The Tempter faw his time; the work he ply'd;: Stocks and Subscriptions pour on ev'ry fide, Till all the Dæmon makes his full defcent In one abundant fhow'r of Cent per Cent, Sinks deep within him, and poffeffes whole, Then dubs Director, and fecures his foul.

Behold Sir Balaam, now a man of fpirit, Afcribes his gettings to his parts and merit; What late he call'd a Bleffing, now was Wit, And God's good Providence, a lucky Hit.

375

Things change their titles, as our manners turn:

His Compting-house employ'd the Sunday morn : 380. Seldom at Church ('twas fuch a busy life)

But duly fent his family and wife.

There (fo the Dev'l ordain'd) one Christmas-tide-
My good old Lady catch'd a cold, and dy’d.

A Nymph of Quality admires our Knight;
He marries, bows at Court, and grows polite :

385

coaft, but from the inhumanity of the inhabitants to those to whom that misfortune arrives; when a fhip happens to be stranded there, they have been known to bore holes in it, to prevent its getting off; to plunder, and fometimes even to maffacre the people: Nor has the Parliament of England been yet able wholly to fupprefs these barbarities.

Leaves the dull Cits, and joins (to please the Fair) The well-bred cuckolds in St. James's air:

Firft, for his Son a gay Commiffion buys,

Who drinks, whores, fights, and in a duel dies: 390
His Daughter flaunts a Viscount's tawdry wife;
She bears a Coronet and P-x for life.

In Britain's Senate he a feat obtains,
And one more Penfioner St. Stephen gains.
My Lady falls to play: fo bad her chance,
He must repair it; takes a bribe from France;
The House impeach him, Coningsby harangues;
The Court forfake him, and Sir Balaam hangs;
Wife, fon, and daughter, Satan! are thy own,
His wealth, yet dearer, forfeit to the Crown:
The Devil and the King divide the prize,
And fad Sir Balaam curfes God and dies

395

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VER. 401. The Devil and the King divide the prize,] This is to be understood in a very fober and decent fenfe; as a Satire only on fuch Minifters of State which Hiftory informs us have been found, who aided the Devil in his temptations, in order to foment, if not to make, Plots, for the fake of confifcations. So fure always, and just is our author's fatire, even in those places where he seems moft to have indulged himself only in an elegant badinage. But this Satire on the abuse of the general Laws of forfeiture for high-treason, which all well-policed communities have found expedient to provide themselves withal, is by no means to be understood as a reflection on the Laws themselves, whofe neceffity, equity, and even lenity, have been excellently well vindicated in that very learned and elegant difcourfe intitled Some Confiderations on the Law of Forfeiture for bigh Treafon. Third Edition, London, 1748.

VER. ult. curfes God and dies.] i. e. Fell under the Temptation; alluding to the story of Job referred to above.

IMITATION S.

VER. 394. And one more Penfioner St. Stephen gains.] ➡atque unum civem donare Sibyllæ.

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MORAL ESSAY S.

EPIS T L LE IV.

то

Richard Boyle, Earl of Burlington,

ARGUMENT.

Of the Ufe 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. Inftanced in Architecture and Gardening, where all must be adapted to the Genius and Ufe of the Place, and the Beauties not forced into it, but refulting from it, ver. 50. How men are disappointed in their moft expenfive 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 fomething burdensome and ridiculous, ver. 65, etc. to 92. A Defcription of the falfe Tafte of Magnificence; the first grand error of which is to imagine that Greatness confifts in the Size and Dimenfion, instead of the Proportion and Harmony of the whole, ver. 97. and the fecond, either in joining tagether Parts incoherent, or too minutely resembling,

Yet

or in the Repetition of the fame too frequently, ver. 105, etc. A word or two of false Tafte in Books, in Mufic, in Painting, even in Preaching and Prayer, and laftly in Entertainments, ver. 133, etc. PROVIDENCE is justified in giving Wealth to be fquandered in this manner, fince it is difperfed 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 Epiftle preceding this, ver. 159, etc.] What are the proper Objects of Magnificence, and a proper field for the Expence of Great Men, ver. 177, etc. and finally the Great and Public Works which become a Prince, ver. 191, to the end.

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EPISTLE IV.

1s ftrange, the Mifer 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?
Nor for himself he fees, or hears, or eats;
Artists must chufe his Pictures, Mufic, 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.

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EPISTLE IV.] The extremes of Avarice and Profufion being treated of in the foregoing Epiftle; this takes up one particular branch of the latter, the Vanity of Expence in people of wealth and quality; and is therefore a corollary to the preceding, juft as the epistle on the Characters of Women is to that of the Knowledge and Characters of Men. It is equally remarkable for exactness of method with the reft. But the nature of the fubject, which is lefs philofophical, makes it capable of being analyzed in a much narrower compass.

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

VER. 8. For Pembroke Statues, dirty Gods, and Coins ;] The Author speaks here not as a Philofopher or Divine, but as a Connoisseur and Antiquary; confequently the dirty attribute here affigned these Gods of old renown, is not in difparagement of their worth, but in high commendation of their genuine pretenfions.

VER. 10. And Books for Mead, and Butterflies for Sloane.] Two eminent Phyficians; the one had an excellent Library, the other the finest collection in Europe of natural curiofities; both men of great learning and humanity.

VER. 12. Than his fine Wife, alas! or finer Whore.] By the Author's manner of putting together these two different Utenfils of falfe Magnificence, it appears, that, properly speaking, neither the Wife nor the Whore is the real object of modern tafte, but the Finery only and whoever wears it, whether the Wife or the Whore, it matters not; any further than that the latter is thought

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