His Father's Acres who enjoys in peace, 185 190 195 with a fummary of his Precepts in thefe two fublime lines: for, the confulting Uje is beginning with Sense; and the making Splendor or Tafte borrow all its rays from thence, is going on with Senfe, after he has led us up to Tafte. The art of this can never be fufficiently admired. But the Expreffion is equal to the Thought. This fanctifying of expence gives us the idea of fomething confecrated and fet apart for facred ufes; and indeed, it is the idea under which it may be properly confidered: For wealth employed according to the intention of Providence, is its true confecration; and the real uses of humanity were certainly firft in its intention. VER. 195, 197, etc. Till Kings-Bid Harbours open, etc.] The poet after having touched upon the proper objects of Magnificence and Expence, in the private works of great men, comes to those great and public works which become a prince. This Poem was published in the year 1732, when fome of the new built churches, by the act of Queen Anne, were ready to fall, being founded in boggy land (which is fatirically alluded to in our author's imitation of Horace, Lib. ii. Sat. 2. Shall half the new-built Churches round thee fall), others very vilely executed, through fraudulent cabals between undertakers, officers, etc. Dagenham-breach had done very great mifchiefs; many of the Highways throughout England were hardly 1 Bid the broad Arch the dang'rous Flood contain, 200 paffable; and moft of those which were repaired by Turnpikes were made jobs for private lucre, and infamoufly executed, even to the entrance of London itself: The proposal of building a Bridge at Westminster had been petitioned against and rejected; but in two years after the publication of this poem, an Act for building a Bridge paffed through both houses. After many debates in the committee, the execution was left to the carpenter above mentioned, who would have made it a wooden one; to which our author aliudes in these lines, Who builds a Bridge that never drove a pile? Should Ripley venture, all the world would fmile. See the notes on that place. SEE How Rome her own fad fepulchre appears, With nodding arches broken temples spread! The very Tombs now vanifh'd like their dead! Imperial wonders rais'd on Nations fpoil'd, Where mix'd with Slaves the groaning Martyr toil'd: 5 EPISTLE V.] This was originally written in the year 1715, when Mr. Addifon intended to publish his book of Medals; it was some time before. he was Secretary of State; but not published till Mr. Tickel's Edition of his works; at which time the vei fes on Mr. Craggs, which conclude the poem, were added, viz. in 1720. As the third Epiftle treated of the extremes of varice and Profufion and the fourth took up one particular branch of the latter, namely, the vanity of expence in people of wealth and quality, and was therefore a corollary to the third; fo this treats of one circumftance of that Vanity, as it appears in the common collectors of old coins and is, therefore, a corollary to the fourth. VER. 6. Where mix'd with Slaves the groaning Martyr toil'd:] The inattentive reader might wonder how this circumstance came to find a place here. But let him compare it with ver. 13, 14. and he will fee the reafon, Barbarian blindness, Chriftian zeal conspire, And Papal piety, and Gothic fire. For the Slaves mentioned in the 6 h line were of the fame nation with the Barbarians in the 13th; and the Chriftian in the 13th, the Succeffors of the Martyrs in the 16; Providence ordaining that thefe fhould ruin what thefe were fo injurioufly employed in rearing; for the poet never loseth fight of his great principle. Huge Theatres, that now unpeopled Woods, 10 15 20 Ambition figh'd: The found it vain to trust The Medal, faithful to its charge of fame, 25 30 35 40 And Curio, restless by the Fair-one's fide, Sighs for an Otho, and neglects his bride. Theirs is the Vanity, the Learning thine : Oh when shall Britain, confcious of her claim, And vanquish'd realms fupply recording gold? 45 50 55 Then shall thy CRAGGS (and let me call him mine) On the caft ore, another Pollio, shine; 60 VER. 49. Nor blush, thefe ftudies thy regard engage ;] A fenfelefs affectation which fome writers of eminence have betrayed; who when fortune, or their talents, have raised them to a condition to do without thofe arts, for which only they gained our esteem, hive pretended to think letters below their Character. This falfe fhame Mr. Voltaire has very well, and with proper indignation, expofed in his account of Mr. Congreve: "He had one defect, which was his entertaining too mean an Idea of his first Pro"feffion (that of a Writer), though it was to this he owed his "Fame and Fortune. He spoke of his Works as of Trifles that "were beneath him; and hinted to me in our firft Converfation, "that I fhould vifit him upon no other foot than that of a Gentle"man, who had led a Life of plainness and fimplicity. I answered, "that, had he been fo unfortunate as to be a mere Gentleman, I "fhould never have come to fee him; and I was very much dif"gufted at fo unfeasonable a piece of vanity." Letters concerning the English Nation, xix. |