EPISTOLA VI. N1 IL admirari, prope res eft una, Numici, Solaque quae poffit facere et fervare beatum. b Hunc folem, et ftellas, et decedentia certis C Tempora momentis, funt qui formidine nulla. NOTES. VER. 3. dear MURRAY,] This Piece is the most finished of all his imitations, and executed in that high manner the Italian Painters call con amore. By which they mean, the exertion of that principle, which puts the faculties to the stretch, and produces the fupreme degree of excellence. For the Poet had all the warmest affection for the great Lawyer to whom it is addreffed and, indeed, no man ever more deserved to have a Poet for his friend. In the obtaining which, as neither Vanity, Party, nor Fear, had any fhare; fo he supported his title to it by all the offices of true Friendship. VER. 4. Creech] From whofe Tranflation of Horace the two firft lines are taken. P. EPISTLE To Mr. MURRAY. "NOT to admire, is all the Art I know, VI. To make men happy, and to keep them fo.' (Plain Truth, dear MURRAY, needs no flow'rs of speech, So take it in the very words of Creech.) b This Vault of Air, this congregated Ball, 5 Self-center'd Sun, and Stars that rife and fall, There are, my Friend! whose philofophic eyes Look thro', and truft the Ruler with his fkies, To him commit the hour, the day, the year, C And view this dreadful All without a fear. NOTES. VER. 6. ftars that rife and fall.] The original is decedentia certis Tempora momentis P by which Horace means no more than the change of feafons. But as this change is here confidered as an object of admiration, his imitator has judiciously expreffed it in the more fublime figurative terms of Stars that rife and fall, by whofe courfes the feafons are marked and diftinguished. VER. 8. truft the Ruler with the fkies, To bim commit the hour,] Our Author, in these imitations, has been all along care. ful to correct the loofe morals, and abfurd divinity of his Original. VER. 10. And view this dreadful All without a fear.] He has added this idea to his text; and it greatly heightens the dignity of Imbuti fpectent. quid cenfes, munera terrae? i Gaudeat, an doleat; cupiat, metuatne; quid ad rem, Si, quidquid videt melius pejufve sua spe, Defixis oculis, animoque et corpore torpet? * Infani fapiens nomen ferat, aequus iniqui; Ultra quam fatis eft, virtutem fi petat ipfam. NOTES. the whole thought. He gives it the appellation of a dreadful All, because the immenfity of God's creation, which modern philosophy has fo infinitely enlarged, is apt to affect narrow minds, who measure the divine comprehenfion by their own, with dreadful fufpicions of man's being overlooked in this dark and narrower corner of existence, by a Governor occupied and bufied with the fum of things. VER. 21. In either cafe, believe me, we admire ;] i. e. These objects, in either cafe, affect us, as objects unknown affect the mind, and confequently betray us into falfe judgments. Admire we then what Earth's low entrails hold, Árabian shores, or Indian feas infold; All the mad trade of Fools and Slaves for Gold? Orf Popularity? or Stars and Strings? The Mob's applaufes, or the gifts of Kings? g Say with what eyes we ought at Courts to gaze, And pay the Great our homage of Amaze? 15 20 If weak the 1 pleasure that from these can spring, The fear to want them is as weak a thing: Whether we dread, or whether we defire, In either cafe, believe me, we admire; Whether we 1joy or grieve, the fame the curse, Surpriz'd at better, or furpriz'd at worse. Thus good or bad, to one extreme betray Th' unbalanc'd Mind, and fnatch the Man away; Fork Virtue's felf may too much zeal be had; 25 The worst of Madmen is a Saint run mad. NOTES. VER. 22. Whether we joy or grieve, the fame the curfe, Surpriz'd at better, or furpriz'd at worse.] The elegance of this is fuperior to the Original. The curfe is the fame (fays he) whe ther we joy or grieve. Why fo? Because, in either cafe, the man is furprized, hurried off, and led away captive. (The good or bad to one extreme betray Th' unbalanc'd Mind, and snatch the Man away.) This happy advantage, in the imitation, arises from the ambiguity of the word furprize. VER. 27. The worst of Madmen is a Saint run mad.] Because |