For Merit will by turns forfake them all; Would you know when? exactly when they fall. But let all Satire in all Changes spare Immortal S---k, and grave De-----re. 91 Silent and foft, as Saints remove to Heav'n, These may fome gentle minifterial Wing 95 Receive, and place for ever near a King! There, where no Paffion, Pride, or Shame transport, Lull'd with the sweet Nepenthe of a Court NOTES. ; VER. 92. Immortal S-k, and grave De-re!] A title given that Lord by King James II. He was of the Bedchamber to King William; he was fo to King George I. he was so to King George II. This Lord was very fkilful in all the forms of the House, in which he discharged himself with great gravity. P. VER. 93. Silent and foft, as Saints remove to Heav'n,] The · fimile is here employed only to let his reader into his thought: which is a beautiful parody of the poetical defcriptions of dying faints, wafted to paradife, on the wings of angels. VER. 97. There, where no Paffion, etc.] The excellent writer De l'Esprit des Loix gives the following character of the Spirit of Courts, and the Principle of Monarchies: « Qu'on life ce que les Historiens de tous les tems ont dit fur la Cour des Monarques; qu'on fe rapelle les conversations des "hommes de tous les Païs fur le miferable caractère des "COURTISANS; ce ne font point des chofes de fpeculation, "mais d'une trifte expérience, L'ambition dans l'oifiveté, la "baffeffe dans l'orgueil, le defir de s'enrichir fans travail, "l'averfion pour la vérité; la flaterie, la trahifon, la perfidie, "l'abandon de tous fes engagemens, le mepris des devoirs du Citoyen, la crainte de la vertu du Prince, l'efperance "de fes foibleffes, et plus, que tout cela, LE RIDICULE "PERPETUEL JETTE SUR LA VERTU, font, je crois, There, where noFather's, Brother's, Friend's disgrace ΙΟΙ All Tears are wip'd for ever from all eyes; P. Good Heav'n forbid, that I should blaft their glory, 105 Who know how like Whig Ministers to Tory, Have I, in filent wonder, seen fuch things As Pride in Slaves, and Avarice in Kings; NOTES. ΓΙΟ "le Caractère de la plupart des Courtifans marqué dans tous "les lieux et dans tous les tems. Or il eft très mal-aifé que les "Principaux d'un Etat foient malhonnêtes-gens, et que les in"ferieurs foient gens-de-bien, que ceux-là foyent trompeurs, " & que ceux-ci confentent à n'être que dupes. Que fi dans "le Peuple il fe trouve quelque malheureux honnête-homme, "le Cardinal de Richelieu dans fon Teftament politique infinue, "qu'un Monarque doit fe garder de s'en fervir. Tant-il eft "vrai que la Vertu n'eft pas le reffort de ce Gouvernment." VER. 106. Who know how like Whig Minifters to Tory,] He muft have thought them alike, while he represents them as equally ready to receive any body who will do their jobs. VER. 108. gracious Prince] The ftyle of Addreffes on an acceffion. VER. 109. Have I, in filent wonder, feen fuch things As Pride in Slaves, and Avarice in Kings; ] He makes a wonder of what furely was none. Pride comes from the ignorance of ourfelves; and who can know themfelves lefs than fuch as are And at a Peer, or Peerefs, fhall I fret, Who ftarves a Sifter, or forfwears a Debt? But shall the Dignity of Vice be lost? 114 Ye Gods! fhall Cibber's Son, without rebuke, Swear like a Lord, or Rich out-whore a Duke? A Fav'rite's Porter with his Master vie, Be brib'd as often, and as often lie? Shall Ward draw Contracts with a Statesman's skill? Or Japhet pocket, like his Grace, a Will? Is it for Bond, or Peter, (paltry things) 120 To pay their Debts, or keep their Faith, like Kings? VARIATIONS. Ver. 112. in fome editions, Who ftarves a Mother, NOTES. the property of others? Love rifes in proportion to the value of its object: and who fhould love money fo well as thofe who best know what it is able to do? SCRIBL. VER. 113. Virtue, I grant you, is an empty boaft;] A fatirical ambiguity either that thofe farve who have it, or that thofe who boaft of it, have it not and both together (he infinuates) make up the prefent flate of modern virtue. VER. 115. Cibber's Son, Rich] Two Players: look for them in the Dunciad. P. VER. 116. Swear like a Lord- or out-whore a Duke?] Elegance demands that these fhould be two proverbial expreffions. To fwear like a Lord, is fo. But to out-whore a Duke certainly is not. However this fhews that the continence and conjugal virtues of the higher nobility muft needs be very exemplary, SCRIBL. If Blount dispatch'd himself, he play'd the man, And fo may'ft thou, illuftrious Pafferan! But shall a Printer, weary of his life, 125 Learn, from their Books, to hang himself andWife? This, this, my friend, I cannot, must not bear; Vice thus abus'd, demands a Nation's care: NOTES. VER. 123. If Blount] Author of an impious and foolish book called the Oracles of Reafon, who being in love with a near kinswoman of his, and rejected, gave himself a stab in the arm, as pretending to kill himself, of the confequence of which he really died. P. VER. 124. Pafferan!] Author of another book of the fame ftamp, called A philofophical discourse on death, being a defence of fuicide. He was a nobleman of Piedmont, banished from his country for his impieties, and lived in the utmost misery, yet feared to practise his own precepts; of which there went a pleasant story about that time. Amongst his pupils, it seems, to whom he read in moral philofophy, was a noted Gamefter, who lodged under the fame roof with him. This useful citizen, after a run of ill luck, came one morning early into his master's bed-chamber, with two loaded piftols. And, as Englishmen do not understand raillery in a cafe of this nature, told the philofopher, on presenting him with one of his pistols, that now was come the time to put his doctrine in practice: that as to himself having lost his last stake he was become an ufeless member in fociety, and fo was refolved to quit his ftation; and that, as to him, his guide, philofopher, and friend, furrounded with miferies, the outcast of government, and the fport even of that Chance which he adored, he doubtlefs would rejoice for fuch an opportunity to bear him. company. All this was faid and done with fo much refolution and folemnity, that the Italian found himself under a neceffity to cry out Murder, which brought in Company to his relief. This unhappy man at last died a penitent. VER. 125. But fhall a Printer, etc.] A Fact that happened in London a few years paft. The unhappy man left behind him This calls the Church to deprecate our Sin, And hurls the Thunder of the Laws on Gin, 130 Let modeft FOSTER, if he will, excell Ten Metropolitans in preaching well; A fimple Quaker, or a Quaker's Wife, yea in Life: Let humble ALLEN, with an aukward Shame, Do good by stealth, and blush to find it Fame. NOTES. a paper juftifying his action by the reasonings of fome of these authors. P. VER.129. This calls the Church to deprecate our Sin,] Alluding to the forms of prayer, compofed in the times of public calamity; where the fault is generally laid upon the People. VER. 130. Gin.] A fpirituous liquor, the exorbitant use of which had almoft deftroyed the loweft rank of the People till it was reftrained by an act of Parliament in 1736. P. VER. 131. Let modeft FOSTER,] This confirms an observation which Mr. Hobbes made long ago, That there be very few Bishops that at a fermon fo well, as divers Prefbyterians and fanatic Preachers can do. Hift. of Civ. Wars, p. 62. SCRIBL. VER. 134. Landaffe] A poor Bishoprick in Wales, as poorly fupplied. P. VER. 135. Let humble ALLEN with an aukward Shame, Do good by fealth, and blush to find it Fame.] The true Character of our Author's moral pieces, confidered as a fupplement to human laws (the force of which they have defervedly obtained) is, that his praise is always delicate, and his reproof never misplaced: and therefore the first not reaching the head, and the latter too fenfibly touching the heart of his vulgar readers, have made him cenfured as a cold Panegyrift, and a cauftic Satirift; whereas, indeed, he was the warmest friend, and the most placable enemy. The lines above have been commonly given as an instance of this ungenerous backwardness in doing juftice to merit. And, |