"Oh but a Wit can study in the streets,
"And raise his mind above the mob he meets."
Not quite so well however as one ought;

A hackney coach may chance to spoil a thought;
And then a nodding beam, or pig of lead,
God knows, may hurt the very ablest head.
Have you not seen, at Guild-hall's narrow pass,
Two Aldermen dispute it with an Ass?
And Peers give way, exalted as they are,
Ev'n to their own S-r-v-nce in a Car?
Go, lofty Poet! and in such a crowd,
Sing thy sonorous verse-but not aloud.
Alas! to Grottos and to Groves we run,
To ease and silence, ev'ry Muse's son:
Blackmore himself, for any grand effort,

Would drink and dose at Tooting or Earl's-Court 1.
How shall I rhyme in this eternal roar?

How match the bards whom none e'er match'd before?

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The Man, who, stretch'd in Isis' calm retreat,
To books and study gives sev'n years complete 2,
See! strew'd with learned dust, his night-cap on,
He walks, an object new beneath the sun!
The boys flock round him, and the people stare:
So stiff, so mute! some statue you would swear,
Stept from its pedestal to take the air!
And here, while town, and court, and city roars,
With mobs, and duns, and soldiers, at their doors;
Shall I, in London, act this idle part?

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Composing songs, for Fools to get by heart?

One lull'd th' Exchequer, and one stunn'd the Rolls;
Each had a gravity would make you split,

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And shook his head at Murray 3, as a Wit.
"'Twas, Sir, your law" and " Sir, your eloquence—
"Yours, Cowper's 4 manner"-and 'yours, Talbot's 5 sense."
Thus we dispose of all poetic merit,

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Yours Milton's genius, and mine Homer's spirit.
Call Tibbald Shakespear, and he'll swear the Nine,
Dear Cibber! never match'd one Ode of thine.
Lord! how we strut thro' Merlin's Cave, to see
No Poets there, but Stephen 7, you, and me.

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Tooting-Earl's-Court.] Two villages with-
P.

in a few miles of London.

2 [The term for completing the M.A. Degree.] 3 [Alluding to the common cant of that time, as if this eminent and accomplished person was more of a polite scholar than a profound lawyer. Warton. Cf. Bk. 1. Ep. vi. ante.]

4 [William first Earl Cowper, lord keeper in 1705, and one of the lords justices on the death

of Queen Anne. Died 1723.]

5 [Charles, Lord Talbot, Lord Chancellor.] 6 [Cf. Pope's note to Bk. 11. Ep. 1. v. 355.] 7 but Stephen] Mr Stephen Duck, a modest and worthy man, who had the honour (which many, who thought themselves his betters in poetry, had not) of being esteemed by Mr Pope. Queen Caroline chose this man for her favourite poet. Warburton.

Walk with respect behind, while we at ease

Weave laurel Crowns, and take what names we please.
"My dear Tibullus!" if that will not do,
"Let me be Horace, and be Ovid you:
"Or, I'm content, allow me Dryden's strains,
"And you shall rise up Otway for your pains."
Much do I suffer, much, to keep in peace
This jealous, waspish, wrong-head, rhyming race;
And much must flatter, if the whim should bite
To court applause by printing what I write:
But let the Fit pass o'er, I'm wise enough,
To stop my ears to their confounded stuff.
In vain bad Rhymers all mankind reject,
They treat themselves with most profound respect;
'Tis to small purpose that you hold your tongue:
Each prais'd within, is happy all day long;
But how severely with themselves proceed
The men, who write such Verse as we can read?
Their own strict Judges, not a word they spare
That wants or force, or light, or weight, or care,
Howe'er unwillingly it quits its place,
Nay tho' at Court (perhaps) it may find grace:
Such they'll degrade; and sometimes, in its stead,
In downright charity revive the dead;

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Mark where a bold expressive phrase appears,
Bright thro' the rubbish of some hundred years;
Command old words that long have slept, to wake,

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Words, that wise Bacon, or brave Raleigh spake1;
Or bid the new be English, ages hence,

(For Use will farther what's begot by Sense)
Pour the full tide of eloquence along,

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Serenely pure, and yet divinely strong,

Rich with the treasures of each foreign tongue;

Prune the luxuriant, the uncouth refine,

But show no mercy to an empty line:

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Then polish all, with so much life and ease,

You think 'tis Nature, and a knack to please:

"But ease in writing flows from Art, not chance:

"As those move easiest who have learn'd to dance2."

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If such the plague and pains to write by rule,
Better (say I) be pleas'd, and play the fool;
Call, if you will, bad rhyming a disease,
It gives men happiness, or leaves them ease.
There liv'd in primo Georgii (they record)
A worthy member, no small fool, a Lord;

['In Bacon's Essays... though many Latinized words are introduced, even the solecisms are English, and the style is, in all probability, a fair picture of the language used at that time by men of the highest culture, in the conversational discussion of questions of practical philosophy, or what the Germans call world-wisdom. Marsh,

185

Origin and History of the Eng. Language.Raleigh is said by Aubrey (cited by Warton) to have been accustomed to speak in a broad Devonshire dialect.]

2 [Slightly altered from Essay on Criticism, vv. 362, 3.]

Who, tho' the House was up, delighted sate,
Heard, noted, answer'd, as in full debate:
In all but this, a man of sober life,

Fond of his Friend, and civil to his Wife;
Not quite a mad-man, tho' a pasty fell1,

And much too wise to walk into a well.

Him, the damn'd Doctors and his Friends immur'd,

They bled, they cupp'd, they purg'd; in short, they cur'd.

Whereat the gentleman began to stare

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'My Friends?" he cry'd, "p-x take you for your care! 195 That from a Patriot of distinguish'd note,

Have bled and purg'd me to a simple Vote."

Well, on the whole, plain Prose must be my fate:
Wisdom (curse on it) will come soon or late.
There is a time when Poets will grow dull :
I'll e'en leave verses to the boys at school:
To rules of Poetry no more confin'd,
I learn to smooth and harmonize my Mind,
Teach ev'ry thought within its bounds to roll,
And keep the equal measure of the Soul.

Soon as I enter at my country door,
My mind resumes the thread it dropt_before;
Thoughts, which at Hyde-park-corner I forgot,
Meet and rejoin me, in the pensive Grot.
There all alone, and compliments apart,

I ask these sober questions of my heart.

If, when the more you drink, the more you crave,
You tell the Doctor; when the more you have,
The more you want; why not with equal ease
Confess as well your Folly, as Disease?
The heart resolves this matter in a thrice,
"Men only feel the Smart, but not the Vice."

2

When golden Angels cease to cure the Evil,
You give all royal Witchcraft to the Devil;
When servile Chaplains cry 3, that birth and place
Endue a Peer with honour, truth, and grace,
Look in that breast, most dirty D-! be fair,
Say, can you find out one such lodger there?
Yet still, not heeding what your heart can teach,
You go to church to hear these Flatt'rers preach.
Indeed, could wealth bestow or wit or merit,
A grain of courage, or a spark of spirit,
The wisest man might blush, I must agree,
If D*** lov'd sixpence more than he.

If there be truth in Law, and Use can give

1 [Cf. Moral Essays, Ep. 11. v. 268. The original story of this sort of madness is traced by Warton to Aristotle and Elian; and he compares Boileau's version in his Fourth Satire.]

2 A golden coin, given as a fee by those who came to be touched by the royal hand for the Evil. Warton. [The scrofula. The office for the healing of the evil was originally included in

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205

210

215

220

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230

the Book of Common Prayer; the practice was kept up by Charles I. and Charles II., and was renewed by the Pretender.]

3 The whole of this passage alludes to a dedication of Mr, afterwards Bishop, Kennet to the Duke of Devonshire to whom he was chaplain. Bennet. [This explains the blanks in vv. 222 and 229.]

A Property, that's yours on which you live.
Delightful Abs-court1, if its fields afford
Their fruits to you, confesses you its lord:

All Worldly's hens, nay partridge, sold to town:
His Ven'son too, a guinea makes your own:

He bought at thousands, what with better wit
You purchase as you want, and bit by bit;

Now, or long since, what diff'rence will be found?
You pay a penny, and he paid a pound.
Heathcote himself, and such large-acred men,

Lords of fat E'sham, or of Lincoln fen,

Buy every stick of wood that lends them heat,

: Buy every Pullet they afford to eat.

Yet these are Wights, who fondly call their own
Half that the Dev'l o'erlooks from Lincoln town.
The Laws of God, as well as of the land,
Abhor, a Perpetuity should stand:

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Estates have wings, and hang in Fortune's pow'r

Loose on the point of ev'ry wav'ring hour,

Ready, by force, or of your own accord,

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By sale, at least by death, to change their lord.

Man? and for ever? wretch! what wouldst thou have?

Enclose whole downs in walls, 'tis all a joke!
Inexorable Death shall level all,

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And trees, and stones, and farms, and farmer fall.
Gold, Silver, Iv'ry, Vases sculptur'd high,
Paint, Marble, Gems, and robes of Persian dye,
There are who have not-and thank heav'n there are,
Who, if they have not, think not worth their care.
Talk what you will of Taste, my friend, you'll find,
Two of a face, as soon as of a mind.
Why, of two brothers, rich and restless one
Ploughs, burns, manures, and toils from sun to sun;
The other slights, for women, sports, and wines,
All Townshend's Turnips 5, and all Grosvenor's

delightful Abs-court,] A farm over-against Hampton-Court. Warburton.

2 [A plural; as grouse, teal &c.] 3 [Sir Gilbert Heathcote; cf. Moral Essays, Ep. III. v. 101.]

4 [Alluding to the improvements made by Lord Bathurst on one of his Gloucestershire estates, at Daylingworth near Saperton in the Cotswold country.]

5 All Townshend's Turnips] [Lord Townshend, Secretary of State to George the First and

mines:

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Second, resigned office in 1730, and patriotically refrained from returning to public life, where he might have helped his political opponents the Tories to annoy his former rival Walpole. It was owing to him, says Lord Stanhope, that England, and more especially Norfolk, owes the introduction of the turnip from Germany.]

6 [Sir Thomas Grosvenor succeeded to his brother Richard in 1733. They were the ances tors of the present Marquess of Westminster.]

Why one like Bu- with pay and scorn content,
Bows and votes on, in Court and Parliament;
One, driv'n by strong Benevolence of soul,
Shall fly, like Oglethorpe, from pole to pole :
Is known alone to that Directing Pow'r,
Who forms the Genius in the natal hour;
That God of Nature, who, within us still,
Inclines our action, not constrains our will;
Various of temper, as of face or frame,
Each individual: His great End the same.
Yes, Sir, how small soever be my heap,

A part I will enjoy, as well as keep.

My heir may sigh, and think it want of grace
A man so poor would live without a place;
But sure no statute in his favour says 3,
How free, or frugal, I shall pass my days:

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I, who at some times spend, at others spare,
Divided between carelessness and care.
'Tis one thing madly to disperse my store;
Another, not to heed to treasure more ;

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Glad, like a Boy, to snatch the first good day,
And pleas'd, if sordid want be far away.
What is't to me (a passenger God wot)
Whether my vessel be first-rate or not?
The Ship itself may make a better figure,
But I that sail, am neither less nor bigger.
I neither strut with ev'ry fav'ring breath,
Nor strive with all the tempest in my teeth.
In pow'r, wit, figure, virtue, fortune, plac'd
Behind the foremost, and before the last.

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"But why all this of Av'rice? I have none."
I wish you joy, Sir, of a Tyrant gone;
But does no other lord it at this hour,
As wild and mad: the Avarice of pow'r?
Does neither Rage inflame, nor Fear appal?
Not the black fear of death, that saddens all?
With terrors round, can Reason hold her throne,
Despise the known, nor tremble at th' unknown?
Survey both worlds, intrepid and entire,
In spite of witches, devils, dreams, and fire?
Pleas'd to look forward, pleas'd to look behind,
And count each birth-day with a grateful mind?

1 [Bubb Doddington, the Bubo of the Ivth Ep. of the Moral Essays.]

2 fly, like Oglethorpe,] Employed in settling the Colony of Georgia. P.

[James Edward Oglethorpe, born in 1698, served under Prince Eugene against the Turks, settled the colony of Georgia, held a command during the year 1745, and in consequence of a difficulty which then occurred with the Duke of Cumberland (though Oglethorpe was acquitted by a courtmartial) remained unemployed ever afterwards.

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Mr Croker observes that to his supposed Jacobite leanings may be attributed much of the animosity displayed by the Whigs towards him, as well as of the friendliness subsisting between him and Popc and Johnson.]

3 But sure no statute] Alluding to the statutes made in England and Ireland, to regulate the Succession of Papists, etc. Warburton. [A statute of William III. which was happily so interpreted by the Judges, as to produce much less effect than its authors had intended.]