FORD LIBRARY EPISTLE I. TO L. BOLINGBROKE. ST. JOHN, whofe love indulg'd my labours past, b Public too long, ah let me hide my Age! с See Modeft Cibber now has left the Stage: Hang their old Trophies o'er the Garden gates, 5 Nor fond of bleeding, ev'n in BRUNSWICK'S f cause. 10 'A Voice there is, that whispers in my ear, ('Tis Reason's voice, which fometimes one can hear) "Friend Pope! be prudent, let your Mufe take "breath, "And never gallop Pegasus to death; "Left NOTES. VER. 10. ev'n in Brunfwick's caufe.] In the former Editions it was Britain's caufe. But the terms are fynonymous. h Nunc itaque et verfus, et caetera ludicra pono: Quid 'verum atque decens, curo et rogo, et omnis in hoc fum: *Condo, et compono, quae mox depromere poffim. Ac ne forte roges, 'quo me duce, quo Lare tuter: Nullius addictus jurare in verba magiftri, "Quo me cunque rapit tempeftas, deferor hofpes. n Nunc agilis fio, et merfor " civilibus undis, Virtutis verae cuftos, rigidufque fatelles : NOTE'S. Nunc VER. 16. You limp, like Blackmore on a Lord Mayor's horse.] The fame of this heavy Poet, however problematical elfewhere, was univerfally received in the City of London. His verfification is here exactly defcribed: ftiff, and not strong; ftately and yet dull, like the fober and flow-paced Animal generally employed to mount the Lord Mayor: and therefore here humorously opposed to Pegasus. P. VER. 26. And houfe with Montagne now, or now with Locke. i. e. Chufe either an active or a contemplative life, as is moft fitted to the season and circumstances.For he regarded these Writers as the best Schools to form a man for the world; or to give him a knowledge of himself: Montagne excelling in his obfervations on focial and civil life; and Locke, in developing the faculties, and explaining the operations of the human mind. "Left stiff, and ftately, void of fire or force, 15 "You limp, like Blackmore on a Lord Mayor's "horfe." Farewel then "Verfe, and Love, and ev'ry Toy, The Rhymes and Rattles of the Man or Boy; What right, what true, what fit we juftly call, Let this be all my care-for this is All: To lay this harvest up, and hoard with haste What ev'ry day will want, and most, the last. But ask not, to what 'Doctors I apply? Sworn to no Master, of no Sect am I: m As drives the TM ftorm, at any door I knock: 20 25 And house with Montagne now, or now with Locke. n Sometimes a " Patriot, active in debate, Mix with the World, and battle for the State, Free as young Lyttelton, her Cause pursue, Still true to Virtue, and as warm as true: 30 Sometimes NOTES. VER. 30. Still true to Virtue-with Ariflippus, or St. Paul,] It was the Poet's purpofe in this place to give us the picture of his own mind, not that of Horace's; who tells us, he sometimes went with Zeno, and fometimes with Ariftippus ; the extremes of whose different Syftems, Tully thus juftly cenfures: "Ut quoniam Ariftippus, quafi animum nullum "habeamus, corpus folum tuetur; Zeno, quafi corporis fimus "expertes, animum folum complectitur." But neither Truth nor Decency would fuffer our Poet to fay, that, to suit himself to the times, he went into either of these follies. To * Nunc in Ariftippi "furtim praecepta relabor, Et mihi res, non me rebus, fubjungere conor. "Ut nox longa, quibus mentitur amica; diefque Lenta videtur opus debentibus: ut piger annus Pupillis, quos dura premit cuftodia matrum: Sic mihi tarda ' fluunt ingrataque tempora, quae fpem Confiliumque morantur agendi gnaviter 'id, quod Aeque pauperibus prodeft, locupletibus aeque, Aeque neglectum pueris, fenibufque nocebit. * Omnis Ariftippum decuit color, et ftatus, et res. P. Reftat, NOTES. fhew us therefore that he took no more from the Stoics than their fincerity and warmth for the interefts of Virtue, he compares himself to a Friend, in whom he observed that warmth. And by joining St. Paul with Ariftippus he would infinuate, that he took no more from the Cyrenaic fect than a charitable compliance to occafions, for the benefit of his neighbour. Thus in ferving himself or his Friend, to temper the rigidity of one fect of Philofophy, while the Apostle is employed to rectify the looseness of the other, he brings Mr. Lyttelton and St. Paul acquainted; for those who correct oppofite extremes muft needs meet; and fo we see the Patriot in a new point of view; which is, in a virtuous accommodation of himself to feafons and circumftances. VER. 32. Indulge my candor-Back to my native Moderation flide,] An honeft and artful infinuation, that though Partie Sometimes with Ariftippus, or St. Paul, P Back to my native Moderation slide, And win my way by yielding to the tide. 34 Long, as to him who works for debt, the day, Long as the Night to her whofe Love's away, Long as the Year's dull circle feems to run, When the brifk Minor pants for Twenty-one : So flow th' 'unprofitable moments roll, That lock up all the Functions of my foul; That keep me from myfelf; and ftill delay Life's inftant bufinefs to a future day: 40 Which done, the pooreft can no wants endure; 45 And which not done, the richest must be poor. Late NOTES. Parties in the State profecute their ends on ever fo true principles, and with ever fo good intentions, yet oppofition is apt to make the moft fcrupulous leaders of them fometimes violate both candor and moderation. However, by the expreffion of indulging his candor, he would infinuate too, that, when he allowed the least to it, he never violated truth; and, by fliding back to his native moderation, that he always kept within the Bounds of Reason.But the general sense of the whole paffage is, that when he went with the Stoics, who advise a public life, the character of his civil virtue was rigid; when he went with the Cyrenaics, who encourage a private, that the character of his focial was indulgent. VER. 45. can no wants endure;] i. e. Can want nothing : badly expreffed. |