tion to a Bill for vacating the fraudulent sale of Lord Derwentwater's estate (by which the trustees for the sale of forfeited estates had cheated the public of an immense sum, and by acting in flat contradiction to an Act of Parliament); his doing all he could to prevent Parliament from taking cognisance of the frauds committed by the Directors of the York Buildings Company; and his having actually put a stop to the enquiry into the South Sea affairs in the House of Commons, had given but too just grounds for these reflections to be thrown out against him, and left his friends too little reason to justify him when his adversaries represented him as the universal encourager of corruption and the sanctuary of the corrupt." —Memoirs, vol. i., p. 225.

Though Pope appears, therefore, to speak in this Essay as a moralist surveying mankind, it is evident that a strong personal and political animus underlies his reflections on Blunt, Sutton, and the other Whig millionaires, and his covert allusions to Walpole as the bulwark of the Hanoverian dynasty, and the great champion of the monied interest. The same spirit may be traced in many other passages of his Satires, which should be compared with this Essay, notably Imitation of Horace, Book i., Ep. i., ver. 65-133; the whole of the First Versification of Donne; and the Second Versification, ver. 122-151. A vivid illustration of the temper of the Opposition is seen in the note on the "General Excise" which was appended in the later editions of the poem (see note to ver. 120).

On the poetical merits of a piece in which almost every line is good it is unnecessary to dilate. "I never took more care in my life of anything," Pope wrote to Swift of this Essay, and the result repaid his labour. The originality of thought, richness of humour, and keenness of irony which distinguish the opening of the Epistle, show Pope at his very best as a satirist, while the finish of the descriptions, and the beauty of the transitions in the latter part, afford equally strong evidence of his powers as an imaginative poet.

The original Epistle was registered at Stationers' Hall, 13 Jan., 1732, under the title "On the Use of Riches.' An Epistle to the Rt. Hon. Allen, Lord Bathurst. By Mr. Pope," the owner of the copyright being Lawton Gilliver.

ARGUMENT OF EPISTLE III.

OF THE USE OF RICHES.

THAT it is known to few, most falling into one of the extremes, avarice or profusion, ver. 1, &c. The point discussed, whether the invention of money has been more commodious or pernicious to mankind, ver. 21 to 77. That riches, either to the avaricious or the prodigal, cannot afford happiness, scarcely necessaries, ver. 89 to 160. That avarice is an absolute frenzy, without an end or purpose, ver. 113, &c., 152. Conjectures about the motives of avaricious men, ver. 121 to 153. That the conduct of men, with respect to riches, can only be accounted for by the order of Providence, which works the general good out of extremes, and brings all to its great end by perpetual revolutions, ver. 161 to 178. How a miser acts upon principles which appear to him reasonable, ver. 179. How a prodigal does the same, ver. 199. The due medium, and true use of riches, ver. 219. The Man of Ross, ver. 250. The fate of the profuse and the covetous, in two examples, both miserable in life and in death, ver. 300, &c. The story of Sir Balaam, ver. 339 to the end.

EPISTLE III.

P. WHO shall decide, when doctors disagree,1
And soundest casuists doubt, like you and me?
You hold the word, from Jove to Momus given,
That man was made the standing jest of Heaven;
And gold but sent to keep the fools in play,
For some to heap, and some to throw away."

But I, who think more highly of our kind,
(And surely Heaven and I are of a mind)
Opine, that Nature, as in duty bound
Deep hid the shining mischief underground:
But when by man's audacious labour won,
Flamed forth this rival to its sire, the sun,"
Then careful Heaven supplied two sorts of men,
To squander these, and those to hide again."

1 As to the form of the dialogue, see Prefatory Remarks.

2 All the editions till Warburton's :

For half to heap, and half to throw away.

In the Chauncy MS. the lines after ver. 4 run:

And this proud creature (to define him flat) Is not the thing that laughs, but is laughed at.

To keep the fools, say you, in constant play,

Jove sent them gold to heap, and throw

away:

One half employed to hoard the precious evil.

The other half to send it to the devil.

3 Beneath the silent chambers of the earth,

Where the sun's fruitful beams give metals birth,

5

10

Where he the growth of fatal gold does

see

Gold which above more influence has than he.

Cowley's Davideis, i. 74.-Wakefield,

Pope was fond of this idea. Compare Windsor Forest, 396, Moral Essays, ii. 290, and Imitation of Horace, Book ii., Sat. ii., v. 116, and note.

4 All the earlier editions:

To squander some, and some to hide again.

The idea in this passage, and indeed of the entire Essay, is borrowed from Mandeville: "Was it not for avarice, spendthrifts would soon want materials. . . . Was it not for prodigality, nothing could make

Like doctors thus, when much dispute has passed,
We find our tenets just the same at last.
Both fairly owning, riches, in effect,

No grace of Heaven or token of the elect;
Given to the fool, the mad, the vain, the evil,
To Ward, to Waters, Chartres, and the Devil.'

us amends for the rapine and extor-
tion of avarice in power. When a
covetous statesman is gone, it ought
to fill every good member of the so-
ciety with joy to behold the un-
common profuseness of his son.
Abundance of moderate men will
tell me that the same number of
men by equally avoiding both ex-
tremes might render themselves more
happy, and be less vicious without
than they were with them.
ever argues thus shows himself a
better man than he is a politician."
Works, vol. i. pp. 73, 76.

Who

After this verse in the Chauncy M.S.:

Can we, brave followers of the former sect,
Think Gold (my lord) a mark of God's
elect?

When still we see the dirty blessing light
On such as Bl-n, Ja-n, W-rd, and
Kn-t.

i.e., Bladen, Jansen, Ward, and Knight.

Jansen was Sir Theodore Jansen, a South Sea Director, who was expelled the House of Commons, and committed to the keeping of the Serjeant-at-Arms in 1721. His confiscated property amounted to £243,244 3s. 11d. See Historical Register for 1721, pp. 49 and 221. Bladen was probably Thomas Bladen, M.P. for Steyning, who appears from Historical Register of July 14, 1731, to have married "Miss Barbara Jansen, daughter of Sir Theodore Jansen of Wimbledon in Surrey." For a further mention of him see Imitations of Horace, Satire i., Book ii., v. 68, and note. For Ward, see note

15

20

to ver. 20 below. Knight was the cashier of the South Sea Company; see Dunciad, iv. 560, and note.

John Ward, of Hackney, Esq., member of Parliament, being prosecuted by the Duchess of Buckingham, and convicted of forgery, was first expelled the House, and then stood in the pillory, on the 17th of March, 1727. He was suspected of joining in a conveyance with Sir John Blunt, to secrete fifty thousand pounds of that director's estate, forfeited to the South Sea Company, by act of Parliament. The Company recovered the fifty thousand pounds against Ward; but he set up prior conveyances of his real estate to his brother and son, and concealed all his personal, which was computed to be one hundred and fifty thousand pounds. These conveyances being also set aside by a bill in Chancery, Ward was imprisoned, and hazarded the forfeiture of his life by not giving in his effects till the last day, which was that of his examination. During his confinement, his amusement was to give poison to dogs and cats, and see them expire by slower or quicker torments. To sum up the worth of this gentleman at the several eras of his life at his standing in the pillory he was worth above two hundred thousand pounds; at his commitment to prison he was worth one hundred and fifty thousand; but has been so far diminished in his reputation, as to be thought a worse man by fifty or sixty thousand.

Fr. Chartres, a man infamous for all manner of vices. When he was