Spare then the person, and expose the vice.

P. How, sir! not damn the sharper, but the dice?

Come on then, Satire! general, unconfined,

Spread thy broad wing, and souse on all the kind.

Ye statesmen, priests, of one religion all!

Ye tradesmen, vile, in army, court, or hall!

15

Ye reverend atheists! F. Scandal! name them! Who?

P. Why that's the thing you bid me not to do. Who starved a sister, who forswore a debt,

20

I never named; the town's inquiring yet.
The poisoning dame-F. You mean-P. I don't.
F. You do.

P. See, now I keep the secret, and not you! The bribing statesman-F. Hold, too high you go. P. The bribed elector-F. There you stoop too

low.

25

P. I fain would please you, if I knew with

what:

Tell me, which knave is lawful game, which not?
Must great offenders, once escaped the crown,
Like royal harts, be never more run down?
Admit your law to spare the knight requires, 30
As beasts of nature may we hunt the squires?
Suppose I censure—you know what I mean-
To save a bishop, may I name a dean?

21 The town's inquiring yet. Swift says,-'I have long observed, that twenty miles from London nobody understands hints, initial letters, or town-facts and passages:' but this was written a hundred years ago. The communication of intelligence of this order is more extensive in the nineteenth century.

F. A dean, sir? No: his fortune is not made; You hurt a man that's rising in the trade.

35

P. If not the tradesman who set up to-day, Much less the 'prentice who to-morrow may. Down, down, proud Satire! though a realm be spoil'd,

Arraign no mightier thief than wretched Wild;
Or, if a court or country's made a job,
Go, drench a pickpocket, and join the mob.
But, sir, I beg you, for the love of vice!
The matter's weighty; pray, consider twice:
Have you less pity for the needy cheat,
The poor and friendless villain, than the great?
Alas! the small discredit of a bribe
Scarce hurts the lawyer, but undoes the scribe.
Then better sure it charity becomes
To tax directors, who, thank God! have plums;
Still better, ministers; or if the thing
May pinch ev'n there,-why, lay it on a king.
F. Stop! stop!

40

46

50

P. Must satire, then, not rise nor fall? Speak out, and bid me blame no rogues at all. F. Yes, strike that Wild; I'll justify the blow. P. Strike? why the man was hang'd ten years

ago:

Who now that obsolete example fears?

Ev'n Peter trembles only for his ears.

55

F. What, always Peter? Peter thinks you

mad;

You make men desperate if they once are bad:

39 Wretched Wild. Jonathan Wild, a famous thief, and thiefimpeacher, who was at last caught in his own train, and hanged.-Pope.

Else might he take to virtue some years henceP. As S-k, if he lives, will love the prince. 61 F. Strange spleen to S-k!

P. Do I wrong the man? God knows, I praise a courtier where I can. When I confess, there is who feels for fame, And melts to goodness, need I Scarborough name? Pleased let me own, in Esher's peaceful grove, 66 Where Kent and nature vie for Pelham's love, The scene, the master opening to my view, I sit and dream I see my Craggs anew!

Ev'n in a bishop I can spy desert: Secker is decent, Rundel has a heart; Manners with candor are to Benson given; To Berkley, every virtue under heaven.

70

65 Scarborough. Earl of, and knight of the garter, whose personal, attachments to the king appeared from his steady adherence to the royal interest, after his resignation of his great employment of master of the horse; and whose known honor and virtue made him esteemed by all parties.-Pope.

66 Esher's peaceful grove. The house and gardens of Esher, in Surrey, belonging to the honorable Mr. Pelham, brother of the duke of Newcastle.

71 Secker is decent. A great deal of Pope's unhappy style of alluding to the heads of the establishment must be referred to his own prejudices; some to the pert freethinking fashion of the day. Secker, the archbishop, was an honest, learned, and useful divine. Benson was a man in general esteem, and who would probably have been a bishop, but for the interference of Gibson, the bishop of London, who charged him with unscriptural notions on the subject of sacrifice,—an objection perfectly sufficient; for what can be more pernicious than error armed with authority?

73 To Berkley, every virtue. The bishop of Cloyne, memorable for his zeal, his learning, and his metaphysical fancies. He mounted a paradox, and rode it, till he left common sense out of sight, and was flung: the common fate of all who hope

75

But does the court a worthy man remove? That instant, I declare, he has my love; I shun his zenith, court his mild decline: Thus Somers once and Halifax were mine. Oft, in the clear, still mirror of retreat, I studied Shrewsbury, the wise and great. Carleton's calm sense and Stanhope's noble flame Compared, and knew their generous end the same. How pleasing Atterbury's softer hour!

79

How shined the soul, unconquer'd in the Tower! How can I Pulteney, Chesterfield forget,

While Roman spirit charms, and Attic wit? 85

to succeed in a science, of which nature has denied us access to the first principles. Until we know what spirit is, metaphysics must be a dream.

77 Somers. John, lord Somers, died in 1716. He had been lord keeper in the reign of William III., who took from him the seals in 1700. The author had the honor of knowing him in 1706. A faithful, able, and incorrupt minister; who, to the qualities of a consummate statesman, added those of a man of learning and politeness.-Pope.

77 Halifax. A peer, no less distinguished by his love of letters than his abilities in parliament. He was disgraced in 1710, on the change of queen Anne's ministry.-Pope.

79 Shrewsbury. Charles Talbot, duke of Shrewsbury, had been secretary of state, ambassador in France, lord lieutenant of Ireland, lord chamberlain, and lord treasurer. He several times quitted his employments, and was often recalled. He died in 1718.-Pope.

80 Carleton. Henry Boyle, lord Carleton, nephew of the famous Robert Boyle, who was secretary of state under William III. and president of the council under queen Anne.— Pope.

80 Stanhope. James, earl Stanhope; a nobleman of equal courage, spirit, and learning; general in Spain, and secretary of state.-Pope.

84 Pulteney, Chesterfield. Warton tells us, that he heard 'a lady of exquisite wit and judgment say of those two celebrated

Argyll, the state's whole thunder born to wield,
And shake alike the senate and the field?
Or Wyndham, just to freedom and the throne,
The master of our passions, and his own?
Names, which I long have loved, nor loved in

vain;

90

Rank'd with their friends, not number'd with their train;

95

And if yet higher the proud list should end,
Still let me say, 'No follower, but a friend.'
Yet think not, friendship only prompts my lays;
I follow virtue; where she shines, I praise;
Point she to priest or elder, whig or tory,
Or round a quaker's beaver cast a glory.
I never, to my sorrow I declare,

Dined with the Man of Ross, or my lord mayor. Some in their choice of friends (nay, look not grave)

Have still a secret bias to a knave:

100

men, that the latter was always striving to be witty, the former could not help being so.' If this were the case, Pulteney has reason to complain of biography; for while Chesterfield has left us many happy jeur d'esprit, Pulteney has left nothing but the dry pages of the Craftsman,' and even there his possession has been more than disputed. Warton rather maliciously adds, that the lines on Argyll were inserted, after the duke's declaring in the house of lords, on occasion of some of Pope's satires,' that if any man dared to use his name in an invective, he would run him through the body, and throw himself on the mercy of his peers, who, he trusted, would weigh the provocation. Argyll's well-known character might justify the poet's prudence in passing him by, but scarcely justifies his volunteering the panegyric.

99 My lord mayor. Sir John Barnard, mayor in this year, 1738; a man respected for his integrity, activity, and intelligence he was a member of parliament. In 1747, the city voted him a statue.