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To all their dated backs he turns you round;
These Aldus printed, thofe Du Suëil has bound.
Lo fome are Vellom, and the rest as good
For all his Lordship knows, but they are Wood.
For Locke or Milton 'tis in vain to look,
These ihelves admit not any modern book.

And now the Chapel's filver bell you hear,
That fammons you to all the Pride of Pray'r:
Light quirks of Mufic, broken and uneven,
Make the foul dance upon a Jig to Heav'n.
On painted Cielings you devoutly ftare,
Where iprawl the Saints of Verrio or Laguerre,
On gilded clouds in fair expanfion lie,
And bring all Paradife before your eye.

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145

VER. 141. The falfe tafte in Mufic, improper to the subjects, as of light airs in churches, often practised by the organists, etc.

VER. 142. That fummons you to all the Pride of Pray'r :] This abfurdity is very happily expressed; Pride, of all human follies, being the first we should leave behind us when we approach the facred altar. But he who could take Meannefs for Magnificence, might eafily mistake Humility for Meanness.

VER. 145. And in Painting (from which even Italy is not free) of naked figures in Churches, etc. which has obliged fome Popes to put draperies on fome of thofe of the best mafters.

VER. 146. Verrio or Laguerre,] Verrio (Antonio) painted many ceilings, etc. at Windfor, Hampton-Court, etc, and Laguerre at Blenheim-caftle, and other Places.

To reft, the Cushion and soft Dean invite,
Who never mentions Hell to ears polite.

But hark! the chiming Clocks to dinner call
A hundred footsteps fcrape the marble Hall:
The rich Buffet well-colour'd Serpents grace,
And gaping Tritons fpew to wash your face.
Is this a dinner? this a Genial room?
No, 'tis a Temple, and a Hecatomb.
A folemn Sacrifice, perform'd in ftate,
You drink by measure, and to minutes eat.

;

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155

VER. 150. Who never mentions Hell to ears polite.] This is a fact; a reverend Dean preaching at Court, threatned the finner with punishment in "a place which he thought it not "decent to name in fo polite an affembly."

VER. 153. Taxes the incongruity of Ornaments (tho' fome times practifed by the ancients) where an open mouth ejects the water into a fountain, or where the fhocking images of ferpents, etc, are introduced in Grotto's or Buffets,

VER. 153. The rich Buffet well-colour'd Serpents grace,] The circumstances of being well-colour'd fhews this ornament not only to be very abfurd, but very odious too; and has a peculiar beauty, as, in one inftance of falfe Tafte, viz. an injudicious choice in imitation, he gives (in the epithet employed) the fuggeftion of another, which is an injudicious manner of it.

VER. 155. Is this a dinner, etc.] The proud Feftivals of fome men are here fet forth to ridicule, where pride deftroys the eafe, and formal regularity all the pleafurable enjoyment of the entertainment.

N

So quick retires each flying course, you'd swear
Sancho's dread Doctor and his Wand were there.
Between each Act the trembling falvers ring,
From foup to sweet-wine, and God bless the King.
In plenty ftarving, tantaliz'd in ftate,

And complaifantly help'd to all I hate,

161

Treated, carefs'd, and tir'd, I take my leave, 165
Sick of his civil Pride from Morn to Eve;
I curfe fuch lavish coft, and little skill,
And fwear no Day was ever paft fo ill.

Yet hence the Poor are cloath'd, the Hungry fed; Health to himfelf, and to his Infants bread 170 The Lab'rer bears: What his hard Heart denies, His charitable Vanity supplies.

Another age fhall fee the golden Ear

Imbrown the Slope, and nod on the Parterre,
Deep Harvefls bury all his pride has plann'd, 175
And laughing Ceres re-affume the land.

VER. 160. Sancho's dread Doctor] See Don Quixote, chap. xlvii.

VER. 169. Yet hence the Poor, etc.] The Moral of the whole, where PROVIDENCE is juftified in giving Wealth to those who fquander it in this manner. A bad Tafte employs more hands, and diffufes Expence more than a good one. This recurs to what is laid down in Book I. Ep. ii. 230-7, and in the Epiftle preceding this, 161, etc.

VER. 176. And laughing Ceres re-affume the land.] The great beauty of this line is an inftance of the art peculiar to our poet; by which he has fo difpofed a trite claffical figure, as not only

Who then fhall grace, or who improve the Soil? Who plants like BATHURST, or who builds like BOYLE.

'Tis Ufe alone that fanctifies Expence,

And fplendor borrows all her rays from Senfe. 185.
His Father's Acres who enjoys in peace,

Or makes his Neighbours glad, if he encrease :
Whofe chearful Tenants blefs their yearly toil,
Yet to their Lord owe more than to the foil;
Whofe ample Lawns are not asham'd to feed
The milky heifer and deferving fteed;
Whofe rifing Forefts, not for pride or show,
But future Buildings, future Navies, grow:

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to make it do its vulgar office, of reprefenting a very plentiful harvest, but also to affume the Image of Nature, re-establishing herself in her rights, and mocking the vain efforts of false magnificence, which would keep her out of them.

VER. 179, 180. 'Tis Ufe alone that fanctifies Expence, And Splendor borrows all her rays from Senfe.] Here the poet, to make the examples of good Taste the better understood, introduces them with a fummary of his Precepts in these two fublime lines: for, the confulting Use is beginning with Sense; and the making Splendor or Tafle borrow all its rays from thence, is going on with Senfe, after she has led us up to Tafte. The art of this can never be fufficiently admired. But the Expreffion is equal to the Thought. This fantifying of expence gives us the idea of fomething confecrated and fet apart for facred uses; and indeed, it is the idea under which it may be properly confidered: For wealth employed according to the intention of Providence, is its true confecration; and the real ufes of humanity were certainly firft in its intention.

Let his plantations ftretch from down to down,
First shade a Country, and then raise a Town. 190
You too proceed! make falling Arts your care,
Erect new wonders, and the old repair;
Jones and Palladio to themselves restore,

And be whate'er Vitruvius was before:

'Till Kings call forth th' Ideas of your mind, 195 (Proud to accomplish what fuch hands defign'd,)

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VER. 195. 197, etc. 'Till Kings Bid Harbours open, etc.] The poet after having touched upon the proper objects of Magnificence and Expence, in the private works of great men, comes to thofe great and public works which become a prince. This Poem was published in the year 1732, when some of the new-built churches, by the act of Queen Anne, were ready to fall, being founded in boggy land (which is fatirically alluded to in our author's imitation of Horace, Lib. ii. Sat. 2.

Shall half the new-built Churches round thee fall) cthers very vilely executed, through fraudulent cabals between undertakers, officers, etc. Dagenham-breach had done very great mifchiefs; many of the Highways throughout England were hardly paffable; and most of those which were repaired by Turnpikes were made jobs for private lucre, and infamously executed, even to the entrance of London itself: The propofal of building a Bridge at Westminster had been petitioned against and rejected; but in two years after the publication of this poem, an Act for building a Bridge passed thro' both houses. After many debates in the committee, the execution was left to the carpenter above-mentioned, who would have made it a wooden one; to which our author alludes in thefe lines,

Who builds a Bridge that never drove a pile?

Should Ripley venture, all the world would fmile.

See the notes on that place.

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