EPISTLE III.1 TO ALLEN LORD BATHURST 2. ARGUMENT. Of the Use of RICHES. THAT it is known to few, most falling into one of the extremes, Avarice or Profusion, v. 1, &c. The point discuss'd, whether the invention of Money has been more commodious or pernicious to Mankind, v. 21 to 77. That Riches, either to the Avaricious or the Prodigal, cannot afford Happiness, scarcely Necessaries, v. 89—160. That Avarice is an absolute Frenzy, without an End or Purpose, v. 113, &c. 152. Conjectures about the Motives of Avaricious men, v. 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, v. 161 to 178. How a Miser acts upon Principles which appear to him reasonable, v. 179. How a Prodigal does the same, v. 199. The due Medium, and true use of Riches, v. 219. The Man of Ross, v. 250. The fate of the Profuse and the Covetous, in two examples; both miserable in Life and in Death, v. 300, &c. The Story of Sir Balaam, v. 339 to the end. P. HO shall decide, when Doctors disagree, WHO And soundest Casuists doubt, like you and me? But I, who think more highly of our kind, 1 This Epistle was written after a violent outcry against our Author, on a supposition that he had ridiculed a worthy nobleman merely for his wrong taste. He justified himself upon that article in a letter to the Earl of Burlington; at the end of which are these words: "I have learnt that there are some who would rather be wicked than ridiculous: and therefore it may be safer to attack vices than follies. I will therefore leave my betters in the quiet possession of their idols, their groves, and their high places; and change my subject from their pride to their meanness, from their vanities to their miseries; and as the only certain way to avoid misconstructions, to lessen offence, and not to multiply ill-natured 5 10 15 applications, I may probably, in my next, make use of real names instead of fictitious ones." P. 2 [Allen Apsley Lord Bathurst, a Tory peer, was one of the most intimate of Pope's friends and associates. 'He united,' says Carruthers, a sort of French vivacity' [' Bathurst impetuous, whom you and I strive who shall love the most,' is the mention of him in Gay's catalogue of Pope's friends] to English principles, and mingled freely in society till past ninety, living to walk under the shade of lofty trees which Pope and he had planted, and to see his son Lord Chancellor of England.' He died in the year 1774, at the age of 91.1 3 [Momus (derisive blame) is personified as a god in the Theogony of Hesiod.] Both fairly owning Riches, in effect, No grace of Heav'n or token of th' Elect; To Ward', to Waters 2, Chartres, and the Devil 4. 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 conceal'd 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 to see them expire by slower or quicker torments. To sum up the worth of this gentleman, at the several æra's 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 since so far diminished in his reputation, as to be thought a worse man by fifty or sixty thousand. P. [From Pope's intimate acquaintance with Mr Ward's career, it might almost be suspected that he is the same who is enumerated among Pope's friends in Gay's poem.] 2 Mr Waters, the third of these worthies, was a man no way resembling the former in his military, but extremely so in his civil capacity; his great fortune having been rais'd by the like diligent attendence on the necessities of others. But this gentleman's history must be deferred till his death, when his worth may be known more certainly. P. 3 Fr. Chartres, a man infamous for all manner of vices. When he was an ensign in the army, he was drumm'd out of the regiment for a cheat; he was next banish'd Brussels, and drumm'd out of Ghent on the same account. After a hundred tricks at the gaming tables, he took to lending of money at exorbitant interest and on great penalties, accumulating premium, interest, and capital into a new capital, and seizing to a minute when the payments became due; in a word, by a constant attention to the vices, wants, and follies of mankind, he acquired an immense fortune. His house was a perpetual bawdy-house. He was twice condemn'd for rapes, and pardoned: but the last time not without imprisonment in Newgate, and large confiscations. He 20 died in Scotland in 1731, aged 62. The populace at his funeral rais'd a great riot, almost tore the body out of the coffin, and cast dead dogs, &c. into the grave along with it. The following Epitaph contains his character very justly drawn by Dr Arbuthnot; HERE continueth to rot In spite of AGE and INFIRMITIES, His matchless IMPUDENCE from the second. Nor was he more singular in the undeviating Pravity of his Manners Than successful in Accumulating WEALTH. He was the only Person of his Time, Oh Indignant Reader! Think not his Life useless to Mankind! PROVIDENCE conniv'd at his execrable Designs, To give to After-ages A conspicuous PROOF and EXAMPLE, Of how small Estimation is EXORBITANT WEALTH in the Sight of GOD, By his bestowing it on the most UNWORTHY of ALL MORTALS. This Gentleman was worth seven thousand pounds a year estate in Land, and about one hundred thousand in Money. P. 4 and the Devil.] Alluding to the vulgar opinion, that all mines of metal and subterraneous treasures are in the guard of the Devil: which seems to have taken its rise from the pagan fable of Plutus the God of Riches. Warburton. [The name of Pluton, given to the God beneath the surface who sends forth the wealth of corn, probably originated in the Eleusinian Mysteries.] 5 [Commodious, i.e. accommodating.] What Nature wants (a phrase I much distrust) P. But lures the Pirate, and corrupts the Friend. P. But bribes a Senate, and the Land's betray'd. Gold imp'd by thee, can compass hardest things, Our fates and fortunes, as the winds shall blow: Oh! that such bulky Bribes as all might see, Could France or Rome divert our brave designs, What could they more than Knights and Squires confound, 1 If secret Gold sap on from knave to knave.] The expression is fine, and gives us the image of a place invested, where the approaches are made by communications which support each other; as the connexions amongst knaves, after they have been taken in by a state engineer, serve to screen and encourage one another's private corruptions. 2-beneath the Patriot's cloak,] This is a true story, which happened in the reign of William III. to an unsuspected old Patriot, who coming out at the back-door from having been closeted by the King, where he had receiv'd a large bag of Guineas, the bursting of the bag discovered his business there. P. [According to Warburton, quoting Burnet, this was Sir Christopher Musgrave, who as a leader of opposition was induced by King William III. to give up many points of importance at the critical minute, in return for payments amounting in the total to £12,000.] 3 paper-credit. [In 1733 the privileges of the Bank of England were renewed. In the same year, in spite of the opposition of Barnard and others, Walpole openly availed himself of the Sinking Fund, and before 1737 had mortgaged and alienated its entire produce.] A Imp'd [i.e. fresh-winged. To imp is a term of falconry, used of the repairing of the falcon's wings by new feathers. (Cf. the German impfen, to engraft.)] 5-fetch or carry Kings;] In our author's time, many Princes had been sent about the world, and great changes of Kings projected in Europe. The partition-treaty had disposed of Spain; France had set up a King for England, who was sent to Scotland, and back again; King Stanislaus was sent to Poland, and back again; the Duke of Anjou was sent to Spain, and Don Carlos to Italy. P. Or ship off Senates to a distant Shore;] Alludes to several Ministers, Counsellors, and Patriots banished in our times to Siberia, and to that MORE GLORIOUS FATE of the PARLIAMENT or PARIS, banished to Pontoise in the year 1720. P. 7 [The allusion seems to be to the Pretender 'King James III.' and to Queen Caroline. There are no grounds for such an imputation upon the latter; but the taunt might be applied with much force to her unhappy later namesake.] 8 After v. 50, in the MS. 'To break a trust were Peter brib'd with wine, Peter! 'twould pose as wise a head as thine.' Or water all the Quorum1 ten miles round? A Statesman's slumbers how this speech would spoil! 55 "Sir, Spain has sent a thousand jars of oil; "Huge bales of British cloth blockade the door; "A hundred oxen at your levee roar." Poor Avarice one torment more would find; бо 65 His Grace will game: to White's 5 a Bull be led, 70 Bear home six Whores, and make his Lady weep? 75 To spoil the nation's last great trade, Quadrille 61 Since then, my Lord, on such a World we fall, What say you? B. Say? Why take it, Gold and all. Meat, Fire, and Clothes. B. What more? P. Meat, Clothes, and Fire. 80 Is this too little? would you more than live? 1 [i. e. every justice of peace.] 2 [As a Welshman attached to a cheap national delicacy.] 3 Some Misers of great wealth, proprietors of the coal-mines, had entered at this time into an association to keep up coals to an extravagant price, whereby the poor were reduced almost to starve, till one of them taking the advantage of underselling the rest, defeated the design. One of these Misers was worth ten thousand, another seven thousand a year. P. 4 Colepepper] Sir William Colepepper, Bart. a person of an ancient family, and ample fortune, without one other quality of a Gentleman, who, after ruining himself at the Gaming-table, past the rest of his days in sitting there to see the ruin of others; preferring to subsist upon borrow ing and begging, rather than to enter into any reputable method of life, and refusing a post in the army which was offered him. P. 5 [The famous Club-house in St James' Street, where games of chance were played for the highest stakes.] 85 [The game of Quadrille, which is a species of Ombre, soon came to surpass the latter in popularity.] 7 Turner] One, who, being possessed of three hundred thousand pounds, laid down his Coach, because Interest was reduced from five to four per cent, and then put seventy thousand into the Charitable Corporation for better interest; which sum having lost, he took it so much to heart, that he kept his chamber ever after. It is thought he would not have outlived it, but that he was heir to another considerable estate, which he daily expected, and that by this course of life he saved both cloaths and all other expences. P. 8 Unhappy Wharton,] A Nobleman of great qualities, but as unfortunate in the application of them, as if they had been vices and follies. See his Character in the first Epistle. P. [v. 179.] 9 Hopkins,] A Citizen, whose rapacity obtained him the name of Vulture Hopkins. He lived worthless, but died worth three hundred thousand pounds, which he would give to no person living, but left it so as not to be inherited What Nature wants (a phrase I much distrust) P. But lures the Pirate, and corrupts the Friend. P. But bribes a Senate, and the Land's betray'd. Our fates and fortunes, as the winds shall blow: Oh! that such bulky Bribes as all might see, Could France or Rome divert our brave designs, What could they more than Knights and Squires confound, If secret Gold sap on from knave to knave.] The expression is fine, and gives us the image of a place invested, where the approaches are made by communications which support each other; as the connexions amongst knaves, after they have been taken in by a state engineer, serve to screen and encourage one another's private corruptions. 2-beneath the Patriot's cloak,] This is a true story, which happened in the reign of William III. to an unsuspected old Patriot, who coming out at the back-door from having been closeted by the King, where he had receiv'd a large bag of Guineas, the bursting of the bag discovered his business there. P. [According to Warburton, quoting Burnet, this was Sir Christopher Musgrave, who as a leader of opposition was induced by King William III. to give up many points of importance at the critical minute, in return for payments amounting in the total to £12,000.] 3 paper-credit. [In 1733 the privileges of the Bank of England were renewed. In the same year, in spite of the opposition of Barnard and others, Walpole openly availed himself of the Sinking Fund, and before 1737 had mortgaged and alienated its entire produce.] 25 30 35 40 45 50 Imp'd [L.e. fresh-winged. To imp is a term of falconry, used of the repairing of the falcon's wings by new feathers. (Cf. the German impfen, to engraft. ] 5-fetch or carry Kings;] In our author's time, many Princes had been sent about the world, and great changes of Kings projected in Europe. The partition-treaty had disposed of Spain; France had set up a King for England, who was sent to Scotland, and back again; King Stanislaus was sent to Poland, and back again; the Duke of Anjou was sent to Spain, and Don Carlos to Italy. P. Or ship off Senates to a distant Shore;] Alludes to several Ministers, Counsellors, and Patriots banished in our times to Siberia, and to that MORE GLORIOUS FATE of the PARLIAMENT OF PARIS, banished to Pontoise in the year 1720. |