Be this a Woman's Fame: with this unbleft,
Toafts live a fcorn, and Queens may die a jest.
This Phoebus promis'd (I forget the year)
When those blue eyes firft open'd on the sphere;
Afcendant Phoebus watch'd that hour with care,
Averted half your Parents' fimple Prayer;
And gave you Beauty, but deny'd the Pelf
That buys your fex a Tyrant o'er itself.
The generous God, who Wit and Gold refines,
And ripens Spirits as he ripens Mines.

Kept Drofs for Ducheffes, the world shall know it,
To you gave Senfe, Good-humour, and a Poet.

285

290

MORAL

Of the Ufe of RICHES,

THAT it is known to few, moft falling into one of the extremes, Avarice or Profufion, ver. 1, &c. The Point difcuffed, 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 Neceffaries, ver. 89 to 160. That Avarice is an abfolute Frenzy, without an End or Purpofe, 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 accountedfor 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 Mifer acts upon Principles which appear to him reasonable, ver. 179. How a Prodigal does the fame, ver. 199. The due Medium, and true use of Riches, ver. 219. The Man of Ross, ver. z 250. The fate of the Profufe and the Covetous, in two examples; both miferable in Life and in Death, ver. 300, &c. The Story of Sir Balaam, ver. 339 to the end.

EPISTLE III.

THIS Epiftle was written after a violent outcry against our Author, on a fuppofition that he had ridiculed a worthy nobleman merely for his wrong taste. He juftified 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 fome who would "rather be wicked than ridiculous: and therefore it "may be fafer to attack vices than follies. I will "therefore leave my betters in the quiet poffeffion of "their idols, their groves, and their high-places; "and change my fubject from their pride to their "meanness, from their vanities to their miseries; "and as the only certain way to avoid mifconftruc"tions, to leffen offence, and not to multiply ill"natured applications, I may probably in my next, "make use of real names inftead of fictitious ones."

P. W

HO fhall decide, when Doctors difagree,
And foundest Cafuifts 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 fent to keep the Fools in play,
For fome to heap, and fome to throw away.

But I, who think more highly of our kind,
(And, furely, Heaven and I are of a mind)
Opine, that Nature, as in duty bound,
Deep hid the fhining mifchief under ground

10

But

But when, by Man's audacious labour won,
Flam'd forth this rival too, its Sire, the Sun,
Then careful Heaven supply'd two forts of Men,
To squander These, and Those to hide again.

Like Doctors thus, when much difpute has paft. We find our tenets just the same at last, Both fairly owning, Riches, in effect, No grace of Heaven or token of th' Elect Given to the Fool, the Mad, the Vain, the Evil, To Ward, to Waters, Chartres, and the Devil. 20 B. What Nature wants, commodious Gold bestows, 'Tis thus we eat the bread another fows.

P. But how unequal it bestows, observe;

'Tis thus we riot, while, who sow it, starve: What Nature wants (a phrase I much distrust) 25 Extends to Luxury, extends to Luft:

Useful, I grant, it ferves what life requires,

But dreadful too, the dark Affaffin hires:

B. Trade it may help, Society extend :

P. But lures the Pirate, and corrupts the Friend.
B. It raifes Armies in a Nation's aid:
P. But bribes a Senate, and the Land 's betray'd.

30

In vain may Heroes fight, and Patriots rave;
If fecret Gold fap on from knave to knave.
Once, we confefs, beneath the Patriot's cloak, 35
From the crack'd bag the dropping Guinea spoke,
And jingling down the back-stairs, told the crew,
"Old Cato is as great a rogue as you."

Bleft Paper-credit! last and best supply!
That lends Corruption lighter wings to fly!

4

40

Gold,

Gold, imp'd by thee, can compass hardest things,
Can pocket States, can fetch or carry Kings;
A fingle leaf fhall waft an Army o'er,
Or ship-off Senates to some distant Shore;
A leaf, like Sibyl's, scatter to and fro

45

Our fates and fortunes, as the wind shall blow :
Pregnant with thousands flits the Scrap unseen,
And filent fells a King, or buys a Queen.

50

Oh! that fuch bulky Bribes as all might fee, Still, as of old, incumber'd Villainy! Could France or Rome divert our brave designs, With all their brandies, or with all their wines? What could they more than Knights and 'Squires confound,

Or water all the Quorum ten miles round?

A ftatefman's flumbers how this fpeech 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; Nor could Profusion squander all in kind. Aftride his cheese Sir Morgan might we meet : And Worldly crying coals from street to street, Whom, with a wig fo wild, and mien fo maz'd, Pity mistakes for some poor tradesman craz’d.

60

VARIATION.

After ver. 50. in the MS.

To break a truft were Peter brib'd with wine,"
Peter! 'twould pofe as wife a head as thine.

Had