Worn out in public, weary every eye, See how the world its veterans rewards! Ah friend! to dazzle let the vain design; To raise the thought and touch the heart be thine! That charm shall grow, while what fatigues the ring Flaunts and goes down an unregarded thing. So when the sun's broad beam has tir'd the sight, All mild ascends the moon's more sober light, Serene in virgin modesty she shines, And unobserv'd the glaring orb declines. O! bless'd with temper, whose unclouded ray Can make to-morrow cheerful as to-day; She who can love a sister's charms, or hear And yet believe me, good as well as ill, Be this a woman's fame; with this unblest Toasts live a scorn, and queens may die a jest. This Phoebus promis'd (I forget the year) When those blue eyes first open'd on the spher' ; Ascendant Phoebus watch'd that hour with care, Averted half your parents' simple prayer, And gave you beauty, but denied the pelf Kept dross for duchesses, the world shall know it, To you gave sense, good humour, and a poet. EPISTLE III. TO ALLEN, LORD BATHURST. OF THE USE OF RICHES. ARGUMENT. men. That it is known to few, most falling into one of the extremes, avarice or profusion. The point discussed, whether the invention of money has been more commodious or pernicious to mankind. That riches, either to the avaricious or the prodigal, cannot afford happiness, scarcely necessaries. That avarice is an absolute frenzy, without an end or purpose. Conjectures about the motives of avaricious 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. How a miser acts upon principles which appear to him reasonable. How a prodigal does the same. The due medium and true use of riches. The Man of Ross. The fate of the profuse and the covetous, in two examples; both miserable in life and in death. The story of Sir Balaam. P. WHO shall decide when doctors disagree, 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 under ground: Like doctors thus, when much dispute has past, bestows; 'Tis thus we eat the bread another sows. P. But how unequal it bestows, observe; 'Tis thus we riot, while, who sow it, starve. What nature wants (a phrase I much distrust) Extends to luxury, extends to lust. Useful I grant, it serves what life requires, But dreadful too, the dark assassin hires. B. Trade it may help, society extend. P. But lures the pirate, and corrupts the friend. B. It raises armies in a nation's aid. P. But bribes a senate, and the land's betray'd. 1 Three personages notorious for having amassed money by nefarious practices: for an account of Chartres, see note 4 p. 75. |