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of Extremes, and brings all to it's great End by perpetual Revolutions, 161 to 178. How a Mifer acts upon Principles which appear to him reasonable,

179. How a Prodigal does the fame, † 199. The due Medium, and true ufe of Riches, 219. The Man of Rofs, 250. The fate of the Profufe and the Covetous, in two examples; both miferable in Life and in Death, 300, &c. The Story of Sir Balaam, 339 to the end.

Plate XIV.

Vol. III.facing p. 244

N.Blakey inv.& del».

G Scotin foulp.

Who sees pale Mammon pine amidst his Store, Sees but a backward Steward for the Poor;~~ This Year a Reservoir, to keep and spare;: The next, a Fountain, spouting thro his Heir...

Ep: on Riches.

P.

EPISTLE III.

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HO fhall decide, when Doctors disagree, And foundeft Cafuifts doubt, like you and me?

EPISTLE III.] This Epiftle was written after a violent outery against our Author, on a fuppofition that he had ridicaled 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 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 potion of their idols, their groves, "and their high places; and change my fubject from "their pride to their meannefs, from their vanities to "their miferies; and as the only certain way to avoid "misconstructions, to leffen offence, and not to multiply "ill-natured applications, I may probaby, in my next,

"make use of real names instead of fictitious ones." P.

VER. 1. Who fhall decide, &c.] The addrefs of the Introduction (from 1 to 21) is remarkable: The poet reprefents himself and the noble Lord his friend, as in a converfation, philofophifing on the final caufe of Riches; and it proceeds by way of dialogue, which moft writers ufe to hide want of method; our Author only to foften and enliven the drynefs and feverity of it.

You (fays the poet)

bold the word from Jove to Momus giv'n, But 1, who think more highly of our kind, &c. Opine that Nature, &c.

EP. III. You hold the word, from Jove to Momus giv❜n,

That Man was made the standing jeft of Heav'n ;
And Gold but fent to keep the fools in play,
For fome to heap, and fome to throw away.

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As much as to fay, "You, my Lord, hold the fubject we are upon as fit only for Satire; I, on the contrary, "esteem it a cafe of Philosophy and profound Ethics: "But as we both agree in the main Principle, that Riches

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were not given for the reward of Virtue, but for very "different purposes (See Effay on Man, Ep. iv.) let us

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compromife the matter, and confider the subject joint"ly, both under your idea and mine, i. e. Satirically "and Philofophically."—And this, in fact, we shall find to be the true character of this poem, which is a Species peculiar to itself, and partaking equally of the nature of his Ethic Epiftles and his Satires, as the best pieces of Lucian arofe from a combination of the Dialogues of Plato, and the Scenes of Ariftophanes. This it will be neceffary to carry with us, if we would fee either the Wit or the Reasoning of this Epiftle in their true light.

NOTES.
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VER. 3. Momus giv'n] Amongst the earliest abuses of reafon, one of the first was to cavil at the ways of Providence. But as, in thofe times, every Vice as well as Virtue, had its PatronGod, MOмUS came to be at the head of the old Freethinkers. Him, the Mytho- | logifts very ingeniously made

the Son of Sleep and Night. and fo, confequently, halfbrother to Dulness. But having been much employed, in after ages, by the Greek Satirifts, he came, at last, to pass for a Wit; and under this idea, he is to be confidered in the place before us.

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