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Afcendant Phoebus watch'd that hour with care,
Averted half your parents' fimple pray'r;
And gave you beauty, but deny'd the pelf*
That buys your fex a tyrant o'er itself.
The gen'rous god, who wit and gold refines,
And ripens fpirits as he ripens mines.

Kept drofs for ducheffes, the world fhall know it,
To you gave sense, good-humour, and a poet.

290

* The poet concludes his Epiftle with a fine Moral, that deserves the serious attention of the public: It is this, that all the extravagancies of these vic ous characters here defcribed, are much inflamed by a wrong education, hinted at in ver. 203; and that even the best are rather fecured by a good natural than by the prudence and providence of parents'; which observatioų is conveyed under the fublime cl-ffical machinery of Phœbus in the afcendant, watching the natal hour of his favourite, and averting the ill effects of her parents mistaken fondness: for l'habus, as the god of Wit, confers Genius; and, as one of the aftronomical influences, defeats the adventitious byas of education.

In conclufion, the great moral from both thefe Epiftles together is, that the two rarest things in all nature are a difinterested man and a reasonable WARBURTON.

quoman.

MORAL

MORAL ESSAY S.

EPISTLE III.

то

ALLEN, Lord BATHURST.

ARGUMENT.

Of the USE of RICHES.

HAT it is known to few, moft falling into one of

THA

the extremes, avarice or profufion, ver. 1, &c. The point difcuffed, whether the invention of money has been more commodious or pernicious to mankind, 21 to 77. That riches, either to the avaricious or the prodigal, cannot afford happiness, scarcely neceffaries, 89 to 160. That avarice is an abfolute frenzy, without an end or purpose, 113, &c. 152. Conjectures about the motives of avaricious men, 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, 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 use of riches, 219. The man of Ross, 250. The fate of the profuse and the covetous, in two examples; both miferable in life and in death, 300, &c. The ftory of Sir Balaam, 339, to the end.

EPISTLE

P.

EPISTLE

III*.

7HO fhall decide, when doctors difagree,

And foundeft cafuifts doubt, like you and me?
You hold the word, from Jove to Momus giv'n,
That Man was made the fanding jeft of heav'n;
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, heav'n and I are of a mind)
Opine, that nature, as in duty bound,
Deep hid the fhining mischief under ground :
But when by man's audacious labour won,
Flam'd forth this rival too, its fire, the fun,
Then careful heav'n fupply'd two forts of men,
To fquander thefe, and thofe to hide agen.

Like doctors thus, when much difpute has paft,
We find our tenets juft the fame at laft.
Both fairly owing, riches, in effect,
No grace of heav'n or token of th' elect;

Giv'n to the fool, the mad, the vain, the evil,

S

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To Ward, to Waters, Chartres, and the devil §. 20
VOL. II.
B. What

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This Epiftle was written after a violent out-cry against our author, on a fuppofition that he had ridiculed a worthy nobleman merely for his wrong tafte. He juftified himself upon that article in a letter to the carl of Burlington.

John Ward, of Hackney, efq; member of Parliament, being profecuted by the duchess of Buckingham, and convicted of forgery, was first expelled the House, and then food in the pillory on the 17th of March 1729. He was fufpected of joining in a conveyance with Sir John Blunt, to fecrete fifty thousand pounds of that director's eftate, forfeited to the South-Sea company by act of Parliament. The company recovered the fifty thousand pounds against Ward; but he fet up prior conveyances of his real estate to his brother and fon, and concealed all his perfonal, which was computed to by one hundred and fifty thousand pounds. Thefe conveyances being also fet afide by a bill in Chancery, Ward was imprisoned, and hazarded the for

feiture

B. What nature wants commodious gold beftows 'Tis thus we eat the bread another fows.

P. But how unequal it beftows, obfervė,
'Tis thus fhe riot, while, who fow it, starve:
What nature wants (a phrase I much distruft)
Extends to luxury, extends to luft:..
Ufeful, I grant, it ferves what life requires,
But dreadful too, the dark affaffin hires:

B. Trade it may help, fociety extend:

25

P. But lures the pyrate, and corrupts the friend. 30
B. It raifes armies in a nation's aid:

P. But bribes a fenate, and the land's betray'd.
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,
From the crack'd bag the dropping guinea fpoke,
And jingling down the back-ftairs, told the crew,
"Old Cato is as great a rogue as you."
Bleft paper-credit! last and best fupply!
That lends corruption lighter wings to fly!

35

40

Gold

feiture of his life, by not giving in his effects 'till the last day, which was that of his examination.

Fr. Chartres, a man infamous for all manner of vices. When he was an enfign in the army, he was drummed out of the regiment for a cheat; be was next banished Bruffels, and drummed out of Ghent on the fame 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 conftant attention to the vices, wants, and follies of mankind, he acquired an immenfe fortune. His house was a perpetual bawdy-house. He was twice condemned for rapes, and pardoned; but the last time not without imprisonment in Newgate, and large confisca - tions. He died in Scotland in 1731, aged 62. The populace at his funeral raised a great riot, almoft tore the body out of the coffin, and caft dead dogs, &c. into the grave along with it. The following epitaph contains his character very justly drawn by Dr. Arbuthnot.

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HERE continueth to rot

The Body of FRANCIS CHARTRES,
Who, with an INFLEXIBLE CONSTANCY,
and INIMITIBLE UNIFORMITY Of Life,

PERSISTED,

Gold imp'd by thee, can compafs hardest things,O
Can pocket ftates, can fetch or carry kings *;
A fingle leaf fhall waft an army o'er, i ș
Or fhip off fenates to fome diftant shore; -,
A leaf, like Sibyl's, fcatter to and fro
Our fates and fortunes, as the wind fhall blow::
Pregnant with thousands flits the scrap unfeen,
And filent fells a king, or buys a queen.

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"

In spite of AGE and INFIRMITIES,

In the PRACTICE of EVERY HUMAN VICE;
Excepting PRODIGALITY and HYPOCRISY :
His infatiable AVARICE exempted him from the first,
His matchlefs IMPUDENCE from the second.
Nor was he mote fingular

In the undeviating Pravity of his Manners,
Than fuccefsful

In Accumulating WEALTH;
For, without TRADE or PROFESSION,
Without TRUST of PUBLIC MONEY,
And without BRIBE-WORTHY Service,:
He acquired, or more properly created,
A MINISTERIAL ESTATE.
He was the only Perfon of his Time,
Who could CHEAT without the Mark of HONESTY,
Retain his Primeval MEANNESS

When poffeffed of TEN THOUSAND a Year,

And having daily deferved the G4BBET for what he did,
Was at laft condemned to it for what he could not do.
Oh indignant Reader!

Think not his Life ufelefs to Mankind!
PROVIDENCE connived at his execrable Designs,
To give to After-ages

A confpicuous PROOF and EXAMPLE, 3-
Of how fmall Eftimation is EXORBITANT WEALTH
in the Sight of GOD,

By his bestowing it on the moft UNWORTHY of ALL MORTALS.

45

Mr. Waters, the third of thefe worthies, was a man no way resembling the former in his military, but extremely fo in his civil capacity; his great forAune having been raised by the like diligent attendants on the neceffities of athers.

* In our author's time, many princes had been fent about the world, and great changes of kings projected in Europe. The partition-treaty had disposed of Spain; France had fet up a king for England, who was fent to Scotland, and back again; King Stanislaus was fent to Poland, and back again; the duke of Anjou was sent to Spain, and Don Carlos to Italy. I Tt2

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