h

b Nunc

Nam propriae telluris herum natura neque illum,

Nec me, nec quemquam ftatuit. nos expulit ille;

Illum aut nequities aut ' vafri infcitia juris,

Poftremum expellet certe vivacior beres,

g

ager Umbreni fub nomine, nuper Ofelli

Dictus erat: nulli proprius; fed cedit in ufum

NOTES.

VER. 165. Well, if the ufe be mine, &c.] In a letter to this Mr. Bethel, of March 20, 1743, he says, " My Landlady, Mrs. "Vernm, being dead, this Garden and House are offered me "in fale; and, I believe (together with the cottages on each "fide my grafs plot next the Thames) will come at about a "thousand pounds. If I thought any very particular friend "would be pleafed to live in it after my death (for, as it is, "it ferves all my purposes as well, during life) I would pur"chafe it; and more particularly could I hope two things; "that the Friend who should like it, was fo much younger "and healthier than myself, as to have a profpect of its con"tinuing his, fome years longer than I can of its continuing

(For I, who hold fage Homer's rule the best,
Welcome the coming, speed the going Guest.) 160
"PrayHeav'n it laft! (cries SwIFT!) as you go on;
"I wish to God this house had been your own:
Pity! to build, without a fon or wife :
Why, you'll enjoy it only all
your life.”
Well, if the use be mine, can it concern one, 165
Whether the name belong to Pope or Vernon?
What's Property? dear Swift! you see it alter
From you to me, from me to Peter Walter ;
Or, in a mortgage, prove a Lawyer's share;
Or, in a jointure, vanish from the heir;
Or in pure ' equity (the cafe not clear)
The Chanc'ry takes your rents for twenty year :
At beft, it falls to fome ungracious fon,

с

66

66

d

h

179

Who cries, "My father's damn'd, and all's my own.

Shades, that to BACON could retreat afford, 175 Become the portion of a booby Lord;

NOTES.

"mine. But most of those I love are travelling out of the "world, not into it; and unless I have fuch a view given "me, I have no vanity nor pleasure that does not stop short "of the Grave."-So that we fee (what fome who called themselves his friends would not believe) his thoughts in profe and verse were the fame.

VER. 170. Or, in a jointure, vanish from the heir.] The expreffion well defcribes the furprize an heir must be in to find himself excluded by that Inftrument which was

Nunc mihi, nunc alii. quocirca vivite fortes, Fortiaque adverfis opponite pectora rebus.

NOTES.

made to fecure his fucceffion. For Butler humourously defines a Jointure to be the act whereby Parents

-turn

"Their Childrens Tenants, ere they're born."

VER. 177. proud Buckingham's, &c.] Villers Duke of Buckingham.

P.

>

And Hemfley, once proud Buckingham's delight, Slides to a Scriv'ner or a city Knight.

'Let lands and houses have what Lords they will, Let Us be fix'd, and our own masters still. 180

NOTES.

VER. 179. Let lands and houses, &c.] The turn of his imitation, in the concluding part, obliged him to diversify the fentiment. They are equally noble: but Horace's is expreffed with the greater force.