· Whose chearful Tenants blefs their yearly toil, Yet to their Lord owe more than to the foil; COMMENT a true Tafte, the great end and aim of both be the fame, viz. the general good, in ufe or ornament; yet that their progress to this end is carried on in direct contrary courfes; that, in Planting, the private advantage of the neighbourhood is first promoted, till, by time, it rifes up to a public benefit: Whofe ample Lawns are not afham'd to feed Whofe rifing Forefts, not for pride or fhow, On the contrary, the wonders of Architecture ought first to be beflowed on the public: Bid Harbors open, public Ways extend, Bid Temples, worthier of the God, ascend; And when the public has been properly accommodated and adorned, then, and not till then, the works of private Magnificence may take place. This was the order observ'd by those two great Empires, from whom we received all we have of this polite art: We do not read of any Magnificence in the private build◄ ings of Greece or Rome, till the generofity of their public fpirit had adorned the State with Temples, Emporiums, Councilhoufes, Common-Porticos, Baths, and Theatres. NOTES. make the examples of good Taste the better understood, introduces them with a fummary of his Precepts in thefe two fublime lines: for, the confulting Ufe is beginning with Serfe; and the making Splendor or Tafte borrow all its rays from thence, is going on with Senfe, after the has led us up to Tafte. The art of this can never be fufficiently admired. But the Expreffion is equal to the Thought, This fanctifying of expence gives us the idea of fomething confecrated and fet apart for facred ufes; and indeed, it is the idea under which it may be properly confidered; For wealth employed according to the inten tion of Providence, is its true confecration; and the real ufes of humanity were certainly firft in its intention. Whofe ample Lawns are not asham'd to feed 185 Till Kings call forth th' Ideas of your mind, 195 (Proud to accomplish what such hands defign'd,) Bid Harbors open, public Ways extend, Bid Temples, worthier of the God, afcend; NOTES. VER. 195, 197, &c.] 'Till Kings · Bid Harbors openg &e.] The poet after having touched upon the proper objects of Magnificence and Expence, in the private works of great men, comes to thofe great and public works which become a prince. This Poem was published in the year 1732, when some of the new-built churches, by the act of Queen Anne, were ready to fall, being founded in boggy land (which is fatirically alluded to in our author's imitation of Horace, Lib. ii. Sat. 2. Shall half the new-built Churches round thee fall) others were vilely executed, thro' fraudulent cabals between undertakers, officers, &c. Dagenham-breach had done very great mischiefs; many of the Highways throughout England were hardly paffable; and most of those which were repaired by Turnpikes were made jobs for private lucre, and infamoufly executed, even to the entrance of London itfelf: The pro Bid the broad Arch the dang'rous Flood contain, NOTES. pofal of building a Bridge at Westminster had been petition'd against and rejected; but in two years after the publication of this poem, an Act for building a Bridge pafs'd thro' both houses. After many debates in the committee, the execution was left to the carpenter above-mentioned, who would have made it a wooden one; to which our author alludes in these 'lines, Who builds a Bridge that never drove a pile? Should Ripley venture, all the world would smile. See the notes on that place. P. MORAL ESSAYS. EPISTLE V. To Mr. ADDISON. Occafion'd by his Dialogues on MEDALS. EE the wild Waste of all-devouring years! How Rome her own fad Sepulchre appears, With nodding arches, broken temples spread! The very Tombs now vanish'd like their dead! NOTES. THIS was originally written in the year 1715, when Mr. Addison intended to publish his book of Medals; it was fometime before he was Secretary of State; but not published till Mr. Tickell's Edition of his works; at which time the verses on Mr. Craggs, which conclude the poem, were added, viz. in 1720. P. EPIST. V.] As the third Epiftle treated of the extremes of Avarice and Profufion; and the fourth took up one particular branch of the latter, namely, the vanity of expence in people of wealth and quality, and was therefore a corollary to the third; fo this treats of one circumstance of that Vanity, as it appears in the common collectors of old coins; and is, therefore, a corollary to the fourth. 5 Imperial wonders rais'd on Nations spoil'd, NOTES. 10 VER. 6. Where mix'd with flaves the groaning Martyr toil'd:] The inattentive reader might wonder how this circumstance came to find a place here. But let him compare it with ✯ 13, 14, and he will fee the Reafon, Barbarian blindnefs, Chriftian zeal confpire, And Papal piety, and Gothic fire. For the Slaves mentioned in the 6th line were of the fame nation with the Barbarians in the 13th: and the Chriftians in the 13th, the Succeffors of the Martyrs in the 6th: Providence ordaining, that these fhould ruin what thofe were fo injuriously employed in rearing: for the poet never lofeth fight of his great principle. VER. 9. Fanes, which adntiring Gods with pride furvey,] These Gods were the then Tyrants of Rome, to whom the Empire raised Temples. The epithet, admiring, conveys a ftrong ridicule; that paffion, in the opinion of Philofophy, always conveying the ideas of ignorance and mifery. Nil admirari prope res est una, Numici, Solaque quæ poffit facere et fervare beatum. Admiration implying our ignorance of other things; pride, our ignorance of ourselves. |