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 Be this a woman's fame; with this unblest And gave you beauty, but denied the pelf The generous god, who wit and gold refines, 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: But when by man's audacious labour won, Flam'd forth this rival to its sire the sun, Then careful heaven supplied two sorts of men, To squander these, and those to hide again. Like doctors thus, when much dispute has past, We find our tenets just the same at last : Both fairly owning riches, in effect, No grace of heaven, or token of th' elect; Given to the fool, the mad, the vain, the evil, To1 Ward, to Waters, Chartres, and the devil. B. What nature wants, commodious gold bestows; "Tis thus we eat the bread another sows. P. But how unequal it bestows, observe; Useful I grant, it serves what life requires, P. But lures the pirate, and corrupts the friend. 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. In vain may heroes fight and patriots rave, Our fates and fortunes as the winds shall blow; Oh that such bulky bribes as all might see, Still, as of old, incumber'd villany! Could France or Rome divert our brave designs With all their brandies or with all their wines? What could they more than knights and squires confound, Or water all the quorum ten miles round? A statesman's slumbers how this speech would spoil! 66 Sir, Spain has sent a thousand jars of oil; Huge bales of British cloth blockade the door; A hundred oxen at your levee roar." 2 This is said to have happened to Sir Christopher Musgrave, as he was coming out at the back door, after having been closeted with King William III. |