What can they give? to dying Hopkins, Heirs; 85 NOTES: VER. 85. Hopkins,] A Citizen, whose rapacity obtained him the name of Vulture Hopkins. He lived worthlefs, but died worth three hundred thousand pounds, which he would give to no perfon living, but left it so as not to be inherited till after the fecond generation. His counsel reprefenting to him how many years it muft be, before this could take effect, and that his money could only lie at interest all that time, he expreffed great joy thereat, and faid, "They would then be as long in fpending, as he had been in getting it." But the Chancery afterwards fet afide the will, and gave it to the heir at law. P. VER. 86. Japhet, Nofe and Ears.] JAPHET CROOK, alias Sir Peter Stranger, was punished with the lofs of thofe parts, for having forged a conveyance of an eftate to himself, upon which he took up feveral thousand pounds. He was at the fame time fued in Chancery for having fraudulently obtained a Will, by which he poffeffed another confiderable Eftate, in wrong of the brother of the deceased. By these means he was worth a great fum, which (in reward for the small lofs of his ears) he enjoyed in prifon till his death, and quietly left to his executor. P. But thousands die, without or this or that, 95 To fome, indeed, Heav'n grants the happier fate, Perhaps you think the Poor might have their Bond damns the Poor, and hates them from his heart: 100 COMMENTARY. VER. 97. To fome indeed, &c.] For now the Poet comes, in the fecond place, to examine, II. Of what ufe Riches are to others; which he teaches, as is his way throughout this poem, by the abuse that stands opposed to it: Thus he fhews (from Ver. 96 to 107.) that with regard to acts of beneficence, the utmost Heaven will grant to thofe who fo greatly abuse its bleffings, is either to enrich fome favourite Baftard, and fo perpetuate their vice and infamy; or elfe, contrary to their intent, a legitimate Son they hated, and fo expose to public fcorn and ridicule, the defeat of their unnatural cruelty. But with regard to acts of charity, they are given up to fo reprobate a fenfe, as to believe they are then feconding the designs of Heaven, when they purfue the indigent with imprecations, or leave them in the midft of their diftreffes unrelieved, as the common enemies of God and Man. NOTES. VER. 96. Die, and endow a College, or a Cat.] A famous Duchefs of R. in her laft Will left confiderable legacies and annuities to her Cats. P. VER. 100. Bond damns the Poor, &c.] This epiftle was written in the year 1730, when a corporation was established to lend money to the poor upon pledges, by the name of the Charitable Corporation; but the whole was turned only to an iniquitous method of enriching particular people, to the ruin of fuch numbers, that it became a parliamentary concern to endeavour the relief of thofe unhappy fufferers; and three of 1 1 The grave Sir Gilbert holds it for a rule That ev'ry man in want is knave or fool : "God cannot love (fays Blunt, with tearless eyes) "The wretch he starves"---and piously denies: But the good Bishop, with a meeker air, 105 Admits, and leaves them, Providence's care. NOTES. the managers, who were members of the house, were ex pelled. By the report of the Committee, appointed to enquire into that iniquitous affair, it appears, that when it was objected to the intended removal of the office, that the Poor, for whose use it was erected, would be hurt by it, Bond, one of the Directors, replied, Damn the Peor. That "God hates "the poor," and, "That every man in want is either knave or fool," &c. were the genuine apothegms of fome of the Perfons here mentioned. P. VER. 102. That ev'ry man in want is knave or fool :] None are more fubject to be deluded by this vain mistake, that Prudence dres all in human affairs, than those who have been most befriended by Fortune. The reafon is, that, in this fituation, Prudence has never been brought to the teft, nor Vanity ever mortified. So that Prudence will be always ready to take to herself what Fortune encourages Vanity to call her due. And then want of fuccefs will, of courfe, be imputed to want of wit. VER. 105. But the good Bishop, &c.] In this place, and in the first Dialogue of 1738, the Poet had named a very worthy Perfon of condition, who for a courfe of many years had fhined in public ftations much to the advantage and honour of his country. But being at once oppreffed by popular prejudice and a public cenfure, it was no wonder, the Poet, to whom he was perfonally a ftranger, fhould think hardly of him. I had the honour to be well known to that truly iluftrious Perfon, and to be greatly obliged by him. From VOL. III. U Yet, to be just to these poor men of pelf, Each does but hate his neighbour as himself: COMMENTARY. VER. 107. Yet, to be just, &c.] Having thus fhewn the true ufe of Riches in a defcription of the abufe; and how that ufe is perpetually defeated by profufion and avarice; it was natural to enquire into the fpring and original of thefe vices; as the mischiefs they occafion, must be well understood, before they can be corrected. The difpofition of his matter, therefore, now calls upon him to come to the Philofophy of his fubject: And he examines particularly into the Motives of Avarice: But what is obfervable, he, all along, fatyrically intermixes with the real motives, feveral imaginary; and thofe as wild as imagination could conceive. This, which at firft fight might feem to vitiate the purpose of his philofophical inquiry, is found, when duly confidered, to have the highest art of defign. His bufinefs, the reader fees, was to prove that the real motives had the utmost extravagancy: Nothing could more conduce to this end, than the setting them by, and comparing them with, the moft whimsical, the fancy itfelf could invent; in which fituation it was feen, that the real were full as wild as the fictitious. To give these images all the force they were capable of, he first describes (from Ver. 118 to 123.) the real motive, and an imaginary one different from the real, in the fame perfon: and then (from Ver. 122 to 133.) an imaginary one, and a real the very fame NOTES. my intimate knowledge of his character, I was fully perfuaded of his innocence, and that he was unwarily drawn in by a pack of infamous Cheats, to his great lofs of fortune as well as reputation. At my request and information, there fore, the Poet with much fatisfaction retracted, and ftruck out, in both places, his ill-grounded cenfure. I have fince had the pleasure to understand, from the best authority, that my favourable fentiments of him have lately been fully juftified in the courfe of fome proceedings in the High Court of Chancery, the moft unerring inveftigator of Truth and Falfe hood. Damn'd to the Mines, an equal fate betides The Slave that digs it, and the Slave that hides. B. Who fuffer thus, mere Charity should own, Must act on motives pow'rful, tho' unknown. P. Some War, fome Plague, or Famine they foresee, Some Revelation hid from you and me. 114 Why Shylock wants a meal, the caufe is found, He thinks a Loaf will rise to fifty pound. What made Directors cheat in South-fea year? To live on Ven'fon when it fold fo dear. COMMENTARY. with the imaginary, in different perfons. This address the Poet himself hints at, Ver. 155. "Lefs mad the wildest whimsey we can frame," &c. Let me obferve, that this has ftill a further beauty, arifing from the nature of the poem, which (as we have fhewn) is partly fatyrical, and partly philofophical.-With regard to the particular beauties of this difpofition, I fhall only take notice of one; where the Poet introduces the fictitious motive of Blunt's avarice, by a wizard's prophecy : "At length Corruption, like a gen❜ral flood (So long by watchful Ministers withstood) "Shall deluge all; and Av'rice creeping on Spread like a low-born mift, and blot the Sun." &c. NOTES. VER. 118. To live on Ven'fon] In the extravagance and luxury of the South-fea year, the price of a haunch of Venifor was from three to five pounds. P. |