341

All, all but Truth, drops dead-born from the Prefs, Like the last Gazette, or the last Address.

When black Ambition ftains a public Cause, A Monarch's fword when mad Vain-glory draws,

VARIATIONS.

Not

After Ver. 227. in the MS.

Where's now the Star that lighted Charles to rife?
—With that which follow'd Julius to the Skies.
Angels, that watch'd the Royal Oak fo well,
How chanc'd ye nod, when lucklefs Sorel fell?
Hence, lying Miracles! reduc'd fo low
As to the regal touch, and papal-toe;
Hence haughty Edgar's title to the Main,
Britain's to France, and thine to India, Spain!

NOTES.

DICTUM, he would not dare mortale aliquid addere. On which, Wilfon the Hiftorian obferves-This is not inferted to fhew the PREGNANCY and GENIUS of the man, but the temper of the times. W.

"To be born a King is a matter of chance; never forget you are a man,” said the late great King of Pruffia to his Nephew in his will. A fentiment that does this monarch more honour than all his victories.

Every Englishman must read with pride and pleasure, Fortefcue's fpirited cenfure on that degrading and infamous maxim, "Quod principi placuit, legis habet vigorem," in the 10th chap. of his invaluable treatife, De Laudibus Legum Angliæ.

VER. 227. Like the laft Gazette,] If thefe Satires are not now read with the avidity and applaufe with which they were perufed fifty years ago, it must be attributed to the reafon affigned by D'Olivet, for the prefent neglect of La Bruyere's Characters in France. "Tant qu' on a cru voir dans ce livre les portraits de gens vivans, on l'a devoré, pour fe nourrir du trifte plaifir que donne la fatire perfonelle. Mais a mcfure que ces gens-là ont difparu, il a ceffé de plaire fi fort par la matière." Hiftoire de l'Academie, p. 339. VER. 228. When black Ambition, &c.] The cafe of Cromwell in the civil war of England; and (Ver. 229.) of Louis XIV. in his conqueft of the Low Countries.

Not Waller's Wreath can hide the Nation's Scar,

Nor Boileau turn the Feather to a Star.

231

There, other Trophies deck the truly brave,
Than fuch as Anftis cafts into the Grave;

Far

NOTES.

VER. 230. Not Waller's Wreath] "Such a feries of verses," fays Dr. Johnfon," as the Panegyric on Cromwell, had hardly appeared before in the English language." I cannot forbear adding, that I am furprized Waller should never name Milton, who was of the fame party, and which he had fo many opportunities of doing in his works. But Waller was not of Milton's fchool.

VER. 231. Nor Boileau turn the Feather to a Star.] See his Ode on Namur; where (to ufe his own words)" Il a fait un Astre de la Plume blanche que le Roy porte ordinairement à fon Chapeau, et qui eft en effet une espece de Comete, fatale à nos ennemis." P.

Prior burlesqued this Ode with infinite pleasantry and humour. And the fame may be faid of Prior's Epiftle to Boileau. Louis XIV. who had a perfonal regard for Prior, did not, we may well imagine, know that he had ridiculed his favourite Poet. Another French flatterer read to Malherbe fome fulfome verfes, in which he had represented France as moving out of its place to receive the King. Though this," faid the honeft Malherbe, "was in my time, yet I protest I do not remember it.”

VER.

66

R. 235. And opes] From Milton's Comus, ver. 14.
"That opes the Palace of Eternity."

VER. 236. There, other Trophies deck the truly brave,

Than fuch as ANSTIS cafts into the Grave;] Shake

fpear tells us, that the Poet's Creation

"Gives to AIRY NOTHING

A local HABITATION and a NAME;"

juft fo, the King's; i. e. a SEAT and a TITLE.

W.

Far other Stars than * and ** wear,

240

And may defcend to Mordington from STAIR;
(Such as on HOUGH's unfully'd Mitre fhine,
Or beam, good DIGBY, from a Heart like thine;)
Let Envy howl, while Heav'n's whole Chorus fings,
And bark at Honour not conferr❜d by Kings;
Let Flatt'ry fick'ning fee the Incense rise,

Sweet to the World, and grateful to the Skies: 245
Truth guards the Poet, fanctifies the line,
And makes immortal, Verfe as mean as mine.
Yes, the laft Pen for Freedom let me draw,
When Truth ftands trembling on the edge of Law;
Here,

NOTES.

VER. 237. Anftis] The chief Herald at Arms. It is the cuf tom, at the funeral of great peers, to caft into the grave the broken ftaves and enfigns of honour.

P.

VER. 239. STAIR] John Dalrymple Earl of Stair, Knight of the Thistle, served in all the wars under the Duke of Marlborough; and afterwards as Embaffador in France.

P.

VER. 240. On HOUGH's unfully'd] In the fifty-feventh Perfian Letter, is an elegant and well-written eulogium on this excellent prelate, by Lord Lyttelton. These Letters have been too much depreciated and neglected.

VER. 240, 241. HOUGH and DIGBY] Dr. John Hough, Biship of Worcester; and the Lord Digby. The one an assertor of the Church of England in oppofition to the falfe measures of King James II. The other as firmly attached to the cause of that King. Both acting out of principle, and equally men of honour and virtue.

VER. 249. When Truth flands trembling]

England, with all thy faults, I love thee ftill,
My country! and while yet a nook is left

24

P.

Where

Here, Laft of Britons! let your Names be read; Are none, none living? let me praise the Dead, And for that Caufe which made your Fathers fhine, Fall by the Votes of their degen'rate Line.

VARIATIONS.

Fr.

VER. 255. in the MS.

Quit, quit thefe themes and write Effays on Man.

NOTES.

Where English minds and manners may be found,
Shall be conflrain'd to love thee. Though thy clime
Be fickle, and thy year, moft part, deform'd
With dripping rains, or wither'd by a froft,
I would not yet exchange thy fullen fkies.
And fields without a flower, for warmer France
With all her vines; nor for Aufonia's groves
Of golden fruitage and her myrtle bow'rs.

Lines of the tender and benevolent Cowper, which I here infert, in order to put us again in good humour with our country, after having just seen her placed in a disagreeable light.

VER. 253. Of their degen'rate Line.] Such was the language at that time, used by our Author and his friends and affociates. Lord Chesterfield ends the account of his friend Hammond, author of the Love Elegies, with thefe words: "He looked back with a kind of religious awe and delight, upon thefe glorious and happy times of Greece and Rome, when wisdom, virtue, and liberty formed the only triumvirates; in these sentiments he lived, and would have lived, even in thefe times; in these fentiments he died; but in these times too, ut non erepta a diis immortalibus vita, fed donata, mors videatur. Speaking of the effects of fatire, fays a certain wit, "Cette fcene du monde, prefque de tous les temps, & de tous les lieux, vous voudriez la changer! voilà votre folie, à vous autres moraliftes. Montez en chaire avec Bourdaloue, ou prenez la plume avec La Bruyere, temps perdu; le monde ira toujours comme il va."

In every age, and in every nation, there is a conftant progression of manners; " For the manners of a people, feldom ftand ftill, but are either POLISHING OF SPOILING."

Fr. Alas! alas!

pray end what you began,

And write next winter more Effays on Man.

NOTES.

255

VER. 254. Pray end what] We must own that these Dialogues, excellent as they are, exhibit many and ftrong marks of our Author's petulance, party-fpirit, and felf-importance; and of affuming to himself the character of cenfor-general; who, alas! if he had poffeffed a thousand times more genius, integrity, and ability, than he actually enjoyed, could not have altered or amended the manners of a rich and commercial, and confequently of a luxurious and diffipated nation. But we make ourselves unhappy, by hoping to poffefs incompatible things; we want to have wealth without corruption, and liberty without virtue!

VER. ult.] This was the laft Poem of the kind printed by our Author, with a resolution to publish no more; but to enter thus, in the most plain and folema manner he could, a fort of PROTEST against that infuperable corruption and depravity of manners, which he had been fo unhappy as to live to fee. Could he have hoped to have amended any, he had continued those attacks; but bad men were grown fo fhameless and fo powerful, that Ridiculę was become as unsafe as it was ineffectual. The Poem raised him, as he knew it would, fome enemies; but he had reason to be fatisfied with the approbation of good men, and the teftimony of his own confcience.

P.