F. Stop! stop! P. Must satire, then, not rise nor fall? Speak out, and bid me blame no rogues at all. F. Yes, strike that Wild, I'll justify the blow. P. Strike? why the man was hang'd ten years ago: Who now that obsolete example fears? Even Peter trembles only for his ears. 55 F. What, always Peter? Peter thinks you mad; You make men desperate if they once are bad: Else might he take to virtue some years henceP. As S-k, if he lives, will love the PRINCE. F. Strange spleen to S-k! P. Do I wrong the man? God knows I praise a courtier where I can. NOTES. only alludes to the common practice of ministers, in laying their own miscarriages on their masters." I fear Pope meant more. Ver. 57. Even Peter trembles only for his ears.] year before this, narrowly escaped the pillory for got off with a severe rebuke only from the bench. Bowles. Peter had, the forgery; and Pope. Ver. 65. SCARB'ROW] Earl of, and Knight of the Garter, whose personal attachments to the King appeared from his steady adherence to the royal interest, after his resignation of his great employment of Master of the Horse, and whose known honour and virtue made him esteemed by all parties. Pope. His character is ably and elegantly drawn by Lord Chesterfield, and the manner of his lamented death, minutely and pathetically related by Dr. Maty, in the Memoirs of Lord Chesterfield's Life. Warton. The scene, the master, opening to my view, NOTES. 70 Ver. 66. Esher's peaceful grove,] The house and gardens of Esher, in Surrey, belonging to the Honourable Mr. Pelham, brother of the Duke of Newcastle. The author could not have given a more amiable idea of his character, than in comparing him to Mr. Craggs. Pope. Ver. 67. Kent and nature] Means no more than art and nature. And in this consists the compliment to the artist. Warburton. Ver. 71. Secker is decent,] To say of a prelate, whose life was exemplary, and his learning excellent, that he was only decent, is surely to damn with faint praise. His lectures and his sermons are written with a rare mixture of simplicity and energy, and contain (what sermons too seldom possess) a great knowledge of life and human nature. Dr. Lowth, Dr. Kennicott, and Mr. Merrick, frequently acknowledged his uncommon skill in oriental learning; but the author of Warburton's Life has lately thought proper to deny him this praise. The characters of Benson and Rundel are justly drawn. It was Gibson, Bishop of London, who prevented the latter, though strongly patronized by Lord Chancellor Talbot, from being an English Bishop, on account of some unguarded expressions he had used relating to Abraham's offering of his son Isaac. Warton. Ver. 71. Secker is decent, &c.] Notwithstanding the candid and acute remarks of Warburton, this praise of Secker is undoubtedly parsimonious, and the poet almost incurs the censure, which he passed on Addison, Damns with faint praise. His notion of decent is proved with tolerable precision from his Moral Essays, ii. 163, where, after saying that Chloe, the subject of his satire, wanted, what Rundel had, a heart, he subjoins : Virtue she finds too painful an endeavour, Content to dwell in decencies for ever. He means, therefore, to allow Secker moderate, but not leading, excellences Manners with candour are to Benson given; But does the court a worthy man remove? NOTES. 75 excellences of character; to exhibit him as free from informal improprieties, rather than a great proficient in sublimer virtue. Nor were the political prínciples of Secker likely to permit a very warm encomium from the prejudiced feelings of our poet. Concerning Rundel, the reader may find more in Pope's and Swift's Letters, and in Whiston's Memoirs of himself. poem on the Bishop is excellent. Swift's Wakefield. Ver. 73. Berkley, &c.] Dr. Berkley was, I believe, a good man, a good Christian, a good citizen, and all, in an eminent degree. He was besides very learned; and of a fine and lively imagination; which he unhappily abused by advancing, and, as far as I can learn, throughout his whole life persisting in, the most outrageous whimsey that ever entered into the head of any ancient or modern madman; namely, the impossibility of the real or actual existence of matter; which he supported on principles that take away the boundaries of truth and falsehood; expose reason to all the outrage of unbounded scepticism; and even, in his own opinion, make mathematical demonstration doubtful. To this man may be eminently applied that oracle of the Stagirite, which says, To follow Reason against the SENSES, is a sure sign of a bad understanding. But if (though at the expense of his moral character) we should suppose, that all this was only a wanton exercise of wit; how his metaphysics came to get him the character of a great genius, unless from the daring nature of his attempt, I am at a loss to conceive. His pretended demonstration, on this capital question, being the poorest, lowest, and most miserable of all sophisms; that is, a sophism which begs the question, as the late Mr. Baxter has clearly shewn; a few pages of whose reasoning have not only more sense and substance than all the elegant discourses of Dr. Berkley, but infinitely better entitle him to the character of a great genius. He was truly such and a time will come, if learning ever revive amongst us, when the present inattention to his admirable metaphysics, established on the physics of Newton, will I shun his zenith, court his mild decline; I studied SHREWSBURY, the wise and great: flame, 80 Compared, and knew their generous end the same: NOTES. will be deemed as great a dishonour to the wisdom of this age, as the neglect of Milton's poetry was to the wit of the past. Warburton. Ver. 77. SOMERS] John, Lord Somers, died in 1716. He had been Lord Keeper in the reign of William III., who took from him the seals in 1700. The author had the honour of knowing him in 1706. A faithful, able, and incorrupt Minister; who, to the qualities of a consummate statesman, added those of a man of learning and politeness. Pope. "One of those divine men," says Lord Orford finely, "who, like a chapel in a palace, remains unprofaned, while all the rest is tyranny, corruption, and folly. All the traditional accounts of him, the historians of the last age, and its best authors, represent him, as the most incorrupt lawyer, and the honestest statesman; as a master orator, a genius of the finest taste, and as a patriot of the noblest and most extensive views; as a man, who dispensed blessings by his life, and planned them for posterity. He was at once the model of Addison, and the touchstone of Swift: the one wrote from him, the other for him." Warton. Ver. 77. HALIFAX,] A Peer, no less distinguished by his love of letters than his abilities in parliament. He was disgraced in 1710, on the change of Queen Anne's ministry. Pope. Ver. 79. SHREWSBURY,] Charles Talbot, Duke of Shrewsbury, had been Secretary of State, ambassador in France, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Lord Chamberlain, and Lord Treasurer. He several times quitted his employments, and was often recalled. He died in 1718.Pope. Ver. 80. CARLETON] Hen. Boyle, Lord Carleton, (nephew of the famous Robert Boyle,) who was Secretary of State under William III. and President of the Council under Queen Anne. Pope, How pleasing ATTERBURY'S Softer hour! How shined the soul, unconquer'd in the Tower! How can I PULTENEY, CHESTERFIELD forget, While Roman spirit charms, and Attic wit? 85 NOTES. Ver. 80. STANHOPE] James, Earl Stanhope. A nobleman of equal courage, spirit, and learning. General in Spain, and Secretary of State. Pope. Ver. 80. STANHOPE's noble flame,] Who confessed to old Whiston, that, in his opinion, it was almost impossible for a Minister of State to be an honest man, Warton. Ver. 83. How shined the soul,] Among these, Atterbury was his chief intimate. The turbulent and imperious temper of this haughty prelate was long felt and remembered in the college over which he presided. It was with difficulty Queen Anne was persuaded to make him a bishop; which she did at last, on the repeated importunities of Lord Harcourt, who pressed the Queen to do it, because truly she had before disappointed him, in not placing Sacheverel on the bench. After her decease, Atterbury vehemently urged his friends to proclaim the Pretender; and on their refusal, upbraided them for their timidity with many oaths; for he was accustomed to swear, on any strong provocation. In a Collection of Letters, lately published by Mr. Duncombe, it is affirmed, on the authority of Elijah Fenton, that Atterbury, speaking of Pope, said, there was, Mens curva in corpore curvo, This sentiment seems utterly inconsistent with the warm friendship supposed to subsist between these celebrated men. But Dr. Herring, in the second volume of this collection, p. 104, says: "If Atterbury was not worse used than any honest man in the world ever was, there were strong contradictions between his public and private character." Warton. Ver. 84. PULTENEY, CHESTERFIELD] I have heard a lady of exquisite wit and judgment, say of these two celebrated men: "The latter was always striving to be witty, and the former could not help being so." The |