"Tis but to know how little can be known! Above life's weakness, and its comforts too. 266 Bring then these blessings to a strict account : Make fair deductions; see to what they mount; 270 How much of other each is sure to cost; How each for other oft is wholly lost; How inconsistent greater goods with these; How sometimes life is risk'd, and always ease : Think, and if still the things thy envy call, Say, would'st thou be the Man to whom they fall? To sigh for ribands if thou art so silly, Mark how they grace Lord Umbra, or Sir Billy. NOTES. 275 from ten lines of the Essay on Man, at ver. 259; and I only enlarged and commented upon what the Poet had expressed with such marvellous conciseness, penetration, and precision." He particularly admired verse 266. "Men value themselves," says Fontenelle, "for having wit, and genius, and talents, more than for the gifts of fortune, riches, and birth, as not depending on hazard. But how unjust and ill grounded is this! Does not genius consist in a certain conformation of the brain? and is the hazard less to be born with a brain so well disposed, than to be born the son of a king? There is therefore no more personal merit to be born witty than to be born rich. Let this mortify our pride." Ver. 266. All fear, none aid you,] "A persecuted man of genius," says a certain celebrated wit, "is like a flying-fish; if he rises above the surface of the water, the birds seize and devour him; if he plunges down, the fishes eat him.". Ver. 277. To sigh for ribands] Why laugh at a modern peer Is yellow dirt the passion of thy life? NOTES. 280 for his solicitude to obtain two or three yards of riband, green or blue, more than at an ancient champion for his laborious efforts to gain a chaplet of parsley, or crown of oak-leaves? Ver. 279. Is yellow dirt] A depreciating idle term, like the concisum argentum in titulos of Juvenal. Ver. 281. how Bacon] Can we believe the mortifying account of this great philosopher's vices, given by Sir S. Dewes in Hearne's Richard II.? Ver. 281, 283. If Parts allure thee,— Or ravish'd with the whistling of a Name,] These two instances are chosen with great judgment. The world, perhaps, doth not afford two such other. BACON discovered and laid down those true principles of science, by whose assistance Newton was enabled to unfold the whole law of Nature. He was no less eminent for the creative power of his imagination, the brightness of his conceptions, and the force of his expression: yet being convicted on his own confession for bribery and corruption in the administration of justice, while he presided in the supreme Court of Equity, he endea voured to repair his ruined fortunes by the most profligate flattery to the Court; which, indeed, from his very first entrance into it, he had accustomed himself to practise with a prostitution that disgraceth the very profession of letters, or of science. CROMWELL Seemeth to be distinguished in the most eminent manner, with regard to his abilities, from all other great and wicked men, who have overturned the liberties of their Country. The times in which others have succeeded in this attempt, were such as saw the spirit of Liberty suppressed and stifled by a general luxury and venality: but Cromwell subdued his country, when this spirit was in its height, by a successful struggle against court-oppression; and while it was conducted and supported by a set of the greatest Geniuses for Government the world ever saw embarked together in one common cause. W. If all united, thy ambition call, From ancient story learn to scorn them all. 285 There, in the rich, the honour'd, fam'd, and great, In hearts of Kings, or arms of Queens who lay, NOTES. 290 Ver. 283. Or ravish'd with the whistling of a Name,] And even this fantastic glory sometimes suffers a terrible reverse.-Sacheverel, in his Voyage to Icolumb-kill, describing the Church there, tells us, that “in one corner is a peculiar enclosure, in which were the monuments of the kings of many different nations, as Scotland, Ireland, Norway, and the Isle of Man. THIS (said the person who shewed me the place, pointing to a plain stone) was the monument of the Great Teague, king of Ireland. I had never heard of him, and could not but reflect of how little value is Greatness, that has barely left a name scandalous to a nation, and a grave which the meanest of mankind would never envy." W. From Cowley in his imitation of Virgil ; "Charm'd with the foolish whistlings of a name." He frequently borrows expressions from Cowley; as did Gray. Ver. 285. thy ambition call,] Candide meets at supper, in an inn at Venice, six dethroned and unfortunate kings. Their number, of late, might be augmented. Ver. 292. From dirt and sea-weed] There is something striking in the origin of this extraordinary state: "No one can reproach the Venetians with having acquired their liberty by revolt," Voltaire; says no one could say, I have enfranchised you; here is the charter of your manumission. "They did not usurp the territory as the Cæsars usurped the empire; as so many bishops, to begin with him of Rome, have usurped the regal sceptre. They are lords of Venice (if one may use such a presumptuous comparison), as the Supreme Being is Lord of the earth, because they founded it. Attila, who never took the title of the Scourge of God, carried his ravages over Italy. He had undoubtedly as much right as Charlemagne, Ar 295 In each how guilt and greatness equal ran, NOTES. nold the Bastard, Guy duke of Spoleto, Berenger marquis of Frioul, and the Bishops who aspired at sovereignty ́afterward. "In those days of military and ecclesiastical depredations, Attila came on like a vulture: and the Venetians, like Halcyons, saved themselves in the waves. They had no protector but themselves; they built their nests in the middle of the waters; they enlarged, they peopled, they defended, they enriched it. I would ask if it be possible that there should be a juster title to possession? 66 "I have read Squittinio della Liberta di Venezio, and am highly offended with it. "What! then, was not Venice originally free, because the foolish, barbarous, fanatic Emperors of Greece said, This new city was built on our ancient territory; and because the Germans, having the title of Emperors of the West, said, This being a western city, must belong to us? "I here think I see a poor flying-fish pursued at the same time by a falcon above, and a shark below, and escaping from both. "Sannazarius, on comparing Rome to Venice, has very well expressed himself: 66 'Illam homines dicas, hanc posuisse deos.' Rome, at the end of five hundred years, lost by Cæsar the liberty she had acquired by Brutus. Venice has preserved her's eleven centuries, and I flatter myself that she will preserve it still." Ver. 297. Or sunk in ease,] In the MS. it was thus: or sunk in years, Lost in unmeaning, unrepenting tears. Meaning the great Duke of Marlborough, who sunk in the latter part of his life into a state of perfect childhood and dotage; as did Lord Somers. Our Author always spoke of the Duke with a wonderful degree of acrimony; nay, he once turned into ridi Oh wealth ill-fated! which no act of fame E'er taught to shine, or sanctify'd from shame! 300 305 The trophy'd arches, story'd halls invade, The only point where human bliss stands still, NOTES. 310 cule his sorrow on the death of his only son, the Marquis of Blandford. The Duke having a very effeminate voice, Pope, in some bitter verses which he suppressed, made him lament his loss "In accents of a whining ghost!" Marlborough among his friends, in some of their familiar letters, used to be called-Silly; as, "Silly says so," &c. This took its rise from a habit he had of crying out, in a shrill and effeminate voice," Silly, Silly," when he objected to any thing. "Shall the Allies make an attempt upon Lisle?"—" Silly.” 66 Upon Arras then?"-" Silly, Silly." The great Generals, Etius and Bellisarius, as well as Marlborough and Monk, were governed by their imperious wives. See Ver. 302. The wife of Monk was Anne Clargess, a blacksmith's daughter, who had been Monk's sempstress when he was a prisoner in the Tower. She was very instrumental in bringing about the Restoration. Ver. 299. Oh wealth ill-fated!] In the journal written to his Stella, Swift speaks in very handsome terms of the Duke of Marlborough, and this too at a time when the Ministry was about to be changed, 1710. And Bolingbroke always mentioned him with respect. |