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THE SIXTH EPISTLE OF THE FIRST BOOK OF HORACE [ ] - Alexander Pope, The Complete Poetical Works of Alexander Pope [1903]

Edition used:

The Complete Poetical Works of Alexander Pope. Cambridge Edition, ed. Henry W. Boynton (Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1903).

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THE SIXTH EPISTLE OF THE FIRST BOOK OF HORACE[ ]

TO MR. MURRAY

    • ‘Not to admire , is all the art I know,
    • To make men happy, and to keep them so.’
    • (Plain truth, dear Murray! needs no flowers of speech,
    • So take it in the very words of Creech.)
    • This vault of air, this congregated ball,
    • Self-centred sun, and stars that rise and fall,
    • There are, my Friend! whose philosophic eyes
    • Look thro’, and trust the Ruler with his skies;
    • To him commit the hour, the day, the year,
    • And view this dreadful All—without a fear.10
    • Admire we then what earth’s low entrails hold, }
    • Arabian sbores, or Indian seas infold; }
    • All the mad trade of fools and slaves for gold? }
    • Or Popularity? or Stars and Strings?
    • The Mob’s applauses, or the gifts of Kings?
    • Say with what eyes we ought at courts to gaze,
    • And pay the great our homage of amaze?
    • If weak the pleasure that from these can spring,
    • The fear to want them is as weak a thing:
    • Whether we dread, or whether we desire,20
    • In either case, believe me, we admire:
    • Whether we joy or grieve, the same the curse,
    • Surprised at better, or surprised at worse.
    • Thus good or bad, to one extreme betray
    • Th’ unbalanc’d mind, and snatch the man away;
    • For Virtue’s self may too much zeal be had;
    • The worst of madmen is a saint run mad.
    • Go then, and if you can, admire the state
    • Of beaming diamonds and reflected plate;
    • Procure a Taste to double the surprise,30
    • And gaze on Parian charms with learned eyes;
    • Be struck with bright brocade or Tyrian dye,
    • Our birthday nobles’ splendid livery.
    • If not so pleas’d, at council-board rejoice
    • To see their judgments hang upon thy voice;
    • From morn to night, at Senate, Rolls, and Hall,
    • Plead much, read more, dine late, or not at all.
    • But wherefore all this labour, all this strife?
    • For Fame, for Riches, for a noble Wife?
    • Shall one whom Nature, Learning, Birth, conspired40
    • To form, not to admire, but be admired,
    • Sigh while his Chloë, blind to Wit and Worth,
    • Weds the rich dulness of some son of earth?
    • Yet Time ennobles or degrades each line;
    • It brighten’d Craggs’s , and may darken thine.
    • And what is Fame? the meanest have their day;
    • The greatest can but blaze and pass away.
    • Graced as thou art with all the power of words,
    • So known, so honour’d, at the House of Lords:
    • Conspicuous scene! another yet is nigh50
    • (More silent far), where Kings and Poets lie;
    • Where Murray (long enough his country’s pride)
    • Shall be no more than Tully or than Hyde !
    • Rack’d with sciatics, martyr’d with the stone,
    • Will any mortal let himself alone?
    • See Ward, by batter’d Beaux invited over,
    • And desp’rate misery lays hold on Dover.
    • The case is easier in the mind’s disease;
    • There all men may be cured whene’er they please.
    • Would ye be bless’d? despise low joys, low gains;60 }
    • Disdain whatever Cornbury disdains; }
    • Be virtuous, and be happy for your pains. }
    • But art thou one whom new opinions sway,
    • One who believes as Tindal leads the way?
    • Who Virtue and a Church alike disowns,
    • Thinks that but words, and this but brick and stones?
    • Fly then on all the wings of wild desire,
    • Admire whate’er the maddest can admire.
    • Is Wealth thy passion? hence! from pole to pole,
    • Where winds can carry, or where waves can roll,70
    • For Indian spices, for Peruvian gold,
    • Prevent the greedy, and outbid the bold:
    • Advance thy golden mountain to the skies;
    • On the broad base of fifty thousand rise;
    • Add one round hundred, and (if that ’s not fair)
    • Add fifty more, and bring it to a square:
    • For, mark th’ advantage; just so many score
    • Will gain a wife with half as many more,
    • Procure her beauty, make that beauty chaste,
    • And then such friends—as cannot fail to last.80
    • A man of Wealth is dubb’d a man of Worth;
    • Venus shall give him form, and Antis birth.
    • (Believe me, many a German Prince is worse,
    • Who proud of pedigree is poor of purse.)
    • His Wealth brave Timon gloriously confounds;
    • Ask’d for a groat, he gives a hundred pounds;
    • Or if three ladies like a luckless play ,
    • Takes the whole house upon the poet’s day.
    • Now, in such exigencies not to need,
    • Upon my word you must be rich indeed:90
    • A noble superfluity it craves,
    • Not for yourself, but for your fools and knaves;
    • Something which for your honour they may cheat,
    • And which it much becomes you to forget.
    • If Wealth alone then make and keep us blest,
    • Still, still be getting; never, never rest.
    • But if to Power and Place your passion lie,
    • If in the pomp of life consist the joy;
    • Then hire a slave, or (if you will) a Lord,
    • To do the honours, and to give the word;
    • Tell at your Levee, as the crowds approach,101
    • To whom to nod, whom take into your coach,
    • Whom honour with your hand; to make remarks,
    • Who rules in Cornwall, or who rules in Berks:
    • ‘This may be troublesome, is near the chair;
    • That makes three Members, this can choose a Mayor.’
    • Instructed thus, you bow, embrace, protest, }
    • Adopt him son, or cousin at the least, }
    • Then turn about, and laugh at your own jest. }
    • Or if your life be one continued treat,110
    • If to live well means nothing but to eat;
    • Up, up! cries Gluttony, ’t is break of day,
    • Go drive the deer, and drag the finny prey:
    • With hounds and horns go hunt an appetite—
    • So Russell did, but could not eat at night;
    • Call’d happy dog the beggar at his door,
    • And envied thirst and hunger to the poor.
    • Or shall we every decency confound,
    • Thro’ Taverns, Stews, and Bagnios, take our round?119
    • Go dine with Chartres, in each vice outdo
    • K[innou]l’s lewd cargo , or Ty[rawle]y’s crew,
    • From Latian Syrens, French Circean feasts,
    • Return well travell’d, and transform’d to beasts;
    • Or for a titled punk, or foreign flame,
    • Renounce our country, and degrade our name?
    • If, after all, we must with Wilmot own
    • The cordial drop of life is Love alone,
    • And Swift cry wisely, ‘Vive la bagatelle!’
    • The man that loves and laughs must sure do well.
    • Adieu—if this advice appear the worst,130
    • Ev’n take the counsel which I gave you first:
    • Or better precepts if you can impart,
    • Why do; I ’ll follow them with all my heart.

[Page 189.]Sixth Epistle, First Book.

[Line 1.]Not to admire, etc.

[Line 45.]Craggs’s. James Craggs’s father had been in a low situation; but by industry and ability, got to be Postmaster-General and agent to the Duke of Marlborough. For James Craggs’s own career, see Glossary.

[Line 53.]Hyde. Lord Clarendon, great-grandfather of the Lord Cornbury mentioned in line 61 below.

[Line 64.]Tindal. See Pope’s note on The Dunciad, II. 399.

[Line 82.]Anstis, whom Pope often mentions, was Garter King of Arms. (Bowles.)

[Line 87.]Or if three ladies like a luckless play. The common reader, I am sensible, will be always more solicitous about the names of these three Ladies, the unlucky Play, and every other trifling circumstance that attended this piece of gallantry, than for the explanation of our Author’s sense, or the illustration of his poetry; even where he is most moral and sublime. But had it been in Mr. Pope’s purpose to indulge so impertinent a curiosity, he had sought elsewhere for a commentator on his writings. (Warburton.) Notwithstanding this remark of Dr. Warburton, I have taken some pains, though indeed in vain, to ascertain who these ladies were, and what the play they patronized. It was once said to be Young’s Busiris. (Warton.)

[Line 121.]Kinnoul’s lewd cargo, etc. Lords Kinnoul and Tyrawley, two ambassadors noted for wild immorality. (Carruthers.)

[Line 126.]Wilmot. John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester. See Glossary.