Mr Pope, his life and times . elded by one honest man (himself,) to scourgeand cure a benighted nation. The Epilogue to the Satires, as the Dialogueswere afterwards called, was preceded by the Epistleto Bolingbroke, imitated from The First Epistleof the First Book of Horace. This professes to bethe poets farewell to verse-writing. He reproacheshis friend for wishing to break the Sabbath of hisdays, and points out that even modest Gibber hasleft the stage.^ Still, even in his retirement he, freeand independent as ever, will play his chosen part— Sometimes a patriot, active in with wo
Mr Pope, his life and times . elded by one honest man (himself,) to scourgeand cure a benighted nation. The Epilogue to the Satires, as the Dialogueswere afterwards called, was preceded by the Epistleto Bolingbroke, imitated from The First Epistleof the First Book of Horace. This professes to bethe poets farewell to verse-writing. He reproacheshis friend for wishing to break the Sabbath of hisdays, and points out that even modest Gibber hasleft the stage.^ Still, even in his retirement he, freeand independent as ever, will play his chosen part— Sometimes a patriot, active in with world, and battle for the State,Free as young Lyttelton,^ her cause pursue,Still true to virtue, and as warm as true. From those wretched men who are possessed byavarice or guilty love, he asks but a patient ear,since there are words and rhymes, which fresh and ^ Gibber retired in 1730. Lord Waldegrave says of Lyttelton : He was a man of parts,a scholar, no indifferent writer, and by far the honestest man ofthe whole From a mezzotint engruving after the paiuting by J. Murray. HENRY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT BOLINGBROKE. u Epistle to Bolingbroke ** 579 fresh applied, Will cure the arrantst puppy ofhis pride. As a specimen, he comes out with soblatant a platitude that it sounds like a burlesque byWelsted or Moore-Smythe of his favourite teaching : Tis the first virtue, vices to abhor, And the first wisdom to be fool no more. But if the voice of wisdom urges that virtue shallbe sought, the voice of London cries out— Get money, money still,And then let virtue follow if she will. The disinterested doctrines preached by the satiristwould no doubt render him unpopular at Court,but if that were urged against him he would givethe answer Reynard gave : I cannot like, dread sir, your royal cave : Because I see, by all the tracks about, Full many a beast goes in, but none come out.^ But if the king is a lion, the people are amany-headed beast, and know not what to do orwhat they want.
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