please long, if at all; and the best examples and rules
will be but perverted into something burdensome or
ridiculous, ver. 65, etc., to 98. A description of the
false taste of magnificence; the first grand error of
which is to imagine that greatness consists in the size
and dimension, instead of the proportion and
harmony of the whole, ver. 99; and the second, either
in joining together parts incoherent, or too minutely
resembling, or in the repetition of the same too
frequently, ver. 105, etc. A word or two of false taste
in books, in music, in painting, even in preaching and
prayer, and lastly in entertainments, ver. 133, etc. Yet
Providence is justified in giving wealth to be squandered in
this manner, since it is dispersed to the poor and laborious
part of mankind, ver. 169 (recurring to what is laid down
in the Essay on Man, Epistle II., and in the epistle
preceding, ver. 159, etc.). What are the proper objects of
magnificence, and a proper field for the expense of great
men, ver. 177, etc.; and finally, the great and public works
which become a prince, ver. 191 to the end.
’Tis strange, the miser should his cares employ
To gain those riches he can ne’er enjoy:
Is it less strange, the prodigal should waste
His wealth to purchase what he ne’er can taste?
Not for himself he sees, or hears, or eats;
Artists must choose his pictures, music, meats:
He buys for Topham drawings and designs,
For Pembroke statues, dirty gods, and coins;
Rare monkish manuscripts for Hearne alone,
And books for Mead, and butterflies for Sloane. 10
Think we all these are for himself? no more
Than his fine wife, alas! or finer whore.
For what has Virro painted, built, and planted?
Only to show how many tastes he wanted.
What brought Sir Visto’s ill-got wealth to waste?
Some demon whispered, ‘Visto! have a taste.’
Heaven visits with a taste the wealthy fool,
And needs no rod but Ripley with a rule.
See! sportive fate, to punish awkward pride,
20
[284–7]