'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?
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?
Pope - Essay on Man
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, v. 97, and the second, either in
joining together Parts incoherent, or too minutely resembling, or in the
Repetition of the same too frequently, v. 105, etc. A word or two of
false Taste in Books, in Music, in Painting, even in Preaching and
Prayer, and lastly in Entertainments, v. 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, v. 169 (recurring to
what is laid down in the first book, Ep. ii. , and in the Epistle
preceding this, v. 159, etc. ). What are the proper objects of
Magnificence, and a proper field for the Expense of Great Men, v. 177,
etc. , and finally, the Great and Public Works which become a Prince,
v. 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.
Think we all these are for himself? no more
Than his fine wife, alas! or finer w***e.
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,
Bids Bubo build, and sends him such a guide.
A standing sermon, at each year's expense,
That never coxcomb reached magnificence!
You show us, Rome was glorious, not profuse,
And pompous buildings once were things of use.
Yet shall, my lord, your just, your noble rules
Fill half the land with imitating fools;
Who random drawings from your sheets shall take,
And of one beauty many blunders make;
Load some vain church with old theatric state,
Turn arcs of triumph to a garden-gate;
Reverse your ornaments, and hang them all
On some patched dog-hole eked with ends of wall;
Then clap four slices of pilaster on 't,
That, laced with bits of rustic, makes a front
Shall call the winds through long arcades to roar,
Proud to catch cold at a Venetian door;
Conscious they act a true Palladian part,
And, if they starve, they starve by rules of art.
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, v. 97, and the second, either in
joining together Parts incoherent, or too minutely resembling, or in the
Repetition of the same too frequently, v. 105, etc. A word or two of
false Taste in Books, in Music, in Painting, even in Preaching and
Prayer, and lastly in Entertainments, v. 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, v. 169 (recurring to
what is laid down in the first book, Ep. ii. , and in the Epistle
preceding this, v. 159, etc. ). What are the proper objects of
Magnificence, and a proper field for the Expense of Great Men, v. 177,
etc. , and finally, the Great and Public Works which become a Prince,
v. 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.
Think we all these are for himself? no more
Than his fine wife, alas! or finer w***e.
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,
Bids Bubo build, and sends him such a guide.
A standing sermon, at each year's expense,
That never coxcomb reached magnificence!
You show us, Rome was glorious, not profuse,
And pompous buildings once were things of use.
Yet shall, my lord, your just, your noble rules
Fill half the land with imitating fools;
Who random drawings from your sheets shall take,
And of one beauty many blunders make;
Load some vain church with old theatric state,
Turn arcs of triumph to a garden-gate;
Reverse your ornaments, and hang them all
On some patched dog-hole eked with ends of wall;
Then clap four slices of pilaster on 't,
That, laced with bits of rustic, makes a front
Shall call the winds through long arcades to roar,
Proud to catch cold at a Venetian door;
Conscious they act a true Palladian part,
And, if they starve, they starve by rules of art.
