An Essay on Man [31]
The Vanity of Expense in people of Wealth and Quality. The abuse of the
word Taste, v.13. That the first Principle and foundation, in this as in
everything else, is Good Sense, v.40. The chief Proof of it is to follow
Nature even in works of mere Luxury and Elegance. Instanced in
Architecture and Gardening, where all must be adapted to the Genius and Use
of the Place, and the Beauties not forced into it, but resulting from it,
v.50. How men are disappointed in their most expensive undertakings, for
want of this true Foundation, without which nothing can please long, if at
all: and the best Examples and Rules will but be perverted into something
burdensome or ridiculous, v.65, etc., to 92. 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.
Oft have you hinted to your brother peer
A certain truth, which many buy too dear:
Something there is more needful than expense,
And something previous even to taste--'tis sense.
Good sense, which only is the gift of Heaven,
And though no science, fairly worth the seven:
A light, which in yourself you must perceive:
Jones and Le Notre have it not to give.
To build, to plant, whatever you intend,
To rear the column, or the arch to bend,
To swell the terrace, or to sink the grot;
In all, let Nature never be forgot.
But treat the goddess like a modest fair,
Nor over-dress, nor leave her wholly bare;
Let not each beauty everywhere be spied,
Where half the skill