ly touches of Pope, who in one of his familiar epiſtles, thus characterizes him.
Pope’s Epiſtle on the Knowledge
and Characters of Men.
Wharton, the ſcorn and wonder of our days,
Whoſe darling paſſion was the luſt of praiſe:
Born with whate’er could win it from the wiſe,
Women and fools muſt like him, or he dies;
Tho’ wond’ring ſenates hung on all he ſpoke,
The club muſt hail him maſter of the joke.
Shall parts ſo various aim at nothing new?
He’ll ſhine a Tully and a Wilmot too;
Then turns repentant, and his God adores,
With the ſame ſpirit that he drinks and whores;
Enough if all around him but admire,
And now the Punk applaud, and now the Friar.
Thus with each gift of nature and of art,
And wanting nothing but an honeſt heart;
Grown all to all, from no one vice exempt;
And moſt contemptible, to ſhun contempt;
His paſſion ſtill to covet gen’ral praiſe,
His life, to forfeit it a thouſand ways;
A conſtant bounty which no friend has made;
An angel-tongue which no man can perſuade;
A fool, with more of wit than half mankind,
Too raſh for thought, for action too refin’d:
A tyrant to the wife his heart approves;
A rebel to the very King he loves;
He dies, ſad out-caſt of each church and ſtate,
And, harder ſtill! flagitious, yet not great.
Aſk you why Wharton broke thro’ ev’ry rule?
’Twas all for fear the Knaves ſhould call him Fool.
