EPISTLE IV. Of the Nature and State of Man with respect to Happiness. I. FALSE Notions of Happiness, Philofophical and Popular, anfwered from 19 to 77. II. It is the End * of all Men, and attainable by all, ỷ 30. God intends Happiness to be equal; and to be so, it must be social, fince all particular Happiness depends on general, and Since he governs by general, not particular Laws, ✯ 37. As it is neceffary for Order, and the peace and welfare of Society, that external goods should be unequal, Happiness is not made to confift in thefe, 51. But, notwithstanding that inequality, the balance of Happiness among Mankind is kept even by Providence, by the two Paffions of Hope and Fear, 70. III. What the Happiness of Individuals is, as far as is confiftent with the conftitution of this world; and that the good Man has here the advantage, 77. The error of imputing to Virtue what are only the calamities of Nature, or of Fortune, 94. IV. The folly of expecting that God fhould alter his general Laws in favour of particulars, * 121. V. That we are not judges who are good; but that, whoever they are, they must be happiest, & 133, &c. VI. That external goods are not the proper rewards, but often inconfiftent with, or destructive of Virtue, 165. That even thefe can make no Man happy without Virtue: Inftanced in Riches, 183. Honours, 191. Nobility, 203. Greatness, † 215. Fame, 235. Superior Talents, 257, &c. With pictures of human Infelicity in Men possessed of them all, * 267, &c. VII, That Virtue only conftitutes a Happiness, whofe object is univerfal, and whofe propect eternal, 307, &c. That the perfection of Virtue and Happiness confifts in a conformity to the ORDER of PROVIDENCE here, and a Refignation to it here and hereafter, 326, &c. N.Blakey inv. et del Ravenct sculp Know then this Truth/enough for Man to know Essay on Man. Ep.1. E PL STLE IV. Ο H HAPPINESS! our being's end and aim! name: VARIATIONS. VER. I. Oh Happiness! &c.] in the MS. thus, Oh Happiness! to which we all afpire, Wing'd with ftrong hope, and borne by full defire; OMMENTARY. THE two foregoing epiftles having confidered Man with regard to the Means (that is, in all his relations, whether as an Individual, or a Member of Society) this laft comes to confider him with regard to the End, that is, Happiness. It opens with an Invocation to Happiness, in the manner of the ancient poets, who, when deftitute of a patron God, applied to the Mufe, and, if fhe was engaged, took up with any fimple Virtue next at hand, to infpire and profper their defigns. This was the ancient Invocation, which few modern poets have had the art to imitate with any degree either of spirit or decorum ; but our author hath contrived to make it fubfervient to the method and reasoning of his philofophic compofition. I will endeavour to explain fo uncommon a beauty. It is to be observed that the Pagan deities had each their feveral names and places of abode, with fome of which they were fuppofed to be more delighted than others, and confequently to be then moft propitious when invoked by the favourite name and place: Hence we find, the hymns of Homer, Orpheus, and Callimachus to be chiefly employed in reckoning up the feveral names and places of abode by which the patron God was diftinguished. Our poet hath made thefe two circumstances That something still which prompts th'eternal figh, Say, in what mortal foil thou deign'ft to grow? COMMENTARY. ferve to introduce his fubject. His purpofe is to write of Happiness; method therefore requires that he first define what men mean by Happiness, and this he does in the ornament of a poetic Invocation; in which the several names, that happiness goes by; are enumerated. Oh Happiness! our being's end and aim, Good, Pleafure, Eafe, Content! whate'er thy Name: After the Definition, that which follows next, is the Propofition, which is, that human Happiness confifts not in external Advantages, but in Virtue. For the fubject of this epiftle is the detecting the false notions of Happiness, and settling and explaining the true; and this the poet lays down in the next fixteen lines. Now the enumeration of the feveral fituations in which Happiness is supposed to refide, is a fummary of falfe Happiness, placed in Externals: Plant of celestial feed! if dropt below, Say, in what mortal foil thou deign'ft to grow? NOTES. VER. 6. O'erlook'd, feen double,] O'erlook'd by thofe who place Happiness in any thing exclufive of Virtue; feen double by thofe who admit any thing else to have a share with Virtue in procuring Happiness; these being the two general mistakes that this epiftle is employed in confuting. 5 |