"Learn each small People's genius, policies,
"The Ant's republic, and the realm of Bees;
How thofe in common all their wealth beltow,
185

"And Anarchy without confusion know;

196

That prond exception to all Nature's laws,
T'invert the world, and counter-work its Caufe?
Force first made Conqueft, and that conquest, Law;
Till Superftition taught the tyrant awe, · [245 ·
Then fhar'd the Tyranny, then lent it aid,
And Gods of Conquerors, Slaves of Subjects made:
She 'midft the lightning's blaze; and thunder's
found,

And these for ever, though a Monarch reign, "Their feparate cells and properties maintain. "Mark what unvary'd laws preferve each state, "Laws wife as Nature, and as fix'd as Fate. "In vain thy Reason finer webs shall draw, "Entangle Justice in her net of Law, "And right, too rigid, harden into wrong; "Still for the ftrong too weak, the weak too strong. "Yet go! and thus o'er all the creatures fway, 195 "Thus let the wifer make the eft obey: "And for thofe Arts mere Instinct could afford, "Be crown'd as Monarchs, or as Gods ador'd." V. Great Nature (poke; obfervant Man obey'd; Cities were built, Societies were made: Here rofe one little ftate; another near Grew by like means, and join'd, through love or Zeal then, not charity, became the guide;

fear.

When rock'd the mountains, and when groan'd the
*e ground, tha
250
She taught the weak to bend, the proud to pray,
To Power unfeen, and mightier far than they:
She, from the rending earth, and bursting skies,
Saw Gods defcend, and fiends infernal rife:
Here fix'd the dreadful, there the bleít abodes ; 255
Fear made her Devils; and weak Hope her Gods;
Gods partial, changeful, paffionate, unjust,
Whofe attributes were Rage, Revenge, or Luft;
Such as the fouls of cowards might conceive,
And, form'd like tyrants, tyrants would believe. 260

265

And hell was built on spite, and heaven on pride.
Then facred feem'd th' ethereal vault no more;
Altars grew marble then, and reek'd with gore:
Then firft the Flamen tafted living food:
Next his grim idol smear'd with human blood;
With heaven's own thunders thook the world Be-
low

Did here the trees with ruddier burdens bend,
And there the ftreams in purer rills defcend? [205
What War could ravish, Commerce could beftow;
And he return'd a friend, who came a foe.
Converfe and Love mankind might ftrongly draw,
When Love was Liberty, and Nature Law. ver
Thus states were form'd; the name of King un-And play'd the God an engine on his foe.
So drives Self-love, through juft, and through

known,

Till common intereft plac'd the fway in one.
'Twas VIRTUE ONLY (or in arts and arms,
Diffufing bleffings, or averting harms):
The fame which in a fire the sons obey'd
A Prince the Father of a People made.

210

NJ

VI. Till then, by Nature crown'd, each Pattiarch
I fate,

unjuft,

280

To one man's power, ambition, lucre, luft: 276
The fame Self-love, in all, becomes the cause
Of what reftrains him, Government and Laws.
For, what one likes, if others like as well,
What serves one will, when many wills rebel?
215 How fhall he keep, what, sleeping or awake, 275
A weaker may furprize, a stronger take?
His fafety muft his liberty reftrain:
All join to guard what each defires to gain.
Forc'd into virtue thus, by Self-defer.ce,
Evin Kings learn'd juftice and benevolence:
Self-love forfook the path it first pursued,
And found the private in the public good.
Twas then the ftudious head or generous mind,
Follower of God, or friend of human kint,
Poet or Patriot, rose but to restore y
The Faith and Moral, Nature gave before;
Relum'd her ancient light, not kindled new;
If not God's Image, yet his fhadow drew!
Taught Power's due ufe to People and to Kings,
230 Taught nor to flack, nor strain its tender ftrings,
The lefs, or greater, set so justly true,
That touching one must strike the other too;
Till jareing interests of themselves create
Th' according music of a well-mix'd State.
235 Such is the world's great harmony, that springs 295
From Order, Union, full Confent of things:

225

King, priest, and parent, of his growing state:
On him, their fecond Providence, they hung,
Their law his eye, their oracle his tongue.
He from the wondering furrow call'd the food,
Taught to command the fire, controul the flood, 220
Draw forth the monsters of th' abyfs profound,
Or fetch th' aërial eagle to the grounds
Till drooping, fickening, dying, they began
Whom they rever'd as God to mourn as Man:
Then, looking up firm fire to fire, explor'd
One great First Father, and that first ador'd hailed
Or plain tradition that this All begun,
Convey'd unbroken faith from fire to fon;
The worker from the work diftin&t was known,
And fimple Reason never fought but one:
Ere Wit oblique had broke that fteady light,
Man, like his Maker, faw that all was right;
To Virtue, in the paths of Pleafure trod,
And own'd a Father when they own'd a God.
Love all the faith, and all th' allegiance then;
For Nature knew no right divine in Men,
No ill could fear in God; and understood
A fovereign being, but a fovereign good.
True faith, true policy, united ran;
That was but love of God, and this of Man.
Who firft taught fouls enflav'd, and realms
done,

Th' enormous faith of many made for one ;

VOL. VI.

285

[290

Where fmall and great, where weak and mighty, made

To serve, not fuffer, ftrengthen, not invade ;

un

24c More powerful each as needful to the reft,
And, in proportion as it blesses, bleft;
Draw to one point, and to one centre bring
Beast, Man, or Angel, Servant," Lord, or King.

300

3 B

For

For Forms of Government let fools conteft;
Whateler is beft administer'd is beft:
For Modes of Faith let graceless zealots fight; 305
His can't be wrong whofe life is in the right;
In Faith and Hope the world will disagree,
But all Mankind's concern is Charity:
All must be falfe that thwarts this One great End;
And all of God, that blefs Mankind, or mend. 310
Man, like the generous vine, fupported lives:
The strength he gains is from th' embrace he gives.
On their own Axis as the Planets run, "
Yet make at once their circle ro and the Sun;
So two confiftent motions at the Soul;
And one regards Itfelf, and one the Whole.
Thus God and Nature link'd the general frame,
And bade Self love and Social be the fame.

1.

ARGUMENT OF

EPISTLE IV.

315

OF THE NATURE AND STATE OF MAN
WITH RESPECT TO HAPPINESS.

1.

rewards, but often inconfiflent with, or deftruaive of Virtue, ver. 167: That even thefe can make no Man happy without Virtue: Inftanced in Riches, ver. 185. Honours, ver. 193. Nobility, ver. 205. Greatness, ver. 217. Fame, ver. 237. Superior Talents, ver. 257, &c. With pictures of human infelicity in Men, poffefJed of them all, ver. 269, &c. VII. That Virtue only conftitutes a Happiness, whose object is univerfal, and avhose profped eternal, ver. 307. That the perfection of Virtue and Happiness confifts in a confor mity to the Order of Providence here, and a Refignation to it here and hereafter, ver. 326, &c.

That fomething still which prompts th' eternal figh,
For which we bear to live, or dare to die,

Which still fo near us, yet beyond us lies,

toil,

5

15

I. Falle Notions of Happirefs, Philofophical and Popular, anfvered from ver 1 to 77. O'erlook'd, feen double, by the fool and wife: II. It is the End of all Men, and attain- Plant of celeftial feed! if dropp'd below, able by all, ver. 30. God intends Hap-Fair opening to fome Court's propitious fhrine, Say, in what mortal foil thou deign'ft to grow? piness to be equal; and to be so, it must or deep with diamonds in the flaming mine? be focial, fince all particular Happinefs Twin'd with the wreaths Parnaffian laurels yield, depends on general, and fince he governs Or reap'd in iron harvests of the field? by general, not particular Lavs, ver. 37 Where grows where grows it not? If vain our As it is neceffary for Order, and the peace We ought to blame the culture, not the foil : and welfare of Society, that external goods Fix'd to no fpot is Happiness fincere, Should be unequal, Happiness is not made 'Tis no where to be found, or every where: to confift in thefe, ver. 51. But, noi- Tis never to be bought, but always free, But, not And fied from monarchs, St. Jons! dwells with withstanding that inequality, the balance thee, of Happiness among mankind is kept event Afk of the Learn'd the way? The Learn'd are by Providence, by the two Paffions of Hope This bids to ferve, and that to fhun mankind; and Fear, ver. 70, III, What the Hap-Some place the blifs in action, fome in eafe, pinefs of Individuals is, as far as is con- Thofe call it Pleafure, and Contentment these : fiftent with the conftitution of this world; Some, funk to Beafts, find Pleafure end in Pain; and that the Good Man has here the ad- Some, fwell'd to Gods, confefs ev'n Virtue vain; vantage, ver. 77. The error of imput-To truft in ev'ry thing, or doubt of all. Or, indolent, to each extreme they fall, ing to Virtue what are only the calamities Who thus define it, fay they more or less, of Nature, or of Fortune, ver. 94. IV. Than this, that Happiness is Happiness? The folly of expecting that God should alter Take Nature's path, and mad Opinions leave; All states can reach it, and all heads conceive; 30 his general Laws in favour of particulars, Obvious her goods, in no extreme they dwell; ver. 121. V. That we are not judges There needs but thinking right, and meaning well who are good; but that, whoever they And, mourn our various portions as we pleafe, are, they must be happiest, ver. 133, &c. Equal is Common Senfè, and Common Exfe. Remember, Man, "the Universal Cause VI. That external goods are not the proper" Acts not by partial, but by gen'ral laws ;”

blind

20

35

And

100

[See Falkland dies, the virtuous and the juft! See godlike Turenne proftrate on the duft! See Sidney bleeds amid the martial strife! 40 Was this their Virtue, or contempt of Life? Say, was it Virtue, more though Heaven ne'er

And makes what Happiness we juftly call,
Subfift net in the good of one, but all.
There's not a bleffing Individuals find,
But fome-way leans and hearkens to the kind:
No Bandit fierce, no Tyrant mad with pride,
No cavern'd Hermit, refts felf-fatisfy'd
Who most to shun or hate Mankind pretend,
Seek an admirer, or would fix a friend :
Abstract what others feel, what others think,
All pleasures ficken, and all glories fink:
Each has his fhare; and who would more obtain,
Shall find, the pleasure pays not half the pain.
ORDER is Heaven's firft Law; and this confeft,
Some are, and must be, greater than the reft,
More rich, more wife; but who infers from hence
That fuch are happier, fhocks all common fenfe.
Heaven to Mankind impartial we confefs,
If all are equal in their Happiness:
But mutual wants this Happiness increase ;
All Nature's difference keeps all Nature's peace.
Condition, circumstance, is not the thing;
Blifs is the fame, in fubject, or in king,
In who obtain defence, or who detend,
In him who is, or him who finds a friend:
Heaven breathes through every member of the
whole

One common bleffing, as one common fool.
But Fortune's gifts if each alike possest,
And each were equal, must not all conteft?
If then to all Men Happiness was meant,a
God in Externals could not place Content.

50|

gave,

205

ΠΟ

115

Lamented Digby! funk thee to the grave?
Tell me, if Virtue made the Son expire,
45 Why, full of days and honour, lives the Sire?
Why drew Marfeilles' good bishop purer breath,
When Nature ficken'd, and each gale was death?
Or why fo long (in life if long can be),,
Lent Heaven a parent to the poor and me?
What makes all physical or moral ill?
There deviates Nature, and here wanders will.
God fends not ill; if rightly understood,
Or partial Ill is univerfal Good,
Or Change admits, or Nature lets it fall,
55 Short, and but rare, till Man improv'd it all.
We just as wifely might of Heaven complain
That righteous Abel was deflroy'd by Cain,
As that the virtuous fon is still at eafe
When his lewd father gave the dire disease. -
Think we, like fome weak Prince, the Eternal
Caufe
Prone for his favourites to reverfe his laws?
Shall burning Etna, if a fage requires,
#Forget to thunder, and recall her fires?
tri. On air or fea new motions be impreft,
65 Oh blameless Bethel ! to relieve thy breast?
When the loofe mountain trembles from on high,
Shall gravitation cease, if you go by?

Fortune her gifts may variously difpofe,
And these be happy call'd, unhappy thofe ;
But Heaven's just balance equal will appear,
While thofe are plac'd in Hope, and thefe
Fear:

Not prefent good or ill, the joy or curfe,
But future views of better, or of worse!

60

in

"

Or fome old temple, nodding to its fall, *
For Chartres head referve the hanging wall?
But ftill this world (fo fitted for the knave)"
70 Contents us not. A better shall we have?
A kingdom of the Just then let it be?
But first confider how thofe Juft agrée."
The good muft merit God's peculiar care;
But who, but God, can tell us who they are?
One thinks on Calvin Heaven's own Spirit fell;
Another deems him instrument of hell;"
its rod,

75

Oh, fons of earth! attempt ye ftill to rife,
By mountains pil'd on mountains, to the skies?
Heaven ftill with laughter the vain toil furveys,
And buries madmen in the heaps they raife. 1
Know, all the good that individuals find, 1
Or God and Nature meant to mere Mankind,
Reafon's whole pleasure, all the joys of Senfe, w
Lie in three words, Health, Peace, and Compe-

tence.

But Health confifts with Temperance alone;
And Peace, oh Virtue! Peace is all thy own.
The good or bad the gifts of Fortune gain;
But these less taste them, as they worfe obtain.
Say, in purfuit of profit or delight,
171 85
Who risk the most, that take wrong means, or
right?

Of Vice or Virtue, whether bleft or curst,
Which meets contempt, or which compassion first
Count all th' advantage profperous Vice attains,
'Tis but what Virtue flies from and difdains:
And grant the bad what happiness they would,
One they must want, which is, to pass for good
Oh blind to truth, and God's whole fcheme below,
Who fancy Blifs to Vice, or Virtue Woe!!!
Who fees and follows that great fcheme the beft, 95
Beft knows the bleffing, and will most be bleft.
But fools, the Good alone, unhappy cally
For ills or accidents that chance to all.

"But fometimes Virtue ftarves, while Vice is i.fed!" What then? Is the reward of Virtue bread ? That, Vice may merit, 'tis the price of toil; The knave deferves it, when he tills the foil; The knave deferves it, when he tempts the main, Where folly fights for kings, or dives for gain. The good man may be weak, be indolent; Nor is his claim to plenty, but content. But grant him riches, your demand is o'er? "No-fhall the good want Health, the good want "Power?" Add

3 B 2

155

Add Health and Power, and every earthly thing,
"Why bounded Power? why private? who no Or make, an enemy of all mankind!

The whole ftrange purpofe of their lives, to find,

"king?"

Nay, why external for internal given?»,

225

Not one looks backward, onward ftill he goes,
Yet ne'er looks forward further than his nofe.
No lefs alike the Politic and Wife:
All fly flaw things, with circumfpective eyes:
Men in their loote unguarded hours they take,
Not that themselves are wife, but others weak.
But grant that thofe can conquer, thefe can cheat;
'Tis phrase abfurd to call a Villain Great
Who wickedly is wife, or madly brave,
Is but the more a fool, the more a knave.
170 Who noble ends by noble means obtains,
Or failing, fmiles in exile or in chains,
Like good Aurelius let him reign, or bleed

Why is not Man a God, and Earth a Heaven?
Who afk and reafon thus, will fca ce conceive
God gives enough, while he has more to give;
Immenfe the power, immense were the demand;
Say, at what part of mature will they ftand? [165
What nothing earthly gives, or can destroy,
The foul's calm fun-fhine, and the heart-felt joy,
Is Virtue's prize: A better would you fix?
Then give Humility, a coach and fix,

Juftice a Conqueror's fword, or Truth a gown,
Or Public Spirit its great cure, a Crown.

thereLike Socrates, that Man is great indeed.

230

235

What's Fame? a fancy'd life in others' breath,
175 A thing beyond us, ev'n before our death.
Juft what you hear, you have; and what's un-
known,

The fame (my Lord) if Tully's, or your own. 240
All that we feel of it begins and ends

18 In the small circle of our foes or friends;
Io all befide as much an empty shade

Weak, foolish man! will Heaven reward us
With the fame trash mad mortals with for here?
The Boy and Man an individual makes,
Yet fight thou now for apples and for cakes ?,
Go, like the Indian, in another life
Expect thy dog, thy bottle, and thy wife;
As well as dream fuch trifles are affign'd,
As toys and empires, for a godlike mind.
Rewards, that either would to Virtue bring
No joy, or be deftructive of the thing;
How oft by thefe at fixty are undone
The virtues of a faint at twenty-one !
To whom can Riches give Repute, or Truft,
Content, or Pleasure, but the Good and Just?
Judges and Senates have been bought for gold;
Efteem and Love were never to be fold.
Oh fool! to think God hates the worthy mind,
The lover and the love of human kind.
Whofe life is healthful, and whofe confcience clear,
Because he wants a thousand pounds a-year.

185

An Eugene living, as a Cæfar dead;

Alike or when, or where they thone, or shine, 245
Or on the Rubicon, or on the Rhine.

A Wit's a feather, and a Chief a rod;

250

An honest Man 's the noblest work of God.
Fame but from death a` villain's name can fave,
As Juftice tears his body from the grave;
When what t' oblivion better were refign'd,
190 Is hung on high to poison half mankind.
All fame is foreign, but of true defert;
Plays round the head, but comes not to the heart:
One felf approving hour whole years out-weighs
Of ftupid ftarers, and of loud huzzas;
And more true joy Marcellus exil'd feels,
1951 han Cæfar with a fenate at his heels.

Honour and fhame from no Condition rife ;
A& well your part, there all the honour lies.
Fortune in Men has fome fmall difference made,
One flaunts in rags, one flutters in brocade
The cobler apron'd, and the parfon gown'd,
'The friar hooded, and the monarch crown'd,
"What differ more (you cry) than crown and cowl!"'Tis but to know how little can be known;

I'll tell you, friend! a wife man and a foolvi
You'll find, if once the monarch acts the monk,
Or, cobler-like, the parfon will be drunk,
Worth makes the man, and want of it the fellow :
The reft is all but leather or prunella,

In Parts fuperior what advantage lies?
Tell (for you can) what is it to be wife?

260

200 To fee all others faults, and feel our own:
Condemn'd in bufinefs or in arts to drudge,
Without a fecond, or without a judge:
Truths would you teach, or save a finking land ?
All fear, none aid you, and few understand. [265
Painful pre-eminence! yourself to view
Above life's weakness, and its comforts too.

Stuck o'er with titles and hung round with
ftrings,
1205

That thou mayft be by kings, or whores of kings.
Boaft the pure bleod of an illustrious race,
In quiet flow from Lucrece to Lucrece ;
But by your father's worth if yours you rate,
Count me thofe only who were good and great. 210
Go! if your ancient, but ignoble blood
Has crept through fcoundrels ever fince the flood,
Go! and pretend your family is young;
Nor own your fathers have been fools fo long.
What can ennoble fots, or flaves, or cowards? 215
Alas! not all the blood of all the Howards,
Look next on Greatness; fay where Greatness

lies:

Bring then these bleffings to a strict account;
Make fair deductions ; fee to what they mount: 270
How much of other each is fure to cost:
How much for other oft is wholly loft;
How inconfiftent greater goods with thefe;
How fometimes life is rifqu'd, and always ease:
Think, and if ftill the things thy envy call,
275
Say, wouldft thou be the Man to whom they fall?
To figh for ribbands if thou art so filly,
Mark how they grace Lord Umbra, or Sir Billy.
Is yellow dirt the paffion of thy life;
Look but on Gripus, or on Gripus' wife.
If Parts allure thee, think how Bacon fhin'd,
The wifeft, brighteft, meanest of mankind:
Or ravifh'd with the whistling of a Name,
220 See Cromwell, damn'd to everlasting fame!

"Where, but among the Heroes and the Wife?" Heroes are much the fne, the point 's agreed, From Macedonia's madman to the Swede;

280

If all, united, thy ambition call,

345

285 Till lengthien'd on to FAITH, and unconfin'd,
It pours the blifs that fills up all the mind.
He fees, why Nature plants in Man alone
Hope of known blifs, and Faith in bliss unknown:
(Nature, whofe dictates to no other kind
Are given in vain, but what they seek they find)
Wife is her prefent; fhe connects in this
His greateft Virtue with his greatest Blifs;
At once his own bright profpect to be bleft,
And strongest motive to aflist the rest.

290

From ancient flory, learn to fcorn them all.
There, in the rich, the honour'd, fam'd, and great,
Sce the falfe fcale of Happiness complete!
In hearts of Kings, or arms of Queens who lay,
How happy! thofe to ruin, thefe betray.
Mark by what wretched fteps their glory grows,
From dirt and fea-weed as proud Venice rofe;
in each how guilt and greatnefs equal ran,
And all that rais'd the Hero, funk the Man :
Now Europe's laurels on their brows behold,
But ftain'd with blood, or ill exchang'd for gold:
Then see them broke with toils, or funk in eafe,
Or infamous for plunder'd provinces.
O! wealth ill-fated! which no act of fame

295

350

Self-love thus pufh'd to focial, to divine,
Gives thee to make thy neighbour's bleffing thine.
Is this too little for the boundless heart?
Extend it, let thy enemies have part;

355

Grafp the whole worlds of Reafon, Life, and Senfe,

E'er taught to fhine, or fanctify'd from fhame! 300 In one clofe fyftem of Benevolence:

What greater blifs attends their close of life?
Some greedy minion, or imperious wife,
The trophy'd arches, story'd halls invade,

305

Happier as kindred, in whate'er degree,
And height of Blifs but height of Charity.

360

God loves from Whole to Parts: but human

foul

Muft rife from Individual to the Whole.
Self-love but ferves the virtuous mind to wake,
As the fmall pebble ftirs the peaceful lake;

The centre mov'd, a circle straight fucceeds, 365
Another ftill, and still another spreads;
Friend, parent, neighbour, first it will embrace ;
His country next; and next all human race;
Wide and more wide, th' o'erflowings of the mind
Take every creature in, of every kind;
Earth fmiles around, with boundless bounty bleft,
315 And Heaven beholds its image in his breast.

And haunt their numbers in the pompous fhade.
Alas! not dazzled with their noon-tide ray,
Compute the morn and evening to the day;
The whole amount of that enormous fame,
A Tale, that blends their glory with their shame!
Know then this truth (enough for Man to know)
"Virtue alone is Happiness below."
310
The only point where human blifs ftands still,
And tastes the good without the fall to ill;
Where only Merit conftant pay receives,
Is bleft in what it takes and what it gives i
The joy unequal'd, if its end it gain,
And if it lofe, attended with no pain:
Without fatiety, though e'er fo blefs'd,
And but more relifh'd as the more diftrefs'd;
The broadeft mirth unfeeling Folly wears,
Lefs pleafing far than Virtue's very tears:
Good, from each object, from each place acquir'd,
For ever exercis'd, yet never tir'd;
Never elated, while one man's opprefs'd;
Never dejected, while another's bleft;
And where no wants, no wishes can remain,
Since but to wish more Virtue, is to gain

See the fole blifs Heaven could on all bestow! Which who but feels can tafte, but thinks know:

can

379

Come then, my Friend! my Genius! come along:

380

Oh mafter of the poet, and the fong!
And while the Mufe now ftoops, or now afcends,
320 To Man's low paffions, or their glorious ends, [375
Teach me, like thee, in various Nature wife,
To fall with dignity, with temper rife;
Form'd by thy converfe, happily to steer,
From grave to gay, from lively to fevere;
325 Correct with fpirit, eloquent with ease,
Intent to reafon, or polite to please.
Oh! while along the ftream of Time thy name
Expanded flies, and gathers all its fame;
Say, fhall my little bark attendant fail,
Purfue the triumph. and partake the gale?
When statesmen, heroes, kings, in dust repofe,
Whofe fons fhall blush their fathers were thy foes,
Shall then this verfe to future age pretend
Thou wert my guide, philofopher, and friend? 39
That, urg'd by thee, I turn'd the tuneful art,
From founds to things, from fancy to the heart;
For Wit's falfe mirror held up Nature's light;
Shew'd erring Pride, WHATEVER IS, IS RIGHT;
That REASON, PASSION, anfwer one great aim;

335

Yet poor with fortune, and with learning blind,
The bad muft mifs; the good, untaught, will find;
Slave to no fect, who takes no private road, [330
But looks through Nature, up to Nature's God;
Pursues that Chain which links th' immenfe defign,
Joins heaven and earth, and mortal and divine;
Sees, that no Being any blifs can knów,
But touches fome above, and fome below;
Learns from this union of the rifing Whole,
The firft, laft purpose of the human foul;
And knows where Faith, Law, Morals, all began,
All end, in Love of God, and LovE OF MAN
For him alone, Hope leads from goal to goal, [340
And opens ftill, and opens on his foul;

385

395

That true SELF-LOVE and SOCIAL are the fame;
That VIRTUE only makes our blifs below;
And all our knowledge is, OURSELVES TO KNOW.

THE