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The knave deserves it, when he tempts the main, Where Folly fights for kings, or dives for gain. The good man may be weak, be indolent; 155 Nor is his claim to plenty, but content. But grant him Riches, your demand is o'er? "No---shall the good want Health, the good "want Pow'r ?"

Add Health, and Pow'r, and ev'ry earthly thing.

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Why is not Man a God, and Earth a Heav'n? Who afk and reason thus, will scarce conceive God gives enough, while he has more to give: Immense the pow'r, immense were the demand; Say, at what part of nature will they stand? 166

COMMENTARY.

murers, comes now to the third, and fill more pardonable fort, the discontented GOOD MEN, who lament only that Virtue ftarves, while Vice riots. To these he replies (from Ver. 148 to 157.) that, admit this to be the cafe, yet they have no reafon to complain, either of the good man's lot in particular, or of the difpenfation of Providence in general. Not of the former, becaufe Happiness, the reward of Virtue, confifteth not in Externals; nor of the latter, because ill men may gain wealth by commendable induftry; good men want ne. ceffaries through indolence or ill conduct.

VER. 157. But grant him Riches, &c.] But as modest as this complaint feemeth at first view, the Poet next fhews (from Ver. 156 to 167.) that it is founded on a principle of

170

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, Justice a Conqu❜ror's fword, or Truth a gown, Or Public Spirit its great cure, a Crown. Weak, foolish man! will Heav'n reward us there With the fame trash mad mortals with for here? The Boy and Man an Individual makes, 175 Yet figh'ft thou now for apples and for cakes?

VARIATIONS.

After Ver. 172. in the MS.

Say, what rewards this idle world imparts,
Or fit for fearching heads or honeft hearts.

COMMENTARY.

the highest extravagance, which will never let the discontented good man reft, till he becomes as vain and foolish in his ima ginations as the very worst fort of complainers. For that when once he begins to think he wants what is his due, he will never know where to ftop, while God hath any thing to give.

VER. 167. What nothing earthly gives, &c.] But this is not all; the Poet fheweth next (from Ver. 166 to 185.) that these demands are not only unreafonable, but in the highest degree abfurd, likewife. For that thofe very goods, if granted, would be the deftruction of that Virtue for which they are demanded as a reward. He concludes therefore, on the whole, that,

"What nothing earthly gives, or can destroy,

"The foul's calm fun-fhine, and the heart-felt joy,
"Is Virtue's prize-"

And that to aim at other, which not only is of no ufe to us here, but, what is more, will be of none hereafter, is a paf

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 god-like mind. 180
Rewards, that either would to Virtue bring
No joy, or be deftructive of the thing:
How oft by these at sixty are undone
The virtues of a faint at twenty-one !

To whom can Riches give Repute, or Truft, 185
Content, or Pleasure, but the Good and Just?

COMMENTARY.

fion like that of an Infant or a Savage; where the one is impatient for what he will foon defpife; and the other makes a provifion for what he can never want.

VER. 185. To whom can Riches give Repute or Truft,] The Poet now enters more at large upon the matter: And still continuing his difcourfe to this third fort of complainers (whom he indulgeth, as much more pardonable than the first or fecond, in rectifying all their doubts and mistakes) he proves, both from reafon and example, how unable any of thofe things are, which the world moft admires, to make a good man happy. For as to the Philofophic mistakes concerning happiness, there being little danger of their making a general impreffion, he had, after a fhort confutation, dif

NOTES.

VER. 177. Go, like the Indian, &c.] Alluding to the example of the Indian, in Epift. i. Ver. 99. which fhews, that that example was not given to difcredit any rational hopes of future happinefs, but only to reprove the folly of feparating them from Charity: as when,

"Zeal, not Charity, became the guide,

"And hell was built on fpite, and heav'n on pride."

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,

COMMENTARY.

190

miffed them for altogether. But External goods are those Syrens, which fo bewitch the world with dreams of happiness, that it is of all things the most difficult to awaken it out of its delufions; though, as he proves in an exact review of the moft pretending, they difhonour bad men, and add no luftre to the good. That it is only this third, and leaft criminal fort of complainers, againft which the remaining part of the discourse is directed, appeareth from the Poet's fo frequently addressing himself, henceforward, to his friend.

I. He beginneth therefore (from Ver. 184 to 205.) with confidering RICHES. J. He examines firft, what there is of real use or enjoyment in them; and fheweth, they can give the good man only that very contentment and that very esteem and love which he had before: And scornfully cries out to those of a different opinion,

"Oh fool! to think God hates the worthy mind, "The lover and the love of human-kind,

"Whofe life is healthful, and whose conscience clear; "Because he wants a thousand pounds a year!"

2. He next examines the imaginary value of Riches, as the fountain of Honour. For the objection of his adverfaries standeth thus: As honour is the genuine claim of virtue; and shame the just retribution of vice; and as honour, in their opinion, follows riches; and shame, poverty; therefore the good man fhould be rich. He tells them in this they are much mistaken :

"Honour and fhame from no Condition rife;

"Act well your part, there all the honour lies."

What power then has Fortune over the Man? None at all; for as her favours can confer neither worth nor wifdom; fo

Whofe life is healthful, and whofe confcience

clear,

Because he wants a thousand pounds a year.

Honour and fhame from no Condition rife; A&t well your part, there all the honour lies. Fortune in Men has some small diff'rence made, One flaunts in rags, one flutters in brocade; 196 The cobler apron'd, and the parfon gown'd, The frier hooded, and the monarch crown'd. "What differ more (you cry) than crown and "" cowl ?"

I'll tell

you, friend! a wife man and a fool. 200 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.

204

Stuck o'er with titles, and hung round with

ftrings,

That thou may'st be by kings, or whores of kings,

COMMENTARY.

neither can her displeasure cure him of any of his follies. On his garb, indeed, the hath fome little influence; but his heart ftill remains the fame:

"Fortune in Men has fome fmall diff'rence made,

"One flaunts in rags, one flutters in brocade."

But this difference extends no further than to the habit; the pride of heart is the fame both in the flaunter and the flutterr; as it is the Poet's intention to infinuate by the use of thofe terms.

VER. 205. Stuck o'er with titles, &c.] II. Then as to NOBILITY, by creation or birth; this too the Poet fhews

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