Fair op'ning to fome Court's propitious shine, 15 "Tis no where to be found, or ev'ry where: "Tis never to be bought, but always free, And fled from monarchs,ST. JOHN!dwells with thee. Afk of the Learn'd the way? The Learn'd are blind; This bids to ferve, and that to shun mankind; 20 COMMENTARY. The fix remaining lines deliver the true notion of Happiness to be in Virtue. Which is fummed up in these two: Fix'd to no spot is Happiness fincere, 'Tis no where to be found, or ev'ry where. The Poet having thus defined his terms, and laid down his propofition, proceeds to the support of his Thefis; the various arguments of which make up the body of the Epiftle. VER. 19. Afk of the Learn'd, &c.] He begins (from 18 to 29) with detecting the falfe notions of Happiness. These are of two kinds, the Philofophical and Popular: The latter he had re-capitulated in the invocation, when happiness was called upon at her feveral fuppofed places of abode; the Philofophic only remained to be delivered: Afk of the Learn'd the way, the Learn'd are blind Some place the bliss in action, fome in ease, Those call it Pleasure, and Contentment these ; COMMENTARY. Some place the bliss in action, some in ease; They differed as well in the means, as in the nature of the end. Some plac'd Happiness in Action, some in Contemplation; the first called it Pleasure, the fecond Eafe. Of those who placed it in Action and called it Pleasure, the moral rout they pursued either funk them into fenfual pleasures, which ended in Pain, or led them in fearch of imaginary perfections, unfuitable to their nature and station (fee Ep. i.) which ended in Vanity. Of those who placed it in Eafe, the contemplative ftation they were fixed in made fome, for their quiet, find truth in every thing, others in nothing. Who thus define it, fay they more or less Than this, that Happiness is Happiness ? The confutation of these Philofophic errors he fhews to be very eafy, one common fallacy running through them all; namely this, that inftead of telling us in what the Happiness of human nature confifts, which was what was asked of them, each bufies himself in explaining in what he placed his own. NOTES. VER. 21. Some place the blifs in action,-Some funk to beafts &c.] 1. Thofe who place Happiness, or the fummum bonum, in Pleasure, Hdov, fuch as the Cyrenaic fect, called on that account the Hedonic. 2. Those who place it in a certain tranquillity or calmness of Mind, which they call Evvμía, fuch as the Democritic fect. 3. The Epicurean. 4. The Stoic. 5. The The Protagorean, which held that Man was πάντων Táνlwv xenμáτwv μéτgov, the measure of all things; for that all things which appear to him are, and thofe things which appear not to any Man are not; fo that every imagination or opinion of every man was true. 6. The Sceptic: Whofe abfolute Doubt is with great judgment faid to be the effect of In Some funk to Beafts, find pleasure end in pain; Some fwell'd to Gods, confefs ev'n Virtue vain ; Or indolent, to each extreme they fall, To trust in ev'ry thing, or doubt of all. Who thus define it, fay they more or less Than this, that Happiness is Happiness? 25 Take Nature's path, and mad Opinion's leave; All states can reach it, and all heads conceive; 30 Obvious her goods, in no extreme they dwell, There needs but thinking right, and meaning well; And mourn our various portions as we pleafe, Equal is Common Senfe, and Common Eafe. COMMENTARY. VER. 29. Take Nature's path, &c.] The Poet then proceeds (from 28 to 35) to reform their mistakes; and fhews them that, if they will but take the road of Nature and leave that of mad Opinion, they will foon find Happiness to be a good of the fpecies, and, like Common Senfe, equally diftributed to all Mankind. NOTES. dolence, as well as the abfolute Truft of the Protagorean: For the fame dread of labour attending the fearch of truth, which makes the Protagorean prefume it to be always at hand, makes the Sceptic conclude it is never to be found. The only difference is, that the laziness of the one is defponding, and the lazinefs of the other fanguine; yet both can give it a good name, and call it Happiness. VER. 23. Some funk to Beafts, &c.] Thefe four lines added in the laft Edition, as neceflary to complete the fummary of the falfe pursuits after happiness amo the Greek philofophers. K 3 Remember, Man, "the Univerfal Caufe 35 But fome way leans and hearkens to the kind: 40 Each has his share; and who would more obtain, ORDER is Heav'n's firft law; and this confeft, Some are, and muft be, greater than the reft, 50 COMMENTARY. VER. 35, Remember, Man, &c.] Having expofed the two false species of Happiness, the Philofophical and Popular, and denounced the true, in order to establish the laft, he goes on to a confutation of the two former. I. He first (from 34 to 49) confutes the Philofophical, which, as we said, makes Happiness a particular, not a general good: And this two ways; 1. From his grand principle, that God acts by general laws; the confequence of which is, that Happiness, which supports the well being of every fyftem, must needs be univerfal, and not partial, as the Philofophers conceived. 2. From fact, that Man inftinctively concurs with this defigna tion of Providence, to make Happiness univerfal, by his having no delight in any thing uncommunicated or uncommunicable, More rich, more wife; but who infers from hence That such are happier, shocks all common sense. Heav'n to Mankind impartial we confess, If all are equal in their Happiness: VARIATIONS. After VER. 52. in the MS. Say not, "Heav'n's here profuse, there poorly faves, COMMENTARY. VER. 49. Order is Heav'n's firft law;] II. In the fecond place (from 48 to 67) he confutes the popular error concerning Happiness, namely, that it confifts in Externals: Which he does, firft, by inquiring into the reasons of the present providential difpofition of external goods: A topic of confutation chosen with the greatest accuracy and penetration: For, if it appears they were distributed in the manner we see them, for reasons different from the Happiness of Individuals, it is abfurd to think that they should make part of that Happiness. He fhews therefore, that disparity of external poffeffions among Men was for the fake of Society: 1. To promote the Harmony and Happiness of a system; because the want of external goods in fome, and the abundance in others, increase general Harmony in the obliger and obliged. Yet here (fays he) mark the impartial wisdom of Heaven; this very Inequality of Externals, by contributing to general Harmony and Order, produceth an Equality of Happiness amongft Individuals. NOTES. VER. 49. Order is Heav'n's first law;] i. e. The first law made by God relates to Order; which is a beautiful allufion to the Scripture history of the Creation, when God first appeased the diforders of Chaos, and feparated the light from the darknefs. K 4 |