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Bring then these bleffings to a strict account; Make fair deductions; fee to what they mount: How much of other each is fure to coft;

How each for other oft is wholly loft;

How inconfiftent greater goods with these;

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How sometimes life is risqu'd, and always ease:

COMMENTARY.

VER. 269. Bring then these bleffings to a strict account; &c.]. Having thus proved how empty and unfatisfactory all thefe greatest external goods are, from an examination of their nature; he proceeds to ftrengthen his argument (from ✯ 268 to 309) by these three farther confiderations:

1. That the acquirement of thefe goods is made with the lofs of one another, or of greater; either as inconfiftent with them, or as spent in attaining them.

2. That the poffeffors of each of these goods are generally fuch, as are so far from raising envy in a good man, that he would refufe to take their perfons, though accompanied with their poffeffions: And this the poet illuftrates by examples.

3. That even the poffeffion of them all together, where they have excluded Virtue, only terminates in more enormous mifery.

NOTES.

giving any degree of real Hap-| piness, that it deprives man of thofe common comforts of life, which are a kind of fupport to us under the want of

Happiness: Such as the more innocent of those delufions which he speaks of in the fecond Epiftle:

Thofe painted clouds that beautify our days, &c.

Now Knowledge deftroyeth | and in a prepofterous attempt all thofe comforts, by fetting man above Life's weaknesses: So that in him, who thinketh to attain Happiness by Knowledge alone, independent of Virtue, the fable is reversed,

to gain the fubftance, he lofeth even the fhadow. This I take to be the true sense of this fine ftroke of fatyr on the wrong pursuits after Happiness.

Think, and if ftill the things thy envy call,

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Say, would'st thou be the Man to whom they fall?

To figh for ribbands if thou art fo filly,

Mark how they grace Lord Umbra, or Sir Billy:
Is yellow dirt the paffion of thy life?

Look but one Gripus, or on Gripus' wife:
If Parts allure thee, think how Bacon fhin'd,
The wifeft, brightest, meanest of mankind:
Or ravish'd with the whistling of a Name,
See Cromwell, damn'd to everlasting fame!

NOTES.

VER. 281, 283. If Parts allure thee,-Or ravish'd with the whistling of a Name,] Thefe two inftances are chofen with great judgment; the world, perhaps, doth not afford two other fuch. Bacon discovered and laid down those principles, by the affiftance of which Newton was enabled to unfold the whole law of Nature. He was no less eminent for the creative power of his imagination, of his imagination, the brightness of his thoughts, and the force of his expreffion: Yet being convicted and punished for bribery and corruption in the administration of Juftice, while he prefided in the fupreme Court of Equity, he endeavoured to repair his ruined fortunes by the moft profligate flattery to the Court:

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Which, from his very first entrance into it, he had accuftomed himself to practise with a prostitution that dif graceth the very profession of letters.

Cromwell feemeth to be distinguished in the most eminent manner, with regard to his abilities, from all other great and wicked men, who have overturned the Liberties of their Country. The times, in which others fucceeded in this attempt, were such as saw the spirit of Liberty suppressed and stifled by a general luxury and venality: But Cromwell fubdued his country, when this fpirit was at its height, by a fuccessful struggle against courtoppreffion; and while it was conducted and fupported by a

If all, united, thy ambition call,

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From ancient story learn to fcorn them all.
There, in the rich, the honour'd, fam'd, and great,
See the false scale of Happiness complete!

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In hearts of Kings, or arms of Queens who lay,
How happy! those to ruin, these betray.
Mark by what wretched steps their glory grows,
From dirt and fea-weed as proud Venice rofe;
In each how guilt and greatness equal ran,
And all that rais'd the Hero, funk the Man :
Now Europe's laurels on their brows behold, 295
But ftain'd with blood, or ill exchang'd for gold:
Then fee them broke with toils, or funk in ease,
Or infamous for plunder'd provinces.

NOTES.

fet of the greatest Geniuses for government the world ever faw embarked together in one common cause.

VER. 283. Or ravish'd with the whistling of a Name,] And even this fantastic glory fome'times fuffers a terrible reverse. -Sachavarel, in his Voyage to I-columbkill, defcribing the church there, tells us, that "In "one corner is a peculiar in"closure, in which were the "monuments of the kings of "many different nations, as

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Oh wealth ill-fated! which no act of fame

E'er taught to shine, or fanctify'd from shame! 300
What greater blifs attends their close of life?
Some greedy minion, or imperious wife.

The trophy'd arches, story'd halls invade
And haunt their flumbers in the pompous thade.
Alas! not dazzled with their noon-tide
ray, 305
Compute the morn and ev'ning 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 bliss stands still,
And tastes the good without the fall to ill;
Where only Merit constant pay receives,
Is bleft in what it takes, and what it gives;

COMMENTARY.

VER. 309. Know then this truth &c.] Having thus at length fhewn that Happiness consists neither in any external goods, nor in all kinds of internal (that is, fuch of them as are not of our own acquirement) nor yet in the vifionary purfuits of the Philofophers, he concludes (from 308 to 311) that it is to be found in VIRTUE ALONE.

VER. 311. The only point where human bliss stands ftill, &c.] Hitherto the poet had proved, NEGATIVELY, that Happiness confifts in Virtue, by fhewing it confifted not in any other thing. He now (from 310 to 327) proves the fame POSITIVELY, by an enumeration of its Qualities, all naturally adapt

The joy unequal'd, if its end it gain,

And if it lofe, attended with no pain:
Without fatiety, tho' e'er fo bless'd,

And but more relish'd as the more distress'd;
The broadeft mirth unfeeling Folly wears,

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Lefs pleasing far than Virtue's very tears:

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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 blefs'd;

And where no wants, no wishes can remain, 325

Since but to wish more Virtue, is to gain.

VARIATIONS.

After 316. in the MS.

Ev'n while it seems unequal to dispose,

And checquers all the good Man's joys with woes,
'Tis but to teach him to fupport each ftate,
With patience this, with moderation that;
And raise his base on that one folid joy,

Which confcience gives, and nothing can destroy.

These lines are extremely finished. In which there is fuch a foothing sweetness in the melancholy harmony of the verfification, as if the poet was then in that tender office in which he was moft officious, and in which all his Soul came out, the condoling with fome good man in affliction.

COMMENTARY.

ed to give and to increase human Happiness; as its Conftancy, Capacity, Vigour, Efficacy, Activity, Moderation, and Selffufficiency.

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