Some livelier plaything gives his youth delight,
A little louder, but as empty quite;

Scarfs, garters, gold, amuse his riper ftage,
And beads and prayer-books are the toysofage: 280
Pleas'd with this bauble ftill, as that before;
Till tir'd he fleeps, and life's poor play is o'er.
Meanwhile opinion gilds with varying rays
Those painted clouds that beautify our days;
Each want of happiness by hope supply'd,
And each vacuity of sense by pride:
These build as faft as knowledge can destroy;
In folly's cup fill laughs the bubble, joy;
One profpect loft, another ftill we gain;
And not a vanity is giv'n in vain;
Ev'n mean felf-love becomes, by force divine,
'Those ale to measure others wants by thine.
Sce! and confefs, one comfort ftill muft rife;
'Tis this, Though man's a fool, yet God is wife.

EPISTLE III.

THE ARGUMENT.

290

Of the Nature and State of Man with respect
to Society.

1. THE whole univerfe one fyftem of fociety, ver. 7, &c. Nothing made wholly for itself, nor yet wholly for another, ver. 27. The happiness of animals mutual, ver. 49. II. Reafon or inftinet operate alike to the good of each individual, ver. 79. Reafon or inftinet operate alfo to fociety in all animals, ver. 109. III. How far fociety carried by instinct, ver. 115. How much farther by reason, ver. 128. IV. Of that which is called the state of nature, ver. 144. Reafon inftructed by inftinct in the invention of arts, ver. 166. and in the forms of fociety, ver. 176. V. Origin of political focieties, ver. 196. Origin of monarchy, ver. 207. Patriarchal government, ver. 212.VI. Origin of true religion and government, from the fame principle, of love, ver. 231, &c. Origin of fuperftition and tyranny, from the fame principle, of fear, ver. 237, &c. The influence of felf-love operating to the focial and public good, ver. 266. Refloration of true religion and government on their firft principle, ver. 285. Mixed government, ver. 288. Various forms of each, and the true end of all, ver. 300, &c.

HERE then we reft; "the universal caufe
"Acts to one end, but acts by various laws."

In all the madness of fuperfluous health,
The train of pride, the impudence of wealth,
Let this great truth be prefent night and day; S
But most be prefent, if we preach or pray.

10

Look round our world; behold the chain of love Combining all below, and all above. See plaftic nature working to this end, The fingle atoms each to other tend,. Attract, attracted to, the next in place Form'd and impell'd its neighbour to embrace. See matter next, with various life endued, Prefs to one centre still, the general good. See dying vegetables life fuftain,

See life diffolving vegatate again :

All forms that perifh other forms supply,
(By turns we catch the vital breath, and die)
Like bubbles on the fea of matter borne,

They rife, they break, and to that fea return. 20
Nothing is foreign; parts relate to whole;
One all extending, all-preferving foul
Connects each being, greatest with the leaft;
Made beaft in aid of man, and man of beast;
All ferv'd, all ferving: nothing stands alone;
The chain holds on, and where it ends, unknown.
Has God, thou fool! work'd folely for thy good,
Thy joy, thy pastime, thy attire, thy food!
Who for thy table feeds the wanton fawn,
Is it for thee the lark afcends and fings!
For him as kindly fpread the flowery lawn : 30
Joy tunes his voice, joy elevates his wings.
Is it for thee the linnet pours his throat?
Loves of his own and raptures fwell the note.
The bounding fteed you pompously beftride,
Shares with his lord the pleasure and the pride.
Is thine alone the feed that ftrews the plain?
The birds of heaven fhall vindicate their grain.
Thine the full harvest of the golden year?
Part pays, and justly, the deserving steer:
The hog, that ploughs not, nor obeys thy call,
Lives on the labours of this lord of all.

40

Know, nature's children all divide her care; The fur that warms a monarch, warm'd a bear. While man exclaims, See all things for my use !" "See man for mine!" replies a pamper'd goofe : And just as short of reafon he must fall, Who thinks all made for one, not one for all,

50

Grant that the powerful ftill the weak controul; Be man the wit and tyrant of the whole: Nature that tyrant checks; he only knows, And helps another creature's wants and woes. Say, will the falcon, stooping from above, Smit with her varying plumage, fpare the dove? Admires the jay the infects gilded wings? Or hears the hawk when Philomela fings? Man cares for all: to birds he gives his woods, To beafts his paftures, and to fish his floods: For fome his interest prompts him to provide, For more his pleasure, yet for more his pride, 60 All feed on one vain patron, and enjoy Th' extenfive bloffing of his luxury. That very life his learned hunger craves, He faves from famine, from the favage faves; Nay, feafts the animal he dooms his feast, And, till he ends the being, makes it bleft: Which fees no more the ftroke, or feels the pain, Than favour'd man by touch ethereal flain.

The creature had his feaft of life before;
Thou too muft perish, when thy feaft is o'er! 70
To each unthinking being, heaven a friend,
Gives not the ufclefs knowledge of its end:
To man imparts it; but with fuch a view

As, while he dreads it, makes him hope it too:
The hour conceal'd, and fo remote the fear,
Death ftill draws nearer, never feeming near.
Great ftanding miracle! that heaven allign'd
Its only thinking thing this turn of mind.

II. Whether with reafon, or with inftinct bleft, Know, all enjoy that power which fuits them beft;

To blifs alike by that direction tend,

And find the means proportion'd to their end.
Say, where full inftinct is th' unerring guide,
What
pope or council can they need betide?
Realon, however able, cool at beft,

Cares not for fervice, or but ferves when preft,
Stays till we call, and then not often near;
But honeft instinct comes a volunteer,
Sure never to o'erfhoot, but just to hit ;
While ftill too wide or fhort is human wit;
Sare by quick nature happiness to gain,
Which heavier reafon labours at in vain.
This too terves always, reafon never long :
One must go right, the other may go wrong.
See then the acting and comparing powers
One in their nature, which are now in ours!
And reafon raife o'er inftinet as you can,
la this 'tis God directs, in that 'tis man.

81

90

Who taught the nations of the field and wood
To bun their poifon, and to choose their food? 100
Prefcient, the tides or tempefts to withstand,
Baid on the wave, or arch beneath the fand?
Who made the spider parallels defign,
Sure as De Moivre, without rule or line?
Who bid the ftork, Columbus-like, explore
Heavens not his own, and worlds unknown before?
Who calls the council, ftates the certain day?
Who forms the phalanx, and who points the way?
Ill. God, in the nature of each being, founds
Its proper blifs, and fets it proper bounds:
But as he fram'd a whole, the whole to blefs,
On mutual wants built mutual happiness:
So from the first, ETERNAL ORDER гan,
And creature link'd to creature, man to man.
Whate'er of life ail-quickening æ her keeps,
Or breathes through air, or shoots beneath the
deeps,

Or pours profufe on earth, one nature feeds
The vital flame, and iweils the genial feeds,
Not man alone, but all that roam the wood,
Or wing the sky, or roll along the flood,
Each loves itself, but not itself alone,
Each fex defires alike, till two are one.

VARIATIONS.

After ver. 84. in the MS.

While man, with opening views of various ways,
Confounded, by the aid of knowledge trays;
Too weak to choose, yet choosing fill in hafte,
One moment gives the pleasure and distaste.

130

Nor ends the pleafure with the fierce en brace;
They love themfelves, a third time, in their race.
Thus beaft and bird their common charge attend,
The mothers nurfe it, and the fires defend;
The young difmifs'd to wander earth or air,
There ftops the instinct, and there ends the care;
The link diffolves, each feeks a fresh embrace,
Another love fucceeds, another race.
A longer care man's helplefs kind demands;
That longer care contracts more lafting bands:
Reflection, reafon, ftill the ties improve,
At once extend the intereft, and the love:
With choice we fix, with fympathy we burn;
Each virtue in each paflion takes its turn;
And ftill new needs, new helps, new habits rife,
That graft benevolence on charities.
Still as one brood, and as another rofe,
Thefe natural love maintain'd, habitual thofe :
The laft, fcarce ripen'd into perfect man, 141
Saw helpless him from whom their life began:
Memory and forecast juft returns engage,
That pointed back to youth, this on to age;
While pleasure, gratitude, and hope, combin'd,
Still fpread the intereft, and preferve the kind.
IV. Nor think, in nature's ftate they blindly
trod;

150

The ftate of nature was the reign of God:
Self-love and focial at her birth began,
Union the bond of all things, and of man.
Pride then was not; nor arts, that pride to aid;
Man walk'd with beaft, joint tenant of the shade;
The fame his table, and the fame his bed;
No murder cloth'd him, and no murder fed.
In the fame temple, the refounding wood,
All vocal beings hymn'd their equal God:
The fhrine with gore unftain'd, with gold un-
dreis'd,

Unbrib'd, unbloody, ftood the blameless pricft :
Heaven's attribute was univerfal care,
And man's prerogative, to rule, but spare.
Ah! how unlike the man of times to come!

Of half that live the butcher and the tomb;
Who, foe to nature, hears the general groan,
Murders their fpecies, and betrays his own.
But juft difcafe to luxury fucceeds,
And every death its own avenger breeds;
The fury-pallions from that blood began,
And turn'd on man, a fiercer favage, man.

160

190

"How thofe in common all their wealth beftow, "And anarchy without confufion know; "And thefe 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 juftice in her net of law, "And right, too rigid, harden into wrong; "Still for the strong too weak, the weak too ftrong. "Yet go! and thus o'er all the creatures fway, "Thus let the wifer make the reft obey: "And for those arts mere inftinct could afford,

200

[fear.

Be crown'd as monarchs, or as gods ador'd." V. Great Nature froke; obfervant man obey'd; Cities were built, focieties were made: Here rofe one little ftate; another near Grew by like means, and join'd, through love or Did here the trees with ruddier burdens bend, And there the streams in purer rills defcend? What war could ravifh, commerce could beflow; And he return'd a friend, who came a foe. Converfe and love mankind might strongly draw, When love was liberty, and nature law.

Thus states were form'd; the name of king unknown,

Till common intereft plac'd the fway in one. 210
'Twas virtue only (or in arts or arms,
Diffufing bleffings, or averting harms)
The fame which in a fire the fons obey'd,
A prince the father of a people made.

VI. Till then, by nature crown'd, each patriarch fat,

King, prieft, and parent, of his growing flate:
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,
Draw forth the monsters of th' abyfs profound,
Or fetch th' aerial eagle to the ground.
Till dropping, fickening, dying, they began
Whom they rever'd as God to mourn as man:
Then, looking up from fire to fire, explor'd
One great First Father, and that first ador'd.
Or plain tradition that this All begun,
Convey'd unbroken faith from fire to fon;

VARIATIONS.

Ver. 197, in the first editions,

222

Who for thofe arts they learn'd of brutes before,
As kings fhall crown them, or as gods adore.
Ver. 201. Here rofe one little ftate, &c.] In the

MS. thus:

The neighbours leagu'd to guard their common spot;

And love was nature's dictate; murder, not.
For want alone each animal contends;
Tigers with tigers, that remov'd, are friends.
Plain nature's wants the common mother crown'd,
She pour'd her acorns, herbs, and ftreams around.
No treasure then for rapine to invade,
What need to fight for fun-fhine or for fhade?
And half the cause of contest was remov'd,
When beauty could be kind to all who lov'd.

230

| The worker from the work diftinct was known,
And fimple reafon 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 pleasure trod,
And own'd a father when he 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 sovereign being, but a fovereign good.
True faith, true policy, united ran;

That was but love of God, and this of man. 240 Who first taught fouls enflav'd, and realms undone,

Th' enormous faith of many made for one;
That proud exception to all nature's laws,
T' invert the world, and counter-work its caufe?
Force first made conqueft, and that conqueft, law;
Till fuperftition taught the tyrant awe,
Then fhar'd the tyranny, then lent it aid,
And gods of conquerors, flaves of fubjects made:
She 'midst the lightning's blaze, and thunder's
found,

When rock'd the mountains, and when groan'd the ground, 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 bleft abodes;
Fear made her devils, and weak hope her gods;
Gods partial, changeful, paffionate, unjuft,
Whofe attributes were rage, revenge, or luft;
Such as the fouls of cowards might conceive,
And, form'd like tyrants, tyrants would believe.
Zeal then, not charity, became the guide; 261
And hell was built on fpite, and heaven on pride.
Then facred feem'd th' ethereal vault no more;
Altars grew marble then, and reek'd with gore:
Then first the Flamen tafted living food;
Next his grim idol smear'd with human blood;
With heaven's own thunders fhook the world be-

To one man's power, ambition, lucre, luft: 270
The fame felf-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?
How fhall he keep, what, fleeping or awake,
A weaker may surprise, a stronger take?
His fafety must his liberty restrain :
All join to guard what each defires to gain.
Forc'd into virtue thus, by self-defence,
Ev'n kings learn'd juftice and benevolence: 280
Self-love forfook the path it first pursued,
And found the private in the public good.

'I'was then the ftudious head or generous mind,
Follower of God, or friend of human kind,
Poet or patriot, rose but to restore
The faith and moral, nature gave before;
Relum'd her ancient light, not kindled new;
If not God's image, yet his fhadow drew:

291

Taught power's due ufc to people and to kings,
Taught nor to flack nor ftrain its tender ftrings,
The less, or greater, set so justly true,
That touching one must strike the other too;
Till jarring interests of themselves create
Th' according mufic of a well-mix'd state.
Such is the world's great harmony, that fprings
From order, union, full consent of things:
Where small and great, where weak and mighty,
made

To ferve, not fuffer, strengthen, not invade;
More powerful each as needful to the reft,
And, in proportion as it blesses, bleft:
Draw to one point, and to one centre bring
Beaft, man, or angel, fervant, lord, or king.

For forms of government let fools conteft;
Whate'er is beft administer'd is beft:

For modes of faith, let graceless zealots fight;
His can't be wrong whofe life is in the right;
In faith and hope the world will disagree,
Bet all mankind's concern is charity:

300

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, supported lives:
The ftrength he gains is from th' embrace he gives.
On their own axis as the planets run.
Yet make at once their circle round the fun;
So two confiftent motions act the foul;
And one regards itself, and one the whole.

Thus God and nature link'd the general frame, And bade self-love and social be the fame.

EPISTLE IV.

Of the Nature and State of Man with respect to Happiness.

THE ARGUMENT.

I FALSE notions of happiness, philofophical and popular, answered from ver. 19 to 77. II. It is the end of all men, and attainable by all, ver. 30. God intends happiness to be equal; and to be fo, it must be focial, fince all particular happiness depends on general, and fince he governs by general, not particular laws, ver. 37. As it is neceffary for order, and the peace and welfare of fociety, that external goods fhould be unequal, happiness is not made to confift in thefe, ver. 51. But, notwithstanding that inequality, the balance of happiness among mankind is kept even by providence, by the two paffions of hope and fear ver. 70.III. What the happinefs of individuals is, as far as is confiftent with the conftitution of this world; and that the good man has here the advantage, ver. 77. The error of imputing to virtue what are only the calamities of nature, or of fortune, ver. 94 IV. The folly of expecting that God fhould alter his general laws in favour of particulars, ver. 121. V. That we are not judges who are good; but that, whoever they are, they must be happiest, ver. 133, &c. VI. That external goods are not the VOL. VIII.

proper rewards, but often inconfiftent with, or deftructive of virtue, ver. 167. That even these 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, poffeffed of them all, ver. 269, &c. VII. That virtue only conftitutes a happiness, whose object is univerfal, and whofe prospect eternal, ver. 307 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, ver. 326, &c.

On Happiness our being's end and aim !
Good, pleasure, eafe, content! whate'er thy name:
That fomething ftill which prompts th' eternal
figh,

For which we bear to live, or dare to die,
Which still so near us, yet beyond us lies,
O'erlook'd, feen double. by the fool and wife:
Plant of celeftial feed; if dropp'd below,
Say, in what mortal foil thou deign'ft to grow?
Fair opening to fome court's propitious fhine,
Or deep with diamonds in the flaming mine? 10
Twin'd with the wreaths Parnaflian laurels yield,
Or reap'd in iron harvests of the field?
Where grows? where grows it not? If vain our
toil,

We ought to blame the culture, not the foil:
Fix'd to no fpot is happiness fincere,
'Tis no where to be found, or every where:
'Tis never to be bought, but always free,
And fled from monarchs, St. John: dwells with
thee.
[blind:
Afk of the learn'd the way? The learn'd are
This bids to ferve, and that to fhun mankind; 20
Some place the blifs in action, fome in ease,
Thofe call it pleafure, and contentment thefe :
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 truft in ev'ry thing, or doubt of all.

Who thus define it, fay they more or less, Than this, that happiness is happiness?

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 please, Equal is common fenfe, and common ease.

Remember, man, "the Universal Cause "Acts not by partial, but b gen'ral laws," And makes what happiness we justly call, Subfift not in the good of one, but all.

VARIATIONS.

Ver. 1. Oh happiness, &c ] in the MS. thus: Oh happiness, to which we all afpire, Wing'd with ftrong hope, and borne by full de fire;

That eafe, for which in want, in wealth we figh; That cafe, for which we labour, and we die.

There's not a blefling individuals find,

But fome way leans and hearkens to the kind: 40
No bandit fierce, no tyrant mad with pride,
No cavern'd hermit, refts felf-fatisfy'd:
Who moft to fhun 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 first law; and this confeft,
Some are, and muft he, greater than the reft, 50
More rich, more wife; but who infers from hence
That fuch are happier, shocks all common sense.
Heaven to mankind impartial we confess,
If all are equal in their happiness:
But mutual wants this happiness increase ;
All nature's difference keeps all nature's peace.
Condition, circumftance, is not the thing;
Blifs is the fame in fubject or in king,
In who obtain defence, or who defend,
In him who is, or him who finds a friend:
Heaven breathes through every member of the
whole

One common bleffing, as one common foul.
But fortune's gifts if each alike poffeft.
And each were equal, muft not all contest?
If then to all men happiness was meant,
God in externals could not place content.

60

Fortune her gifts may variously dispose, And these be happy call'd, unhappy those; But heaven's juft balance equal will appear, While thofe are plac'd in hope, and thefe in fear : 70

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

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 surveys,
And buries madmen in the heaps they raife.

Know, all the good that individuals find, Or God and nature meant to mere mankind, Reafon's whole pleasure, all the joys of 'enfe, 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 thefe lefs tafte them, as they world obtain.

VARIATIONS.

After ver. 52, in the MS.

80

Say not, "Heaven's here profufe, there poorly "faves,

"And for one monarch makes a thousand slaves.” You'll find, when caufes and their ends are known, 'Twas for the thoufand Heaven has made that one. After ver. 66, in the MS.

'Tis peace of mind alone is at a flay:
The reft mad fortune gives or takes away.
All other blifs by accident's debarr'd;
But virtue's, in the inftant, a reward;
In hardest trials operates the beft,
And more is relifh'd as the more diftreft.

Say, in pursuit of profit or delight, [right?
Who risk the most, that take wrong means, or
Of vice or virtue, whether bleft or curst,
Which meets contempt, or which compaflion first?
Count all th' advantage profperous vice attains,
'Tis but what virtue flies from and difdains: 90
And grant the bad what happiness they would,
One they must want, which is. to pafs for good.
Oh blind to truth, and God's whole scheme below,
Who fancy blifs to vice, to virtue woe!
Who fees and follows that great fcheme the best,
Beft knows the bleffing, and will most be bleft.
But fools, the good alone, unhappy call,
For ills or accidents that chance to all.
See Falkland dies, the virtuous and the just!
See godlike Turenne proftrate on the duit!
See Sidney bleeds amid the martial ftrife!
Was this their virtue, or contempt of life?
Say, was it virtue, more though heaven ne'er

gave,

103

Lamented Digby! funk thee to the grave?
Tell me, if virtue made the fon expire,
Why, full of days and honour, lives the fire?
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 phyfical of moral ill?
There deviates nature, and here wanders will.
God fends not ill; if rightly understood,
Or partial ill is univerfal good,

110

Shall burning Etna, if a fage requires, Forget to thunder, and recal her fires? On air or fea new motions be impreft, Oh blameless Bethel! to relieve thy breaft ? When the loofe mountain trembles from on high, Shall gravitation ceafe, if you go by? Or fome old temple, nodding to its fall, For Chartres' head referve the hanging wall? 130 But ftill this world (fo fitted for the knave) Contents us not, A better fhall we have? A kingdom of the juft then let it be : But first confider how thofe juft agree. 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 fpirit fell; Another deems him inftrument of hell;

VARIATIONS.

After ver. 92, in the MS.

Let fober moralifts corred their speech,
No bad man's happy; he is great, or rich.
After ver. 116, in the MS.
Of every evil, fince the world began,
The real fource is not in God, but mạn.