ARGUMENT OF EPISTLE IV.

Of the Nature and State of MAN, with respect to

Happiness.

1. FALSE Notions of Happiness, Philofophical and Popular, anfwered from Ver. 19 to 27. 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 social, fince all particular Happiness depends on general, and fince he governs by general, not particular Laws, Ver. 37. As it is necessary for Order, and the peace and welfare of Society, that external goods fhould be unequal, Happiness is not made to confift in these, 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 Happiness 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 Vir

tue 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 proper rewards, but often inconfiftent with, or deftructive of, Virtue, Ver. 165. That even these can make no Man happy without Virtue: Inftanced in Riches, Ver. 183. Honours, Ver. 191. Nobility, Ver. 203. Greatness, Ver. 215. Fame, Ver. 235. Superior Talents, Ver. 257, &c. With pictures of human Infelicity in Men poffeffed of them all, Ver. 267, &c. VII. That Virtue only conftitutes a Happiness, whofe object is universal, and whofe profpect eternal, Ver. 307, &c. That the per fection 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.

EPISTLE IV.

OH 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,

VARIATIONS.

Which

VER. 1. Ob Happiness! &c.] In the MS. thus:
Oh Happiness! to which we all aspire,

Wing'd with ftrong hope, and borne by full defire:
That cafe, for which in want, in wealth we figh;
That cafe, for which we labour and we die.

COMMENTARY.

THE two foregoing Epistles having confidered Man with regard to the MEANS (that is, in all his relations, whether as an Individual, or a Member of Society), this last comes to confider him with regard to the END, that is, Happiness.

It opens with an Invocation to HAPPINESS, in the manner of the ancient Poets; who, when deftitute of a patron God, applied to the Mufe; and if she was not at leifure, took up with any fimple Virtue next at hand, to infpire and profper their under takings. This was the ancient Invocation, which few modern Poets have had the art to imitate with any degree either of spirit or decorum: but our Author hath contrived to make his fubfervient to the method and reasoning of his philofophic compofition. I will endeavour to explain fo uncommon a beauty.

It is to be obferved that the pagan Deities had each their feveral names and places of abode; with fome of which they were fuppofed

NOTES.

to

VER. 1. Oh Happiness!] He begins his addrefs to Happiness after the manner of the ancient hymns, by enumerating the titles

VOL. 11.

L

and

น

Which still fo near us, yet beyond us lies,

O'erlook'd, feen double, by the fool, and wife.

COMMENTARY.

5

Plant

to be more delighted than others; and confequently to be then
moft propitious when invoked by the favourite name and place:
Hence we find, the hymns of Homer, Orpheus, and Callimachus,
to be chiefly employed in reckoning up the feveral titles and habi-
tations by which the patron God was known and distinguished.
Our Poet hath made these two circumstances serve to introduce
his fubject. His purpose is to write of Happiness: method, there-
fore, requires that he firft define what Men mean by Happiness;
and this he does in the ornament of a poetic Invocation; in which
the feveral names, that Happiness goes by, are enumerated :
"Oh Happiness! our being's end and aim !

Good, Pleasure, Eafe, Content! whate'er thy NAME."
After the DEFINITION, that which follows next, is the PROPO-
SITION, which is, that human Happiness confifts not in external
Advantages, but in Virtue. For the fubject of this epiftle is to
detect the falfe notions of Happiness, and to settle and explain the
true; and this the Poet lays down in the next fixteen lines. Now
the enumeration of the feveral fituations where Happiness is supposed
to refide, is a fummary of false Happiness placed in Externals :
"Plant of celeftial feed! if dropt below,

Say, in what mortal foil thou deign'st to grow

NOTES..

?

Fair

and various places of abode of this goddess. He has undoubtedly personified her at the beginning, but he seems to have dropped that idea in the feventh line, where the deity is fuddenly tranfformed into a plant; from thence this metaphor of a vegetable is carried on diftinctly through the eleven fucceeding lines, till he fuddenly returns to confider Happiness again as a person, in the eighteenth line,.

“And fied from Monarchs, ST. JOHN ! dwells with thee!" For to fly and to dwell, cannot justly be predicated of the fame fubject, that immediately before was defcribed as twining with laurels, and being reaped in harvests.

Of the numberlefs treatises that have been written on Happinefs, one of the most fenfible is that of Fontenelle, in the third volume of his works. WARTON.

Plant of celestial feed! if dropt below,
Say, in what mortal foil thou deign'ft to grow?
Fair op'ning to fome Court's propitious fhine,
Or deep with di'monds in the flaming mine?
Twin'd with the wreaths Parnaffian 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,

15

'Tis no where to be found, or ev'ry where :

'Tis

COMMENTARY.

Fair op'ning to fome Court's propitious fhine,
Or deep with di'monds in the flaming mine?
Twin'd with the wreaths Parnaffian laurels yield,
Or reap'd in iron harvests of the field ?

The fix remaining lines deliver the true notion of Happiness, and fhew that it is rightly placed in Virtue. Which is fummed up in these two:

"Fix'd to no fpot 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 fupport of his Thefis; the various arguments of which make up the body of the Epiftle.

NOTES.

WARBURTON.

VER. 16. 'Tis no where to be found, &c.] There is fomething very ftriking and poetical in Herbert's little hymn, who inquires, like our Author, where he shall find the abode of Peace and Happinefs. The firft ftanza is particularly beautiful:

"Sweet Peace, where doft thou dwell, I humbly crave? Let me once know:

I fought thee in a fecret place,

And afk'd if Peace were there.

A hollow Wind did feem to answer, “No;

Go, feek elfe-where."

I did; and going, did a rainbow note," &c.

'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 fhun mankind; 20

COMMENTARY.

Some

VER. 19. Afk of the Learn'd, &c.] He begins (from ver. 18 to 29.) with detecting the falfe notions of Happinefs. These are of two kinds, the Philofophical and Popular: The Popular he had recapitulated in the Invocation, when Happinefs was called upon, at her feveral fuppofed places of abode: the Philofophical only remained to be delivered :

"Afk of the Learn'd the way? The Learn'd are blind; This bide to ferve, and that to fhun mankind:

Some place the blifs in action, fome in ease;

Thofe call it Pleafure, and Contentment thefe."

They differed as well in the means, as in the nature of the end. Some placed Happiness in Action, fome in Contemplation; the first called it Pleasure, the fecond Eafe. Of those who placed it in Action and called it Pleafure, the route they purfued either funk them into fenfual Pleasures, which ended in Pain; or led them in fearch of imaginary Perfections, unsuitable to their nature and ftation (fee Ep. i.), which ended in Vanity. Of those who placed it in Eafe, the contemplative ftation they were fixed in, made foine, for their quiet, find truth in every thing; others, in nothing:

"Who thus define it, fay they more or lefs

Than this, that Happiness is Happiness ?"

The confutation of thefe Philofophic errors he fhews to be very eafy, one common fallacy running through them all; namely this, that instead 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. WARBURTON.

NOTES.

VER. 18. ST. JOHN! dwells with thee.] Among the many pas fages in Bolingbroke's Pofthumous Works that bear a clofe refem

blance