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To these we owe true friendship, love fincere, 255
Each home-felt joy that life inherits here;

Yet from the fame we learn, in its decline,
Those joys, thofe loves, thofe int'refts to refign;
Taught half by Reason, half by mere decay,
To welcome death, and calmly pass away,

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Whate'er the paffion, knowledge, fame, or pelf, Not one will change his neighbour with himself,

NOTES.

and would in any place be extremely beautiful, but has here an infinite grace and propriety, as it fo well confirms, by an inftance of great moment, the general thefis, that God makes Ill, at every step, productive of Good.

VER. 261. Whate'er the Paffions, &c.] The poet having thus fhewn the use of the Paffions in Society, and in Domeftic life, he comes, in the laft place, to fhew their ufe to the Individual, even in their illufions; the imaginary happiness they prefent, helping to make the real miferies of life less infupportable. And this is his third general divifion :

- Opinion gilds with varying rays

Those painted clouds that beautify our days, &c.
One prospect loft, another ftill we gain;
And nota vanity is giv'n in vain.

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Which muft needs vaftly raise our idea of God's goodnefs, who hath not only provided more than a counterbalance of real happiness to human miferies, but hath even, in his infinite compaffion, bestowed on those, who were fo foolish as not to have made this provifion, an imaginary happiness; that they may not be quite overborne with the load of human miferies. This is the poet's great and noble thought; as strong and folid as it is new and ingenious; which teaches, "That thefe illufions are the follies of Men, which they wilfully fall

The learn'd is happy nature to explore,

The fool is happy that he knows no more;
The rich is happy in the plenty giv❜n,

The poor contents him with the care of Heav'n.
See the blind beggar dance, the cripple fing,
The fot a hero, lunatic a king;

The ftarving chemist in his golden views
Supremely bleft, the poet in his Muse.
See fome strange comfort ev'ry ftate attend,
And pride beftow'd on all, a common friend;
See fome fit paffion ev'ry age supply,

Hope travels thro', nor quits us when we die.

NOTES.

265

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into, and through their own fault; thereby depriving themselves of much happiness, and expofing themfelves to equal mifery: But that still God (according to his univerfal way of working) graciously turns thefe follies fo far to the advantage of his miferable creatures, as to be the prefent folace and fupport of their diftreffes:""

Tho' man's a fool, yet God is wife.

VER. 270.-the poet in his Mufe. The author having faid, that no one would change his profeffion or views for those of another, intended to carry his obfervation ftill further, and fhew that Men were unwilling to exchange their own acquirements even for thofe of the fame kind, confeffedly larger, and infinitely more eminent, in another. To this end he wrote,

What partly pleases, totally will fhock:

I queftion much, if Teland would be Lacke:

but wanting another proper infance of this truth when be published his laft Edition of the Effay, he reserved the lines above for fome following one.

Behold the child, by nature's kindly law,
Pleas'd with a rattle, tickled with a straw:
Some livelier play-thing gives his youth delight,
A little louder, but as empty quite :

Scarfs, garters, gold, amuse his riper stage,

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And beads and pray'r-books are the toys of age: 280 Pleas'd with this bauble ftill; as that before; ped

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'Till tir'd he fleeps, and Life's poor play is o'er.
Mean-while Opinion gilds with varying rays
Those painted clouds that beautify our days:
Each want of happiness by Hope fupply'd,
And each vacuity of sense by Pride:

NOTES.

285

VER. 280. And beads and pray'r-books are the toys of age:] A Satire on what is called in Popery the Opus operatum. As this is a description of the circle of human life returning into itself by a fecond childhood, the Poet has, with great elegance, concluded his description with the fame. image with which he fet out.

VBR. 286. And each vacuity of sense by Pride:] An eminent Cafuift, Father Francis Garaffe, in his Somme Theologique, has drawn a very charitable conclufion from this principle. "Selon la juftice (fays this equitable Divine)

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tout travail honnête doit être recompenfé de louange ou "de fatisfaction. Quand les bons efprits font un ouvrage "excellent, ils font juftement recompenféz par les fuf"frages du Public. Quand un pauvre efprit travaille "beaucoup, pour fair un mauvais ouvrage, il n'eft pas juste, "ni raifonable, qu'il attende des louanges publiques, car "elles ne lui font pas duës. Mais afin que ses travaux ne

These build as faft as knowledge can destroy;
In folly's cup ftill laughs the bubble, joy;
One profpect loft, another still we gain;
And not a vanity is giv❜n in vain ;

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Ev'n mean Self-love becomes, by force divine,
The scale to measure other wants by thine,
See! and confefs one comfort ftill muft rife;
'Tis this, Tho' Man's a fool, yet, GOD IS WISE.

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NOTES.

" demeurent pas fans recompenfe, Dieu lui donne une fa"tisfaction perfonelle, que perfonne ne lui peut envier "fans un injuftice plus que barbare; tout ainfi que Dieu qui eft jufte, donne de la fatisfaction aux Grenouilles de "leur chant. Autrement la blame public, joint à leur "mecontentement, feroit fuffifant pour les réduire au de"fefpnir."

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EPISTLE III.

HERE then we reft: "The Universal Cause < "Acts to one end, but acts by various laws.”

VARIATION S.

VER. 1. in the feveral Edit. in 4to,

Learn, Dulness, learn! "The universal Cause, &c.

NOTES.

EP. III. We are now come to the third Epiftle of the Fffay on Man. It having been fhewn, in explaining the origin, ufe, and end of the Paffions, in the fecond epistle, that Man hath focial as well as felfish paffions, that doctrine naturally introduced the third, which treats of Man as a SOCIAL animal; and connects it with the second, which confidered him as an INDIVIDUAL. And as the conclufion from the fubject of the first epiftle made the introduction to the fecond, fo here again, the conclufion of the second,

(Ev'n mean Self-love becomes, by force divine,

The scale to measure others wants by thine,)

maketh the introduction to the third.

VER. 1. Here then we reft: "The Universal Caufe "Acts to one end, but acts by various laws.] The reafon of variety in those laws, which tend to one and the fame end, the good of the Whole generally, is, because the good of the individual is likewife to be provided for; both which together make up the good of the Whole univerfally: And this is the caufe, as the poet fays elsewhere, that ! Each Individual feeks a fev'ral goal.

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But to prevent our refting there, God hath made each need the assistance of another; and fo

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