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A wit's a feather, and a chief a rod :

An honest man's the noblest work of God.
Fame but from death a villain's name can save,
As justice tears his body from the grave;
When what to oblivion better were resign'd,
Is hung on high, to poison half mankind.
All fame is foreign but of true desert,

Plays round the head, but comes not to the heart:
One self-approving hour whole years outweighs
Of stupid starers, and of loud huzzas;
And more true joy Marcellus exiled feels,
Than Cæsar with a senate at his heels.

In parts superior what advantage lies?
Tell (for you can) what is it to be wise?
'Tis but to know how little can be known,
To see all others' faults, and feel our own;
Condemned in business or in arts to drudge,
Without a second, or without a judge:
Truth would you teach, or save a sinking land!
All fear, none aid you, and few understand.
Painful pre-eminence! yourself to view
Above life's weakness, and its comforts too.

Bring then these blessings to a strict account:
Make fair deductions; see to what they 'mount:
How much of other each is sure to cost;
How each for other oft is wholly lost;
How inconsistent greater goods with these:
How sometimes life is risk'd, and always ease:
Think, and if still the things thy envy call,
Say, wouldst thou be the man to whom they fall?
To sigh for ribbons if thou art so silly,
Mark how they grace Lord Umbra, or Sir Billy.
Is yellow dirt the passion of thy life?
Look but on Gripus, or on Gripus' wife.

If parts allure thee, think how Bacon shined,
The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind:
Or ravish'd with the whistling of a name,
See Cromwell damn'd to everlasting fame!
If all, united, thy ambition call,

From ancient story, learn to scorn them all.
There, in the rich, the honor'd, famed, and great,
See the false scale of happiness complete!

In hearts of kings, or arms of queens who lay,
How happy! those to ruin, these betray.

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Mark by what wretched steps their glory grows,
From dirt and sea-weed as proud Venice rose;
In each how guilt and greatness equal ran,
And all that raised the hero sunk the man:
Now Europe's laurels on their brows behold,
But stain'd with blood, or ill exchang'd for gold :
Then see them broke with toils, or sunk in ease,
Or infamous for plunder'd provinces.

O wealth ill-fated! which no act of fame
E'er taught to shine, or sanctified from shame!
What greater bliss attends their close of life?
Some greedy minion, or imperious wife,
The trophied arches, storied halls invade,

And haunt their slumbers in the pompous shade.
Alas! not dazzled with their noon-tide ray,
Compute the morn and evening 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."

The only point where human bliss stands still,
And tastes the good without the fall to ill;
Where only merit constant pay receives,
Is bless'd in what it takes, and what it gives;
The joy unequal'd, if its end it gain,

And if it lose, attended with no pain:

Without satiety, though e'er so bless'd,
And but more relish'd as the more distress'd:
The broadest mirth unfeeling folly wears,
Less pleasing far than virtue's very tears:
Good, from each object, from each place acquired,
For ever exercised, yet never tired;

Never elated, while one man's oppress'd;

Never dejected, while another's bless'd :
And where no wants, no wishes can remain,
Since but to wish more virtue, is to gain.

See the sole bliss Heaven could on all bestow!
Which who but feels can taste, but thinks can know;
Yet poor with fortune and with learning blind,
The bad must miss, the good untaught will find;
Slave to no sect, who takes no private road,
But looks through nature up to nature's God ;*
Pursues that chain which links th' immense design,
Joins heaven and earth, and mortal and divine;
Sees that no being any bliss can know,
But touches some above, and some below;
Learns from the union of the rising whole,
The first, last purpose of the human soul;
And knows where faith, law, morals, all began,
All end in love of God and love of man.

For him alone hope leads from goal to goal,
And opens still, and opens on his soul;
Till lengthened on to faith, and unconfined,
It pours the bliss that fills up all the mind.

*Sects are simply organized societies, regulated, though not necessarily governed, in the strictest sense of this term, by by-laws-in other words, creeds. There can be no objection to this, save when pushed to extremes, and when liberty of faith is denied to its members. We have by-laws in business corporations, and why not have man-made creeds or by-laws equally binding in religious organizations?

Men are not so likely to look “through nature up to nature's God" who have only a "private road." Kindness, sense of justice, social feeling, mutual sympathy, and devotion are awakened by assembling in congregations. We should probably grant all the poet claims in this relation to the matter of looking through nature, but we should supplement to this that higher sentiment which we denominate the Spiritual, which is above the reach of reason and the senses.

He sees why nature plants in man alone,
Hope of known bliss, and faith in bliss unknown;
(Nature, whose dictates to no other kind

Are given in vain, but what they seek they find :)
Wise is her present; she connects in this
His greatest virtue with his greatest bliss;
At once his own bright prospect to be bless'd;
And strongest motive to assist the rest.
Self-love thus push'd to social, to divine,

Gives thee to make thy neighbor's blessing thine.
Is this too little for the boundless heart?

Extend it, let thy enemies have part;

Grasp the whole world of reason, life, and sense,
In one close system of benevolence;

Happier as kinder, in whate'er degree,
And height of bliss but height of charity.

God loves from whole to parts: but human soul
Must rise from individual to the whole.

Self-love but serves the virtuous mind to wake,
As the small pebble stirs the peaceful lake;
The center moved, a circle straight succeeds,
Another still, and still another spreads;
Friend, parent, neighbor, first it will embrace;
His country next, and next all human race:
Wide and more wide, the o'erflowings of the mind
Take every creature in, of every kind;

Earth smiles around, with boundless bounty bless'd,
And Heaven beholds its image in its breast.*

Come, then, my friend! my genius! come along ;
O master of the poet and the song!

And while the muse now stoops, or now ascends,
To man's low passions, or their glorious ends,
Teach me, like thee, in various nature wise,
To fall with dignity, with temper rise;
Form'd by thy converse, happily to steer,
From grave to gay, from lively to severe;
Correct with spirit, eloquent with ease,
Intent to reason, or polite to please.

O! while along the stream of time thy name
Expanded flies, and gathers all its fame,

* Narrow-minded and bigoted persons indulge a foolish prejudice against those not of their own country, not on their own plane, not of their own color; but the Almighty will judge all charitably-of whatever nation, race, or color-and impartially.

Say, shall my little bark attendant sail,

Pursue the triumph, and partake the gale?
When statesmen, heroes, kings, in dust repose,
Whose sons shall blush their fathers were thy foes,
Shall then this verse to future age pretend
Thou wert my guide, philosopher, and friend?
That, urged by thee, I turn'd the tuneful art
From sounds to things, from fancy to the heart;
For wit's false mirror held up nature's light,
Show'd erring pride, WHATEVER IS, IS RIGHT;
That reason, passion, answer one great aim ;
That true self-love and social are the same;
That virtue only makes our bliss below;

And all our knowledge is, OURSELVES TO KNOW.*

"When a

* SELF-KNOWLEDGE.-A distinguished American statesman remarked: man properly understands himself, mentally and physically, his road to happiness is smooth, and society has a strong guarantee for his good conduct and usefulness."

WHATEVER
IS

RIGHT

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