Page images
PDF
EPUB

Nor God alone in the ftill calm we find,
He mounts the ftorm, and walks upon the wind.
Paffions, like elements, tho' born to fight,
Yet mix'd and foften'd in his work unire:
Thefe 'tis enough to temper and employ;
But what compofes Man, can Man destroy?
Suffice that Reafon keep to Nature's road,
Subject, compound thein, follow her and God.
Love, Hope, and Joy, fair Picafure's fmiling train;
Hate, Fear, and Grief, the family of Pain:
Thefe mix'd with art, and to duc bounds confin'd,
Make and maintain the balance of the mind;
The lights and fhades, whofe weli-accorded firife
Gives all the ftrength and colour of our life.

Pleasures are ever in our hands and eyes;
And, when in act they ceafe, in profpect rife:
Prefent to grafp, and future ftill to find,
The whole employ of body and of mind.
All fpread their charms, but charm not all alike;
On diff'rent fenfes diff'rent objects strike;
Hence diff'rent Paffions more or lefs inflame,
As ftrong or weak the organs of the frame;
And hence one mafter Pallion in the breaft,
Like Aaron's ferpent, fwallows up the rest.
As man, perhaps, the moment of his breath,
Receives the lurking principle of death;
The young disease, that must subdue at length,
Grows with his growth, and ftrengthens with his
So, caft and mingled with his very frame, [ftrength;
The mind's disease, its ruling paffion came;
Each vital humour which fhould feed the whole,
Soon flows to this, in body and in foul:
Whatever warms the heart, or fills the head,
As the mind opens, and its functions spread,
Imagination plies her dang'rous art,
And pours it all upon the peccant part.
Nature its mother, habit is its nurse;
Wit, fpirit, faculties, but make it worse;
Reafon itfelf but gives it edge and pow`r;
As heaven's bleft beam turns vinegar more four.
We, wretched fubjects tho' to lawful fway,
In this weak queen, fome fav'rite still obcy:
Ah! if the lend not arms as well as rules,
What can the more than tell us we are fools?
Teach us to mourn our nature, not to mend;
A fharp accufer, but a helpless friend!
Or from a judge turn pleader, to perfuade
The choice we make, or juftify it made;
Proud of an eafy conqueft all along,
She but removes weak paffions for the strong:
So, when fmall humours gather to a gout,
The doctor fancies he has driven them out.
Yes, nature's road muft ever be preferr'd;
Reafon is here no guide, but ftill a guard;
'Tis hers to rectify, not overthrow,
And treat this paffion more as friend than foe;
A mightier Pow'r the strong direction sends,
And fev'ral men impels to fev'ral ends:
Like varying winds, by other paffions toft,
This drives them conftant to a certain coast.
Let pow'r or knowledge, gold or glory please,
Or (oft more ftrong than all) the love of cafe;
Thro' life 'tis follow'd, even at life's expence;
The merchant's toil, the fage's indolence,

The monk's humility, the hero's pride;
All, all alike find Reafon on their fide.
Th' Eternal Art, educing good from ill,
Grafts on this Paffion our beft principle:
'Tis thus the Mercury of Man is fix'd,
Strong grows the Virtue with his nature mix'd;
I he drofs cements what elfe were too refin`d,
And in one int'reft body acts with mind.

As fruits, ungrateful to the planter's care,,
On favage ftocks inferted learn to bear;
The fureft Virtues thus from Paffions fhoot,
Wild Nature's vigour working at the root.
What crops of wit and honefty appear
From fpleen, from obftinacy, hate, or fear!
See anger, zeal and fortitude fupply:
Ev'n av'rice, prudence, floth, philofophy;
Luft, thro' fome certain ftrainers well refin'd,
Is gentle love, and charms all womankind;
Envy, to which th' ignoble mind 's a flave,
Is emulation in the learn'd or brave;
Nor Virtue, male or female, can we name,
But what will grow on Pride, or grow on Shame.
Thus Nature gives us (let it check our pride)
The virtue neareft to our vice allied:
Reafon the bias turns to good from ill,
And Nero reigns a Titus if he will.
The fiery foul abhorr'd in Catiline,
In Decius charms, in Curtius is divine:
The fame ambition can deftroy or fave,
And makes a patriot as it makes a knave.

This light and darkness in our chaos join'd,
What fhall divide The God within the mind.
Extremes in Nature equal ends produce;
In man they join to fome myfterious ufe:
Tho' each by turns the other's bounds invade,
As, in fome well wrought picture, light and fhade,
And oft fo mix, the diff'rence is too nice
Where ends the Virtue, or begins the Vice.

Fools! who from hence into the notion fall,
That Vice or Virtue there is none at all.
If white and black blend, foften, and unite
A thoufand ways, is there no black or white?
Afk your own heart, and nothing is fo plain;
'Tis to mistake them cofts the time and pain.

Vice is a monster of fo frightful mien,
As, to be hated, needs but to be feen;
Yet, feen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace.
But where th' Extreme of Vice, was ne'er agreed:
Afk where's the North? at Yo:k, 'tis on the
In Scotland, at the Orcades; and there, [Tweed;
At Greenland, Zembla, or the Lord knows where.
No creature owns it in the first degree,
But thinks his neighbour further gone than he :
Ev'n thofe who dwell beneath its very zone,
Or never feel the rage, or never own;
What happier natures fhrink at with affright,
The hard inhabitant contends is right.

Virtuous and vicious ev'ry man must be ;
Few in th' extreme, but all in the degree:
The rogue and fool, by fits, is fair and wife;
And ev'n the beft, by fits, what they defpife.
'Tis but by parts we follow good or ill!
For, Vice or Virtue, Self directs it ftill;

Each

[blocks in formation]

But Heaven's great view is One, and that the
That counterworks each folly and caprice ;
That difappoints th' effect of ev'ry vice;
That, happy frailties to all ranks applied-
Shame to the virgin, to the matron pride,
Fear to the statesman, rathness to the chief,
To kings prefumption, and to crowds belief :
That, Virtue's ends from vanity can raife,
Which feeks no int'reft, no reward but praife;
And builds on wants, and on defects of mind,
The joy, the peace, the glory of Mankind.

Heaven, forming each on other to depend,
A mafter, or a fervant, or a friend,
Bids each on other for affiftance call, [all.
Till one Man's weakness grows the ftrength of
Wants, frailties, paffions, ciofer ftill ally
The common int'reft, or endear the tie.
To thefe we owe true friendship, love fincere,
Each home-felt joy that life inherits here;
Yet from the fame we learn, in its decline,
Thofe joys, thofe loves, thofe int'refts to refign;
Taught half by Reason, half by mere decay,
To welcome death, and calmly pafs away.
Whate'er the Paffion, knowledge, fame, or pelf,
Not one will change his neighbour with himself.
The learn'd is happy nature to explore,
The fool is happy that he knows no more;
The rich is happy in the plenty given,
The poor contents him with the care of Heaven.
See the blind beggar dance, the cripple fing,
The fot a hero, lunatic a king;

The ftarving chemift in his golden views
Supremely bleft; the poet in his Mufe.
See fome ftrange comfort ev'ry state attend,
And pride, bettow'd on all, a common friend:
See fome fit paffion ev'ry age fupply;
Hope travels through, nor quits us when we die.
Behold the child, by nature's kindly law,
Pleas'd with a rattle, tickled with a ftraw;
Some livelier plaything gives his youth delight,
A little louder, but as empty quite;
Scarfs, garters, gold amule his riper stage,
And beads and pray'-books are the toys of age:
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
Thofe painted clouds that beautify our days;
Each want of happiness by Hope supplied,
And each vacuity of fenfe by Pride:
These build as fast as knowledge can destroy;
In folly's cup ftill laughs the bubble, Joy:
One profpect loft, another fill we gain;
And not a vanity is given in vain.
Ev'n mean Self-love becomes, by force divine,
The fcale to measure others' wants by thine.
See! and confefs, one comfort still mult rife;
'Tis this tho' Man 's a fool, yet God is wife.

EPISTLE III.

ARGUMENT.

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

The whole Universe one Syftem of Society-Nothing made wholly for itfelf, nor yet wholly for ano

ther. The happiness of Animals mutual.Reafon or Inftinct operates alike to the good of each Individual.-Reafon or Inftin&t operates alfo to Society in all animals.-How far Society is carried by inftinet. - How much farther by Reafon. Of that which is called the State of Nature.-Reafon inftructed by Infind in the Invention of Arts, and in the forms of So. iety. -Origin of Political Societies.-Origin of Monarchy.-Patriarchal Government.-Origin of true Religion and Government, from the fame principle of Love.-Origin of Superftition and Tyranny, from the fame principle of Fear.The influence of Self-love operating to the social and public Good.-Refloration of true Religion and Government on their foft Principle.-Mixed Government.-Various Forms of each, and the true End of all.

HERE then we reft: The Univerfal Caufe Acts to one end, but acts by various laws.' In all the madnefs of fuperfluous health, The train of pride, the impudence of wealth, Let this great truth be prefent night and day; But most be prefent, if we preach, or pray.

[Love

Look round our World; behold the chain of 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 ftill, the gen'ral Good. See dying Vegetables life fuftain, See life diffolving vegetate again: All forms that perifh other forms fupply 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. Nothing is foreign; Parts relate to whole; One all-extending, all-preferving Soul Connects each being, greatest with the leaft; Made Beaft in aid of Man, and Man of Beat; All ferv'd, all ferving: nothing ftands alone; The chain holds on, and where it ends unknown. Has God, thou fool! work'd folely for thy

good,

Thy joy, thy paftime, thy attire, thy food?
Who for thy table feeds the wanton fawn,
For him as kindly spreads the flow'ry lawn.
Is it for thee the lark afcends and fings?
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 feed you pompously beftride
Shares with his lord the pleafure 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.

Now, Nature's children fhall divide her care; The fur that warms a monarch warm'd a bear.

R 4

While

While Man exclaims, 'See all things for my ufe!
• See man for mine!' replies a pamper'd goole:
And just as thort of reafon be mult fall,
Who thinks all made for one, not one for all.
Grant that the pow'rful 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 infect's 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 fith his floods;
For fome his int'reft prompts him to provide,
For more his pleasure, yet for more his pride:
All feed on one vain Patron, and enjoy
Th' extenfive blefling 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 feaft,
And, till he ends the being, inakes 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 perifh when thy feaft is o'er!
To each unthinking being, Heaven a friend,
Gives not the ufelef's 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 standing miracle! that Heaven affiga'd
Its only thinking thing this turn of mind.

Whether with Reafon or with Instinct bleft,
Know, all enjoy that pow'r which fuits them beft;
To blifs alike by that direction tend,

And find the means proportion'd to their end.
Say, where full Inftinet is th' unerring guide,
What Pope or Council can they need befide?
Reaton, however able, cool at beft,
Cares not for fervice, or but ferves when prest;
Stays till we call, and then not often near;
But hopeft Inftinct comes a volunteer,
Sure never to o'crfhoot, but just to hit;
While fill too wide or fhort is human Wit;
Sure by quick Nature happinefs to gain,
Which heavier Reafon Labours at in vain.
This too ferves always, Reafon never long;
One must go right, the other may go wrong.
See then the acting and comparing pow'rs
One in their nature, which are two in ours;
And Reafon raife o'er Instinct as you can,
In this 'tis God directs, in that 'tis Man.

Who taught the nations of the field and wood
To fhun their poifon, and to choose their food?
Prefcient, the tides or tempefts to withstand,
Build on the wave, or arch beneath the fand?
Who made the fpider parallels defign,
Sure as De Moivre, without rule or line?
Who bid the stork, Columbus-like, explore
Heav'ns not his own, and worlds unknown before:
Who calls the council, ftates the certain day?
Who forms the phalanx, and who points the way?

God, in the nature of each being, founds
Its proper blifs, and fets its proper bounds:
But as he fram'd a Whole, the Whole to bless
On mutual Wants built mutual Happiness;
So, from the firft, eternal order ran,

And creature link'd to creature, man to man.
Whate'er of life all-quick'ning æther keeps,
Or breathes thro' air, or fhoots beneath the deeps,
Or pours profufe on earth, one nature feeds
The vital flame, and fwells the genial feeds.
Not man alone, but all that roam the wood,
Or wing the sky, or roll along the flood,
Each loves itfelf, but not itself alone;
Each fex defires alike, till two are one.
Nor ends the pleature with the fierce embrace;
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 difinifs'd to wander earth or air,
There ftops the Inftinet, and there ends the care;-
The link diffolves, each feeks a fresh embrace;
Another love fucceeds, another race.

A longer care Man's helplets kind demands;
That longer care contracts more lafting bands:
Reflection, Reafon, ftill the ties improve,
At once extend the int'reft and the love:
With choice we fix, with fympathy we burn;
Each Virtue in each Paffion takes its turn;
And still new needs, new helps, new habits rise,
That graft benevolence on charities.
Still as one brood, and as another rofe,
Thefe nat'ral love maintain, habitual those :
The laft fcarce ripen'd into perfect Man,
Saw helplefs him from whom their life began
Mem'ry and forecast just returns engage;
That pointed back to youth, this on to age;
While pleafure, gratitude, and hope, combin'd,
Still fpread the int'reft, and preferv'd the kind.

Nor think, in Nature's State they blindly trod;
The State of Nature was the reign of God:
Self-love and Social 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 beast, 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 undreft;
Unbrib'd, unbloody, ftood the blamelets 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 gen'ral groan,
Murders their fpecies, and betrays his own.
But jutt difeafe to luxury fuccceds,
And ev'ry death its own avenger breeds;
The fury pallions from that blood began,
And turn'd on Man a fiercer lavage, Man.

See him from Nature rifing flow to Art!
To copy Inftinet then was Reafon's part;
Thus then to Man the voice of Nature fpake-.
Go, from the Creatures thy inftructions take:

[ocr errors]

* Learn

"Learn from thebirdswhat food the thickets yield; | No ill could fear in God; and understood

Learn from the beafts the phyfic of the field; "Thy arts of building from the bee receive; "Learn of the mole to plough, the worm to weave; "Learn of the little Nautilus to fail,

"Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale. "Here too all forms of focial union find,

A Sov'reign Being but a fov'reign good.
True faith, true policy, united ran;
That was but love of God, and this of Man.
Who first taught fouls enflav'd, and realms un-
Th' enormous faith of many made for one; [done,
That proud exception to all Nature's laws,

"And hence let Reason, late, inftru&t mankind:T' invert the world, and counterwork its Cause?

[merged small][ocr errors]

Learn each finall People's genius, policies, "The Ant's republic, and the realm of Bees; "How thofe in common all their wealth beftow, "And Anarchy without confufion know; "And thefe for ever, tho' a Monarch reign, "Their fep'rate cells and properties maintain. "Mark what unvaried laws preferve each state, "Laws wife as Nature, and as fix'd as Fate. "In vain thy Reafon finer webs fhall draw,

[ocr errors]

Force first made Conqueft, and that Conquest
Till Superftition taught the Tyrant awe; [Law,
Then fhar'd the Tyranny, then lent it aid,
And Gods of Conqu'rors, Slaves of Subjects made:
She 'midft the lightning's blaze, and thunder's
found,
[the ground,
When rock'd the mountains, and when groan'd
She taught the weak to bend, the proud to pray,
To Pow'r 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, unjust,
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!
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 fmear'd with human blood;
With heaven's own thunders fhook the world
And play'd the God an engine on his foe. [below,

[ocr errors]

So drives Self-love, thro' just, and thro' unjust;
To one man's pow'r, ambition, lucre, luft:
The fame Self-love in all, becomes the cause

Entangle Justice in her net of Law; "And right, too rigid, harden into wrong; "Still for the strong too weak, the weak too strong. "Yet go! and thus o'er all the creatures fway, "Thus let the wifer make the reft obey: "And for thofe arts mere Inftinct could afford, "Be crown'd as Monarchs, or as Gods ador'd.' Great Nature fpoke; obfervant Man obey'd; Citics were built, Societies were made : Here rofe one little ftate; another near Grew by like means, and join'd thro' love or fear. Did here the trees with ruddier burdens bend, And there the ftreams in purer rills defcend? What War could ravish, Commerce could beftow, And he return'd a friend who came a foe. Converfe and Love mankind might strongly draw, When Love was Liberty,and Nature Law.[known, Thus ftates were forin'd; the name of King un-Of what reftrains him, Government and Laws. Till common int'reft plac'd the fway in one. 'Twas Virtue only (or in arts or arms, Diffufing bleifings, or averting harms), The fame which in a Sire the Sons obey'd, A Prince the Father of a People made. [fate Till then, by Nature crown'd, each Patriarch King, pricft, and parent, of his growing state; On him, their fecond Providence, they hung; Their law his eye, their oracle his tongue. He from the wand'ring furrow call'd the food, Taught to command the fire, controul the flood, Draw forth the monsters of th' abyfs profound, Or fetch th' aërial eagle to the ground. Till drooping, fick'ning, 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; The worker from the work diftinct was known, And fimple Reafon never fought but one: Ere Wit oblique had broke that steady 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,

For, what one likes, if others like as well,
What ferves one will, when many wills rebel?
How fhall he keep, what, fleeping or awake,
A weaker may furprise, a ftronger take?
His fafety muft his liberty restrain:
All join'd to guard what each defires to gain.
Forc'd into Virtue thus by Self-defence,
Ev'n Kings learn'd justice and benevolence:
Self-love forfook the path it firft pursued,
And found the private in the public good.

'Twas then the ftudious head or gen'rous 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:
Taught Power's due ufe to People and to Kings,
Taught nor to flack nor ftrain its tender strings,
The lefs or greater fet fo justly true,
That touching one muft ftrike the other too;
Till jarring int'refts of themfelves create
Th' according music of a well-mix'd state.
Such is the world's great harmony, that fprings
From Order, Union, full Consent of things:
Where fmall and great, where weak and mighty
made

To ferve, not fuffer; ftrengthen, not invade;

More

More pow'rful each as needful to the reft,
And, in proportion as it bleffes, bleit;
Draw to one point, and to one centre bring
Beaft, Man, or Angel, Servant, Lord, or King.
For Forms of Government let fools conteft;
Whate'er is beft adminifter'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 difagree,
But all Mankind's concern is Charity:
All must be falfe that thwart this One great End;
And all of God that blefs Mankind, or mend.
Man, like the gen rous vine, fupported lives;
The Strength he gains is from the embrace he
gives.

On their own Axis as the Planets run,
Yct make at once their circle round the Sun ;
So two confiftent motions act the Soul,
And one regards Itfelf, and one the Whole.
Thus God and Nature link'd the gen'ral frame,
And bade Self-love and Social be the fame.

EPISTLE IV.

ARGUMENT.

That fomething ftill which prompts th' eternal

figh,

For which we bear to live, or dare to die;
Which still fo near us, yet beyond us lies;
O'erlook'd, feen double, by the fool and wife.
Plant of celeftial feed! if dropt below,
Say, in what mortal foil thou deign't to grow?
Fair op'ning to fome Court's propitious thine,
Or deep with diamonds 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 spot is happiness fincere,
'Tis nowhere to be found, or ev'rywhere:
'Tis never to be bought, but always free; [thee.
And, fled from monarchs, St. John, dwells with

Afk of the Learn'd the way: The Learn'd are

blind:

This bids to ferve, and that to fhun mankind;
Some place the blifs in action, fome in cafe;
Thofe call it pleasure, and contentment these :
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,

Of the Nature and State of Man, with respect to To truft in ev'ry thing, or doubt of all.

Happiness.

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

Falfe Notions of Happiness, Philofophical and Popular.-It is the End of all Men, and attain- All ftates can reach it, and all heads conceive; Take Nature's path, and mad opinions leave; able by all.-God intends Happiness to be equal; Obvious her goods, in no cxtreme they dwell; and to be fo, it must be focial, fince all particular There needs but thinking right, and meaning well; Happiness depends on general, and fince be go- And mourn our various portions as we please, verns by general not particular Laws-As it is Equal is common sense and common ease. neceffary for Order, and the peace and welfare of Society, that external goods should be unequal," Acts not by partial, but by gen'ral laws;" Remember, Man, "the univerfal Caufe Happiness is not made to confift in thefe-But, And makes what Happinefs we juftly call notwithjlanding that inequality, the balance of Subfift not in the good of one, but all. Happiness among mankind is kept even by Pro-There's not a bleifing individuals find, vidence, by the two Paffions of Hope and Fear-But fome way leans and hearkens to the kind. What the Happiness of Individuals is, as far as No bandit fierce, no tyrant mad with pride, is confiftent with the conftitution of this world; No cavern'd hermit rests self-satisfied: and that the Good Man bas bere the advantage. Who most to fhun or hate mankind pretend, -The error of imputing to Virtue what are only Seek an admirer, or would fix a friend: the calamities of Nature or of Fortune.-The folly Abstract what others feel, what others think, of expecting that God should alter his generat All pleafures ficken, and all glories fink; laws in favour of particulars.-That we are not Each has his thare; and who would more obtain, judges who are good, but that, whoever they are, Shall find, the pleature pays not half the pain. they must be happicft—That external goods are not the proper rewards, but often inconfifient with, or deftructive of, Virtue.—That even these can make no Man bappy without Virtue: Infancedin Riches-Honours-Nobility-Greatnefs Fame-Superior Talents-With pictures of buman infelicity in Men poffeffed of them all.-Thai Virtue only confitutes a Happiness whose object is univerfal, and whofe profpect eternal. 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.

O HAPPINESS! our being's end and aim ! Good, Pieafire, Eafe, Content, whate'er thy

name;

Order is Heaven's fuit law; and this confeft,
Some are, and muft be, greater than the rest,
More rich, more wife; but who infers from hence
That fuch are happier, fhocks all common fense.
Heaven to mankind impartial we confefs,
If all are equal in their happiness:
But mutual wants this happinefs increase;
All nature's diff 'rence keeps all nature's peace.
Condition, circumftance is not the thing;
Blifs is the fame in subject or in king:
In who obtain defence, or who defend,
In him who is, or him who finds a friend:
Heaven breathes thro' ev'ry member of the whole
But fortune's gifts if each alike poffefs'd,
One common bleffing, as one common foul.
And each were equal, must not all contest?

« PreviousContinue »