She taught the weak to bend, the proud to pray, And hell was built on spite, and heaven on pride. 270 So drives self-love, through just and through unjust, To one man's power, ambition, lucre, lust; The same self-love in all becomes the cause Of what restrains him, government and laws. For what one likes, if others like as well, What serves one will, when many wills rebel? How shall he keep what, sleeping or awake. A weaker may surprise, a stronger take? His safety must his liberty restrain: All join to guard what each desires to gain. Forced into virtue thus, by self-defence, E'en kings learn'd justice and benevolence: Self-love forsook the path it first pursued, And found the private in the public good. 'Twas then the studious 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; Resumed her ancient light, not kindled new ; 28C Taught power's due use to people and to kings, Taught nor to slack, nor strain its tender strings, 290 The less or greater set so justly true, That touching one must strike the other too, Till jarring interests of themselves create The according music of a well-mix'd state. Such is the world's great harmony, that springs Where small and great, where weak and mighty, made For forms of government let fools contest; All must be false, that thwarts this one great end; 300 310 Man, like the generous vine, supported lives; The strength he gains is from the embrace he gives On their own axis as the planets run, Yet make at once their circle round the sun; So two consistent motions act the soul; 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 same. ARGUMENT OF EPISTLE IV. Of the Nature and State of Man with respect to Happiness. 1. False notions of happiness, philosophical and popu lar, answered, from ver. 1 to 77. II. It is the ene of all men, and attainable by all, ver. 30. God in tends happiness to be equal; and, to be so, it must be social, since all particular happiness depends on gene. ral, and since 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 should be unequal, happiness is not made to consist in these, ver. 51. But, notwithstanding that inequali y, the balance of happiness among mankind is kept even by Providence, by the two passions of hope and fear, ver. 70. III. What the happiness of individuals is, as far as is consistent with the constitution of this world; and that the good man has here the advan. tage, 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 should 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 inconsistent with, or destructive of, virtue, ver. 167. That even these can make no man happy without virtue; instanced in riches, ver. 185. Ho nours, ver. 193 Nobility, ver. 205. Greatness, ver. 217. Fame, ver. 237. Superior talents, ver. 257, &c With pictures of human infelicity in men possessed of them all, ver. 269, &c. VII. That virtue only con. stitutes a happiness, whose object is universal, and whose prospect eternal, ver. 307. That the perfection of virtue and happiness consists in a conformity to the order of Providence here, and a resignation to it here and hereafter, ver. 326, &c. EPISTLE IV. OH Happiness! our being's end and aim ! 10 Fair opening to some court's propitious shine, Tis no where to be found, or every where; 20 And fled from monarchs, St. John! dwells with thee. To trust in every thing, or doub: of all. Who thus define it, say they more or less Than this, that happiness is happiness? 30 II. Take nature's path, and mad opinions leave; All states can reach it, and all head's conceive: Obvious her goods, in no extreme they dwell; There needs but thinking right, and neuring well; And, mourn cur various portions as we please Equal is common sense, and common Remember, man, 'the Universal Cause 40 Each has his share; and who would more obtain, Shall find the pleasure pays not half the pain. Order is Heaven's first law; and this confess'd, Some are, and must be, greater than the rest, More rich, more wise; but who infers from hence That such 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 Bliss is the same in subject or in king, In who obtain defence, or who defend, In him who is, or him who finds a friend: 50 60 Heaven breathes through every member of the whole Fortune her gifts may variously dispose, While those are placed in hope, and these in fear: TO III. Know, all the good that individuals find, |