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"Twas VIRTUE ONLY (or in arts or arms,
Diffufing bleffings, or averting harms)
The fame which in a fire the fons obey'd,
A prince the father of a people made.

VI. Till then, by nature crown'd, each patriarch fate,
King, prieft, and parent, of his growing state;
On him, their fecond Providence, they hung,
Their law his eye, their oracle his tongue.
He from the wond'ring furrow call'd the food,
Taught to command the fire, controul the flood,
Draw forth the monsters of th' abyss profound,
Or fetch th' aërial eagle to the ground.
"Till drooping, sick'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 distinct was known,
And fimple reason never fought but one:
Ere wit oblique had broke that steddy 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,
No ill could fear in GoD; and understood
A fovereign being, but a fovereign good.
True faith, true policy, united ran,

That was but love of GoD, and this of man.

Who first taught souls enslav'd, and realms undone, Th' enormous faith of many made for one;

That proud exception to all nature's laws,
T'invert the world, and counter-work its caufe?
Force first made conqueft, and that conqueft, law; -
"Till Superstition taught the tyrant awe,
Then fhar'd the tyranny, then lent it aid,

And gods of conquerors, flaves of fubjects made:
She, midst the lightning's blaze, and thunders found,
When rock'd the mountains, and when groan'd the
ground,

She taught the weak to bend, the proud to pray,
To Power unseen, and mightier rar 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 below,
And play'd the god an engine on his foe.

So drives felf-love, thro' juft, and thro' unjust, To one man's pow'r, ambition, lucre, lust:

The fame felf-love, in all, becomes the cause
Of what restrains him, government and laws.
For, what one likes, if others like as well,
What ferves one will, when many wills rebel?
How shall he keep, what, fleeping or awake,
A weaker may furprise, a stronger take?
His fafety must his liberty restrain :
All join to guard what each defires to gain.
Forc'd into virtue thus, by felf-defence,
Even kings learn'd justice and benevolence:
Self-love forfook the path it first purfu'd,
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, rofe but to restore

The faith and moral, nature gave before;
Refum'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 not to flack, nor strain its tender ftrings
The lefs, the greater, fet fo juftly true,

That touching one, must strike the other too;
"Till jarring interefts, of themselves create

Th' according mufic of a well-mix'd ftate.
Such is the world's great harmony, that springs

From order, union, full confent of things:

Where small and great, where weak and mighty, made

To serve, not fuffer, strengthen, not invade;

More powerful each as needful to the reft,

And, in proportion as it bleffes, bleft;

Draw to one point, and to one centre bring
Beaft, man, or angel, fervant, lord, or king.
For forms of government let fools contest;
Whate'er is best administer'd is best:
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 generous vine, fupported lives;
The strength he gains is from th' embrace he gives.
On their own axis as the planets run,

Yet make at once their circle round the fun;
So two confiftent motions act the foul;

And one regards itself, and one the whole.

Thus GoD and Nature link'd the general frame,

And bade felf-love and focial be the fame.

EPISTLE

IV.

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

I. FALSE notions of happiness, philosophical and popular, anfwered from v. 19 to 77. II. It is the end of all men, and attainable by all, v. 30. GOD intends happiness to be equal; and to be fo, it must be focial, fince all particular happiness depends on general, and since he governs by general, not particular laws, v. 37. As it is neceffary for order, and the peace and welfare of fociety, that external goods fhould be unequal, happiness is not made to confift in thefe, v. 51. But notwithstanding that inequality, the balance of happiness among mankind is kept even by Providence, by the two paffions of hope and fear, v. 70. III. What the happiness of individuals is, as far as is confistent with the conftitution of this world; and that the good man has here the advantage, ver. 77. The error of imputing to virtue what are only the calamities of nature, or of fortune, v. 94. IV. The folly of expecting that God should alter his general laws, in favour of particulars, v. 121, V. That we are not judges who are good; but that whoever they are, they must be happiest, v. 133, &c. VI. That external goods are not the proper rewards, but often inconsistent with,

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