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The young disease, which must subdue, at length,

Grows with his growth, and strengthens with his strength.

Reason itself but gives it edge and power,

As heaven's blest beam turns vinegar more sour.

Teach us to mourn our nature, not to mend,

A sharp accuser, but a helpless friend!

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So when small humours gather to a gout,
The doctor fancies he has driv'n them out.

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Let pow'r or knowledge, gold or glory, please,
Or oft (more strong than all) the love of ease.

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Vice is a monster of so frightful mein,
As, to be hated, needs but to be seen;
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace.

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Virtuous and vicious every man must be,
Few in th' extreme, but all in the degree;
The rogue and fool, by fits is fair and wise,
And e'en the best, by fits what they despise.

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Fear to the statesman, rashness to the chief,
To kings presumption, and to crowds belief.

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Taught half by reason, half by mere decay,
To welcome death, and calmly pass away.

Whate'er the passion, 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 giv❜n,

The poor contents him with the care of heav'n.
See the blind beggar dance, the cripple sing,
The sot a hero, lunatic a king;

The starving chymist in his golden views
Supremely blest, the poet in his muse.
See some strange comfort ev'ry state attend,
And pride bestow'd on all a common friend;

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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 :

Each want of happiness by hope supply'd,
And each vacuity of sense by pride:

One prospect lost, another still we gain ;
And not a vanity is giv'n in vain ;

See! and confess, one comfort still must rise, "Tis this, though man's a fool, yet God is wise.

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Nothing is foreign parts relate to whole;
One all-extending, all-preserving soul
Connects each being, greatest with the least;

Made beast in aid of man, and man of beast;

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Know nature's children shall divide her care,
The fur that warms a monarch, warm'd a bear.

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Say will the falcon, stooping from above,

Smit with her varying plumage, spare the dove? Admires the jay, the insect's gilded wings?

Or hears the hawk when philomela sings?

Man cares for all: to birds he gives his woods,
To beasts his pastures, and to fish his floods;
For some his int'rest prompts him to provide,
For more his pleasure, yet for more his pride :

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That very life his learned hunger craves,
He saves from famine, from the savage saves:
Nay, feasts the animal he dooms his feast,
And, till he ends the being, makes it blest;

The creature had his feast of life before;
Thou too must perish, when thy feast is o'er.

The hour conceal'd, and so remote the fear,
Death still draws nearer, never seeming near.

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Who bid the stork, Columbus-like, explore

Heav'ns not his own, and worlds unknown before ?
Who calls the council, states the certain day,
Who forms the phalanx, and who points the way?

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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 species, and betrays his own.

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Learn from the birds what food the thickets yield;
Learn from the beasts the physic 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 sail,

Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale.

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 whose life is in the right:
In faith and hope the world will disagree,
But all mankind's concern is Charity:

All must be false that thwart this one great end,
And all of God, that bless mankind or mend.

Man, like the gen'rous vine, supported lives;
The strength he gains is from th' embrace he gives.

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No bandit fierce, no tyrant mad with pride,

No cavern'd hermit, rest self-satisfied.
Who most to shun or hate mankind pretend,
Seek an admirer, or would fix a friend.
Abstract what others feel, what others think,
All pleasures sicken, and all glories sink ;

Each has his share; and who would more obtain,
Shall find the pleasure pays not half the pain.
Order is heav'n's first law; and this confest
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.

But mutual wants this happiness increase,
All nature's diff'rence keeps all nature's peace.
Condition, circumstance is not the thing;
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;
Heav'n breathes, through ev'ry member of the whole,
One common blessing, as one common soul.

Not present good or ill, the joy or curse,
But future views of better, or of worse.

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Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense,
Lie in three words, Health, Peace, and Competence.
But health consists with temperance alone,
And peace, O virtue! peace is all thy own.

Take nature's path, and mad opinions leave,
All states can reach it, and all heads conceive;
Obvious her goods, in no extreme they dwell,
There needs but thinking right, and meaning well;

Herves are much the same, the points agreed,

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