Fortune her gifts may varioufly difpofe, Oh fons of earth! attempt ye ftill to rise, Know, all the good that individuals find, NOTES. 81 VER. 79. Reafon's whole pleasure, &c.] This is a beautiful periphrafis for Happinefs; for all we feel of good is by fenfation and reflexion. VER 82. And Peace, &c.] Confcious Innocence (fays the poet) is the only fource of internal Peace; and known Innocence, of external; therefore Peace is the fole iffue of Virtue; or, in his own emphatic words, Peace is all thy own; a conclufive observation in his argument, which ftands thus: Is Happinefs rightly placed in Externals ? No; for it confifts in Health, Peace, and Competence. Health and Competence are the product of Temperance, and Peace of perfect Innocence. The good or bad the gifts of Fortune gain; But these less taste them, as they worse obtain. 85 Who risk the moft, that take wrong means or right? VARIATIONS. After ver. 92. in MS. Let fober Moralifts correct their speech, NOTES. VER. 93. Ob blind to truth, &c.] Our author having thus largely confuted the mistake of Happiness's confifting in externals, proceeds to expofe the terrible confequences of fuch an opinion on the fentiments and practice of all forts of men, making the Diffolute impious and atheistical; the Religious uncharitable and intolerant; and the Good reftlefs and difcontent. For when it is once taken for granted, that Happiness confifts in externals, it is immediately feen, that ill men are often more happy than good; which fets all conditions on objecting to the ways of Providence and fome even on rafhly attempting to rectify its difpenfations, though by the violation of all Law, divine and human. 4 ΙΟ Who fees and follows that great fcheme the beft, 95. Lent Heav'n a parent to the and me poor NOTES. ? ? 105 100 VER. 100. See godlike Turenne.] This epithet has a peculiar juftnefs; the great man to whom it is applied, not being diftinguished, from other generals, for any of his fuperior qualities, fo much as for his providential care of thofe whom he led to war; which was fo uncommon, that his chief purpose, in taking on himself the command of armies, feems to have been the prefervation of mankind. In this god-like care he was more diftinguifhably employed, throughout the whole courfe of that famous campaign in which he loft his life. VER. 110. Lent Heav'n a parent, &c.]This last instance of the poet's illuftration of the ways of Providence, the What makes all phyfical or moral ill! There deviates Nature, and here wanders Will. Or partial Ill is univerfal Good, Or change admits, or Nature lets it fall; Short and but rare, till Man improv'd it all. When his lewd father gave the dire disease. 115 120 Think we, like fome weak Prince, th' Eternal Cause, Prone for his fav'rites to reverse his laws? VARIATIONS. After ver. 116. in the MS. Of ev'ry evil, fince the world began, NOTES. reader fees, has a peculiar elegance; where a tribute of piety to a parent is paid in a return of thanks to, and made fubfervient of, his vindication of the Great Giver and Father of all things. The mother of the author, a perfon of great piety and charity, died the year this poem was finished, iz 1733. VER.121. Think we, Ike fome weak Prince, &c.] Agreeably hereunto, holy Scripture, in its account of things under the common Providence of Heaven, never reprefents miracles as wrought for the fake of him who is the object of them, but in order to give credit to fome of God's extraordinary difpenfations to Mankind. H Shall burning Ætna, if a fage requires, Forget to thunder, and recall her fires ? On air or fea new motions be impreft, 125 Oh blameless Bethel! to relieve thy breast? When the loose mountain trembles from on high, Shall gravitation ceafe, if you go by? Or fome old temple nodding to its fall, For Chartres' head referve the hanging wall? 130 A kingdom of the Juft then let it be: But who, but God, can tell us who they are? If Calvin feel Heav'n's bleffing, or its rod, 135 This cries there is, and that, there is no God. 140. VARIATIONS. After ver. 142 in fome Editions, Give each a fyftem, all must be at ftrife; What diff'rent fyftems for a Man and Wife? The joke, tho' lively, was ill plac'd ; and therefore ftruck out of the text. NOTES. VER. 123. Shall burning Etna, &c.] Alluding to the fate of those two great Naturalifts, Empedocles and Pliny |