The fureft virtues thus from paffions shoot,
Wild nature's vigour working at the root.
What crops of wit and honefty appear
From fpleen, from obftinacy, hate, or fear!
anger, zeal and fortitude supply;

See

190

Ev'n avarice, prudence; floth, philofophy;
Luft, through 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 nearest to our vice ally'd;
Reafon the bias turns to good from ill,
And Nero reigns a Titus, if he will.
The fiery foul abhorr'd in Cataline,
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 use;
Though each by turns the other's bound invade,
As, in fome well-wrought picture, light and shade,
And oft fo mix, the difference is too nice
Where ends the virtue, or begins the vice,

200

210

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 thousand ways, is there no black or white? Ask your own heart, and nothing is so 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 seen ; 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: Alk where's the north; at York, 'tis on the Tweed;

VARIATIONS.

After ver. 194, in the MS.

220

How oft with paffion, virtue points her charms!
Then shines the hero, then the patriot warms.
Peleus' great fon, or Brutus, who had known,
Had Lucrece been a whore, or Helen none?
But virtues oppofite to make agree,
That, reafon is thy task, and worthy thee,
Hard talk, cries Bibulus, and reason weak.
-Make it a point, dear Marquifs, or a pique.
Once, for a whim. perfuade yourself to pay
A debt to reafon, like a debt at play.
For right or wrong, have mortals fuffer'd more?
Bfor his prince, or for his whore?
Whole felf-denials nature most controul?
His, who would fave a fixpence, or his foul?
Web for his health, a Chartreux for his fin,
Contend they not which fooneft fhall grow thin?
What we refolve, we can: but here's the fault,
We ne'er refolve to do the thing we ought.
After ver, 220, in the first edition followed thefe :
A cheat a whore! who ftarts not at the name,
It all the inns of court or Drury-lane?

[whole.

Virtuous and vicious every man muft 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, felf directs it ftill; Each individual feeks a feveral goal; But heaven's great view, is one, and that the That counter-works each folly and caprice; That disappoints th' effect of every vice: That, happy frailties to all ranks apply'd; Shame to the virgin, to the matron pride; Fear to the statesman, rafhnefs to the chief; To kings prefumption, and to crowds belief: That, virtue's ends from vanity can raise, Which feeks no intereft, no reward but praise; And build on wants, and on defects of mind, The joy, the peace, the glory of mankind.

240

250

Heaven forming each on other to depend,
A mafter, or a fervant, or a friend,
Bids each on other for aflistance call,
Till one man's weakness grows the ftrength of all.
Wants, frailties, paffions, clofer ftill ally
The common intereft, or endear the tie.
To these we owe true friendship, love fincere,
Each home-felt joy that life inherits here;
Yet from the fame we learn, in its decline,
Those joys, those loves, those interests, to resign;
Taught half by reafon, half by mere decay,
To welcome death, and calmly pass 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 sing,
The fot a hero, lunatic a king;

The ftarving chemist in his golden views,
Supremely bleft, the poet in his mufe.

260

279

See fome ftrange comfort every state attend, And pride beftow'd on all, a common friend: See fome fit paffion every 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 straw:

VARIATIONS.

After ver. 226, in the MS.

The colonel fwears the agent is a dog;
The fcrivener vows th' attorney is a rogue.
Against the thief th' attorney loud inveighs,
For whofe ten pounds the country twenty pays.
The thief damns judges, and the knaves of ftate;
And dying, mourns fmall villains hang'd by great

Some livelier plaything gives his youth delight,
A little louder, but as empty quite ;
Scarfs, garters, gold, amufe his riper stage,
And beads and prayer-books are the toysofage: 280
Pleas'd with this bauble still, as that before;
Till tir'd he fleeps, and life's poor play is o'er.
Meanwhile opinion gilds with varying rays
Those painted clouds that beautify our days;
Each want of happiness by hope supply'd,
And each vacuity of fenfe by pride :
Thefe build as fast as knowledge can destroy;
In folly's cup ftill laughs the bubble, joy;
One prospect loft, another ftill we gain;
And not a vanity is giv'n in vain ;
Ev'n mean felf-love becomes, by force divine,
Those ale to measure others wants by thine.
Sce! and confefs, one comfort still must rise;
'Tis this, Though man's a fool, yet God is wife.

EPISTLE III.

THE ARGUMENT.

290

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

1. THE whole univerfe one fyftem of fociety, ver. 7, &c. Nothing made wholly for itself, nor yet wholly for another, ver. 27. The happiness of animals mutual, ver. 49. II. Reason or inftinct operate alike to the good of each individual, ver. 79. Reafon or instinct operate alfo to fociety in all animals, ver. 109. III. How far fociety carried by instinct, ver. 115. How much farther by reafon, ver. 128. IV. Of that which is called the state of nature, ver. 144. Reafon inftructed by inftinct in the invention of arts, ver. 166. and in the forms of fociety, ver. 176. V. Origin of political focieties, ver. 196. Origin of monarchy, ver. 207. Patriarchal government, ver. 212.VI. Origin of true religion and government, from the fame principle, of love, ver. 231, &c. Origin of fuperftition and tyranny, from the fame principle, of fear, ver. 237, &c. The influence of felf-love operating to the focial and public good, ver. 266. Reftoration of true religion and government on their first principle, ver. 285. Mixed government, ver. 288. rious forms of each, and the true end of all, ver. 300, &c.

HERE then we reft; "the universal cause "Acts to one end, but acts by various laws."

VARIATIONS.

Va

Ver. 1. In feveral edit. in 4to. Learn, dulnefs, learn! "The univerfal caufe," &c. After ver. 46, in the former editions, What care to tend, to lodge, to cram, to treat him! All this he knew; but not that 'twas to eat him. As far as goofe could judge, he reason'd right; But as to man, miftook the matter quize.

In all the madness of superfluous health,
The train of pride, the impudence of wealth,
Let this great truth be present night and day; 5
But most be present, if we preach or pray.

10

Look round our world; behold the chain of love
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 general good.
See dying vegetables life sustain,

See life diffolving vegatate again :
All forms that perifh other forms supply,
(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. 20
Nothing is foreign; parts relate to whole;
One all extending, all-preferving foul
Connects each being, greatest with the leaft;
Made beast in aid of man, and man of beast;
All ferv'd, all serving: nothing stands alone;
The chain holds on, and where it ends, unknown.
Has God, thou fool! work'd folely for thy good,
Thy joy, thy pastime, thy attire, thy food:
Who for thy table feeds the wanton fawn,
For him as kindly spread the flowery 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 fteed you pompously bestride,
Shares with his lord the pleasure and the pride.
Is thine alone the feed that ftrews the plain?
The birds of heaven shall vindicate their grain.
Thine the full harvest of the golden year?
Part pays, and justly, the deferving fieer:
The hog, that ploughs not, nor obeys thy call,
Lives on the labours of this lord of all.

30

Know, nature's children all divide her care; The fur that warms a monarch, warm'd a bear. While man exclaims, See all things for my ufe:" "See man for mine!" replies a pamper'd goofe : And just as fhort of reafon he must fall, Who thinks all made for one, not one for all,

50

Grant that the powerful 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, ftooping from above, Smit with her varying plumage, fpare the dove? Admires the jay the infects 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 fish his floods: For fome his intereft prompts him to provide, For more his pleasure, yet for more his pride, 60 All feed on one vain patron, and enjoy Th' extenfive bleffing 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 feast, And, till he ends the being, makes it bleft: Which fees no more the ftroke, or feels the pain, Than favour'd man by touch ethereal flain.

190

"How thofe in common all their wealth beftow, "And anarchy without confufion know; "And these for ever, though a monarch reign, "Their separate cells and properties maintain. "Mark what unvary'd laws preferve each state, "Laws wife as nature, and as fix'd as fate. "In vain thy reason finer webs fhall draw, "Entangle juftice in her net of law, "And right, too rigid, harden into wrong; "Still for the ftrong too weak, the weak too ftrong. "Yet go! and thus o'er all the creatures sway, "Thus let the wifer make the rest obey : "And for thofe arts mere inftinct could afford,

200

[fear.

Be crown'd as monarchs, or as gods ador'd." V. Great Nature spoke; obfervant man obey'd; Cities were built, focieties were made: Here rofe one little ftate; another near Grew by like means, and join'd, through love or Did here the trees with ruddier burdens bend, And there the streams in purer rills defcend? What war could ravish, commerce could bestow; And he return'd a friend, who came a foc. Converfe and love mankind might strongly draw, When love was liberty, and nature law.

Thus ftates were form'd; the name of king unknown,

Till common interest plac'd the sway in one. 210
'Twas virtue only (or in arts or arms,
Diffufing bleflings, 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 fat,

King, prieft, and parent, of his growing flate:
On him, their fecond providence, they hung,
Their law his eye, their oracle his tongue.
He from the wondering furrow call'd the food,
Taught to command the fire, controul the flood,
Draw forth the monsters of th' abyss profound,
Or fetch th' aerial cagle to the ground.
Till dropping, fickening, 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;

VARIATIONS.

Ver. 197, in the first editions,

222

Who for thofe arts they learn'd of brutes before, As kings fhall crown them, or as gods adore.

Ver. 201. Here rofe one little state, &c.] In the MS. thus:

The neighbours leagu'd to guard their common
Spot;

And love was nature's dictate; murder, not.
For want alone each animal contends;
Tigers with tigers, that remov'd, are friends.
Plain nature's wants the common mother crown'd,
She pour'd her acorns, herbs, and streams around.
No treasure then for rapine to invade,
What need to fight for fun-fhine or for fhade?
And half the caufe of conteft was remov'd,
When beauty could be hind to all who lov'd.

230

| The worker from the work diftin&t 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,
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. 243 Who first taught fouls enflav'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 fuperftition taught the tyrant awe,
Then fhar'd the tyranny, then lent it aid,
And gods of conquerors, flaves of fubjects made:
She 'midft the lightning's blaze, and thunder's
found,

When rock'd the mountains, and when groan'd

the ground,

250

She taught the weak to bend, the proud to pray, To power unfeen, and mightier far than they : She, from the rending earth, and bursting ikies, 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, passioħate, 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 be

Low,

And play'd the God an engine on his foe.

261

So drives felf-love, through juft, and through

unjuft,

270

To one man's power, ambition, lucre, luft:
The fame felf-love, in all, becomes the caufe
Of what reftrains him, government and laws.
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 surprise, a stronger take?
His fafety muft his liberty refrain:
All join to guard what each defires to gain.
Forc'd into virtue thus, by felf-defence,
Ev'n kings learn'd juftice and benevolence:
Self-love forfook the path it first pursued,
And found the private in the public good.
'I'was then the ftudious head or generous mind,
Follower of God, or friend of human kind,
Poet or patriot, rofe but to reftore
The faith and moral, nature gave before;
Relum'd her ancient light, not kindled new
f not God's image, yet his fhadow drew:

280

Taught power's due ufe to pee

291

and to kings,
Taught nor to flack nor ftrain its tender strings,
The lefs, or greater, set so justly true,
That touching one must strike the other too;
Tid jarring interefts of themselves create
Th' according mufic of a well-mix'd state.
Each is the world's great harmony, that springs
From order, union, full confent of things:
Where fmail and great, where weak and mighty,
made

To ferve, not fuffer, strengthen, not invade;
More powerful each as needful to the rest,
And, in proportion as it bleffes, bleft;
Draw to one point, and to one centre bring
Beaft, man, or angel, fervant, loid, or king.

For forms of government let fools contest;
Whate'er is beft adminifter'd is beft:
For modes of faith, let graceless zealots fight;
His can't be wrong whole life is in the right;
In faith and hope the world will difagree,
But all mankind's concern is charity:

300

All must be faife that thwarts this one great end;
And all of God, that bless mankind, or mend. 310
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.

THE ARGUMENT,

1. FALSE notions of happiness, philofophical and popular, anfwered from ver. 19 to 77. II. It is the end of all men, and attainable by all, ver. 30. God intends happiness to be equal; and to be fo, it must be focial, fince all particular happiness depends on general, and fince he governs by general, not particular laws, ver. 7. As it is neceffary for order, and the peace and welfare of society, that external goods fhould be unequal, happiness is not made to confift in these, ver. 31. But, notwithstanding that inequality, the balance of happiness among mankind is kept even by providence, by the two paffions of hope and fear, ver. 70.III. What the happiness of individuals is, as far as is confiftent 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, 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 VOL. VIIL

proper rewards, but often inconfiftent with, or deftructive of virrue, ver. 167. That even these can make no man happy without virtue : Inftanced in riches, ver. 185. Honours, ver. 193. Nobility, ver. 205 Greatness, ver. 217. Fame. ver. 237. Superior talents, ver. 257, &c. With pictures of human infelicity in men, poffeffed of them all, ver. 269, &c. VII. That virtue only conftitutes a happiness, whofe object is universal, and whofe prospect eternal, ver. 307. 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, ver. 326, &c.

Ou Happiness our being's end and aim!
Good, pleasure, ease, content! whate'er thy name:
That fomething ftill which prompts th' eternal

figh,

For which we bear to live, or dare to die,
Which fill fo near us, yet beyond us lies,
O'erlook'd, seen double, by the fool and wife:
Plant of celeftial feed; if dropp'd below,
Say, in what mortal foil thou deign'st to grow?
Fair opening to some court's propitious shine,
Or deep with diamonds in the flaming mine? 10
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 fpot is happiness fincere,
'Tis no where to be found, or every where:
'Tis never to be bought, but always free,
And filed from monarchs, St. John: dwells with
[blind:

thee. Afk of the learn'd the way? The learn'd are This bids to ferve, and that to fhun mankind; 20 Some place the blifs in action, fome in ease, Those call it pleasure, and contentment these : Some, funk to beasts, find pleasure end in pain; Some, fwell'd to gods, confefs evʼn virtue vain; Or, indolent, to each extreme they fall, To truft in ev'ry thing, or doubt of all.

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

Take nature's path, and mad opinion's leave; All states can reach it, and all heads conceive: 30 Obvious her goods, in no extreme they dwell; There needs but thinking right, and meaning well; And, mourn our various portions as we please, Equal is common fenfe, and common eafe.

Remember, man, "the Universal Cause "Acts not by partial, but b gen'ral laws," And makes what happiness we justly call, Subfift not in the good of one, but all.