Error like this ev'n Truth can fearce reprove;
'Tis almoft Virtue when it flows from Love.

Ye deathlefs Names, ye Sons of endless praife,
By Virtue crown'd with never-fading bays!
Say, fhall an artlefs Mufe, if you inspire,
Light her pale lamp at your immortal fire?
Or if, O Warburton, infpir'd by You,
The daring Muse a nobler path pursue,
By You infpir'd, on trembling pinions foar,
The facred founts of focial blifs explore,
In her bold numbers chain the Tyrant's rage,
And bid her Country's glory fire her page:
If fuch her fate, do thou, fair Truth, defcend,
And watchful guard her in an honest end:
Kindly fevere, inftruct her equal line

510

515

520

To court no Friend, nor own a Foe but thine.

But if her giddy eye fhould vainly quit

Thy facred paths, to run the maze of wit;

If her apoftate heart fhould e'er incline

525

To offer incenfe at Corruption's fhrine;

Urge, urge thy power, the black attempt confound,
And dafh the fmoaking Cenfer to the ground.
Thus aw'd to fear, inftructed Bards may fee

That guilt is doom'd to fink in Infamy.

530

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HAVING propofed to write fome pieces on Hu

man Life and Manners, fuch as (to ufe my lord Bacon's expreffion) "come home to Men's Business and Bofoms," I thought it more fatisfactory to begin with confidering Man in the abstract, his Nature, and his State; fince, to prove any moral Duty, to enforce any moral precept, or to examine the perfection or imperfection of any creature whatfoever, it is neceffary first to know what condition and relation it is placed in, and what is the proper end and purpose of its being.

The science of Human Nature is, like all other fciences, reduced to a few clear points: There are not many certain truths in this world. It is therefore in the Anatomy of the Mind as in that of the Body; more good will accrue to mankind by attending to the large, open, and perceptible parts, than by studying too much fuch finer nerves and veffels, the conformations and uses of which will for ever efcape our obfervation. The difputes are all upon these laft; and I will venture to fay, they have lefs fharpened the wits than the hearts of men against each other, and have diminished the practice, more than advanced the theory of Morality. If I could flatter myself that this Effay has any merit, it is in fteering betwixt the extremes of doctrines feemingly oppofite, in paffing over terms utterly unintelligible,

and