Expunge the whole, or lop th' excrefcent parts

Of all our Vices have created Arts;

Then fee how little the remaining fum,

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Which ferv'd the paft, and muft te times to come!
II. Two Principles in human nature reign;
Self-love, to urge, and Reason, to restrain ;
Nor this a good, nor that a bad we call,
Each works its end, to move or govern all :
And to their proper operation ftill,
Afcribe all Good; to their improper, Ill.

Self-love, the spring of motion, acts the foul;
Reason's comparing balance rules the whole.
Man, but for that, no action could attend,
And, but for this, were active to no end:
Fix'd like a plant on his peculiar spot,
To draw nutrition, propagate, and rot:
Or, meteor-like, flame lawless thro' the void,
Destroying others, by himself destroy'd.
Moft ftrength the moving principle requires ;
Active its task, it prompts, impels, infpires.
Sedate and quiet the comparing lies,

Form'd but to check, delib'rate, and advife.
Self-love, ftill ftronger, as its objects nigh;
Reafon's at diftance, and in profpect lie:
That fees immediate good by present sense;
Reason, the future and the confequence.

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Thicker than arguments, temptations throng,

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At beft more watchful this, but that more ftrong.
The action of the stronger to fufpend

Reafon ftill ufe, to Reason still attend.

VER. 49. Expunge the whole, or lop th' excrefcent parts-Of all our Vices bave created Arts ;] i. e. Thofe parts of Natural Philofophy, Logic, Rhetoric, Poetry, etc. that adminifter to luxury, deceit, ambition, effeminacy, etc.

VER. 74. Reafon, the future and the confequence.] i. e By experience Reafon collects the future; and by argumentation, the confequence.

Attention, habit and experience gains;

Each ftrengthens Reafon, and Self-love reftrains. 80 Let fubtle fchoolmen teach these friends to fight, More ftudious to divide than to unite;

And Grace and Virtue, Senfe and Reason split,
With all the rafh dexterity of wit.

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Wits, juft like Fools, at war about a name,
Have full as oft no meaning, or the same.
Self love and Reafon to one end afpire,
Pain their averfion, Pleasure their defire;
But greedy That, its object would devour,

This taste the honey, and not wound the flow'r go
Pleasure, or wrong or rightly understood,

Our greatest evil, or our greatest good.

III. Modes of Self-love the Paffions we may call :
'Tis real good, or feeming, moves them all:
But fince not ev'ry good we can divide,
And Reafon bids us for our own provide;
Paffions, tho' felfish, if their means be fair,
Lift under Reason, and deserve her care;
Thofe, that imparted, court a nobler aim,
Exalt their kind, and take fome Virtue's name.
In lazy Apathy let Stoics boaft
Their Virtue fix'd; 'tis fix'd as in a froft;
Contracted all, retiring to the breast;
But ftrength of mind is Exercise, not Rest:
The rifing tempest puts in act the foul,
Parts it may ravage, but preferves the whole.

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VARIATION ST

After ver. 86. in the MS.

Of good and evil Gods what frighted Fools,
Of good and evil Reafon puzzled Schools,
Deceiv'd, deceiving, taught-

On life's vaft ocean diverfely we fail,

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Reason the card, but Paffion is the gale;
Nor God alone in the still calm we find,
He mounts the ftorm, and walks upon the wind.
Paffione, like elements, tho' born to fight,
Yet, mix'd and foften'd, in his work unite:
Thefe 'tis enough to temper and employ;
But what compofes Man, can Man destroy?
Suffice that Reafon keep to Nature's road,
Subject, compound them, follow her and God.
Love, Hope, and Joy, fair Pleafure's fmiling train,,
Hate, Fear, and Grief, the family of Pain,
These mixt with art, and to due bounds confin'd,
Make and maintain the balance of the mind:
The lights and shades, whose well accorded ftrife
Give all the ftrength and colour of our life.
Pleasures are ever in our hands or eyes;
And when, in act, they cease, in profpect, rife:
Prefent to grafp, and future ftill to find,

The whole employ of body and of mind.

All spread their charms, but charm not all alike;
On diff'rent fenfes, diff'rent objects strike;
Hence diff'rent Paffions more or less inflame,
As ftrong or weak, the organs of the frame;
And hence one MASTER PASSION in the breaft,
Like Aaron's ferpent, fwallows up the reft.

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As Man, perhaps, the moment of his breath, Receives the lurking principle of death;

The young disease, that muft fubdue at length, 135
Grows with his growth, and strengthens with his strengths
So, caft and mingled with his very frame,

The Mind's disease, its RULING PASSION Came;
Each vital humour which should feed the whole,
Soon flows to this, in body and in foul:
Whatever warms the heart, or fills the head,
As the mind opens, and its functions spread,
Imagination plies her dang'rous art,
And pours it all upon the peccant part.
Nature its mother, Habit is its nurse;
Wit, Spirit, Faculties, but make it worse;
Reafon itself but gives it edge and pow'r;
As Heav'n's bleft beam turns vinegar more four.
We, wretched fubjects tho' to lawful fway,

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In this weak queen, fome fav'rite still obey:
Ah! if the lend not arms, as well as rules,
What can fhe more than tell us we are fools?
Teach us to mourn our Nature, not to mend,
A sharp accufer, but a helpless friend!
Or from a judge turn pleader, to perfuade
The choice we make, or juftify it made;

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Proud of an eafy conqueft all along,

She but removes weak paffions for the ftrong:
So, when fmall humours gather to a gout,
The doctor fancies he has driv'n them out.

Yes, Nature's road muft ever be preferr❜d; Reafon is here no guide, but ftill a guard;

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VER. 133. A Man, perhaps, etc.] " Antipater Sidonius, Poeta ❝omnibus annis uno die natali tantum corripiebatur febre, et ea "confumptus eft fatis longa fenecta." Plin. lib. vii. Nat. Hift.. This Antipater was in the times of Craffus, and is celebrated for the quickness of his parts by Cicero

'Tis hers to rectify, not overthrow,
And treat this paffion more as friend than foe;
A mig tier Pow'r the strong direction fends,
And fev'ral Men impels to fev'ral ends:
Like varying winds, by other passions toft,
This drives them conftant to a certain coaft.
Let pow'r or knowledge, gold or glory please,
Or (oft more strong than all) the love of eafe;
Thro' life 'tis follow'd, 'ev'n at life's expence ;
The merchant's toil, the fage's indolence,
The monk's humility, the hero's pride,
All, all alike, find Reafon on their fide.

Th' Eternal Art educing good from ill,
Grafts on this Paffion our best principle:
'Tis thus the Mercury of Man is fix'd,
Strong grows the Virtue with his nature mix'd;
The drofs cements what else were too refin'd,
And in one int❜reft body acts with mind.

As fruits, ungrateful to the planter's care,
On favage ftocks inserted learn to bear ;
The fureft Virtues thus from Passions shoot,
Wild Nature's vigour working at the root.
What crops of wit and honesty appear
From fpleen, from obftinacy, hate, or fear!
See anger, zeal and fortitude supply;
Ev'n av'rice, prudence; floth, philosophy;
Luft, thro' 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.

VARIATION S

After ver. 194. in the MS.

How oft, with Paffion, Virtue points her Charms !
Then fhines the Hero, then the Patriot warms.

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