Thus Nature gives us (let it check our pride) The virtue nearest to our vice ally'd: Reason the byas turns to good from ill, And Nero reigns a Titus, if he will. 'The fiery foul abhorr'd in Catiline,
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 shall divide? The God within the mind. Extremes in Nature equal ends produce, In man they join to fome mysterious use; Tho' each by turns the other's bounds invade, As, in fome well-wrought picture, light and shade,
VER. 204. The God within the mind.] A Platonic phrase for Confcience; and here employed with great judgment and propriety. For Confcience either fignifies, fpeculatively, the judgment we pafs of things upon whatever principles we chance to have; and then it is only Opinion, a very unable judge and divider. Or elfe it fignifies, practically, the application of the eternal rule of right (received by us as the law of God) to the regulations of our actions; and then it is properly Confcience, the God (or the law of God) within the mind, of power to divide the light from the darkness in this chaos of the paffions.
Peleus' great Son, 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 task, cries Bibulus, and Reason weak. -Make it a point, dear Marquefs, or a pique. Once, for a whim, perfuade yourself to pay A debt to Reason, like a debt at play. For right or wrong, have mortals fuffer'd more? B- for his Prince, or ** for his Whore? Whose self-denials nature most controul? His, who would fave a Sixpence, or his Soul? Web for his health, a Chartreux for his Sin, Contend they not which fooneft shall grow thin? What we refolve we can: but here's the fault, We ne'er refolve to do the thing we ought,
And oft fo mix, the diff'rence is too nice Where ends the Virtue, or begins the Vice. 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: Afk where's the North at York, 'tis on the Tweed; In Scotland, at the Orcades; and there, At Greenland, Zembla, or the Lord knows where.
No creature owns it in the first degree,
But thinks his neighbour further gone than he
Ev'n thofe who dwell beneath its very zone, Or never feel the rage, or never own; What happier natures fhrink at with affright, The hard inhabitant contends is right.
Virtuous and vicious ev'ry 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.
After ver. 220. in the first Edition followed these, A Cheat! a Whore! who starts not at the name, In all the Inns of Court or Drury-lane?
After ver. 226. in the MS.
The Col'net fwears the Agent is a dog, The Scriv'ner vows th' Attorney is a rogue. Against the Thief th' Attorney loud inveighs, For whofe ten pound the County twenty pays. The Thief damns Judges, and the Knaves of State; And dying, mourns fmall Villains hang'd by great.
'Tis but by parts we follow good or ill;
For, Vice or Virtue, Self directs it ftill; Each individual seeks a fevʼral goal;
But HEAVEN'S great view is One, and that the Whole, That counter-works each folly and caprice;
That difappoin's th' effect of ev'ry vice;
That, happy frailties to all ranks apply'd: Shame to the virgin, to the matron pride,
Fear to the statesman, rafhness to the chief, To kings prefumption, and to crowds belief: That, Virtue's ends from vanity can raife, Which feeks no int'reft, no reward but praife ;: And build on wants, and on defects of mind, The joy, the peace, the glory of Mankind. Heav'n forming each on other to depend,
A master, or a fervant, or a friend, Bids each on other for affiftance call,
Till one Man's weakness grows the strength of all. Wants, frailties, paffions, closer still ally The common int'reft, or endear the tie.
To thefe we owe true friendship, love fincere, Each home-felt joy that life inherits here; Yet from the fame we learn, in its decline, Thofe joys, thofe loves, thofe int'refts to refign; Taught half by Reafon, half by mere decay, To welcome death, and calmly pafs 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 giv'n,
The poor contents him with the care of Heav'n. See the blind beggar dance, the cripple fing, The fot a hero, lunatic a king;
The ftarving chemift in his golden views Supremely bleft, the poet in his Mufe. See fome strange comfort ev'ry state attend, And pride bestow'd on all, a common friend : See fome fit paffion ev'ry 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 ftraw: Some livelier play-thing gives his youth delight, A little louder, but as empty quite : Scarfs, garters, gold, amuse his riper stage, And beads and pray'r-books are the toys of age: Pleas'd with this bauble ftill, as that before; Till tir'd he sleeps, and Life's poor play is o'er. Mean-while Opinion gilds with varying rays. Those painted clouds that beautify our days; Each want of happiness by Hope fupply'd, And each vacuity of fenfe by Pride:
VER. 270. -the poet in his Mufe.] That no one would change his profeffion or views for those of another, intended to carry his obfervation ftill further, and fhew that Men were unwilling to exchange their own acquirements even for those of the fame kind, confeffedly larger, and infinitely more eminent, in another. To this end he wrote,
What partly pleases, totally will shock:
I question much, if Toland would be Locke.
But wanting another proper inftance of this truth, when he published his laft Edition of the Effay, he reserved the lines above for some following one.
VER 286. And each vacuity of fenfe by Pride:] An eminent Cafuift, Father Francis Garaffe, in his Somme Theologique, has drawn a very charitable conclufion from this principle. Selon la Juftice (fays this equitable Divine) "tout travail honnête doit être recom. "penfé de louange ou de fatisfaction. Quand les bons efprits font "un ouvrage excellent, ils font juftement recompenfez par les "fuffrages du Public. Quand un pauvre efprit travaille beaucoup, .66 pour fair un mauvais ouvrage, il n'eft pas jufte ni raisonable, "qu'il attende des loüanges publiques: car elles ne lui font pas ❝ duës. Mais afin que fes travaux ne demeurent pas fans recom"pense, Dieu lui donne une fatisfaction perfonnelle, que perfonne ❝ne lui peut envier fans une injustice plus que barbare; tout ainsi
Thefe build as faft as knowledge can destroy; In folly's cup ftill laughs the bubble, joy; One profpect loft, another ftill we gain; And not a vanity in giv'n in vain ;
Ev'n mean Self-love becomes, by force divine, The fcale to measure others wants by thine. See! and confefs, one comfort ftill must rife; 'Tis this, Tho' Man's a fool, yet GOD IS WISE.
་་ que Dieu, qui eft jufte, donne de la fatisfaction aux Grenouïlles "de leur chant. Autrement la blâme public, joint à leur mécontentement, feroit suffisant pour les réduire au desespoir."
« PreviousContinue » |