In Faith and Hope the world will disagree,
But all mankind's concern is Charity:

All must be false that thwart this One great End;
And all of God, that bless mankind, or mend.

Man, like the gen'rous vine, supported 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 Sun;
So two consistent motions act the Soul;
And one regards Itself, and one the Whole.

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315

Thus God and Nature link'd the gen'ral frame,

And bade Self-love and Social be the same.

ESSAY ON MAN.

EPISTLE IV.

ARGUMENT OF EPISTLE IV.

OF THE NATURE AND STATE OF MAN WITH RESPECT TO HAPPINESS.

I. FALSE Notions of Happiness, Philosophical and Popular, answered 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 so, it must be social, since all particular Happiness depends on general, and since he governs by general, not particular Laws, ver. 37. As it is necessary for Order, and the peace and welfare of Society, that external goods should be unequal, Happiness is not made to consist in these, ver. 51. But, notwithstanding that inequality, the balance of Happiness among mankind is kept even by Providence, by the two Passions of Hope and Fear, ver. 70. III. What the Happiness of Individuals is, as far as is consistent with the constitution 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 proper rewards, but often inconsistent with, or destructive of Virtue, ver. 167. That even these can make no Man happy without Virtue: Instanced in Riches, ver. 185. Honours, ver. 193. Nobility, ver. 205. Greatness, ver. 217. Fame, ver. 237. Superior Talents, ver. 259, &c. With pictures of human infelicity in Men possessed of them all, ver. 269, &c. VII. That Virtue only constitutes a Happiness, whose object is universal, and whose prospect eternal, ver. 309. That the perfection of Virtue and Happiness consists in a conformity to the Order of Providence here, and a Resignation to it here and hereafter, ver. 326, &c.

ESSAY ON MAN.

EPISTLE IV.

OH Happiness! our being's end and aim!
Good, pleasure, Ease, Content! whate'er thy name:
That something still which prompts th' eternal sigh,
For which we bear to live, or dare to die,
Which still so near us, yet beyond us lies,
O'erlook'd, seen double, by the fool, and wise.
Plant of celestial seed! if dropt below,
Say, in what mortal soil thou deign'st to grow?
Fair op'ning to some Court's propitious shine,
Or deep with di'monds in the flaming mine?
Twin'd with the wreaths Parnassian 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 soil:
Fix'd to no spot is Happiness sincere,
'Tis no where to be found, or ev'ry where:
'Tis never to be bought, but always free,

And fled from monarchs, St. John! dwells with thee.

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10

15

THE two foregoing Epistles having considered Man with regard to the Means, (that is, in all his relations, whether as an Individual or a Member of Society), this last comes to consider him with regard to the End, that is, HAPPINESS.

Ver. 6. O'erlook'd, seen double,] O'erlook'd by those who place Happiness in any thing exclusive of Virtue; seen double by those who admit any thing else to have a share with Virtue in procuring Happiness; these being the two general mistakes that this Epistle is employed in confuting.

VARIATIONS.

Ver. 1. Oh Happiness! etc.] in the MS. thus,

Oh Happiness! to which we all aspire,

Wing'd with strong hope, and borne by full desire;
That ease,

for which in want, in wealth we sigh;

That ease, for which we labour and we die.

VOL. II.

I

20

Ask of the Learn'd the way? The Learn'd are blind; This bids to serve, and that to shun mankind; Some place the bliss in action, some in ease, Those call it Pleasure, and Contentment these; Some sunk to beasts, find Pleasure end in Pain; Some swell'd to gods, confess ev'n Virtue vain; Or indolent, to each extreme they fall,

To trust in ev'ry thing, or doubt of all.

25

Who thus define it, say they more or less Than this, that Happiness is Happiness?

Take Nature's path, and mad Opinion's leave;
All states can reach it, and all heads conceive;
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 Sense, and Common Ease.
Remember, Man, "The universal Cause
"Acts not by partial, but by gen'ral laws;"
And makes what Happiness we justly call
Subsist not in the good of one, but all.

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35

Ver. 21. Some place the bliss in action-Some sunk to beasts, etc.] 1. Those who place Happiness, or the summum bonum, in Pleasure, Hdovn, such as the Cyrenaic sect, called on that account the Hedonic. 2. Those who place it in a certain tranquillity or calmness of mind which they call Evμia, such as the Democritic sect. 3. The Epicurean. 4. The Stoic. 5. The Protagorean, which held that Man was wavlov Xpnμat wv μerpov, the measure of all things; for that all things which appear to him are, and those things which appear not to any man are not; so that every imagination or opinion of every man was true. 6. The Sceptic: Whose absolute Doubt is with great judgment said to be the effect of Indolence, as well as the absolute trust of the Protagorean: For the same dread of labour attending the search of truth, which makes the Protagorean presume it to be always at hand, makes the Sceptic conclude it is never to be found. The only difference is, that the laziness of the one is desponding, and the laziness of the other sanguine; yet both can give it a good name, and call it Happiness.

Ver. 23. Some sunk to beasts, etc.] These four lines added in the last Edition, as necessary to complete the summary of the false pur suits after Happiness amongst the Greek philosophers.