That, Vice may merit, 'tis the price of toil';
The knave deserves it, when he tills the foil,
The knave deferves it, when he tempts the main,
Where Folly fights for kings, or dives for gain.
The good man may be weak, be indolent;
Nor is his claim to plenty, but content.

155

But grant him Riches, your demand is o'er ? "No-shall the good want Health, the good want Pow'r ?"

Add Health, and Pow'r, and ev'ry earthly thing,

Why bounded Pow'r? why private? why no king?" Nay, why external for internal giv'n?

161

Why is not Man a God, and Earth a Heav'n?
Who ask and reafon thus, will scarce conceive
God gives enough, while he has more to give :
Immenfe the pow'r immenfe were the demand; 165
Say, at what part of nature will they stand ?

What nothing earthly gives, or can destroy,
The foul's calm fun-fhine, and the heart-felt joy,
Is Virtue's prize: A better would
Then give Humility a coach and fix,

you fix?

Juftice a Conq'r's fword, or Truth a gown,
Or Public Spirit its great cure, a Crown.

Say, what rewards this idle world imparts,
Or fit for fearching heads or honeft hearts.

170

175

EP. IV. Weak, foolish man! will Heav'n reward us there With the fame trash mad mortals wifh for here? The Boy and Man an individual makes, Yet figh'ft thou now for apples and for cakes? Go, like the Indian, in another life, Expect thy dog, thy bottle, and thy wife: As well as dream fuch trifles are affign'd, As toys and empires, for a god-like mind. Rewards, that either would to Virtue bring No joy, or be deftructive of the thing: How oft by these at fixty are undone The virtues of a faint at twenty-one !

180

To whom can Riches give Repute, or Truft, 185
Content, or Pleasure, but the Good and Just ?
Judges and Senates have been bought for gold,
Efteem and Love were never to be fold.

Oh fool! to think God hates the worthy mind,
The lover and the love of human-kind,

NOTES.

VER. 177. Go, like the Indian, &c] Alluding to the example of the Indian in Epift. i. 99. and fhewing, that that example was not given to difcredit any ra

190

tional hopes of future happinefs but only to reprove the folly of feparating them them from charity: as when

-Zeal, not Charity, became the guide,
And hell was built on Spite, and heav'n on pride.

Whose life is healthful, and whose conscience clear, Because he wants a thousand pounds a year.

194

Honour and shame from no Condition rife; Act well your part, there all the honour lies. Fortune in Men has fome small diff'rence made, One flaunts in rags, one flutters in brocade; The cobler apron'd, and the parfon gown'd, The frier hooded, and the monarch crown'd. "What differ more (you cry) than crown and cowl ?” I'll tell you, friend! a wife man and a Fool.

200

You'll find, if once the monarch acts the monk,
Or, cobler-like, the parfon will be drunk,
Worth makes the man, and want of it, the fellow;
The reft is all but leather or prunella.

204

Stuck o'er with titles and hung round with strings, That thou may'st be by Kings, or whores of kings. Boaft the pure blood of an illustrious race, In quiet flow from Lucrece to Lucrece :

VARIATIONS.

VER. 207. Boaft the pure blood, &c.] in the MS. thus,
The richest blood, right-honourably old,

Down from Lucretia to Lucretia roll'd,
May fwell thy heart and gallop in thy breast,
Without one dash of usher or of priest:
Thy pride as much despise all other pride
As Chrift-Church once all colleges befide.

But by your father's worth if your's you rate,

Count me those only who were good and great. 210
Go! if your ancient, but ignoble blood

Has crept thro' fcroundels ever fince the flood,
Go! and pretend your family is young;

Nor own, your fathers have been fools fo long.
What can ennoble fots, or flaves, or cowards? 215
Alas! not all the blood of all the HOWARDS.

Look next on Greatnefs; fay where Greatness lies? "Where, but among the Heroes and the Wife?" Heroes are much the fame, the point's agreed, From Macedonia's madman to the Swede;

NOTES.

VER. 219. Heroes are much the fame, &c.] This character might have been drawn with much more

220

force; and deferved the
poet's care. But Milton
fupplies what is here want-
ing.

They err who count it glorious to fubdue
By conqueft far and wide, to over-run
Large Countries, and in field great Battles win,
Great Cities by affault. What do thefe worthies,
But rob and fpoil, burn, flaughter, and enflave
Peaceable Nations, neighb'ring or remote,
Made captive, yet deferving Freedom more
Than thofe their Conquerors; who leave behind
Nothing but ruin wherefoe'er they rove,
And all the flourishing works of peace deftroy?
Then fwell with pride, and must be titled Gods;
'Till Conqueror Death difcovers them scarce Men,
Rolling in brutifb Vices, and deform'd,
Violent ar fhameful death their due reward.

Par. Reg. B. iii.

The whole strange purpose of their lives, to find
Or make, an enemy of all mankind!

225

Not one looks backward, onward ftill he goes,
Yet ne'er looks forward farther than his nofe.
No lefs alike the Politic and Wife;
All fly flow things, with circumfpective eyes:
Men in their loose unguarded hours they take,
Not that themselves are wife, but others weak.
But grant that those can conquer, these can cheat;
'Tis phrase abfurd to call a Villain Great:

230

Who wickedly is wife, or madly brave,

Is but the more a fool, the more a knave.
Who noble ends by noble means obtains,

Or failing, smiles in exile or in chains,

Like good Aurelius let him reign, or bleed

235

Like Socrates, that Man is great indeed.

What's Fame? a fancy'd life in others breath,
A thing beyond us, ev'n before our death.

Juft what you hear, you have, and what's unknown
The fame (my Lord) if Tully's, or your own.
All that we feel of it begins and ends
In the small circle of our foes or friends;
To all befide as much an empty shade

An Eugene living, as a Cæfar dead;

241

Alike or when, or where, they fhone, or fhine, 245 Or on the Rubicon, or on the Rhine,