Some place the bliss in action, fome in ease, 25 To trust in ev'ry thing, or doubt of all. Who thus define it, fay they more or lefs Than this, that Happiness is Happiness ? NOTES. Take blance to the tenets of this Effay, are the following: Vol. iv. octavo edition, pp. 223. 324. 388, 389. alfo pp. 49. 316. 328. 336, 337. 339. And in Vol. v. pp. 5, 6. 17. 92. 51. 113. 310. WARTON. VER. 21. 23. Some place the blifs in action, Some funk to Beafs, &c.] 1. Those who place Happinefs, or the fummum bonum, in Pleasure, Hoo; fuch as the Cyrenaic fect, called, on that account, the Hedonic. 2. Those who place it in a certain tranquillity or calmnefs of Mind, which they call Eduμía; fuch as the Democritic fect. 3. The Epicurean. 4. The Stoic. 5. The Protawhich held that Man was πάντων χρημάτων μέτρον, the meagorean, fure of all things; for that all things which appear to him, are, and thofe things which appear not to any Man, are not; so that every imagination or opinion of every Man was true. 6. The Sceptic: Whofe abfolute doubt is, with great judgment, faid to be the effect of Indolence, as well as the abfolute truft of the Protago-, rean: For the fame dread of labour attending the fearch of truth, which makes the Protagorean prefume it is always at hand, makes the Sceptic conclude it is never to be found. The only difference is, that the lazinefs of the one is defponding, and the laziness of the other fanguine; yet both can give it a good name, and call it HAPPINESS. WARBURTON. VER. 23. Some funk to Beafts, &c.] Thefe four lines added in the laft Edition, as neceffary to complete the fummary of the falfe pursuits after Happiness among the Greek Philofophers. WARBURTON. 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 genʼral laws :" COMMENTARY. 30 35 And VER. 29. Take Nature's path, &c.] The Poet then proceeds (from ver. 28 to 35.) to reform their mistakes; and fhews them that, if they will but take the road of Nature, and leave that of mad Opinion, they will foon find Happiness to be a good of the Species, and, like Common Senfe, equally distributed to all mankind. WARBURTON. VER. 35. Remember, Man, &c.] Having expofed the two false fpecies of Happiness, the Philofophical and Popular, and denounced the true; in order to establish the laft, he goes on to a confutation of the two former. I. He first (from ver. 34 to 49.) confutes the Philosophical; which, as we faid, makes Happiness a particular, not a general good: And this two ways; 1. From his grand principle, that God acts by general laws; the confequence of which is, that Hap piness, which supports the well-being of every fyftem, must needs be univerfal; and not partial, as the Philofophers conceived. 2. From fact, that Man inftinctively concurs with this defignation of Providence, to make Happiness universal, by his having no delight in any thing uncommunicated or uncommunicable. NOTES. WARBURTON. VER. 32. There needs but thinking right, &c.] This is a very concife mode of making men wife and virtuous; but it is to be feared this wisdom and virtue is not always to be so easily attained as this verse fuppofes. VER. 34. Equal is Common Senfe,] The experience of every day and every hour convinces us of the falfehood of this Stoical boast. WARTON. And makes what Happiness we justly call But fome way leans and hearkens to the kind; COMMENTARY. 40 45 59. More VER. 49. Order is Heav'n's firft law;] II. In the fecond place (from ver. 48 to 67.), he confutes the popular error concerning Happiness, namely, that it confifts in externals: This he does, firft, by inquiring into the reasons of the present providential difpofition of external goods: A topic of confutation chosen with the greatest accuracy and penetration: For, if it appears they were given in the manner we see them diftributed, for reasons different from the Happiness of Individuals, it is abfurd to think that they should make part of that Happiness. He fhews, therefore, that disparity of external poffeffions among men was for the fake of Society: 1. To promote the harmony and happiness of a fyftem; because the want of external goods in fome, and the abundance in others, increase general harmony in the obliger and obliged, Yet here (says he) mark the impartial wisdom of Heaven; this very inequa lity of externals, by contributing to general harmony and order, produceth an equality of Happiness amongst Individuals. 2. To prevent perpetual difcord amongft men equal in power; which an equal diftribution of external goods would neceffarily. occafion. From hence he concludes, that as external goods were More rich, more wife; but who infers from hence That fuch are happier, fhocks all common sense. If all are equal in their Happiness: But mutual wants this Happiness increase; All Nature's diff'rence keeps all Nature's peace. In who obtain defence, or who defend, In him who is, or him who finds a friend : One common bleffing, as one common foul. 65 Fortune VARIATIONS. After Ver. 52. in the MS. Say not, "Heav'n's here profufe, there poorly faves, After Ver. 66. in the MS. "Tis peace of mind alone is at a stay: The reft mad Fortune gives or takes away. All other blifs by accident's debar'd; But Virtue's, in the inftant, a reward; In hardeft trials operates the beft, And more is relish'd as the more diftreft. COMMENTARY. not given for the reward of virtue, but for many different purposes, God could not, if he intended Happinefs for all, place it in the enjoyment of externals. WARBURTON. Fortune her gifts may variously dispose, But future views of better, or of worse. 71 Oh fons of earth! attempt ye still to rise, COMMENTARY. 75 Reason's VER. 67. Fortune her gifts may variously difpofe, &c.] His fecond argument (from ver. 66 to 73.) against the popular error of Happinefs being placed in externals, is, that the poffeffion of them is infeparably attended with fear; the want of them with hope; which directly croffing all their pretenfions to making happy, evidently fhews that God had placed Happiness elsewhere. And hence, in concluding this argument, he takes occafion (from ver. 72 to 77.) to upbraid the defperate folly and impiety of thofe, who, in fpite of God and Nature, will yet attempt to place Happinefs in externals: "Oh fons of earth! attempt ye ftill to rife, By mountains pil'd on mountains, to the fkies? WARBURTON. VER. 77. Know, all the good, &c.] The Poet having thus confuted the two errors concerning Happinefs, the Philofophical and Popular; and proved that true Happiness was neither folitary and partial, nor yet placed in externals; goes on (from ver. 76 to 83.) to fhew in what it doth confift. He had before said in general, and repeated it, that Happiness lay in common to the whole species. He now brings us better acquainted with it, in a more explicit account |