Let pow'r or knowledge, gold or glory, please ;

Or (oft more strong than all) the love of eafe; 170
Through life 'tis follow'd, even 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.

175

180

As fruits, ungrateful to the planter's care, On favage ftocks inferted, learn to bear;

The

COMMENTARY.

overthrown, but rectified; the next inquiry will be, of what use the ruling paffion is; for an use it must have, if reason be to treat it thus mildly. This ufe he fhews us (from ver. 166 to 197.) is twofold, Natural and Moral.

1. Its Natural use is to conduct Men fteadily to one certain end, who would otherwife be eternally fluctuating between the equal violence of various and difcordant paffions, driving them up and down at random; and, by that means, to enable them to promote the good of fociety, by making each a contributor to the common ftock:

and

"Let pow'r or knowledge, gold or glory, pleafe," &c. 2. Its Moral ufe is to ingraft our ruling Virtue upon it ; by that means to enable us to promote our own good, by turning the exorbitancy of the ruling Paffion into its neighbouring Virtue :

"See anger, zeal and fortitude fupply," &c.

The wisdom of the Divine Artift is, as the Poet finely obferves, very illuftrious in this contrivance; for the mind and body having now one common interest, the efforts of Virtue will have their force infinitely augmented:

'Tis thus the mercury," &c.

WARBURTON.

The surest Virtues thus from Paffions shoot,

Wild Nature's vigour working at the root.
What crops of wit and honesty appear
From spleen, from obftinacy, hate, or fear!
See anger, zeal and fortitude supply;
Ev'n avarice, prudence; floth, philosophy;
Luft, through fome certain ftrainers well refin'd,
Is gentle love, and charms all womankind;
Envy, to which th' ignoble mind's a slave,
Is emulation in the learn'd or brave;

Nor Virtue, male or female, can we name,

185

190

But what will grow on pride, or grow on fhame. Thus Nature gives us (let it check our pride) 195 The virtue nearest to our vice ally'd:

Reason

VARIATIONS.

After ver. 194. in the MS.

How oft, with Paffion, Virtue points her charms!
Then fhines the Hero, then the Patriot warms.
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 ?
Whofe felf-denials Nature must controul?
His, who would fave a Sixpence, or his Soul?
Web for his health, a Chartreux for his Sin,
Contend they not which foonest shall grow thin?
What we refolve, we can: but here's the fault,
We ne'er refolve to do the thing we ought.

Reafon the bias turns from good to 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 destroy or save,
And makes a patriot as it makes a knave.

This light and darkness in our chaos join'd,
What fhall divide? The God within the mind.

COMMENTARY.

200

Extremes

VER. 197. Reafon the bias, &c.] But left it fhould be objected that this account favours the doctrine of Neceffity, and would infinuate that men are only acted upon, in the production of good out of evil; the Poet teacheth (from ver. 196 to 203.), that Man is a free agent, and hath it in his power to turn the natural paffions into virtues or into vices, properly fo called:

"Reafon the bias turns to good from ill,

And Nero reigns a Titus, if he will."

Secondly, If it should be objected, that though he doth, indeed, tell us fome actions are beneficial and fome hurtful, yet he could not call thofe virtuous, nor thefe vicious, because, as he hath defcribed things, the motive appears to be only the gratification of some paffion; give me leave to anfwer for him, that this would be mistaking the argument, which (to ver. 249. of this epiftle) confiders the paffions only with regard to Society, that is, with regard to their effects rather than their motives: That, however, it is his defign to teach that actions are properly virtuous and vicious; and though it be difficult to distinguish genuine virtue from fpurious, they having both. the fame appearance, and both the fame public effects, yet that they may be disentangled. If it be asked, by what means? he replies (from ver. 202 to 205.) by Confcience ;— the God within the mind;-and this is to the purpose; for it is a Man's own concern, and no one's else, to know whether his virtue be pure and folid; for what is it to others, whether this virtue (while, as to them, the effect of it is the fame) be real or imaginary? WARBURTON.

NOTES.

VER. 204. The God within the mind.] Confcience ;-a fublime expreffion of Plato.

Extremes in Nature equal ends produce,

205

In Man they join to fome mysterious use;

Tho' each by turns the other's bound invade,

As, in fome well-wrought picture, light and shade, And oft fo mix, the diff'rence is too nice

Where ends the Virtue, or begins the Vice.

210

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?
Afk your own heart, and nothing is fo 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;

215

Yet

COMMENTARY.

VER. 205. Extremes in Nature equal ends produce, &c.] But ftill it will be faid, Why all this difficulty to diftinguish true virtue from false? The Poet fhews why (from ver. 204 to 211.); That though indeed vice and virtue fo invade each other's bounds, that fometimes we can scarce tell where one ends and the other begins, yet great purposes are served thereby, no less than the perfecting the conftitution of the Whole, as lights and fhades, which run into one another infenfibly in a well-wrought picture, make the harmony and spirit of the compofition. But on this account to fay there is neither vice nor virtue, the Poet fhews (from ver. 210 to 217.) would be just as wife as to fay, there is neither black nor white, because the shade of that, and the light of this, often run into one another, and are mutually lost :

"Ask your own heart, and nothing is so plain;

'Tis to mistake them, cofts the time and pain." This is an error of Speculation, which leads Men fo foolishly to conclude, that there is neither vice nor virtue. WARBURTON.

VER. 217. Vice is a monster, &c.] There is another Error, an error of practice, which hath more general and hurtful effects; and

Yet feen too oft, familiar with her face,

We first endure, then pity, then embrace.

220

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, Sembla, or the Lord knows where.

VARIATIONS.

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?

COMMENTARY.

Na

is next confidered (from ver. 216 to 221.). It is this, that though, at the first aspect, Vice be fo horrible as to fright the beholder, yet, when by habit we are once grown familiar with her, we first fuffer, and in time begin to lose the memory of her nature; which neceffarily implies an equal ignorance in the nature of Virtue. Hence men conclude, that there is neither one nor the other.

WARBURTON.

VER. 221. But where th' Extreme of Vice, &c.] But it is not only that extreme of Vice which stands next to Virtue, which betrays us into these mistakes. We are deceived too, as he fhews us (from ver. 220 to 231.), by our obfervations concerning the other extreme: For from the extreme of Vice being unsettled, Men conclude that Vice itself is only nominal, at least rather comparative than real, WARBURTON,

NOTES.

VER. 217. Vice is a monfler, &c.] "Hence we find," fays that amiable moralift Hutchefon," that the basest actions are dreffed in fome tolerable mask :"-" What others call avarice, appears to the agent a prudent care of a family or friends; fraud, artful conduct; malice and revenge, a juft sense of honour; fire and fword, and defolation among enemies, a juft thorough defence of our country; perfecution, a zeal for truth, and for the eternal happiness of men, which heretics oppose." WARTON.

VER. 217. Vice is a monfler] Parody on Dryden's lines on Virtue.