make no Man happy without Virtue: Instanced in Riches, 183. Honours, y 191. Nobility, $ 203. Greatness, 215. Fame, $ 235. Superior Talents, 257, &c. With pictures of human Infelicity in Men poffefsfed of them all, y 267, &c. VII. That Virtue only constitutes a Happiness, whose object is univerfal, and whose prospect eternal, 307, &c. 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, * 326, &c.

Know then this Truth (enough for Man to know) Virtue alone is Happyness below.

Essay on Man, Ep. IV.

EPISTLE IV.

Ο

H HAPPINESS! our being's end and aim!
Good, Pleasure, Eafe, Content! whate'er thy

name:

That fomething fstill which prompts th' eternal figh, For which we bear to live, or dare to die,

VARIATIONS.

VER. 1. Oh Happiness! &c.] in the MS. thus,

Oh Happiness! to which we all afpire,
Wing'd with strong hope, and borne by full defire;
That ease, for which in want, in wealth we figh;
That eafe, for which we labour and we die.

COMMENTARY.

:

THE two foregoing epistles having confidered Man with regard to the MEANS (that is, in all his relations, whether as an Individual, or a Member of Society) this laft comes to confider him with regard to the END, that is, Happiness.

It opens with an Invocation to HAPPINESS, in the manner of the ancient Poets; who, when deftitute of a patron God, applied to the Muse; and, if she was engaged, took up with any fimple Virtue next at hand, to inspire and profper their Undertakings. This was the ancient Invocation, which few modern Poets have had the art to imitate with any degree either of spirit or decorum: but our author hath contrived to make his fubservient to the method and reasoning of his philosophic compofition. I will endeavour to explain so uncommon a beauty.

Which still so near us, yet beyond us lies,
O'erlook'd, seen double, by the fool, and wife.
Plant of celestial feed! if dropt below,
Say, in what mortal foil thou deign'st to grow?

COMMENTARY.

5

It is to be observed that the pagan Deities had each their several names and places of abode; with some of which they were supposed to be more delighted than others; and consequently to be then most propitious when invoked by the favourite name and place: Hence we find, the hymns of Homer, Orpheus, and Callimachus to be chiefly employed in reckoning up the several titles and habitations by which the patron God was distinguished. Our Poet hath made these two circumstances serve to introduce his subject. His purpose is to write of Happiness; method therefore requires that he first define what men mean by happiness; and this he does in the ornament of a poetic Invocation; in which the several names, that Happiness goes by, are enumerated.

"Oh Happiness! our being's end and aim, "Good, Pleasure, Eafe, Content! whate'er thy Name. After the DEFINITION, that which follows, is the PROPOSITION, which is that human Happiness consists not in external Advantages, but in Virtue. For the subject of this epittle is the detecting the false notions of Happiness, and fettling and explaining the true; and this, the Poet lays down in the next fixteen lines. Now the enumeration of the several fituations where Happiness is supposed to re

NOTES.

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