True, some are open, and to all men known;
Others so very close they're hid from none;
(So darkness strikes the sense no less than light)
Thus gracious Chandos is belov❜d at sight;
And every child hates Shylock, though his soul
Still sits at squat, and peeps not from its hole.
At half mankind when generous Manly1 raves,
All know 'tis virtue, for he thinks them knaves :
When universal homage Umbra pays,

All see 'tis vice, and itch of vulgar praise.
When flattery glares, all hate it in a queen,o
While one there is who charms us with his spleen.
But these plain characters we rarely find;
Though strong the bent, yet quick the turns of mind:
Or puzzling contraries confound the whole;
Or affectations quite reverse the soul.
The dull flat falsehood serves for policy;
And in the cunning truth itself's a lie:
Unthought-of frailties cheat us in the wise:
The fool lies hid in inconsistencies.

See the same man in vigour, in the gout,
Alone, in company, in place, or out;
Early at business, and at hazard late,
Mad at a fox-chase, wise at a debate,
Drunk at a borough, civil at a ball,
Friendly at Hackney, faithless at Whitehall!
Catius is ever moral, ever grave,

Thinks who endures a knave is next a knave,

The principal character in Wycherley's Plain Dealer. 2 Queen Caroline. 3. Swift.

Save just at dinner-then prefers, no doubt,
A rogue with venison to a saint without.

Who would not praise Patricio's high desert
His hand unstain'd, his uncorrupted heart,
His comprehensive head? all interests weigh'd,
All Europe sav'd, yet Britain not betray'd!
He thanks you not, his pride is in piquet,
Newmarket fame, and judgment at a bet.
What made (say, Montaigne, or more sage
Charron)

Otho a warrior, Cromwell a buffoon?
A perjur'd prince,5 a leaden saint revere,
A godless regent6 tremble at a star?
The throne a bigot keep, a genius quit,7
Faithless through piety, and dup'd through wit?
Europe a woman,8 child, or dotard, rule;
And just her wisest monarch made a fool?

Know, God and nature only are the same:
In man the judgment shoots at flying game;
A bird of passage! gone as soon as found;
Now in the moon, perhaps now under ground.

4 Lord Godolphin.

5 Louis XI. of France.

6 Philip Duke of Orleans, Regent in the minority of Louis XV.

7 Philip V. of Spain, who after renouncing the throne for religion, resumed it to gratify his qeeen; and Victor Amadeus II. king of Sardinia, who resigned the crown, and trying to reassume it, was imprisoned till his death.

The Czarina, the king of France, the Pope, and the abovementioned king of Sardinia.

PART II.

In vain the sage, with retrospective eye,
Would from th' apparent what conclude the why,
Infer the motive from the deed, and show
That what we chanc'd was what we meant to do.
Behold! if fortune or a mistress frowns,
Some plunge in business, others shave their crowns:
To ease the soul of one oppressive weight,
This quits an empire, that embroils a state.
The same adust complexion has impell'd
Charles to the convent, Philip to the field.

Not always actions show the man: we find
Who does a kindness is not therefore kind;
Perhaps prosperity becalm'd his breast;

Perhaps the wind just shifted from the east :
Not therefore humble he who seeks retreat;
Pride guides his steps, and bids him shun the
great:

Who combats bravely is not therefore brave:
He dreads a deathbed like the meanest slave:
Who reasons wisely is not therefore wise;
His pride in reasoning, not in acting, lies.

But grant that actions best discover man; Take the most strong, and sort them as you can: The few that glare each character must mark; You balance not the many in the dark.

What will
you do with such as disagree?
Suppress them, or miscall them policy?
Must then at once (the character to save)
The plain rough hero turn a crafty knave?
Alas! in truth the man but chang'd his mind;
Perhaps was sick, in love, or had not din'd.
Ask why from Britain Cæsar would retreat?
Cæsar himself might whisper he was beat.
Why risk the world's great empire for a punk?
Cæsar perhaps might answer, he was drunk.
But, sage historians! 'tis your task to prove
One action, conduct, one heroic love.

'Tis from high life high characters are drawn:
A saint in crape is twice a saint in lawn:
A judge is just, a chancellor juster still;
A gownman learn'd; a bishop what you will;
Wise if a minister; but if a king,

More wise, more learn'd, more just, more every thing.

Court-virtues bear, like gems, the highest rate, Born where Heaven's influence scarce can pene

trate.

In life's low vale, the soil the virtues like,
They please as beauties, here as wonders strike.
Though the same sun, with all-diffusive rays,
Blush in the rose, and in the diamond blaze,
We prize the stronger effort of his power,
And justly set the gem above the flower.

'Tis education forms the common mind; Just as the twig is bent the tree's inclin'd.

Boastful and rough, your first son is a 'squire ;
The next a tradesman, meek, and much a liar ;
Tom struts a soldier, open, bold, and brave;
Will sneaks a scrivener, an exceeding knave.
Is he a churchman? then he's fond of power:
A quaker?—sly: a presbyterian ?—sour:
A smart free-thinker?—all things in an hour.
Ask men's opinion: Scoto now shall tell
How trade increases, and the world goes well:
Strike off his pension by the setting sun,
And Britain, if not Europe, is undone.

That gay free-thinker, a fine talker once,
What turns him now a stupid silent dunce?
Some god or spirit he has lately found,
Or chanc'd to meet a minister that frown'd.

Judge we by nature ?-habit can efface,
Interest o'ercome, or policy take place :
By actions?-those uncertainty divides:
By passions?-these dissimulation hides :
Opinions?—they still take a wider range :
Find, if you can, in what you cannot change.
Manners with fortunes, humours turn with
climes,

Tenets with books, and principles with times.