On him, their second Providence, they hung, Poet or patriot, rose but to restore
Their law his eye, their oracle his tongue. The faith and moral, Nature gave before ;
He from the wondering furrow call’d the food, Relum'd her ancient light, not kindled new;
Taught to command the fire, control the flood, If not God's image, yet his shadow drew :
Draw forth the monsters of th' abyss profound, Taught power's due use to people and to kings,
Or fetch th' aërial eagle to the ground.

Taught nor to slack, nor strain its tender strings,
Till drooping, sickening, dying, they began The less, or greater, set so justly true,
Whom they rever'd as God to mourn as Man: That louching one must strike the other too ;
Then, looking up from sire to sire, explor'd Till jarring interests of themselves creato
One great First Father, and that first ador'd. Th’according music of a well-mix'd slaie.
Or plain tradition, that this All begun,

Such is the world's great harmony, that springs
Convey'd unbroken faith from sire to son; From order, union, full consent of things :
The worker from the work distinct was known, Where small and great, where weak and mighty
And simple Reason never sought but one:

made
Ere Wit oblique had broke that steady light, To serve, not suffer, strengthen, not invade;
Man, like his Maker, saw that all was right; More powerful each as needful to the rest,
To virtue, in the paths of pleasure trod,

And, in proportion as it blesses, blest;
And own’d a father when he own'd a God. Draw to one point, and to one centre bring
Love all the faith, and all th' allegiance then ; Beast, man, or angel, servant, lord, or king.
For Nature knew no right divine in men,

For forms of government let fools contest;
No ill could fear in God: and understood

Whate'er is best administer'd is best : A sovereign being, but a sovereign good. For modes of faith, let graceless zealots fight; True faith, true policy, united ran;

His can't be wrong whose life is in the right; That was but love of God, and this of man. In faith and hope the world will disagree, Who first taught souls enslav'd, and realms undone, But all mankind's concern is charity: Th' enormous faith of many made for one ; All must be false that thwarts this one great end ; That proud exception to all Nature's laws, And all of God, that bless mankind, or mend. T'invert the world and counter-work its cause? Man, like the generous vine, supported lives : Force first made conquest, and that conquest, law; The strength he gains is from th' embrace he gives. Till Superstition taught the tyrant awe,

On their own axis as the planets run, Then shar'd the tyranny, then lent it aid,

Yet make at once their circle round the Sun;
And gods of conquerors, slaves of subjects made: So two consistent motions act the soul;
She midst th’lightning's blaze, and thunder's sound, And one regards itself, and one the whole.
When rock'd the mountains, and when groan'd the Thus God and Nature link'd the general frame,
ground,

And bade self-love and social be the same.
She taught the weak to bend, the proud to pray,
To power unseen, and mightier far than they :
She, from the rending earth, and bursting skies,

EPISTLE IV.
Saw gods descend, and fiends infernal rise :
Here fix'd the dreadful, there the blest abodes;
Fear made her devils, and weak Hope her gods;

SPECT TO HAPPINESS.
Gods partial, changeful, passionate, unjust,
Whose attributes were rage, revenge, or lust;

Argument.
Such as the souls of cowards might conceive,
And, form'd like tyrants, tyrants would believe. I. False notions of happiness, philosophical and
Zeal, then, not charity, became the guide ;

popular, answered. II. It is the end of all And Hell was built on spite, and Heaven on pride. nen, and attainable by all. God intends hapThen sacred seem'd th' ethereal vault no more ; piness to be equal; and to be so, it must be Allars grew marble then, and reek'd with gore : social, since all particular happiness depends on Then first the Flamen tasted living food ;

general, and since he governs by general, not Next his grim idol, smeard with human blood ; particular laws. As it is necessary for order, and With heaven's own thunders shook the world below, the peace and welfare of society, that external And play'd the god an engine on his foe.

goods should be unequal, happiness is not made So drives Self-love, through just, and through to consist in these. But, notwithstanding that unjust,

inequality, the balance of happiness among man. To one man's power, ambition, lucre, lust:

kind is kept even by Providence, by the two The same Self-love, in all, becomes the cause passions of Hope and Fear. III. What the Of what restrains him, government and laws. happiness of individuals is, as far as is consistent For, what one likes, if others like as well,

with the constitution of this world; and that the What serves one will, when many wills rebel ? good man has here he advantage. The error How shall he keep, what, sleeping or awake, of imputing to virtue what are only the calamities A weaker may surprise, a stronger take ?

of nature, or of fortune. IV. The folly of exHis safety must his liberty restrain :

pecting that God should alter his general laws All join to guard what each desires to gain.

in favor of particulars. V. That we are not Forc'd into virtue thus, by self-defence,

judges who are good ; but that, whoever they Ev'n kings learn'd justice and benevolence: are, they must be happiest. VI. That external Self-love forsook the path it first pursued.

goods are not the proper rewards, but often And found the private in the public good.

inconsistent with, or destructive of, viriue. 'Twas then the studious head or generous mind, That even these can make no man happy Follower of God, or friend of human-kind,

without virtue: instanced in riches. Honors.

OF THE NATURE AND STATE

OF

MAN WITH REa

Nobility. Greatness. Fame. Superior talents. Heaven breathes through every member of the whole
With pictures of human infelicity in men, pos- One common blessing, as one common soul.
sessed of them all. VII. That virtue only consti- But Fortune's gifts if each alike possest,
tutes a happiness, whose object is universal, and And each were equal, must not all contest ?
whose prospect eternal. That the perfection of if then to all men happiness was meant,
virtue and happiness consists in a conformity to God in externals could not place content.
the order of Providence here, and a resignation Fortune her gists may variously dispose,
to it here and hereafter.

And these be happy callid, unhappy those ;

But Heaven's just balance equal will appear, OA HAPPINESS! our being's end and aim! While those are plac'd in hope, and these in fear : Good, Pleasure, Ease, Content! whate'er thy name: Not present good or ill, the joy or curse, That something still which prompts th' eternal sigh, But future views of better, or of worse. For which we bear to live, or dare to die,

Oh, sons of Earth! attempt ye still to rise, Which still so near us, yet beyond us lies,

By mountains pil'd on mountains, to the skies? O'erlook'd, seen double, by the fool and wise : Heaven still with laughter the vain toil surveys, Plant of celestial seed ! if dropp'd below, And buries madmen in the heaps they raise. Say, in what mortal soil thou deign'st to grow? Know, all the good that individuals find, Fair opening to some court's propitious shine, Or God and Nature meant to mere mankind, Or deep with diamonds in the flaming mine? Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense, Twin'd with the wreaths Parnassian laurels yield, Lie in three words, Health, Peace, and Competence. Or reap'd in iron harvests of the field ?

But Health consists with Temperance alone; Where grows? where grows it not? If vain our toil, And Peace, oh Virtue! Peace is all thy own. We ought to blame the culture, not the soil : The good or bad the gifts of Fortune gain; Fix'd to no spot is happiness sincere,

But these less taste them, as they worse obtain. "Tis nowhere to be found, or everywhere : Say, in pursuit of profit or delight, 'Tis never to be bought, but always free,

Who risk the most, that take wrong means, or right? And, fed from monarchs, St. John! dwells with Of Vice or Virtue, whether blest or curst, thee.

Which meets contempt, or which compassion first ? Ask of the learn'd the way? The learn'd are blind : Count all th’advantage prosperous Vice attains, This bids to serve, and that to shun mankind; "Tis but what Virtue flies from and disdains : Some place the bliss in action, some in ease, And grant the bad what happiness they would, Those call it pleasure, and contentment these : One they must want, which is to pass for good. Some, sunk to beasts, find pleasure end in pain; Oh blind to truth, and God's whole scheme below, Some, swellid to gods, confess ev'n virtue vain; Who fancy bliss to Vice, to Virtue woe! Or, indolent, to each extreme they fall,

Who sees and follows that great scheme the best, To trust in ev'ry thing, or doubt of all.

Best knows the blessing, and will most be blest. Who thus define it, say they more or less, But fools, the good alone, unhappy call, Than this, that happiness is happiness?

For ills or accidents that chance to all. Take Nature's path, and mad Opinion's leave; See Falkland dies, the virtuous and the just ! All states can reach it, and all heads conceive; See godlike Turenne prostrate on the dust! Obvious her goods, in no extreme they dwell; See Sidney bleeds amid the martial strise! There needs but thinking right, and meaning well; Was this their virtue, or contempt of life? And, mourn our various portions as we please, Say, was it virtue, more though Heaven ne'er gave. Equal is common sense, and common ease. Lamented Digby! sunk thee to the grave ? Remember, man, “the Universal Cause

Tell me, if virtue made the son expire, Acts not by partial, but by general laws;" Why, full of days and honor, lives the sire? And makes what happiness we justly call, Why drew Marseilles' good bishop purer breath, Subsist not in the good of one, but all.

When Nature sicken'd, and each gale was death There's not a blessing individuals find,

Or why so long (in life if long can be)
But some way leans and hearkens to the kind : Lent Heaven a parent to the poor and me
No bandit fierce, no tyrant mad with pride,

What makes all physical or moral ill ?
No cavern'd hermit, rests self-satisfied :

There deviates Nature, and here wanders will. Who most to shun or hate mankind pretend, God sends not ill; if rightly understood, Seek an admirer, or would fix a friend :

Or partial ill is universal good, Abstract what others feel, what others think, Or change admits, or Nature lets it fall, All pleasures sicken, and all glories sink : Short, and but rare, till man improv'd it all. Each has his share; and who would more obtain, We just as wisely might of Heaven complain Shall find, the pleasure pays not half the pain. That righteous Abel was destroyed by Cain,

Order is Heaven's first law; and this confest, As that the virtuous son is ill at ease Some are, and must be, greater than the rest, When his lewd father gave the dire disease. More rich, more wise ; but who infers from hence Think we, like some weak prince, th' Eternal Cause That such are happier, shocks all common sense. Prone for his favorites to reverse his laws ? Heaven to mankind impartial we confess,

Shall burning Ætna, if a sage requires,
If all are equal in their happiness :

Forget to thunder, and recall her fires?
But mutual wants this happiness increase ; On air or sea new motions be imprest,
All Nature's difference keeps all Nature's peace. Oh blameless Bethel ! to relieve thy breast ?
Condition, circumstance, is not the thing;

When the loose mountain trembles from on high, Bliss is the same in subject or in king,

Shall gravitation cease, if you go by? In who oblain defence, or who defend,

Or some old temple, nodding to its fall, In him who is, or him who finds a friend :

For Chartres' head reserve the hanging wall ? 48

2 G2

1

:

a

But still this world (so fitted for the knave) What differ more," you cry, "than crown and Contents us not. A better shall we have ?

cowl!" A kingdom of the just then let it be:

I'll tell you, friend! a wise man and a fool.
But first consider how those just agree.

You 'll find, if once the monarch acts the monk,
The good must merit God's peculiar care; Or, cobbler-like, the parson will be drunk,
But who, but God, can tell us who they are ? Worth makes the man, and want of it the fellow;
One thinks on Calvin Heaven's own spirit fell; The rest is all but leather or prunella.
Another deems him instrument of Hell;

Sluck o'er with titles, and hung round witb
If Calvin feels Heaven's blessing, or its rod, .

strings, This cries, there is, and that, there is no God. That thou may'st be by kings, or whores of kings. What shocks one part, will edify the rest,

Boast the pure blood of an illustrious race,
Nor with one system can they all be blest. In quiet flow from Lucrece to Lucrece:
The very best will variously incline,

But, by your father's worth if yours you rate,
And what rewards your virtue, punish mine. Count me those only who were good and great.
WHATEVER IS, IS RIGHT.—This world, 'tis true, Go! if your ancient, but ignoble blood
Was made for Cæsar—but for Titus too;

Has crept through scoundrels ever since the Flood,
And which more blest? who chain'd his country, say, Go! and pretend your family is young;
Or he whose virtue sigh'd to lose a day?

Nor own your fathers have been fools so long.
“But sometimes Virtue starves, whileVice is fed." What can ennoble sots, or slaves, or cowards ?
What then? Is the reward of Virtue bread? Alas! not all the blood of all the Howards.
That, Vice may merit, 'tis the price of toil;

Look next on greatness; say, where greatness
The knave deserves it, when he tills the soil;

lies:
The knave deserves it, when he tempts the main, "Where but among the heroes and the wise ?"
Where folly fights for kings, or dives for gain. Heroes are much the same, the point's agreed,
The good man may be weak, be indolent;

From Macedonia's madman to the Swede;
Nor is his claim to plenty, but content.

The whole strange purpose of their lives, to find,
But grant him riches, your demand is o'er? Or make, an enemy of all mankind !
“No-shall the good want health, the good want Not one looks backward, onward still he goes,
power?"

Yet ne'er looks forward further than his nose.
Add health and power, and every earthly thing, No less alike the politic and wise:
“Why bounded power? why private? why no king ?"| All sly slow things, with circumspective eyes :
Nay, why external for internal given ?

Men in their loose unguarded hours they take,
Why is not man a god, and Earth a Heaven? Not that themselves are wise, but others weak.
Who ask and reason thus, will scarce conceive But grant that those can conquer, these can cheat:
God gives enough, while he has more to give ; 'Tis phrase absurd to call a villain great;
Immense the power, immense were the demand ; Who wickedly is wise, or madly brave,
Say, at what part of Nature will they stand ? Is but the more a fool, the more a krave.
· What nothing earthly gives, or can destroy,

Who noble ends by noble means obtains,
The soul's calm sun-shine, and the heart-felt joy, Or, failing, smiles in exile or in chains,
Is Virtue's prize: A better would you fix ? Like good Aurelius let him reign, or bleed
Then give Humility a coach and six,

Like Socrates, that man is great indeed.
Justice a conqueror's sword, or Truth a gown, What's fame? a fancied life in others' breath,
Or Public Spirit its great cure, a crown.

A thing beyond us, ev'n before our death.
Weak, foolish man? will Heaven reward us there Just what you hear, you have; and what's unknown,
With the same trash mad mortals wish for here? The same, my lord, if Tully's, or your own.
The boy and man an individual makes,

All that we feel of it begins and ends
Yet sigh'st thou now for apples and for cakes? In the small circle of our foes or friends;
Go, like the Indian, in another life

To all beside as much an empty shade
Expect thy dog, thy bottle, and thy wife ;

An Eugene living, as a Cæsar dead;
As well as dream such trifles are assign'd, Alike or when, or where they shone, or shine,
As toys and empires, for a godlike mind;

Or on the Rubicon, or on the Rhine.
Rewards, that either would to virtue bring A wit's a feather, and a chief a rod :
No joy, or be destructive of the thing;

An honest man's the noblest work of God. How oft by these at sixty are undone

Fame but from death a villain's name can save, The virtues of a saint at twenty-one !

As Justice lears his body from the grave; To whom can riches give repute, or trust,

When what t'oblivion better were resign'd, Content, or pleasure, but the good and just ? Is hung on high to poison half mankind. Judges and senates have been bought for gold; All fame is foreign, but of true desert; Esteem and love were never to be sold.

Plays round the head, but comes not to the heart : Oh fool! to think God hates the worthy mind, One self-approving hour whole years outweighs The lover and the love of human-kind,

of stupid starers, and of loud huzzas ; Whose life is healthful, and whose conscience clear, And more true joy Marcellus exil'd feels, Because he wants a thousand pounds a-year. Than Cæsar with a senate at his heels. Honor and shame from no condition rise ;

In parts superior what advantage lies? Act well your part, there all the honor lies. Tell (for you can) what is it to be wise ? Fortune in men has some small difference made, 'Tis but to know how little can be known; One flaunts in rags, one flutters in brocade ; To see all others' faults, and feel our own: The cobbler apron'd, and the parson gown'd, Condemn'd in business or in arts to drudge, The friar hooded, and the monarch crown'd. Without a second, or without a judge :

Truths would you teach, or save a sinking land ? Pursues that chain which links th' immense design, All fear, none aid you, and few understand. Joins Heaven and Earth, and mortal and divine; Painful pre-eminence! yourself to view

Sees, that no being any bliss can know, Above life's weakness, and its comforts too. But touches some above, and some below;

Bring then these blessings to a strict account ; Learns from this union of the rising whole Make fair deductions; see to what they mount: The first, last purpose of the human soul; How much of other each is sure to cost;

And knows where faith, law, morals, all began, How much for other oft is wholly lost ;

All end in love of God, and love of man. How inconsistent greater goods with these ; For him alone, Hope leads from goal to goal, How sometimes life is risk'd, and always ease : And opens still, and opens on his soul : Think, and if still the things thy envy call, Till lengthen'd on to Faith, and unconfin'd, Say, wouldst thou be the man to whom they fall? It pours the bliss that fills up all the mind. To sigh for ribands, if thou art so silly,

He sees, why Nature plants in man alone Mark how they grace Lord Umbra, or Sir Billy. Hope of known bliss, and faith in bliss unknown: Is yellow dirt the passion of thy life?

(Nature, whose dictates to no other kind Look but on Gripus, or on Gripus' wife.

Are given in vain, but what they seek they find :)
If parts allure thee, think how Bacon shin'd, Wise is her present; she connects in this
The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind : His greatest virtue with his greatest bliss ;
Or ravish'd with the whistling of a name,

At once his own bright prospect to be blest;
See Cromwell, damnd to everlasting fame! And strongest motive to assist the rest.
If all, united, thy ambition call,

Self-love thus push'd to social, to divine,
From ancient story, learn to scorn them all. Gives thee to make thy neighbor's blessing thine.
There, in the rich, the honor'd, fam'd, and great, Is this too little for the boundless heart?
See the false scale of happiness complete ! Extend it, let thy enemies have part.
In hearts of kings, or arms of queens who lay, Grasp the whole worlds of reason, life, and sense,
How happy! those to ruin, these betray.

In one close system of benevolence : Mark by what wretched steps their glory grows, Happier as kinder, in whate'er degree, From dirt and sea-weed, as proud Venice rose; And height of bliss but height of charity. In each, how guilt and greatness equal ran,

God loves from whole to parts: but human And all that rais'd the hero, sunk the man :

soul Now Europe's laurels on their brows behold, Must rise from individual to the whole. But slain'd with blood, or ill exchang'd for gold : Self-love but serves the virtuous mind to wake, Then see them broke with toils, or sunk in ease, As the small pebble stirs the peaceful lake; Or infamous for plunder'd provinces.

The centre mov'd, a circle straight succeeds, O! wealth ill-fated; which no act of fame Another still, and still another spreads ; E'er taught to shine, or sanctified from shame! Friend, parent, neighbor, first it will embrace ; What greater bliss attends their close of life? His country next; and next all human race ; Some greedy minion, or imperious wife,

Wide and more wide, th'o'erflowings of the mind The trophied arches, storied balls invade, Take every creature in, of every kind; And haunt their slumbers in the pompous shade. Earth smiles around, with boundless bounty blest, Alas! not dazzled with their noontide ray, And Heaven beholds its image in his breast. Compute the morn and evening to the day;

Come then, my friend! my genius! come along! The whole amount of that enormous fame, Oh master of the poet, and the song ! A tale, that blends their glory with their shame! And while the Muse now stoops, or now ascends,

Know then this truth (enough for man to know), To man's low passions, or their glorious ends, • Virtue alone is happiness below.”

Teach me,

like thee, in various nature wise,
The only point where human bliss stands still, To fall with dignity, with temper rise ;
And tastes the good without the fall to ill; Form'd by thy converse, happily to steer,
Where only merit constant pay receives,

From grave to gay, from lively to severe;
Is blest in what it takes, and what it gives; Correct with spirit, eloquent with ease,
The joy unequallid, if its end it gain,

Intent to reason, or polite to please. And if it lose, attended with no pain :

Oh! while along the stream of time thy namo Without satiety, though e'er so blest,

Expanded flies, and gathers all its fame; And but more relish'd as the more distress'd : Say, shall my little bark attendant sail, The broadest mirth unfeeling Folly wears,

Pursue the triumph, and partake the gale ? Less pleasing far than Virtue's very tears: When statesmen, heroes, kings, in dust repose, Good, from each object, from each place acquir'd, Whose sons shall blush their fathers were thy For ever exercis'd, yet never lir'd;

foes, Never elated, while one man 's oppress'd :

Shall then this verse to future age pretend Never dejected, while another's blest;

Thou wert my guide, philosopher, and friend ? And where no wants, no wishes can remain, That, urg'd by thee, I turn'd the tuneful art, Since but to wish more virtue, is to gain. From sounds to things, from fancy to the heart;

See the sole bliss Heaven could on all bestow! For Wit's false mirror held up Nature's light;
Which who but feels can taste, but thinks can know: Show'd erring Pride, WHATEVER 18, IS RIGHT ;
Yet poor with fortune, and with learning blind, That reason, passion, answer one great aim;
The bad must miss; the good, untaught, will find; That true self-love and social are the same;
Slave to no sect, who takes no private road, That virtue only makes our bliss below;
But looks through Nature, up to Nature's God; And all our knowledge is, ourselves to know.

IN FOUR EPISTLES TO SEVERAL PERSONS.

Extenuantis eas consulto.

OF MEN.

And yet the fate of all extremes is such,

Men may be read, as well as books, too much.
MORAL ESSAYS,

To observations which ourselves we make,
We grow more partial for th'observer's sake;
To written wisdom, as another's, less :

Maxims are drawn from notions, these from guess.

There's some peculiar in each leaf and grain, Est brevitate opus, ut currat sententia, neu se

Some unmark'd fibre, or some varying vein : Impediat verbis lassas operantibus aures :

Shall only man be taken in the gross ?
Et sermone opus est modo tristi, sæpe jocoso,

Grant but as many sorts of mind as moss.
Defendente vicem modo Rhetoris atque Poëtæ,
Interdum urbani, parcentis viribus, atque

That each from other differs, first confess;
Hor.

Next, that he varies from himself no less ;
Add nature's, custom's, reason's, passion's strife,

And all opinion's colors cast on life.
TO SIR RICHARD TEMPLE, L. COBHAM.

Our depths who fathoms, or our shallows finds,

Quick whirls, and shifting eddies, of our minds ? EPISTLE I.

On human actions reason though you can,

It may be reason, but it is not man: OF THE KNOWLEDGE AND CHARACTERS His principle of action once explore,

That instant 'tis his principle no more.

Like following life through creatures you dissect, Argument.

You lose it in the moment you detect.

Yet more; the difference is as great between 1. That it is not sufficient for this knowledge to The optics seeing, as the objects seen.

consider man in the abstract: books will not All manners take a tincture from our own; serve the purpose, nor yet our own experience Or come discolor'd through our passions shown. singly. General maxims, unless they be formed Or Fancy's beam enlarges, multiplies, upon both, will be but notional. Some pecu. Contracts, inverts, and gives ten ihousand dyes. liarity in every man, characteristic to himself, yet

Nor will life's stream for observation stay, varying from himself. Difficulties arising from It hurries all too fast to mark their way: our own passior.s, fancies, faculties. The short. In vain sedate reflections we would make, ness of life to observe in, and the uncertainty of When half our knowledge we must snatch, not take the principles of action in men to observe by. Oft, in the passion's wild rotation tost, Our own principle of action often hid from our Our spring of action to ourselves is lost : selves. Some few characters plain, but in general Tir'd, not determin'd, to the last we yield, confounded, dissembled, or inconsistent. The And what comes then is master of the field. same man utterly different in different places and As the last image of that troubled heap, seasons. Unimaginable weaknesses in the greatest. When sense subsides and fancy sports in sleep, Nothing constant and certain but God and Nature. (Though past the recollection of the thought,) No judging of the motives from the actions; the Becomes the stuff of which our dream is wrought: same actions proceeding from contrary motives, Something as dim to our internal view, and the same motives influencing contrary ac. Is thus, perhaps, the cause of most we do. tions. II. Yet, to form characters, we can only

True, some are open, and to all men known; take the strongest actions of a man's life, and try Others, so very close, they're hid from none; to make them agree: the utter uncertainty of (So darkness strikes the sense no less than light) this, from nature itself, and from policy. Charac. Thus gracious Chandos is belov'd at sight; ters given according to the rank of men of the And every child hates Shylock, though his soul world : and some reason for it. Education alters Still sits at squat, and peeps not from its hole. the nature, or at least character of many. Ac- At half mankind when generous Manly raves, tions, passions, opinions, manners, humors, or prin- all know 'tis virtue, for he thinks them knaves; ciples, all subject to change. No judging by When universal homage Umbra pays,

III. It only remains to find (if we can) All see 'tis vice, an itch of vulgar praise. his ruling passion : that will certainly influence when flattery glares, all hate it in a queen, all the rest, and can reconcile the seeming or While one there is who charms us with his spleen. real inconsistency of all his actions. Instanced

But these plain characters we rarely find : in the extraordinary character of Clodio. A cau. Though strong the bent, yet quick the turns of mind, tion against mistaking second qualities for first, Or puzzling contraries confound the whole; which will destroy all possibility of the know. Or affectations quite reverse the soul. ledge of mankind. Examples of the strength of The dull, flat falsehood serves for policy; the ruling passion, and its continuation to the last And, in the cunning, truth itself's a lie: breath.

Unthought-of frailties cheat us in the wise ;

The fool lies hid in inconsistencies. Yes, you despise the man to books confin'd,

See the same man, in vigor, in the gout
Who from his study rails at human-kind;

Alone, in company; in place, or out;
Though what he learns he speaks, and may advance Early at business, and ai hazard late;
Some general maxims, or be right by chance. Mad at a fox-chase, wise at a debate ;
The coxcomb bird, so talkative and grave, Drunk at a borough, civil at a ball;
That from his cage cries cuckold, whore, and knave, Friendly at Hackney, faithless at Whitehall.
Though many a passenger he rightly call,

Catius is ever moral, ever grave,
You hold him no philosopher at all.

Thinks who endures a knave, is next a knave

nature.