Deluded wretches, (thus their madness cries)
Dull mopes, weak dupes of philofophic lies,
Uncomforted, unjoyous, and unblest,
Loft from the pleasures here at large poffeft.
What pleasures boast they?

Pleasures of the stews,

Pleasures which Riot's frantic bowls infuse.
Thefe high fruition their grofs fouls repute,
And man's chief good to fink into a brute.
But who that lovely bevy, blithe and gay,
So fmoothly gliding down the hilly way?.

510

515

i Thofe are th' Opinions, who have guided right The unexperienc'd to the plain of light:

520

Returning, new adventurers to bring,
The bleflings of the laft-arriv'd they fing.
Why ingrefs yielded to their favour'd ward
Among the Virtues, to themselves debarr'd?

Opinion's foot is never never found

525

Where Knowledge dwells, 'tis interdicted ground,

At Wisdom's gate th' Opinions must refign

Their charge, thofe limits their employ confine.

Thus trading barks, fkill'd in the wat'ry road,

To distant climes convey their precious load,

530

Then turn their prow, light bounding o'er the main,

And with new traffic store their keels again.

Thus far is clear. But yet untold remains

What the Good Genius to the crowd ordains,

↑ The diftinction between Opinion and Knowledge.

Full

* He bids them hold

535

Fuft on the verge of life.

A spirit with erected courage bold.

Never (he calls) on Fortune's faith rely,
Nor grafp her dubious gifts as property.
Let not her smile tranfport, her frown difmay,
Nor praise, nor blame, nor wonder at her fway
Which reafon never guides: 'tis fortune ftill,
Capricious chance and arbitrary will,

Bad bankers, vain of treasure not their own,
With foolish rapture hug the trusted loan :
Impatient, when the pow'rful bond demands
Its unremember'd cov'nant from their hands.
Unlike to fuch, without a figh restore

540

545

The gift which Wisdom to her fons divides;

Knowledge, whofe beam the doubting judgment guides,

Scatters the fenfual fog, and clear to view

555

Distinguishes false int'reft from the true.
Flee, flee to this, with unabating pace,

Nor parly for a moment at the place

Where Pleasure and her Harlots tempt, nor rest

But at False Wisdom's inn, a tranfient gueft:

560

For

For fhort refection, at her table fit,

And tafte what fcience may your palate hit :
Then wing your journey forward, till you reach
True Wifdom, aed imbibe the truths fhe'll teach.
Such is th' advice the friendly Genius gives,
He perishes who fcorns, who follows lives.
And thus this moral picce inftructs; if aught
Is myftic flill, reveal your doubting thought.
Thanks, generous Sire; tell, then, the tranfient bait,
The Genius grants us at Falfe Wisdom's gate.
Whate'er in arts or fciences is found
Of folid ufe, in their capacious round,
Thefe, Plato reafons, like a curbing rein,
Unruly youth from devious starts restrain.
Muft we, folicitous our fouls to fave,
Afftance from thefe previous studies crave ?
We'll not deny

Neceffity there's none.

Their merit in fome lefs utility;

565

570

575

But they contribute, we aver, no part
To heal the manners and amend the heart.
An author's meaning, in a tongue unknown,

580

May glimmer thro' tranflation in our own:

Yet mafters of his language, we might gain

So in the fciences, tho', rudely taught,

and burtful.

Some trivial purposes by tedious pain.

We

may

attain the little that we ought;

Natural knowledge, how far ufeful, and when unprofitable

585

Yet,

Yet, accurately known they might convey
More light not wholly useless in its way.
But Virtue may be reach'd, thro' all her rules,
Without the curious fubtleties of fchools.

How! not the learn'd excel the common fhoal,
In pow'rful aids to meliorate the foul?
Blind as the crowd alas! to good and ill,
Intangled by the like corrupted will,

What boafts the man of letters o'er the reft?

590

595

Skill'd in all tongues, of all the arts poffeft,

What hinders but he fink into a fot,

A libertine, or villain in a plot,

Mifer, or knave, or whatfo'er you'll name
Of moral lunacy and reafon's fhame?

600

Scandals too rife!

How, then, for living right

Avail those studies, and their vaunted light

Beyond the vulgar?

Nothing. But difclofe

The caufe from whence this strange appearance grows.

Held by a potent charm in this retreat

They dwell, content with nearness to the feat

605

Of Virtuous Wisdom.

Near, methinks, in vain:

Since numbers, oft, from out the nether plain,

'Scap'd from the Snares of Lewdness and Excess,

Undevious to her lofty station prefs,

Yet pass thefe letter'd clans.

610

What,

What, then, are these

In moral things, advantag'd o'er the lees

Of human race in moral things, we find
Thefe duller or less tractable of mind.

Decipher that.

Pride, pride averts their eyes

From offer'd light: in felf-fufficience wife,

615

Altho' unknowing, they prefume to know:

Clogg'd with that vain conceit they creep below,
Nor can mount up to yon exalted bound,

True Wisdom's manfion, by the humble found.

620

Not found by thefe, till the vain vifions fpread,

By Fale Opinion, in the learned head,

Repentance Scatter; and deceiv'd no more,
They own th' illefion which deceiv'd before,
That for True Wildom they embrac'd her shade,
And hence the healing of their fouls delay'd.
Strangers, thefe leffons, oft revolving, hold
Faft to your hearts, and into habit mould :
To this high fcope life's whole attention bend,

Defpife aught elfe as crring from your end.
Do thus, or unavailing is my care,
And all th' inftruction dies away in air.

625

630

The