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His Principle of action once explore,

That inftant 'tis his Principle no more.

Like following life thro' creatures you diffect,
You lose it in the moment you detect.

Yet more'; the diff'rence is as great between
The optics feeing, as the objects feen.
All Manners take a tincture from our own;
Or come difcolour'd thro' our Paffions shown.
Or Fancy's beam enlarges, multiplies,
Contracts, inverts, and gives ten thousand dyes.
Nor will Life's stream for Observation stay,

It hurries all too fast to mark their

way:

In vain fedate reflections we wou'd make,

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When half our knowledge we must snatch, not take.

Oft, in the Paffions' wild rotation toft,

Our spring of action to ourselves is loft:

Tir'd, not determin'd, to the last we yield,
And what comes then is mafter of the field.

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As the last image of that troubled heap,
When Senfe fubfides, and Fancy fports in fleep,
(Tho' paft the recollection of the thought)
Becomes the stuff of which our dream is wrought:
Something as dim to our internal view,

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Is thus, perhaps, the cause of moft we do.

True, fome are open, and to all men known; Others fo very close, they're hid from none;

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(So Darkness strikes the sense no less than Light)
Thus gracious CHANDOS is belov'd at sight;
And ev'ry child hates Shylock, tho' his foul
Still fits at fquat, and peeps not from its hole.
At half mankind when gen'rous Manly raves,
All know 'tis Virtue, for he thinks them knaves:
When univerfal homage Umbra pays,

All fee 'tis Vice, and itch of vulgar praife.
When Flatt'ry glares, all hate it in a Queen,

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While one there is who charms us with his Spleen.
But thefe plain Characters we rarely find;
Tho' ftrong the bent, yet quick the turns of mind:
Or puzzling Contraries confound the whole;

Or Affectations quite reverse the foul.
The Dull, flat Falfhood ferves, for policy;
And in the Cunning, Truth itself's a lye:
Unthought-of Frailties cheat us in the Wife;
The Fool lies hid in inconfiftencies.

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See the fame man, in vigour, in the gout;

Alone, in company; in place, or out;

Early at Bus'nefs, and at Hazard late;
Mad at a Fox-chace, wife at a Debate;
Drunk at a Borough, civil at a Ball;

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Friendly at Hackney, faithless at Whitehall.

Catius is ever moral, ever grave,

Thinks who endures a knave, is next a knave,

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Save just at dinner-then prefers, no doubt,
A Rogue with Ven'fon to a Saint without.
Who would not praise Patritio's high defert,
His hand unftain'd, his uncorrupted heart,
His comprehensive head! all Int'refts weigh'd,
All Europe fav'd, yet Britain not betray'd.
He thanks you not, his pride is in Picquette,
New-market-fame, and judgment at a Bett.

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What made (fayMontagne, or more fage Charron!) Otho a warrior, Cromwell a buffoon?

VARIATIONS.

After 86. in the former Editions,

Triumphant leaders, at an army's head,
Hemm'd round with glories, pilfer cloth or bread
As meanly plunder as they bravely fought,
Now fave a People, and now fave a groat.

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nite number of his thoughts
into his famous book De la
Sageffe; but his moderating
every-v
-where the extrava-
gant Pyrrhonifm of his
friend, is the reafon why
the poet calls him more fage

VER.87-fay Montagne, or more fage Charren!] Charron was an admirer of Montagne; had contracted a ftrict friendship with him; and has transferred an infi- | Charron.

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A perjur'd Prince a leaden Saint revere,
A godlefs Regent tremble at a Star?
The throne a Bigot keep, a Genius quit,
Faithless thro' Piety, and dup'd thro' Wit?
Europe a Woman, Child, or Dotard rule,
And juft her wifeft monarch made a fool?
Know, GOD and NATURE only are the fame :
In Man, the judgment shoots at flying game,

NOTES.

his death. P

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VER. 93. Europe a Woman, Child, or Dotard rule, -And just her wifeft monarch made a fool?] The Czarina, the King of France, the Pope, and the abovementioned King of Sardinia.

VER. 89. A perjur'd | fume it, was imprisoned till Prince] Louis XI. of France, wore in his Hat a leaden image of the Virgin Mary, which when he swore by, he feared to break his oath. P. VER 90. A godless Re gent tremble at a Star?] Philip Duke of Orleans, Regent of France in the minority of Louis XV. fuperftitious in judicial aftrology, tho' an unbeliever in all religion. P:

VER 91. The throne a Bigot keep, a Genius quit,] Philip V. of Spain, who, after renouncing the throne for Religion, refumed it to gratify his Queen; and Victor Amadeus II. King of Sardinia, who refigned the crown, and trying to reaf

VER. 95. Know, God and Nature, &c.] By Nature is not here meant any imaginary fubftitute of God, call'd a Plaftic nature; but his moral laws: And this obfervation was inferted with great propriety and difcretion, in the conclufion of a long detail of the various characters of men: For, from this circumftance, Montagne and others have been bold enough to infinuate, that

A bird of paffage! gone as soon as found,

Now in the Moon perhaps, now under ground.

In vain the Sage, with retrospective eye, Would from th'apparent What conclude the Why, Infer the Motive from the Deed, and fhew,

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That what we chanc'd was what we meant to do.
Behold! If Fortune or a Mistress frowns,
Some plunge in bus'nefs, others fhave their crowns:
To ease the Soul of one oppreffive weight,
This quits an Empire, that embroils a State :
The fame aduft complexion has impell'd
Charles to the Convent, Philip to the Field.

NOTES.

morality is founded more in cuftom and fashion than in the nature of things. The fpeaking therefore of a moral law of God, as having all the conftancy and durability of his Effence, had an high expediency in this place.

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derived it from his father Charles V. whofe health the hiftorians of his life tell us, was frequently diforder'd by bilious fevers. But what the author meant principally to obferve here was, that this humour made both these princes act contrary to their VER. 107. The fame aduft Character; Charles, who complexion has impell'd was an active man, when Charles to the Convent, he retired into a Convent ; Philip to the Field.] The Philip, who was a man atrabilaire complexion of of the Clofet, when he Philip II. is well known, gave the battle of St Quinbut not fo well that he | tin.

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