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As Man, perhaps, the moment of his breath, Receives the lurking principle of death ;

The young disease, that must subdue at length, 135 Grows with his growth, and strengthens with his ftrength:

So, caft and mingled with his very frame,

The Mind's disease, its RULING PASSION came; Each vital humour which should feed the whole, Soon flows to this, in body and in soul :

140

Whatever warms the heart, or fills the head,
As the mind opens, and its functions spread,
Imagination plies her dang'rous art,
And pours it all upon the peccant part.

Nature its mother, Habit is its nurse;

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Wit, Spirit, Faculties, but make it worse ;
Reason itself but gives it edge and pow'r;
As Heav'n's bleft beam turns vinegar more fowr;

NOTES.

VER. 133. As Man per- | haps, &c.] Antipater Sidonius Poëta omnibus annis uno die natali tantum corripiebatur febre, et eo confumptus eft fatis longa fenecta. Plin.

1. vii. N. H. This Antipater was in the times of Craffus, and is celebrated for the quickness of his parts by Cicero.

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We, wretched fubjects tho' to lawful fway,

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In this weak queen, fome fav'rite still obey:
Ah! if the lend not arms, as well as rules,
What can fhe more than tell us we are fools?
Teach us to mourn our Nature, not to mend,
A fharp accufer, but a helplefs friend!
Or from a judge turn pleader, to persuade
The choice we make, or justify it made;
Proud of an eafy conquest all along,

She but removes weak paffions for the ftrong:
So, when small humours gather to a gout,
The doctor fancies he has driv'n them out.

Yes, Nature's road must ever be preferr'd ;
Reason is here no guide, but still a guard :
'Tis her's to rectify, not overthrow,

And treat this paffion more as friend than foe:

NOTES.

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tion that we ought to seek for a cure in that religion, which only dares profefs to give it?

VER. 149. We, wretched | is this then, but an intimafubjects, &c.] St Paul himfelf did not chufe to employ other arguments, when difpofed to give us the highest idea of the usefulness of Christianity. (Rom. vii.) But, it may be, the poet finds a remedy in Natural Religion. Far from it. He here leaves, reafon unrelieved.

What

VER. 163. 'Tis her's to rectify, &c.] The meaning of this precept is, That as the ruling Paffion is implanted by Nature, it is Reafon's office to regulate,

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A mightier Pow'r the ftrong direction fends,
And fev'ral Men impels to fev'ral ends:
Like varying winds, by other paffions tost,
This drives them conftant to a certain coast.
Let pow'r or knowledge, gold or glory, please,
Or (oft more strong than all) the love of eafe; 170
Thro' life 'tis follow'd, ev'n at life's expence;
The merchant's toil, the fage's indolence,
The monk's humility, the hero's pride,
All, all alike, find Reason on their fide.

Th' Eternal Art educing good from ill,
Grafts on this Paffion our beft principle:
'Tis thus the Mercury of Man is fix'd,
Strong grows the Virtue with his nature mix'd;
The drofs cements what else were too refin❜d,
And in one interest body acts with mind.

NOTES.

direct, and reftrain, but not to overthrow it. To regulate the paffion of Ava- | rice, for instance, into a parfimonious difpenfation of

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To the firft good, firft perfect, and firft fair,

τὸ καλόν τ ̓ ἀγαθὸν, as his mafter | frain Spleen to a contempt Plato advises; and to re- and hatred of Vice.

As fruits, ungrateful to the planter's care,
On favage ftocks inferted, learn to bear ;
The fureft Virtues thus from Paffions shoot,
Wild Nature's vigor working at the root.
What crops of wit and honefty appear
From fpleen, from obftinacy, hate, or fear!
See anger, zeal and fortitude supply;
Ev'n av'rice, prudence; floth, philosophy;
Luft, thro' fome certain ftrainers well refin'd,
Is gentle love, and charms all womankind;
Envy, to which th' ignoble mind's a flave,
Is emulation in the learn'd or brave;

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190

Nor Virtue, male or female, can we name,
But what will grow on Pride, or grow on Shame,

VARIATIONS.

After 194. in the MS.

How oft, with Paffion, Virtue points her Charms!
Then fhines the Hero, then the Patriot warms.
Peleus' great Son, or Brutus, who had known,
Had Lucrece been a Whore, or Helen none?
But Virtues oppofite to make agree,
That, Reafon! is thy tafk; and worthy Thee.
Hard tafk, cries Bibulus, and reason weak.
-Make it a point, dear Marquefs! or a pique.
Once, for a whim, perfuade yourself to pay
A debt to reafon, like a debt at play.

Thus Nature gives us (let it check our pride)
The virtue nearest to our vice ally'd :

Reason the byas turns to good from ill,
And Nero reigns a Titus, if he will.
The fiery foul abhorr'd in Catiline,
In Decius charms, in Curtius is divine:
The fame ambition can destroy or fave,
And makes a patriot as it makes a knave.

This light and darkness in our chaos join'd,
What shall divide? The God within the mind.

VARIATIONS.

196

200

For right or wrong have mortals fuffer'd more?
B for his Prince, or ** for his Whore?
Whofe felf-denials nature most controul?
His, who would fave a Sixpence or his Soul?
Web for his health, a Chartreux for his Sin,
Contend they not which foonest shall grow thin?
What, we resolve, we can; but here's the fault,
We ne'er refolve to do the thing we ought.

NOTES.

VER. 203. This light, | pafs of things upon what&c.] A Platonic phrase for Confcience; and here employed with great judgment and propriety. For Confcience either fignifies, fpeculatively, the judgment we

ever principles we chance to have; and then it is only Opinion, a very unable judge and divider. Or elfe it fignifies, practically, the application of the eternal rule

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