Extremes in Nature equal ends produce,

205

In Man they join to some mysterious use;
Tho' each by turns the other's bound invade,
As, in fome well-wrought Picture, light and fhade,
And oft fo mix, the diff'rence is too nice
Where ends the Virtue, or begins the Vice.

210

Fools! who from hence into the notion fall,
That Vice or Virtue there is none at all.
If white and black blend, foften, and unite
A thousand ways, is there no black or white?
Afk your own heart, and nothing is so plain; 215
'Tis to mistake them, cofts the time and pain.
Vice,is a monster of fo frightful mien,

As, to be hated, needs but to be seen;
Yet feen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace.

VARIATIONS.

After 220. in the 1ft Edition, followed these,

A Cheat! a Whore! who ftarts not at the name,
In all the Inns of Court or Drury-lane ?

NOTES.

of right (received by us as the law of God) to the regulation of our actions; and then it is properly Confcience, the God (or the law

220

of God) within the mind, of power to divide the light from the darknefs in this chaos of the paffions.

But where th' Extreme of Vice, was ne'er agreed:
Afk where's the North? at York, 'tis on the Tweed;
In Scotland, at the Orcades; and there,
At Greenland, Zembla, or the Lord knows where.
No creature owns it in the firft degree, 225
But thinks his neighbour farther gone than he;
Ev'n those who dwell beneath its very zone,
Or never feel the rage, or never own;
What happier natures fhrink at with affright,
The hard inhabitant contends is right.

Virtuous and vicious ev'ry Man must be,
Few in th' extreme, but all in the degree;
The rogue and fool by fits, is fair and wife;
And ev❜n the best, by fits, what they despise.
'Tis but by parts we follow good or ill;
For, Vice or Virtue, Self directs it ftill;
Each individual feeks a fev'ral goal;

230

235

But HEAV'N's great view is One, and that the

Whole.

VARIATIONS.

After 226. in the MS.

The Col'nel fwears the Agent is a dog,
The Scriv'ner vows th' Attorney is a rogue.
Against the Thief th' Attorney loud inveighs,
For whose ten pound the County twenty pays.
The Thief damns Judges, and the Knaves of State;
And dying, mourns fmall Villains hang'd by great.

That counter-works each folly and caprice;
That disappoints th' effect of ev'ry vice;
That, happy frailties to all ranks apply'd;
Shame to the virgin, to the matron pride,
Fear to the ftatefman, rafhnefs to the chief,
To kings prefumption, and to crowds belief:
That, Virtue's ends from Vanity can raise,
Which feeks no int'reft, no reward but praise;
And build on wants, and on defects of mind,
The joy, the peace, the glory of Mankind.

Heav'n forming each on other to depend,

A mafter, or a fervant, or a friend,

Bids each on other for affistance call,

240

245

250

'Till one Man's weakness grows the ftrength of all. Wants, frailties, paffions, clofer ftill ally The common int'reft, or endear the tie.

NOTES.

VER. 253. Wants, frailties, paffions, clofer ftill ally The common int'reft, &c.] As thefe lines have been mifunderstood, I shall give the reader their plain and obvious meaning. To these frailties (fays he) we owe all the endearments of private life; yet, when we come to that age, which general

ly difpofes Men to think more feriously of the true value of things, and confequently of their provision for a future ftate, the confideration, that the grounds of those joys, loves, and friendfhips, are wants, frailties, and paffions, proves the best expedient to wean us from the world; a difengage

To these we owe true friendship, love fincere, 255 . Each home-felt joy that life inherits here;

260

Yet, from the faime we learn, in its decline,
Those joys, thofe loves, those int'rests to refign;
Taught half by Reason, half by mere decay,
To welcome death, and calmly pafs away.
Whate'er the Paffion, knowledge, fame, or pelf,
Not one will change his neighbour with himself.
The learn'd is happy nature to explore,

The fool is happy that he knows no more;

The rich is happy in the plenty giv❜n,

265

The poor contents him with the care of Heav'n.

See the blind beggar dance, the cripple fing,
The fot a hero, lunatic a king;

The ftarving chemist in his golden views
Supremely bleft, the poet in his muse.

See fome strange comfort ev'ry ftate attend,
And Pride beftow'd on all, a common friend;

270

NOTES.

ment fo friendly to that pro- | nite grace and propriety, as

vifion we are now making for another. The obfervation is new, and would in any place be extremely beautiful, but has here an infi

it fo well confirms, by an inftance of great moment, the general thefis, That God makes Ill, at every step, productive of Good.

See fome fit Paffion, ev'ry age fupply,

Hope travels thro', nor quits us when we die.

275

Behold the child, by Nature's kindly law, Pleas'd with a rattle, tickled with a straw : Some livelier play-thing gives his youth delight, A little louder, but as empty quite : Scarfs, garters, gold, amuse his riper stage; And beads and pray'r-books are the toys of age: Pleas'd with this bauble ftill, as that before; 281 'Till tir'd he fleeps, and Life's poor play is o'er. Mean-while Opinion gilds with varying rays Those painted clouds that beautify our days; Each want of happiness by Hope fupply'd, And each vacuity of fenfe by Pride:

NOTES.

285

cuity of fenfe by Pride :] An eminent Cafuift, Father Francis Garaffe, in his Somme Theologique, has drawn a very charitable conclufion from this principle. Selon la Justice (dit cet equitable Théo

VER. 280. And beads and pray'r-books are the toys of age ] A Satire on what is called in Popery the Opus operatum. As this is a defcription of the circle of human life returning into itself by a second childhood, the poet has with great ele-logien) gance concluded his defcription with the fame figure with which he fet out.

VER. 286. And each va

tout travail honnéte doit être recompensé de loüange ou de fatisfaction. Quand les bons efprits font un ouvrage excellent, ils font