The very beft will varioufly incline,

And what rewards your Virtue, punish mine. WHATEVER IS, IS RIGHT..-This world, 'tis true, Was made for Cæfar-but for Titus too; 146

And which more bleft? who chain'd his country, say, Or he whofe Virtue figh'd to lose a day?

150

"But fometimes Virtue starves, while Vice is fed. " What then? Is the reward of Virtue bread? That, Vice may merit, 'tis the price of toil; The knave deserves it, when he tills the foil, The knave deferves it, when he tempts the main, Where folly fights for kings, or dives for gain. The good man may be weak, be indolent; Nor is his claim to plenty, but content. But grant him riches, your demand is o'er? "No-fhall the good want Health, the good want "Pow'r ?

155

Add Health and Pow'r, and ev'ry earthly thing, "Why bounded Pow'r! why private? why no king?" Nay, why external for internal giv'n?

161

Why is not Man a God, and Earth a Heav'n ?
Who ask and reafon thus, will scarce conceive

God gives enough, while he has more to give :
Immense the pow'r, immense were the demand;
Say at what part of nature will they ftand?

What nothing earthly gives, or can destroy,
The foul's calm fun-fhine, and the heart-felt joy,
Is Virtue's prize: A better would you fix?
Then give Humility a coach and fix,

165

170

Juftice a Conqu'ror's fword, or Truth a gown,
Or Public Spirit its great cure, a Crown.
Weak, foolish man! will Heav'n reward us there
With the fame trash mad mortals wifh for here?

The Boy and Man an individual makes,'

175

Yet fight thou now for apples and for cakes?

Go, like the Indian, in an other life

Expect thy dog, thy bottle, and thy wife

As well as dream fuch trifles are affigu'd,

As toys and empires, for a god-like mind.

180

Rewards, that either would to Virtue bring

No joy, or be deftructive of the thing :
How oft by these at fixty are undone
The virtues of a faint at twenty-one!
To whom can Riches give Repute, or Trust,
Content, or Pleasure, but the Good or Juft?
Judges and Senates have been bought for gold,

Efteem and Love were never to be fold.

185

190

Ch fool to think God hates the worthy mind,
The lover and the love of human-kind,
Whofe life is healthful, and whofe Conscience clear,
Because he wants a thousand pounds a-year.

Honour and fhame from no Condition rife;
A&t well your part, there all the honour lies.
Fortune in Men has fome fmall diff're
'rence made,
One flaunts in rags, one flutters in brocade;

After ver. 172. in the MS.

Say, what rewards this idle world imparts,
Or fit for fearching heads or honeft hearts.

195

200

The cobler apron'd, and the parfon gown'd,
The friar hooded, and the monarch crown'd.
"What differ more (you cry) than crown and cow!!
I'll tell you, friend! a wife man and a Fool.
You'll find, if once the monarch acts the monk,
Or, cobler-like, the parfon will be drunk,
Worth makes the man, and want of it the fellow;
The reft is all but leather or prunella.

204 Stuck o'er with titles and hung round with ftrings, That thou may'st be by kings, or whores of kings. Boaft the pure blood of an illuftrious race,

In quiet flow from Lucrece to Lucrcce:

But by your father's worth if your's you rate,
Count me thofe only who were good and great.
Go, if your antient, but ignoble blood
Has crept thro' fcoundrels ever fince the flood,
Go! and pretend your family is young;
Nor own, your fathers have been fools fo long.
What can ennoble fots, or flaves, or cowards?
Alas? not all the blood of all the HowARDS.

210

215

Look next on Greatnefs; fay where Greatnefs lies?

"Where, but among the Heroes and the Wife?

VER. 207. Boaft the pure blood, etc.] in the MS. thus

The richest blood, right-honourably old,

Down from Lucretia to Lucretia roll'd,
May fwell thy heart and gallop in thy breast,
Without one dafh of ufher or of priest :
Thy pride as much defpife all other pride,
As Christ Church once all colleges befide.

Heroes are much the fame, the point's agreed,
From Macedonia's madman to the Swede;
The whole ftrange purpofe of their lives, to find
Or make, an enemy of all mankind!
Not one looks backward, onward still he goes,
Yet ne'er looks forward farther than his nofe.
No lefs alike the Politic and Wife:
All fly flow things, with circumfpective eyes;
Men in their loofe ungarded hours they take,
Not that themselves are wife, but others weak.

But grant that thofe can conquer, these can cheat;
'Tis phrafe abfurd to call a Villain Great :
Who wickedly is wife, or madly brave,
Is but the more a fool, the more a knave.
Who noble ends by noble means obtains,
Or failing, fiuiles in exile or in chains,

Like good Aurelius let him reign, or bleed

220

225

230

235

Like Socrates, that Man is great indeed.

What's Fame a fancy'd life in others breath,

A thing beyond us, ev'n before our death.

Juft what you hear, you have, and what's unknown.
The fame (my Lord) if Tully's or your own.

All that we feel of it begins and ends

In the finall circle of our foes or friends;

240

To all befide as much an empty shade

An Eugene living, as a Cæfar dead;

Alike or when, or where, they fhone or shine,

245

Or on the Rubicon, or on the Rhine.

A Wit's a feather, and a Chief a rod;

An honeft Man's the nobleft work of God.

Fame but from death a villain's name can fave,

As justice tears his body from the grave;

When what t' oblivion better were refign'd,

Is hung on high' to poifon half mankind.

250

All fame is foreign, but of true defert;

Plays round the head, but comes not to the heart:
One felf-approving hour whole years outweighs

255

Of stupid starers, and of loud huzzas;

And more true joy Marcellus exil'd feels,
Than Cæfar with a Senate at his heels.

In Parts fuperior what advantage lies? Tell (for you can) what is it to be wife?

260

'Tis but to know how little can be known;

To fee all others faults, and feel our own:
Condemn'd in bus'ness or in arts to drudge,
Without a fecond, or without a judge:
Truths would you teach, or fave a finking land?
All fear, none aid you, and few understand.
Painful preheminence! yourself to view

Above life's weakness, and its comforts too.

266

Bring then these bleffings to a strict account;

Make fair deductions; fee to what they mount:

270

How much of other each is fure to cost,

How each for other oft is wholly lost ;

How inconfiftent greater goods with thefe;

How fometimes life is rifqu'd, and always eafe:

Think, and if ftill the things thy envy call,

275

Say, would't thou be the Man to whom they fall

To figh for ribbands if thou art so filly,
Mark how thy grace Lord Umbra, or Sir Billy.