Tho' wond'ring Senates hung on all he spoke,

The Club muft hail him master of the joke. 185
Shall parts fo various aim at nothing new?
He'll shine a Tully and a Wilmot too.

Then turns repentant, and his God adores
With the fame fpirit that he drinks and whores;
Enough if all around him but admire,

190

And now the Punk applaud, and now the Fryer.
Thus with each gift of nature and of art,
And wanting nothing but an honest heart;
Grown all to all, from no one vice exempt;
And most contemptible, to fhun contempt; 195
His Paffion ftill, to covet gen'ral praise,
His Life, to forfeit it a thousand ways;

A conftant Bounty which no friend has made;
An angel Tongue, which no man can perfuade;
A Fool, with more of Wit than half mankind, 200
Too rafh for Thought, for Action too refin'd:

NOTES.

of the Paffion had deftroyed all the delicacy of the Senfation.

VER. 187. John Wilmot, E. of Rochester, famous for his Wit and Extravagancies in the time of Charles the Second. P. VER. 189. With the fame fpirit] Spirit, for principle, not Too rash for Thought,

paffion.

VER. 200. A Fool, with more of Wit] Folly, joined with much Wit, produces that behaviour which we call Abfurdity ; and this Abfurdity the poet has here admirably defcribed in the words, for Action too refin'd:

A Tyrant to the wife his heart approves;
A Rebel to the very king he loves;

205

He dies, fad out-caft of each church and ftate,
And, harder ftill! flagitious, yet not great.
Afk you why Wharton broke thro' ev'ry rule?
'Twas all for fear the Knaves fhould call him Fool,

Nature well known, no prodigies remain,
Comets are regular, and Wharton plain.

Nature well known, no Miracles remain. Alter'd, as above, for very obvious reasons.

NOTES.

by which we are made to underftand, that the perfon defcribed gave a loofe to his Faney when he fhould have used his Judgment; and pursued his Speculations when he should have trufted to his Experience. VER. 205. And, harder ftill, flagitious, yet not great.) To arrive at what the world calls Greatnefs, a man muft either hide and conceal his vices, or he muft openly and steddily

practise them, in the purfuit and attainment of one important end. This unhappy Nobleman did neither.

VER. 207. 'Twas all for fear &c.] To understand this, we muft obferve, that the Luft of general praise made the perfon, whofe Character is here fo admirable drawn, both extravagant and flagitious; his Madnefs was to please the Fools,

Women and Fools must like him, or he dies. And his Crimes to avoid the cenfure of the Knaves, 'Twas all for fear the Knaves fhould call him Fool.

Prudence and Honesty being the two qualities that Fools and Knaves are moft interested,

and confequently moft induftrious, to mifrepresent.

VER. 209. Comets are regu

Yet, in this search, the wisest may mistake, 210 If second qualities for first they take.

When Catiline by rapine swell'd his store;

When Cæfar made a noble dame a whore
In this the Luft, in that the Avarice
Were means, not ends; Ambition was the vice.

COMMENTARY.

214

VER. 210. Yet, in this fearch, &c.] But here (from 209 to 222) he gives one very neceffary caution, that, in developing the Ruling Paffion, we must be careful not to mistake a subsidiary paffion for the principal; which, without great attention, we may be very liable to do; as the fubfidiary, acting in support of the principal, has frequently all its vigour and much of its perfeverance: This error has milled feveral both of the ancient and modern hiftorians; as when they fuppofed Luft and Luxury to be Characteristics of Cæfar and Lucullus; whereas, in truth, the Ruling Paffion of both was Ambition; which is so certain, that, at whatsoever different time of the Republic these men had lived, their Ambition, as the Ruling Paffion, had been the

NOTES.

lar, and Wharton plain.] This illustration has an exquifite beauty, arifing from the exactnefs of the analogy: For, as the appearance of irregularity, in a Comet's motion, is occafioned by the greatnefs of the force which pufhes it round a very eccentric orb; fo it is the violence of the Ruling Paffion, that, impatient for its object, in the impetuofity of its courfe towards it, is frequently hurried to an immenfe distance from it, which occafions all that

puzzling inconfiftency of conduct we obferve in it.

VER. 213. -a noble Dame a whore,] The fifter of Cato, and mother of Brutus.

VER. 215. Ambition was the vice.] Pride, Vanity, and Ambition are fuch bordering and neighbourly vices, and hold fo much in common, that we generally find them going together, and therefore, as generally mistake them for one another. This does not a little contribute to our confounding

That very Cæfar, born in Scipio's days,

Had aim'd, like him, by Chastity at praise.
Lucullus, when Frugality could charm,

Had roasted turnips in the Sabin farm.

In vain th' obferver eyes the builder's toil, 220 But quite mistakes the scaffold for the pile.

In this one Paffion man can ftrength enjoy, As Fits give vigour, juft when they destroy.

COMMENTARY.

fame; but a different time had changed their fubfidiary ones of Luft and Luxury, into their very oppofites of Chastity and Frugality. 'Tis in vain therefore, fays our author, for the obferver of human nature to fix his attention on the Workman, if he all the while mistakes the Scaffold for the Building.

VER. 222 In this one Paffion &c.] But now it may be objected to our philofophic poet, that he has indeed fhewn the true means of coming to the Knowledge and Characters of men by a Principle certain and infallible, when found, yet, by his own account, of fo difficult investigation, that its Counterfeit, and it is always attended with one, may be eafily mistaken for it. To

NOTES.

Characters; for they are, in reality, very different and diftinct; fo much fo, that 'tis remarkable, the three greatest men in Rome, and contemporaries, poffeffed each of thefe feparately, without the leaft mixture of the other two: The men I mean were Cæfar, Cato, and Cicero: For Cæfar had Ambition without either vanity or pride; Cato had Pride without ambition or vanity; and

Cicero had Vanity without pride or ambition.

VER. 223. As Fits give vigour, just when they deftroy.] The fimilitude is extremely. appofite; as moft of the inftances he has afterwards given of the vigorous, exertion of the. Ruling Paffion in the laft moments, are from fuch who had haftened their death by an immoderate indulgence of that Paffion.

Time, that on all things lays his lenient hand,

Yet tames not this; it sticks to our last fand. 225 Confiftent in our follies and our fins,

Here honest Nature ends as he begins.
Old Politicians chew on wisdom past,
And totter on in bus'nefs to the laft
As weak, as earneft; and as gravely out,
As fober Lanefb'row dancing in the gout.
Behold a rev'rend fire, whom want of grace
Has made the father of a nameless race,

COMMENTARY.

2:30

remove this difficulty, therefore, and confequently the objection that arises from it, the poet has given (from 221 to 228) one certain and infallible criterion of the Ruling Paffion, which is this, that all the other paffions, in the course of time, change and wear away; while this is ever constant and vigorous; and ftill going on from strength to strength, to the very moment of its demolishing the miserable machine that it has now at length overworked. Of this great truth, the poet (from y 227 to the end) gives various instances in all the principal Ruling Paffions of our nature, as they are to be found in the Man of Business, the Man of Pleafure, the Epicure, the Parcimonious, the Teaft, the

NOTES.

VER. 227. Here honeft Nature ends as he begins.] Human nature is here humouroufly called honeft, as the impulfe of the ruling paffion (which the gives and cherishes) makes her more and more impatient of difguife.

VER. 231. Lanefb'row.] An

ancient Nobleman, who continued this practice long after his legs were difabled by the gout. Upon the death of Prince George of Denmark, he demanded an audience of the Queen, to advise her to preferve her health and difpel her grief by Dancing. P.