Proud of an easy conquest all along,

She but removes weak passions for the strong:
So, when small humors 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 hers to rectify, not overthrow,

160

And treat this passion more as friend than foe:
A mightier power the strong direction sends,
And several men impels to several ends :
Like varying winds, by other passions tost,
This drives them constant to a certain coast.
Let power or knowledge, gold or glory, please,
Or (oft more strong than all) the love of ease;
Thro' life 'tis follow'd e'en at life's expense;
The merchant's toil, the sage's indolence,
The monk's humility, the hero's pride,
All, all alike, find reason on their side.

165

170

The eternal art, educing good from ill,

175

Grafts on this passion our best principle:
'Tis thus the mercury of man is fix'd,
Strong grows the virtue with his nature mix'd:
The dross cements what else were too refin'd,
And in one interest body acts with mind.

As fruits, ungrateful to the planter's care,
On savage stocks inserted learn to bear,
The surest virtues thus from passions shoot,
Wild nature's vigor working at their root.
What crops of wit and honesty appear
From spleen, from obstinacy, hate, or fear !
See anger, zeal and fortitude supply;
E'en av'rice, prudence; sloth, philosophy;

180

185

Lust, thro' some certain strainers well refin'd,
Is gentle love, and charms all womankind :
Envy, to which the ignoble mind 's a slave,
Is emulation in the learned or brave;
Nor virtue, male or female, can we name,
But what will grow on pride, or grow on shame.

Thus nature gives us, (let it check our pride)

The virtue nearest to our vice allied:
Reason the bias turns to good from ill,
And Nero reigns a Titus, if he will.
The fiery soul abhorr'd in Cataline,
In Decius charms, in Curtius is divine.
The same ambition can destroy or save,

190

195

200

And makes a patriot, as it makes a knave.

IV. This light and darkness in our chaos joined,

What shall divide? The God within the mind.

Extremes in nature equal ends produce.

205

In man they join in some mysterious use;

Though each by turns the other's bounds invade,

As, in some well wrought picture, light and shade,
And oft so mix, the difference is too nice,

Where ends the virtue, or begins the vice.

210

Fools! Who from hence into the notion fall,

That vice and virtue there is none at all.
If white and black blend, soften, and unite
A thousand ways, is there no black or white?
Ask your own heart; and nothing is so plain;
'Tis to mistake them, costs the time and pain.
V. Vice is a monster of so frightful mien,

As, to be hated, needs but to be seen;
Yet seen too oft, familiar to her face,

215

We first endure, then pity, then embrace.

220

But where the extreme of vice was ne'er agreed: Ask where's the north? at York, 'tis on the Tweed; At Scotland, at the Orcades; and there,

At Greenland, Zembla, or the Lord knows where.

No creature owns it in the first degree,

225

But thinks his neighbor farther gone than he :
E'en those who dwell beneath its very zone,
Or never feel the rage, or never own;
What happier natures shrink at with affright,
The hard inhabitant contends is right.

Virtuous and vicious every man must be,
Few in the extreme, but all in the degree;
The rogue and fool by fits is fair and wise,
And e'en the best, by fits what they despise.

230

'Tis but by parts we follow good or ill,

For, vice or virtue, SELF directs it still;
Each individual seeks a several goal

235

But heaven's great view is one, and that the whole; /

That counterworks each folly and caprice;

That disappoints the effect of every vice;

240

That happy frailties to all ranks applied,
Shame to the virgin, to the matron pride;
Fear to the statesman, rashness to the chief,
To kings presumption, and to crowds belief:
That, virtue's ends from vanity can raise,
Which seeks no interest, no reward but praise;
And build on wants, and on defects of mind,
The joy, the peace, the glory of mankind.'
Heaven, forming each on other to depend,

A master, or a servant, or a friend,

each on other for assistance call,

ne man's weakness grows the strength of all.

245

250

Wants, frailties, passions, closer still ally
The common interest, or endear the tie :

To these we owe true friendship, love sincere,
Each home-felt joy that life inherits here;
Yet from the same we learn, in its decline,
Those joys, those loves, those interests to resign:
Taught, half by reason, half by mere decay,
To welcome death, and calmly pass away.

Whate'er the passion, knowledge, fame, or pelf,
Not one will charge his neighbor 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 given;

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260

265

The poor contents him with the care of heaven.

See the blind beggar dance, the cripple sing,
The sot a hero, lunatic a king;

The starving chymist in his golden views

Supremely blest; the poet in his muse.

270

See some strange comfort every state attend,

And pride bestow'd on all, a common friend;

See some fit passion every age supply;

Hope travels through, nor quits us when we die.
Behold the child, by nature's kindly law,

275

Pleas'd with a rattle, tickled with a straw :

Some livelier plaything gives his youth delight,
A little louder, but as empty quite :
Scarfs, garters, gold, amuse his riper stage,

And beads and prayer books are the toys of age:
Pleas'd with this bauble still, as that before;
Till tired he sleeps, and life's poor play is o'er!
Meanwhile opinion gilds with varying rays,
Those painted clouds that beautify our days:

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285

Each want of happiness by hope supplied,

And each vacuity of sense by pride :

These build as fast as knowledge can destroy :

In folly's cup still laughs the bubble, joy;

One prospect lost, another still we gain ;

And not a vanity is given in vain ;

290

E'en mean self-love becomes, by force divine,

The scale to measure others' wants by thine.
See! and confess, one comfort still must rise;
'Tis this, though MAN'S A FOOL, yet God is WISE.

EPISTLE III.

294

Of the Nature and State of Man, with respect to Society.

The whole universe one system of society, verse 7, &c. Nothing made wholly for itself, nor yet wholly for another, 27. The happiness of animals mutual, 49. Reason or instinct operate alike to the good of each individual, 79.-Reason or instinct operate alike to society, in all animals, 109. How far society is carried by instinct, 115; how much farther by reason, 128. Of that which is called the state of nature, 144. Reason instructed by instinct in the invention of arts, 166; and in the forms of society, 176.-Origin of political societies, 196. Origin of monarchy, 207. Patriarchal government, 212. Origin of true religion, and goverment, from the same principle of love, 231. Origin of superstition and tyranny, from the same principle of fear, 237. The influence of self-love, operating to the social and public good, 266. Restoration of true religion and government on their first principle, 285. Mixed government, 288. Various forms of each, and true end of all, 300, &c.

HERE then we rest: "The universal causé Acts to one end, but acts by various laws."