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 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 still;
Each individual seeks a several goal;

230

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;
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 builds on wants, and on defects of mind,
The joy, the peace, the glory of mankind.

240

245

250

Heaven forming each on other to depend, A master, or a servant, or a friend, Bids each on other for assistance call, Till one man's weakness grows the strength of all. Wants, frailties, passions, closer still ally The common interest, or endear the tie.

249 Heaven forming each on other to depend. A subtle and beautiful argument for the existence of the inequality of conditions, gifts, and fortune, in the world; that inequality furnishing the field for the exercise of benevolence, self-denial, and fortitude. The poet farther argues, that a sense of the troubles and uncertainties of life also supplies cogent motives to meet its final hours with patient dignity, or even with glad resignation.

To these we owe true friendship, love sincere, 255
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.

260

Whate'er the passion, knowlege, fame, or pelf, Not one will change 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,

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 chemist in his golden views
Supremely bless'd, the poet in his Muse.

See some strange comfort every state attend; And pride bestow'd on all, a common friend : See some fit passion every age supply;

270

Hope travels through, nor quits us when we die.

Behold the child, by nature's kindly law, Pleased with a rattle, tickled with a straw:

275

268 The sot a hero. Pope here falls into the error of confounding those natural disabilities, for which the divine benevolence may provide a compensation, with the results of voluntary vice. That the drunkard should conceive himself a hero is only an aggravation of his vicious absurdity.

275 Behold the child, by nature's kindly law. The poetic elegance of this passage is proverbial, but the reasoning is inaccurate. The infant's pleasure in trifles may be the kindly work of nature providing for the enjoyments of an age incapable of better things; but the maturer delight in the scarfs, garters, gold,' is not the work of nature, but of folly: the first is a harmless instinct, the other a culpable vanity.

Some livelier plaything gives his youth delight, A little louder, but as empty quite :

281

Scarfs, garters, gold, amuse his riper stage,
And beads and prayer-books are the toys of age:
Pleased 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;
Each want of happiness by hope supplied,
And each vacuity of sense by pride:
These build as fast as knowlege 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;

285

290

Ev'n 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.

280 And beads and prayer-books are the toys of age. This sneer at the rosary was a bold attempt in a Roman catholic. Warton, with grave criticism, observes that, though Fontenelle uses the phrase, '11 est de hochets pour tout âge,' he did not steal it from Prior's playthings for old age,' for he did not understand English. Yet might not Fontenelle have found so common a sentiment where Prior found it-in nature?

ARGUMENT OF EPISTLE III.

OF THE NATURE AND STATE OF MAN WITH RESPECT TO

SOCIETY.

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