What differ more (you cry) than crown and

"cowl!"

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 rest is all but leather or prunella.

Stuck o'er with titles, and hung round with ftrings,

That thou may'ft be by kings, or whores of kings. Boaft the pure blood of an illuftrious race,

In quiet flow from Lucrece to Lucrece:

But by your father's worth if your's you rate,
Count me thofe only who were good and great.
Go! if your ancient, but ignoble blood

Has crept through scoundrels 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.

Look next on Greatness; say where Greatnefs lies. "Where, but among the Heroes and the Wife ?". Heroes are much the fame, the point's agreed, From Macedonia's madman to the Swede;

The whole ftrange purpose of their lives, to find,
Or make, an enemy of all mankind!

Not one looks backward, onward ftill he goes,
Yet ne'er looks forward further than his nofe.
No lefs alike the Politic and wife;

All fly flow things, with circumfpective eyes:

Men

Men in their loofe unguarded hours they take;
Not that themselves are wife, but others weak.
But grant that thofe can conquer, these can cheat;
'Tis phrase 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, fmiles in exile or in chains,
Like good Aurelius let him reign, or bleed
Like Socrates, that Man is great indeed.

What's Fame? a fancy'd life in others breath,
A thing beyond us, e'en before our death.
Just 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 fmall circle of our foes or friends;
To all befide as much an empty fhade

An Eugene living, as a Cæfar dead;

Alike or when, or where, they fhone, or fhine,
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 Juftice tears his body from the grave;
When what t'oblivion better were refign'd,
Is hung on high, to poifon half mankind.
All fame is foreign, but of true defert;

Plays round the head, but comes not to the heart :
One felf-approving hour whole years out-weighs
Of stupid ftarers, and of loud huzza's;
And more true joy Marcellus exil'd feels,
Than Cæfar with a fenate at his heels.

In Parts fuperior what advantage lies? Tell (for you can) what is it to be wife? '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 sinking land? All fear, none aid you, and few understand. Painful pre-eminence! yourself to view Above life's weaknefs, and its comforts too.

Bring then these bleffings to a ftri&t account; Make fair deductions; fee to what they mount: How much of other each is fure to coft; . How each for other oft is wholly loft; How inconfiftent greater goods with thefe; How fometimes life is rifqu'd, and always ease: Think, and if ftill the things thy envy call, Say, would't thou be the Man to whom they fall? To figh for ribbands if thou art fo filly, Mark how they grace Lord Umbra, or Sir Billy. Is yellow dirt the paffion of thy life; Look but on Gripus, or on Gripus' wife. If Parts allure thee, think how Bacon shin'd, The wifeft, brightest, meaneft of mankind: Or ravish'd with the whistling of a Name, See Cromwell, damn'd to everlasting fame! If all, united, thy ambition call,

From ancient story, learn to fcorn them all.

There, in the rich, the honour'd, fam'd and great, See the falfe fcale of Happiness complete!

In hearts of Kings, or arms of Queens who lay, How happy those to ruin, these betray.

IBID. P. 91.

HUMAN FELICITY.

KNOW then this truth (enough for Man to know)

"Virtue alone is happiness below.”

The only point where human bliss stands ftill,
And taftes the good without the fall to ill;
Where only Merit conftant pay receives,
Is bleft in what it takes, and what it gives;
The joy unequall'd, if its end it gain,
And if it lofe, attended with no pain:
Without fatiety, though e'er fo blefs'd,
And but more relifh'd as the more diftrefs'd:
The broadeft mirth unfeeling Folly wears,
Lefs pleafing far than Virtue's very tears:
Good, from each object, from each place acquir'd,
For ever exercis'd, yet never tir'd;

Never elated, while one man's opprefs'd;
Never dejected, while another's blefs'd;
And where no wants, no wishes can remain,
Since but to wish more Virtue, is to gain.

IBID. P. 95.

PREJUDICE.

YET more; the diff'rence is as great between
The optics feeing, as the objects feen.

All

All Manners take a tincture from our own,
Or come discolour'd through our Paffions shown.
Or Fancy's beam enlarges, multiplies,

Contracts, inverts, and gives ten thousand dyes.

MORAL ESSAYS, V. 2. p. 114.

INCONSISTENCY.

SEE the fame man, in vigour, in the gout;
Alone, in company; in place, or out;
Early at Bus'nefs, and at Hazard late;
Mad at a Fox-chase, wife at a Debate;
Drunk at a Borough, civil at a Ball;
Friendly at Hackney, faithlefs at Whitehall.

Catius is ever moral, ever grave,

Thinks who endures a knave, is next a knave,
Save juft at dinner-then prefers, no doubt,
A Rogue with Ven'fon to a Saint without.

Who would not praise Patricio's high desert,
His hand unftain'd, his uncorrupted heart,
His comprehenfive head! all Int'refts weigh'd,
All Europe fav'd, yet Britain not betray'd."
He thanks you not; his Pride is in Picquette,
Newmarket fame, and judgment at a Bett.

IBID. P.115.

PRE-EMINENCE.

'TIS from high Life high characters are drawn ;' A Saint in Crape is twice a Saint in Lawn;