Th' eternal Art educing Good from Ill,
Grafts on this Paffion our beft Principle;

And by that Means enables us to promote our own Good by turning the Exorbitancy of the ruling Paf fion into its neighbouring Virtue :

See Anger, Zeal and Fortitude fupply; Ev'n Av'rice, Prudence; Sloth, Philofophy: Nor Virtue, male or female, can we name, But what will grow on Pride, or grow on Shame.

The Wisdom of the divine Artift is, as the Poet finely obferves, very illuftrious in this Contrivance: For the Mind and Body having now one common Intereft, the Efforts of Virtue will have their Force infinitely augmented :

'Tis thus the Mercury of Man is fixt,

Strong grows the Virtue with his Nature mixt;
The Drofs cements what else were too refin'd,
And in one Intereft Body acts with Mind.

After this the Poet fpeaks largely concerning Virtue and Vice, about which his Way of thinking is very remarkable: He fays, there is no Virtue but what will grow either on Pride or Shame, and that Nature gives us thofe Virtues which are nearest allied to our Vices:

Reafon the Biafs turns from Good to ill,
And Nero reigns a Titus if he will.

He fays likewife, that the Virtues are grafted on the Paffions, and that Wit and Honefty are often produc'd from Spleen, Fear, Hate, and Obftinacy, that Prudence often arifes from Avarice, and Philofophy from Sloth, and that Envy, with but little Change becomes Emulation, that the Difference is

too

too nice to fuffer us to diftinguish where Virtue ends and Vice begins, then how can it be known? He makes the Query and answers it himself:

This Light and Darkness in our Chaos join'd,
What shall divide?-The God within the Mind.

This, the Commentator fays, is a Platonick Phrafe for Conscience, and here employ'd with great Judgment and Propriety-The God, that is the Law of God within the Mind; and if there be fuch a Law, it puts all the different Religions upon a Level, each Man having within him this Law: And this we fhall find to have been the Sentiment of Mr. Dryden alfo, whofe Thoughts are fo frequently to be parallell'd with Mr. Pope's.

That, if the Gentiles, (whom no Law infpir'd) By Nature did what was by Law requir'd; They, who the written Rule had never known, Were to themfelves both Rule and Law alone: To Nature's plain Indictment they shall plead: And, by their Confcience, be condemn'd or freed. That is, they who affent and fubmit to that which their Souls are thoroughly convinc'd of, it fhall be to them as a Law, and by it they ftand juftified, and is what Mr. Pope calls the God within the Mind'; yet he defires not to be misunderstood, as if there were no fuch Thing as Virtue or Vice, he only says, they are fo mix'd in us, that fometimes we fcarcely know how to diftinguish them :

Afk your own Heart, and nothing is fo plain;
'Tis to mistake them, cofts the Time and Pain.

In the following Lines he very finely defcribes by what infenfible Degrees we are drawn to become fond of Vice, which at firft affrighted us.

J

...Vice is a Monster of fo frightful Mien,
As, to be hated, needs but to be seen;
But feen too oft, familiar with her Face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace.
A Cheat, a Whore! who ftarts not at the Name,
In all the Inns of Court, or Drury Lane?
But where the Point of Vice, was ne'er agreed:
Afk where's the North? at York 'tis on the Tweed:
In Scotland at the Orcades, and there

At Greenland, Zembla, the or Lord knows where.
No Creature owns it, in the firft Degree,
But thinks his Neighbour further gone than he.
Ev'n thofe who dwell beneath her very Zone,
Or never feel the Rage, or never own;
What happier Natures fhrink at with Affright,
The hard Inhabitant contends is right.

After this he fhews the Imperfection of the beft, and the Inequality of all, at the fame Time that Selfishness directs both Vice and Virtue :

But Heav'n's great View is one, and that the Whole. By this he defires to be understood, that God regarding the Whole, will produce at laft Good out of all Ill:

That counterworks each Folly and Caprice; That disappoints th' Effect of ev'ry Vice: That happy Frailties to all Ranks apply'd, Shame to the Virgin, to the Matron Pride, Fear to the Statesman, Rafhnefs to the Chief, L. To Kings Prefumption, and to Crowds Bellef

Hitherto the Poet hath been employ'd in difcour fing of the Ufe of the Paffions, with regard to Society at large, and in freeing his Doctrine from Objections.

This

This is the first general Divifion of the Subject of this Epifile,

He comes to fhew [from 1. 238 to 251] the Use of thefe Paffions, with regard to the more confin'd Circle of our Friends, Relations, and Acquaintance. And this is the fecond general Divifion :

Wants, Frailties, Paffions clofer ftill ally The common Int'reft, or endear the Tie: To thefe we owe true Friendship, Love fincere, Each home-felt Joy that Life inherits here: Yet from the fame we learn in its Decline Thofe Joys, thofe Loves, thofe Int'refts to refign. So that Folly and Caprice are by this Counter-work ing of Providence, happy Frailties producing Good, and the Effect of Vice being difappointed, all Things are tending to Good, though in Appearance and in the prefent Action ill.

To thefe Frailties (fays he) we owe all the En<< dearments of private Life, yet, when we come "to that Age, which generally difpofes Men to think "more seriously of the true Value of Things, and "confequently, of their Provifion for a future State, "the Confideration that the Grounds of those Joys, "Loves and Friendships, are Wants, Frailties and "Paffions, proves the best Expedient to wean us "from the World; a Difengagement fo friendly to "that Provifion we are making for another."

The Obfervation is new, and would in any Place be extremely beautiful, but has here an Infinite Grace and Propriety, as it fo well confirms, by an Inftance of great Moment, the Poet's general The fis, That God makes Ill, at every Step, productive of Good.

The Poet (fays his Commentator) having thus fhewn the Ufe of the Paffions in Society and in do

meftick

ALEXANDER POPE, Efq; meftick Life, he comes in the laft Place [from 1. 250 to the End] to fhew their Ufe to the Individual, even in their Illufions; the imaginary Happiness they prefent, helping to make the real Miseries of Life lefs infupportable. And this is his third general Divifion: Opinion gilds with varying Rays

Thofe painted Clouds that beautify our Daystar
Each Want of Happiness by Hope fupply'd,
And each Vacuity of Senfe by Pride. 7a auke
Thefe build as faft as Knowledge can destroy: cor
In Folly's Cup ftill laughs the Bubble Joy
One Profpect loft, another ftill we gain;
And not a Vanity is given in vain.

"

Which must needs vaftly raise our Idea of God's Goodness, who hath not only provided more than a Counter-balance of real Happiness to human Miferies, but hath even, in his infinite Compaffion, be ftow'd on thofe who were fo foolish as not to have made this Provifion, an imaginary Happiness; that they may not be quite over-borne with the Load of human Miferies. This is the Poet's great and noble Thought, as ftrong and folid as it is new and ingenious.

The Poet endeavours likewife to fhew, that notwithstanding the feeming Difcontent, which appears in all States and Stations of Life, yet every Body is fo thoroughly pleas'd in Reality with what they are, that nothing could prevail upon them to be any other Perfon, the Riches or Power of one might pleafe them, but then their Perfon, their Humour, their Wit, or certainly fomething would prevent the Change, were it poffible :

Whate'er the Paffion, Knowledge, Fame, or Pelf, Not one will change his Neighbour with himself.

Than