Chapter XXIII: Book II: Of the Use of Things (5)

Self-love, the spring of motion, acts[1151] the soul;
Reason's comparing balance rules the whole.[1152] 60
Man, but for that, no action could attend,
And, but for this, were active to no end:
Fixed like a plant on his peculiar spot,
To draw nutrition, propagate, and rot;[1153]
Or, meteor-like, flame lawless through the void,[1154] 65
Destroying others, by himself destroyed.
Most strength the moving principle requires;
Active its task, it prompts, impels, inspires;
Sedate and quiet, the comparing lies,
Formed but to check, delib'rate, and advise. 70
Self-love still stronger, as its objects nigh:
Reason's at distance, and in prospect lie:[1155]
That sees immediate good by present sense;
Reason, the future and the consequence.[1156]

[Sidenote: Their end the same.]

Thicker than arguments, temptations throng, 75
At best more watchful this, but that more strong.
The action of the stronger to suspend,
Reason still use, to reason still attend.
Attention, habit and experience gains;[1157]
Each strengthens reason, and self-love restrains. 80
Let subtle schoolmen teach these friends to fight,
More studious to divide than to unite;
And grace and virtue,[1158] sense[1159] and reason split,[1160]
With all the rash dexterity of wit.
Wits, just like fools, at war about a name, 85
Have full as oft no meaning, or the same.[1161]
Self-love and reason to one end aspire,
Pain their aversion, pleasure their desire;[1162]

[Sidenote: The passions and their use.]

But greedy that, its object would devour,
This taste the honey, and not wound the flow'r: 90
Pleasure, or wrong or rightly understood,
Our greatest evil, or our greatest good.
III. Modes of self-love the passions we may call;
'Tis real good, or seeming, moves them all:[1163]
But since not ev'ry good we can divide, 95
And reason bids us for our own provide,
Passions, though selfish, if their means be fair,[1164]
List[1165] under reason, and deserve her care;
Those, that imparted, court[1166] a nobler aim,
Exalt their kind, and take some virtue's name.[1167] 100
In lazy apathy let stoics boast
Their virtue fixed;[1168] 'tis fixed as in a frost;[1169]
Contracted all, retiring to the breast;[1170]
But strength of mind is exercise, not rest:[1171]
The rising tempest puts in act the soul,[1172] 105
Parts it may ravage, but preserves the whole.[1173]
On life's vast ocean diversely we sail,[1174]
Reason the card,[1175] but passion is the gale;[1176]
Nor God alone in the still calm we find,
He mounts the storms, and walks upon the wind.[1177] 110

[Sidenote: The predominant passion and its force.]

Passions, like elements, though born to fight,
Yet, mixed and softened, in his work unite:[1178]
These, 'tis enough to temper and employ;
But what composes man, can man destroy?[1179]
Suffice that reason keep to nature's road, 115
Subject, compound them, follow her and God.[1180]
Love, hope, and joy, fair pleasure's smiling train,
Hate, fear, and grief, the family of pain,[1181]
These mixed with art,[1182] and to due bounds confined,
Make and maintain the balance of the mind: 120
The lights and shades, whose well-accorded strife[1183]
Gives all the strength and colour of our life.
Pleasures are ever in our hands or eyes;
And when in act they cease, in prospect rise:
Present to grasp, and future still to find,[1184] 125
The whole employ of body and of mind.[1185]
All spread their charms, but charm not all alike;
On diff'rent senses diff'rent objects strike;[1186]
Hence diff'rent passions more or less inflame,
As strong or weak the organs of the frame;[1187] 130
And hence one master passion in the breast,
Like Aaron's serpent, swallows up the rest.[1188]
As man, perhaps, the moment of his breath,
Receives the lurking principle of death;
The young disease, that must subdue at length, 135
Grows with his growth, and strengthens with his strength:
So, cast and mingled with his very frame,[1189]
The mind's disease, its ruling passion, came;
Each vital humour which should feed the whole,
Soon flows to this, in body and in soul: 140
Whatever warms the heart, or fills the head,
As the mind opens, and its functions spread,
Imagination plies her dang'rous art,
And pours it all upon the peccant part.[1190]
Nature its mother, habit is its nurse; 145
Wit, spirit, faculties,[1191] but make it worse;
Reason itself but gives it edge and pow'r;[1192]
As heav'n's bless'd beam turns vinegar more sour.[1193]
We, wretched subjects, though to lawful sway,[1194]
In this weak queen some fav'rite still obey; 150
Ah! if she lend not arms as well as rules,
What can she more[1195] than tell us we are fools?
Teach us to mourn our nature, not to mend,
A sharp accuser, but a helpless friend!
Or from a judge turn pleader, to persuade 155
The choice we make, or justify it made;[1196]
Proud of an easy conquest all along,
She but removes weak passions for the strong.[1197]
So when small humours gather to a gout,
The doctor fancies he has driv'n them out.[1198] 160
Yes, nature's road must ever be preferred;
Reason is here no guide, but still a guard;
'Tis hers to rectify, not overthrow,
And treat this passion more as friend than foe:

[Sidenote: Its necessity in directing men to different purposes.]

A mightier pow'r the strong direction sends,[1199] 165
And sev'ral men impels to sev'ral ends:[1200]
Like varying winds, by other passions tossed,
This drives them constant to a certain coast.[1201]
Let pow'r or knowledge, gold or glory, please,
Or (oft more strong than all) the love of ease;[1202] 170
Through life 'tis followed, ev'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.

[Sidenote: Its providential use in fixing our principle, and ascertaining our virtue.]

Th' Eternal Art, educing good from ill,[1203] 175
Grafts on this passion our best principle:
'Tis thus the mercury of man is fixed,[1204]
Strong grows the virtue with his nature mixed;
The dross cements what else were too refined,
And in one int'rest body acts with mind. 180
As fruits, ungrateful to the planter's care,
On savage stocks inserted learn to bear,[1205]
The surest virtues thus from passions shoot,[1206]
Wild nature's vigour working at the root.[1207]
What crops of wit and honesty appear 185
From spleen, from obstinacy, hate or fear![1208]
See anger, zeal and fortitude supply;[1209]
Ev'n av'rice, prudence; sloth, philosophy;
Lust, through some certain strainers well refined,
Is gentle love, and charms all womankind; 190
Envy, to which th' ignoble mind's a slave,
Is emulation in the learn'd or brave;[1210]
Nor virtue, male or female, can we name,
But what will grow on pride,[1211] or grow on shame.[1212]

[Sidenote: Virtue and vice joined in our mixed nature; the limits near, yet the things separate and evident. The office of reason.]

[1213]Thus nature gives us (let it check our pride)[1214] 195
The virtue nearest to our vice allied;[1215]
Reason the bias turns to good from ill,[1216]
And Nero reigns a Titus if he will.[1217]
The fiery soul abhorred in Catiline,
In Decius charms, in Curtius is divine:[1218] 200
The same ambition can destroy or save,
And makes a patriot as it makes a knave.[1219]
This light and darkness in our chaos joined,
What shall divide? The god within the mind.[1220]
Extremes in nature equal ends produce, 205
In man they join to some mysterious use;[1221]
Though each by turns the other's bound invade,
As, in some well-wrought picture, light and shade,[1222]
And oft so mix, the diff'rence is too nice[1223]
Where ends the virtue, or begins the vice. 210
Fools! who from hence into the notion fall,
That vice or virtue there is none at all.
If white and black blend, soften, and unite
A thousand ways, is there no black or white?[1224]
Ask your own heart, and nothing is so plain; 215
'Tis to mistake them costs the time and pain.[1225]

[Sidenote: Vice odious in itself and how we deceive ourselves into it.]

Vice is a monster of so frightful mien,
As to be hated needs but to be seen;[1226]
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity,[1227] then embrace.[1228] 220
But where th' extreme of vice, was ne'er agreed:
Ask where's the North? at York, 'tis on the Tweed;
In 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 neighbour farther gone than he;[1229]
Ev'n those who dwell beneath its very zone,[1230]
Or never feel the rage, or never own;[1231]
What happier natures shrink at with affright,
The hard inhabitant contends is right.[1232] 230

[Sidenote: The ends of Providence, and general good, answered in our passions and imperfections. How usefully these are distributed to all orders of men.]

Virtuous and vicious ev'ry man must be,
Few in th' extreme, but all in the degree:[1233]
The rogue and fool by fits is fair and wise;
And ev'n the best, by fits, what they despise.[1234]
'Tis but by parts we follow good or ill; 235
For, vice or virtue, self directs it still;[1235]
Each individual seeks a sev'ral goal;
But heav'n's great view is one, and that the whole.
That counterworks each folly and caprice;
That disappoints th' effect of ev'ry vice;[1236] 240
That, happy frailties to all ranks applied,[1237]
Shame to the virgin,[1238] 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, 245
Which seeks no interest, no reward but praise;[1239]
And build[1240] on wants, and on defects of mind,
The joy, the peace, the glory of mankind.

[Sidenote: How useful these are to society in general:]

Heav'n forming each on other to depend,
A master, or a servant, or a friend, 250
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 int'rest, or endear the tie.
To these we owe true friendship, love sincere, 255
Each home-felt joy that life inherits here;[1241]
Yet from the same we learn, in its decline,
Those joys, those loves, those int'rests to resign:[1242]
Taught half by reason, half by mere decay,
To welcome death, and calmly pass away. 260

[Sidenote: And to individuals in particular in every state:]

Whate'er the passion,--knowledge, fame, or pelf,--
Not one will change his neighbour with himself.[1243]
The learn'd is happy nature to explore,[1244]
The fool is happy that he knows no more;
The rich is happy in the plenty giv'n, 265
The poor contents him with the care of heav'n.
See the blind beggar dance, the cripple sing,
The sot a hero, lunatic a king;
The starving chemist in his golden views
Supremely blessed,[1245] the poet in his muse.[1246] 270

[Sidenote: And in every age of life.]

See some strange comfort ev'ry state attend,
And pride bestowed on all, a common friend:[1247]
See some fit passion ev'ry age supply,
Hope travels through, nor quits us when we die.[1248]
Behold the child, by nature's kindly law[1249] 275
Pleased with a rattle, tickled with a straw:
Some livelier plaything gives his youth delight,
A little louder,[1250] but as empty quite:
Scarfs, garters,[1251] gold, amuse his riper stage,[1252]
And beads[1253] and pray'r-books are the toys of age: 280
Pleased with this bauble still, as that before;
Till tired he sleeps, and life's poor play is o'er.[1254]
Mean while[1255] opinion gilds with varying rays
Those painted clouds that beautify our days;[1256]
Each want of happiness by hope supplied, 285
And each vacuity of sense by pride:[1257]
These build as fast as knowledge can destroy;[1258]
In folly's cup still laughs the bubble, joy;
One prospect lost, another still we gain;[1259]
And not a vanity is giv'n in vain;[1260] 290
Ev'n mean self-love becomes, by force divine,
The scale to measure others' wants by thine.[1261]
See, and confess, one comfort still must rise;[1262]
'Tis this, though man's a fool, yet God is wise![1263]

ARGUMENT OF EPISTLE III.

OF THE NATURE AND STATE OF MAN WITH RESPECT TO SOCIETY.

I. The whole universe one system of society, ver. 7, &c. Nothing made wholly for itself, nor yet wholly for another, ver. 27. The happiness of animals mutual, ver. 49. II. Reason or instinct operate alike to the good of each individual, ver. 79. III. Reason or instinct operate also to society in all animals, ver. 109. How far society carried by instinct, ver. 115. How much farther by reason, ver. 131. IV. Of that which is called the state of nature, ver. 144. Reason instructed by instinct in the invention of arts, ver. 169, and in the forms of society, ver. 179. V. Origin of political societies, ver. 199. Origin of monarchy, ver. 207. VI. Patriarchal government, ver. 215. Origin of true religion and government, from the same principle of love, 231, &c. Origin of superstition and tyranny, from the same principle of fear, ver. 241, &c. The influence of self-love operating to the social and public good, ver. 269. Restoration of true religion and government on their first principle, ver. 283. Mixed government, ver. 288. Various forms of each, and the true end of all, ver. 303, &c. EPISTLE III.

[Sidenote: The whole universe one system of society.]

I. Here then we rest: "The Universal Cause[1264]
Acts to one end,[1265] but acts by various laws."[1266]
In all the madness of superfluous health,
The trim of pride, the impudence of wealth,[1267]
Let this great truth be present night and day: 5
But most be present if we preach or pray.
Look round our world, behold the chain of love[1268]
Combining all below and all above.
See plastic nature working to this end,[1269]
The single atoms each to other tend, 10
Attract, attracted to, the next in place
Formed and impelled its neighbour to embrace.[1270]
See matter next with various life endued,
Press to one centre still, the gen'ral good.[1271]
See dying vegetables life sustain, 15
See life dissolving vegetate again:[1272]
All forms that perish other forms supply,
(By turns we catch the vital breath and die[1273])
Like bubbles on the sea of matter born,
They rise, they break, and to that sea return. 20
Nothing is foreign; parts relate to whole;
One all-extending, all-preserving soul
Connects each being, greatest with the least;[1274]
Made beast in aid of man, and man of beast;[1275]
All served, all serving: nothing stands alone; 25
The chain holds on, and where it ends unknown.

[Sidenote: Nothing made wholly for itself, nor yet wholly for another, but the happiness of all animals mutual.]

Has God, thou fool! worked solely for thy good,
Thy joy, thy pastime, thy attire, thy food?
Who for thy table feeds the wanton fawn,
For him as kindly spreads the flow'ry lawn:[1276] 30
Is it for thee the lark ascends and sings?
Joy tunes his voice, joy elevates his wings.
Is it for thee the linnet pours his throat?
Loves of his own and raptures[1277] swell the note.
The bounding steed you pompously[1278] bestride, 35
Shares with his lord the pleasure and the pride.
Is thine alone the seed that strews the plain?
The birds of heav'n shall vindicate their grain.
Thine the full harvest of the golden year?
Part pays, and justly, the deserving steer; 40
The hog, that ploughs not, nor obeys thy call,
Lives on the labours of this lord of all.[1279]
Know, nature's children all divide her care;
The fur that warms a monarch[1280] warmed a bear.[1281]
While man exclaims, "See all things for my use!" 45
"See man for mine!" replies a pampered goose:[1282]
And just as short of reason he must fall,
Who thinks all made for one, not one for all.[1283]
Grant that the pow'rful still the weak control;
Be man the wit,[1284] and tyrant of the whole: 50
Nature that tyrant checks; he only knows,[1285]
And helps, another creature's wants and woes.[1286]
Say, will the falcon, stooping from above,
Smit with her varying[1287] plumage, spare the dove?
Admires the jay the insect's gilded wings? 55
Or hears the hawk when Philomela sings?[1288]
Man cares for all: to birds he gives his woods,
To beasts his pastures, and to fish his floods.
For some his int'rest prompts him to provide,
For more his pleasure, yet for more his pride: 60
All feed on one vain patron, and enjoy
Th' extensive blessing of his luxury.[1289]
That very life his learned hunger craves,
He saves from famine, from the savage saves;
Nay, feasts the animal he dooms his feast, 65
And, till he ends the being, makes it blessed,
Which sees no more the stroke, or feels the pain,
Than favoured man by touch ethereal[1290] slain.[1291]
The creature had his feast of life before;
Thou too must perish, when thy feast is o'er! 70
To each unthinking being, heav'n, a friend,
Gives not the useless knowledge of its end:
To man imparts it; but with such a view[1292]
As, while he dreads it, makes him hope it too;
The hour concealed, and so remote the fear, 75
Death still draws nearer, never seeming near.
Great standing miracle! that heav'n assigned
Its only thinking thing[1293] this turn of mind.[1294]

[Sidenote: Reason or instinct alike operate to the good of each individual.]

II. Whether with reason, or with instinct blessed,
Know, all enjoy that pow'r which suits them best:[1295] 80
To bliss alike by that direction tend,
And find the means proportion'd to their end.
Say, where full instinct is th' unerring guide,
What pope or council[1296] can they need beside?[1297]
Reason, however able, cool at best, 85
Cares not for service, or but serves when pressed,
Stays till we call, and then not often near;[1298]
But honest instinct comes a volunteer,
Sure never to o'ershoot, but just to hit,
While still too wide or short is human wit; 90
Sure by quick nature happiness to gain,
Which heavier reason labours at in vain.[1299]
This too serves always, reason never long;
One must go right,[1300] the other may go wrong.
See then the acting and comparing pow'rs 95
One in their nature, which are two in ours;[1301]
And reason raise o'er instinct as you can,[1302]
In this 'tis God directs, in that 'tis man.[1303]
Who taught the nations of the field and flood[1304]
To shun their poison,[1305] and to choose their food?[1306] 100
Prescient, the tides or tempests to withstand,
Build on the wave,[1307] or arch beneath the sand?
Who made the spider parallels design,[1308]
Sure as Demoivre,[1309] without rule or line?[1310]
Who bid the stork, Columbus-like, explore 105
Heav'ns not his own, and worlds unknown before?[1311]
Who calls the council, states the certain day,[1312]
Who forms the phalanx, and who points the way?[1313]

[Sidenote: Reason or instinct operate also to society in all animals.]

III. God, in the nature of each being, founds
Its proper bliss, and sets its proper bounds: 110
But as he framed a whole, the whole to bless,
On mutual wants built mutual happiness:[1314]
So from the first, eternal order ran,
And creature linked to creature, man to man.

[Sidenote: How far society carried by instinct.]

Whate'er of life all-quick'ning ether[1315] keeps, 115
Or breathes through air, or shoots beneath the deeps,
Or pours profuse on earth, one nature feeds
The vital flame, and swells the genial seeds.
Not man alone, but all that roam the wood,
Or wing the sky, or roll along the flood, 120
Each loves itself, but not itself alone,
Each sex desires alike, till two are one.
Nor ends the pleasure with the fierce embrace:
They love themselves a third time in their race.[1316]
Thus beast and bird their common charge attend, 125
The mothers nurse it, and the sires defend;[1317]
The young dismissed to wander earth or air,
There stops the instinct, and there ends the care:[1318]
The link dissolves, each seeks a fresh embrace,
Another love succeeds, another race. 130

[Sidenote: How much farther society is carried by reason.]

A longer care man's helpless kind demands;
That longer care contracts more lasting bands:[1319]
Reflection, reason, still the ties improve,
At once extend the int'rest, and the love;[1320]
With choice we fix,[1321] with sympathy we burn; 135
Each virtue in each passion takes its turn;[1322]
And still new needs, new helps, new habits rise,
That graft benevolence on charities.[1323]
Still as one brood, and as another rose,
These nat'ral love maintained, habitual those:[1324] 140
The last scarce ripened into perfect man,
Saw helpless him from whom their life began:[1325]
Mem'ry and forecast just returns engage,
That pointed back to youth, this on to age;
While pleasure, gratitude, and hope combined, 145
Still spread the int'rest, and preserved the kind.[1326]

[Sidenote: Of the state of nature that it was social.]

IV. Nor think in nature's state they blindly trod;
The state of nature was the reign of God:[1327]
Self-love and social at her birth[1328] began,
Union[1329] the bond of all things, and of man. 150
Pride then was not; nor arts, that pride to aid;
Man walked with beast joint tenant of the shade;[1330]
The same his table, and the same his bed;
No murder clothed him,[1331] and no murder fed.
In the same temple, the resounding wood,[1332] 155
All vocal beings hymned their equal God:[1333]
The shrine with gore unstained, with gold undressed,
Unbribed, unbloody, stood the blameless priest:[1334]
Heav'n's attribute was universal care,
And man's prerogative to rule, but spare. 160
Ah! how unlike the man of times to come![1335]
Of half that live the butcher and the tomb;[1336]
Who, foe to nature, hears the gen'ral groan,
Murders their species, and betrays his own.[1337]
But just disease to luxury succeeds, 165
And ev'ry death its own avenger breeds;
The fury-passions from that blood began,
And turned on man a fiercer savage,[1338] man.[1339]

[Sidenote: Reason instructed by instinct in the invention of arts, and in the forms of society.]

See him from nature rising slow to art![1340]
To copy instinct then was reason's part; 170
Thus then to man the voice of nature spake[1341]--
"Go, from the creatures thy instructions take:
Learn from the birds what food the thickets yield;[1342]
Learn from the beasts the physic of the field;[1343]
Thy arts of building from the bee receive;[1344] 175
Learn of the mole to plough, the worm to weave;[1345]
Learn of the little nautilus to sail,
Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale.[1346]
Here too all forms of social union find,
And hence let reason, late, instruct mankind:[1347] 180
Here subterranean works and cities see;
There towns aërial on the waving tree.
Learn each small people's genius, policies,
The ants' republic, and the realm of bees:
How those in common all their wealth bestow,[1348] 185
And anarchy without confusion know;[1349]
And these for ever, though a monarch reign,
Their sep'rate cells and properties maintain.[1350]
Mark what unvaried laws preserve each state,
Laws wise as nature, and as fixed as fate. 190
In vain thy reason finer webs shall draw,
Entangle justice in her net of law,
And right, too rigid, harden into wrong;[1351]
Still for the strong too weak, the weak too strong.[1352]
Yet go! and thus o'er all the creatures sway, 195
Thus let the wiser make the rest obey;
And for those arts mere instinct could afford,
Be crowned as monarchs, or as gods adored."[1353]

[Sidenote: Origin of political societies.]

V. Great nature spoke; observant man obeyed;
Cities were built, societies were made:[1354] 200
Here rose one little state; another near[1355]
Grew by like means, and joined through love or fear.
Did here the trees with ruddier burdens bend,
And there the streams in purer rills descend?
What war could ravish, commerce could bestow, 205
And he returned a friend who came a foe.
Converse and love mankind might strongly draw,[1356]
When love was liberty, and nature law.[1357]

[Sidenote: Origin of monarchy.]

Thus states were formed: the name of king unknown,
Till common int'rest placed the sway in one.[1358] 210
'Twas virtue only (or in arts or arms,
Diffusing blessings, or averting harms),
The same which in a sire the sons obeyed,[1359]
A prince the father of a people made.[1360]

[Sidenote: Origin of patriarchal government.]

VI. Till then, by nature crowned, each patriarch sat, 215
King, priest, and parent of his growing state;[1361]
On him, their second Providence, they hung,
Their law his eye, their oracle his tongue.
He from the wond'ring furrow called the food,[1362]
Taught to command the fire, control the flood, 220
Draw forth the monsters of th' abyss profound,
Or fetch th' aërial eagle to the ground,[1363]
Till drooping, sick'ning, dying they began[1364]
Whom they revered as god to mourn as man:
Then, looking up from sire to sire, explored 225
One great first Father, and that first adored;[1365]
Or plain tradition, that this all begun,[1366]
Conveyed unbroken faith from sire to son;
The worker from the work distinct was known,
And simple reason never sought but one.[1367] 230
Ere wit oblique had broke that steady light,[1368]
Man, like his Maker, saw that all was right;[1369]
To virtue, in the paths of pleasure trod,
And owned a father when he owned a God.[1370]

[Sidenote: Origin of true religion and government from the principle of love; and of superstition and tyranny from that of fear.]

Love all the faith, and all th' allegiance then, 235
For nature knew no right divine in men,[1371]
No ill could fear in God; and understood
A sov'reign being but a sov'reign good.
True faith, true policy, united ran,
That was but love of God, and this of man. 240
Who first taught souls enslaved, and realms undone,
Th' enormous[1372] faith of many made for one;
That proud exception to all nature's laws,
T' invert the world, and counterwork its cause?[1373]
Force first made conquest, and that conquest, law; 245
Till superstition taught the tyrant awe,[1374]
Then shared the tyranny, then lent it aid,
And gods of conqu'rors, slaves of subjects made:
She, midst the lightning's blaze, and thunder's sound,
When rocked the mountains, and when groaned the ground,[1375]
She taught the weak to bend, the proud to pray, 251
To pow'r unseen, and mightier far than they:
She, from the rending earth and bursting skies,
Saw gods descend, and fiends infernal rise:[1376]
Here fixed the dreadful, there the bless'd abodes; 255
Fear made her devils, and weak hope her gods;
Gods partial, changeful, passionate, unjust,
Whose attributes were rage, revenge, or lust;[1377]
Such as the souls of cowards might conceive,
And, formed like tyrants, tyrants would believe.[1378] 260
Zeal then, not charity, became the guide;
And hell was built on spite, and heav'n on pride.
Then sacred seemed th' ethereal vault no more;[1379]
Altars grew marble then, and reeked with gore:[1380]
Then first the Flamen[1381] tasted living food;[1382] 265
Next his grim idol smeared with human blood;[1383]
With heav'n's own thunders shook the world below,
And played the god an engine on his foe.[1384]

[Sidenote: The influence of self-love operating to the social and public good.]

So drives self-love, through just, and through unjust,
To one man's pow'r, ambition, lucre, lust: 270
The same self-love, in all, becomes the cause
Of what restrains him, government and laws.[1385]
For what one likes, if others like as well,
What serves one will, when many wills rebel?
How shall he keep, what, sleeping or awake, 275
A weaker may surprise, a stronger take?[1386]
His safety must his liberty restrain:
All join to guard what each desires to gain.
Forced into virtue thus by self-defence,
Ev'n kings learned justice and benevolence: 280
Self-love forsook the path it first pursued,
And found the private in the public good.[1387]

[Sidenote: Restoration of true religion and government on their first principle.]

'Twas then the studious head or gen'rous mind,
Foll'wer of God, or friend of human-kind,
Poet or patriot[1388], rose but to restore
The faith and moral nature gave before; 285
Relumed her ancient light, not kindled new;
If not God's image, yet his shadow drew:
Taught pow'r's due use to people and to kings;
Taught not to slack, nor strain its tender strings, 290

[Sidenote: Mixed government.]

The less, or greater, set so justly true,
That touching one must strike the other too;[1389]
Till jarring int'rests of themselves create
Th' according music[1390] of a well-mixed state.[1391]
Such is the world's great harmony, that springs 295
From order, union, full consent[1392] of things;[1393]
Where small and great, where weak and mighty made
To serve, not suffer, strengthen, not invade;[1394]
More pow'rful each as needful to the rest,
And in proportion as it blesses, bless'd; 300
Draw to one point, and to one centre bring
Beast, man, or angel, servant, lord, or king.

[Sidenote: Various forms of each, and the true use of all.]

For forms of government let fools contest;
Whate'er is best administered is best;[1395]
For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight; 305
His can't be wrong whose life is in the right:[1396]
In faith and hope the world will disagree,[1397]
But all mankind's concern is charity:[1398]
All must be false that thwart this one great end;
And all of God, that bless mankind, or mend. 310
Man, like the gen'rous vine, supported lives;
The strength he gains is from th' embrace he gives.[1399]
On their own axis as the planets run,
Yet make at once[1400] their circle round the sun,[1401]
So two consistent motions act the soul, 315
And one regards itself, and one the whole.
Thus God and nature[1402] linked the gen'ral frame,
And bade self-love and social be the same.[1403]

ARGUMENT OF EPISTLE IV.

OF THE NATURE AND STATE OF MAN WITH RESPECT TO HAPPINESS.

I. False notions of happiness, philosophical and popular, answered from ver. 19 to 26. II. It is the end of all men, and attainable by all, ver. 29. God intends happiness to be equal; and, to be so, it must be social, since all particular happiness depends on general, and since he governs by general, not particular laws, ver. 35. As it is necessary for order, and the peace and welfare of society, that external goods should be unequal, happiness is not made to consist in these, ver. 49. But notwithstanding that inequality, the balance of happiness among mankind is kept even by Providence, by the two passions of hope and fear, ver. 67. III. What the happiness of individuals is, as far as is consistent with the constitution of this world; and that the good man has here the advantage, ver. 77. The error of imputing to virtue what are only the calamities of nature, or of fortune, ver. 93. IV. The folly of expecting that God should alter his general laws in favour of particulars, ver. 121. V. That we are not judges who are good; but that whoever they are, they must be happiest, ver. 131, &c. VI. That external goods are not the proper rewards, but often inconsistent with, or destructive of virtue, ver. 167. That even these can make no man happy without virtue: instanced in riches, ver. 185. Honours, ver. 193. Nobility, ver. 205. Greatness, ver. 217. Fame, ver. 237. Superior talents, ver. 259, &c. With pictures of human infelicity in men possessed of them all, ver. 269, &c. VII. That virtue only constitutes a happiness whose object is universal, and whose prospect eternal, ver. 309. That the perfection of virtue and happiness consists in a conformity to the order of Providence here, and a resignation to it here and hereafter, ver. 327, &c.

EPISTLE IV.

O Happiness! our being's end and aim,[1404]
Good, pleasure, ease, content! whate'er thy name:
That something still which prompts th' eternal sigh,
For which we bear to live, or dare to die;
Which still so near us, yet beyond us lies, 5
O'erlooked, seen double by the fool and wise:[1405]
Plant of celestial seed! if dropped below,[1406]
Say, in what mortal soil thou deign'st to grow?[1407]
Fair op'ning to some court's propitious shine,[1408]
Or deep with diamonds in the flaming[1409] mine? 10
Twined with the wreaths Parnassian laurels yield,
Or reaped in iron harvests of the field?[1410]
Where grows!--where grows it not?[1411] If vain our toil,
We ought to blame the culture, not the soil:[1412]
Fixed to no spot is happiness sincere,[1413] 15
'Tis no where to be found, or ev'ry where:
'Tis never to be bought, but always free;
And, fled from monarchs, St. John! dwells with thee.[1414]
Ask of the learn'd the way! The learn'd are blind;
This bids to serve, and that to shun mankind; 20
Some place the bliss in action,[1415] some in ease,[1416]
Those call it pleasure, and contentment these;
Some sunk to beasts find pleasure end in pain;[1417]
Some swelled to gods confess e'en virtue vain;[1418]
Or indolent, to each extreme they fall, 25
To trust in ev'ry thing, or doubt of all.[1419]
Who thus define it, say they more or less
Than this, that happiness is happiness?[1420]

[Sidenote: Happiness is the end of all men, and attainable by all.]

Take nature's path,[1421] and mad opinion's leave;
All states can reach it, and all heads conceive; 30
Obvious her goods, in no extreme they dwell;[1422]
There needs but thinking right, and meaning well;[1423]
And mourn our various portions as we please,
Equal is common sense,[1424] and common ease.[1425]

[Sidenote: God governs by general not particular laws; intends happiness to be equal, and to be so it must be social, since all particular happiness depends on general.]

Remember, man, "the Universal Cause 35
Acts not by partial, but by gen'ral laws;"
And makes what happiness we justly call,[1426]
Subsist, not in the good of one, but all.
There's not a blessing individuals find,
But some way leans and hearkens[1427] to the kind;[1428] 40
No bandit fierce, no tyrant mad with pride,
No caverned hermit rests self-satisfied:
Who most to shun or hate mankind pretend,
Seek an admirer, or would fix a friend.
Abstract what others feel, what others think, 45
All pleasures sicken, and all glories sink:
Each has his share; and who would more obtain,
Shall find the pleasure pays not half the pain.[1429]

[Sidenote: It is necessary for order, and the common peace, that external goods be unequal, therefore happiness is not constituted in these.]

Order is heav'n's first law; and this confessed,
Some are, and must be, greater than the rest, 50
More rich, more wise; but who infers from hence
That such are happier, shocks all common sense.[1430]
Heav'n to mankind impartial we confess,
If all are equal in their happiness:
But mutual wants this happiness increase; 55
All nature's diff'rence keeps all nature's peace.
Condition, circumstance is not the thing;
Bliss is the same in subject or in king,
In who obtain defence, or who defend,
In him who is, or him who finds a friend: 60
Heav'n breathes through ev'ry member of the whole
One common blessing, as one common soul.
But fortune's gifts if each alike possessed,
And each were equal, must not all contest?
If then to all men happiness was meant, 65
God in externals could not place content.[1431]

[Sidenote: The balance of human happiness kept equal, notwithstanding externals, by hope and fear.]

Fortune her gifts may variously dispose,
And these be happy called, unhappy those;
But heav'n's just balance equal will appear,
While those are placed in hope, and these in fear:[1432] 70
Not present good or ill, the joy or curse,
But future views of better, or of worse.[1433]
O sons of earth! attempt ye still to rise,
By mountains piled on mountains, to the skies?[1434]
Heav'n still[1435] with laughter the vain toil surveys,[1436] 75
And buries madmen in the heaps they raise.[1437]

[Sidenote: In what the happiness of individuals consists, and that the good man has the advantage even in this world.]

Know, all the good that individuals find,
Or God and nature[1438] meant to mere mankind,[1439]
Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense,
Lie in three words, health, peace, and competence.[1440] 80
But health consists with temperance alone;
And peace! O virtue! peace is all thy own.[1441]
The good or bad the gifts of fortune gain;
But these less taste them, as they worse obtain.[1442]
Say, in pursuit of profit or delight, 85
Who risk the most, that[1443] take wrong means or right?
Of vice or virtue, whether blessed or cursed,
Which meets contempt, or which compassion first?[1444]
Count all th' advantage prosp'rous vice attains,
'Tis but what virtue flies from and disdains: 90
And grant the bad what happiness they would,
One they must want,[1445] which is to pass for good.[1446]

[Sidenote: That no man is unhappy through virtue.]

O blind to truth, and God's whole scheme below,
Who fancy bliss to vice,[1447] to virtue woe!
Who sees and follows that great scheme the best, 95
Best knows the blessing, and will most be blessed.
But fools the good alone unhappy call,
For ills or accidents that chance to all.
See Falkland dies, the virtuous and the just!
See god-like Turenne prostrate on the dust! 100
See Sidney bleeds amid the martial strife!
Was this their virtue, or contempt of life?[1448]
Say, was it virtue, more though heav'n ne'er gave,
Lamented Digby![1449] sunk thee to the grave?[1450]
Tell me, if virtue made the son expire, 105
Why, full of days and honour, lives the sire?[1451]
Why drew Marseilles' good bishop[1452] purer breath,
When nature sickened, and each gale was death?[1453]
Or why so long (in life if long can be)[1454]
Lent heav'n a parent to the poor and me?[1455] 110
What makes all physical or moral ill?
There deviates nature, and here wanders will.
God sends not ill, if rightly understood,
Or partial ill is universal good,
Or change admits, or nature lets it fall 115
Short, and but rare, till man improved it all.[1456]
We just as wisely might of heav'n complain,
That righteous Abel was destroyed by Cain,
As that the virtuous son is ill at ease
When his lewd father gave the dire disease. 120
Think we, like some weak prince, th' Eternal Cause,
Prone for his fav'rites to reverse his laws?[1457]
Shall burning Ætna, if a sage requires,[1458]
Forget to thunder, and recall her fires?[1459]
On air or sea new motions be impressed,[1460] 125
O blameless Bethel! to relieve thy breast?[1461]
When the loose mountain trembles from on high,
Shall gravitation cease if you go by?[1462]
Or some old temple nodding to its fall,
For Chartres' head reserve the hanging wall?[1463] 130
But still this world, so fitted for the knave,
Contents us not. A better shall we have?
A kingdom of the just then let it be:[1464]
But first consider how those just agree.
The good must merit God's peculiar care; 135
But who, but God, can tell us who they are?
One thinks on Calvin heav'n's own Spirit fell;
Another deems him instrument of hell;
If Calvin feel heav'n's blessing, or its rod,
This cries there is, and that, there is no God.[1465] 140
What shocks one part will edify the rest,[1466]
Nor with one system can they all be blessed.[1467]
The very best will variously incline,[1468]
And what rewards your virtue, punish mine.
Whatever is, is right.[1469] This world, 'tis true, 145
Was made for Cæsar, but for Titus too:[1470]
And which more bless'd? who chained his country, say,
Or he whose virtue sighed to lose a day?[1471]
"But sometimes virtue starves, while vice is fed."
What then? Is the reward of virtue bread?[1472] 150
That vice may merit, 'tis the price of toil;[1473]
The knave deserves it when he tills the soil,
The knave deserves it when he tempts the main,
Where folly fights for kings, or dives for gain.[1474]
The good man may be weak, be indolent; 155
Nor is his claim to plenty, but content.
But grant him riches, your demand is o'er?
"No--shall the good want health, the good want pow'r?"
Add health, and pow'r, and ev'ry earthly thing:
"Why bounded pow'r? why private? why no king?[1475] 160
Nay, why external for internal giv'n?
Why is not man a god, and earth a heav'n?"[1476]
Who ask and reason thus, will scarce conceive
God gives enough while he has more to give:[1477]
Immense the pow'r, immense were the demand; 165
Say, at what part of nature will they stand?

[Sidenote: That external goods are not the proper rewards of virtue, often inconsistent with, or destructive of it; but that all these can make no man happy without virtue. Instances in each of them.]

What nothing earthly gives or can destroy,
The soul's calm sunshine, and the heartfelt joy,
Is virtue's prize. A better would you fix?
Then give humility a coach and six,[1478] 170
Justice a conqu'ror's sword, or truth a gown,[1479]
Or public spirit its great cure,[1480] a crown.[1481]
Weak, foolish man! will heav'n[1482] reward us there,[1483]
With the same trash mad mortals wish for here?
The boy and man an individual makes,[1484] 175
Yet sigh'st thou now for apples and for cakes?
Go, like the Indian, in another life
Expect thy dog, thy bottle, and thy wife,
As well as dream such trifles are assigned,
As toys and empires, for a god-like mind: 180
Rewards, that either would to virtue bring
No joy, or be destructive of the thing:
How oft by these at sixty are undone
The virtues of a saint at twenty-one!

[Sidenote: 1. Riches.]

To whom can riches give repute or trust,[1485] 185
Content, or pleasure, but the good and just?[1486]
Judges and senates have been bought for gold,
Esteem and love were never to be sold.[1487]
O fool! to think God hates the worthy mind,
The lover and the love of human kind,[1488] 190
Whose life is healthful, and whose conscience clear,
Because he wants a thousand pounds a year.[1489]

[Sidenote: 2. Honours.]

Honour and shame from no condition rise;
Act well your part, there all the honour lies.
Fortune in men has some small diff'rence made, 195
One flaunts in rags, one flutters in brocade;[1490]
The cobbler aproned,[1491] and the parson gowned,
The friar hooded, and the monarch crowned.
"What differ more," you cry, "than crown and cowl?"
I'll tell you, friend; a wise man and a fool.[1492] 200
You'll find, if once the monarch acts the monk,[1493]
Or, cobbler-like, the parson will be drunk,
Worth makes the man, and want of it the fellow;
The rest is all but leather or prunella.[1494]

[Sidenote: 3. Titles.]

Stuck o'er with titles, and hung round with strings,[1495] 205
That thou may'st be by kings, or whores of kings.[1496]

[Sidenote: 4. Birth.]

Boast the pure blood of an illustrious race,[1497]
In quiet flow from Lucrece to Lucrece:[1498]
But by your fathers' worth if yours you rate,
Count me those only who were good and great. 210
Go! if your ancient, but ignoble blood
Has crept through scoundrels ever since the flood,[1499]
Go! and pretend your family is young;
Nor own your fathers have been fools so long.
What can ennoble sots, or slaves, or cowards? 215
Alas! not all the blood of all the Howards.[1500]

[Sidenote: 5. Greatness.]

Look next on greatness; say where greatness lies.
"Where but among the heroes and the wise!"
Heroes are much the same, the point's agreed,
From Macedonia's madman[1501] to the Swede; 220
The whole strange purpose of their lives to find,
Or make, an enemy of all mankind![1502]
Not one looks backward, onward still he goes,[1503]
Yet ne'er looks forward further than his nose.[1504]
No less alike[1505] the politic and wise; 225
All sly slow things,[1506] with circumspective eyes:
Men in their loose unguarded hours they take,
Not that themselves are wise, but others weak.
But grant that those can conquer, these can cheat,
'Tis phrase absurd[1507] to call a villain great:[1508] 230
Who wickedly is wise, or madly brave,
Is but the more a fool, the more a knave.
Who noble ends by noble means obtains,
Or, failing, smiles in exile or in chains,
Like good Aurelius let him reign,[1509] or bleed 235
Like Socrates,[1510] that man is great indeed.

[Sidenote: 6. Fame.]

What's fame? a fancied life in others' breath,[1511]
A thing beyond us, ev'n before our death.[1512]
Just what you hear, you have, and what's unknown
The same, my lord,[1513] if Tully's, or your own. 240
All that we feel of it begins and ends
In the small circle of our foes or friends;[1514]
To all beside as much an empty shade[1515]
An Eugene living,[1516] as a Cæsar dead;
Alike, or when or where they shone or shine, 245
Or on the Rubicon, or on the Rhine.
A wit's a feather, and a chief a rod;[1517]
An honest man's[1518] the noblest work of God.
Fame but from death a villain's name can save,[1519]
As justice tears his body from the grave; 250
When what t' oblivion better were resigned,
Is hung on high, to poison half mankind.[1520]
All fame is foreign, but of true desert;
Plays round the head, but comes not to the heart:
One self-approving hour whole years outweighs 255
Of stupid starers and of loud huzzas;
And more true joy Marcellus[1521] exiled feels,
Than Cæsar with a senate at his heels.[1522]

[Sidenote: 7. Superior parts.]

In parts superior[1523] what advantage lies?
Tell, for you can, what is it to be wise? 260
'Tis but to know how little can be known;[1524]
To see all others' faults, and feel our own;[1525]
Condemned in bus'ness or in arts to drudge,
Without a second or without a judge:[1526]
Truths would you teach, or save a sinking land? 265
All fear, none aid you, and few understand.[1527]
Painful pre-eminence![1528] yourself to view
Above life's weakness, and its comforts too.[1529]
Bring then these blessings to a strict account;
Make fair deductions; see to what they 'mount: 270
How much of other each is sure to cost;
How each for other oft is wholly lost;
How inconsistent greater goods with these;
How sometimes life is risked, and always ease.
Think, and if still the things thy envy call,[1530] 275
Say would'st thou be the man to whom they fall?
To sigh for ribbons if thou art so silly,
Mark how they grace Lord Umbra, or Sir Billy.[1531]
Is yellow dirt the passion of thy life?
Look but on Gripus, or on Gripus' wife.[1532] 280
If parts allure thee, think how Bacon shined,
The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind:[1533]
Or ravished with the whistling of a name,[1534]
See Cromwell, damned to everlasting fame![1535]
If all, united, thy ambition call, 285
From ancient story learn to scorn them all.[1536]
There, in the rich, the honoured, famed, and great,
See the false scale of happiness complete!
In hearts of kings, or arms of queens who lay,
How happy those to ruin,[1537] these betray! 290
Mark by what wretched steps their glory grows,[1538]
From dirt and sea-weed as proud Venice rose;
In each how guilt and greatness equal ran,[1539]
And all that raised the hero sunk the man:[1540]
Now Europe's laurel on their brows behold, 295
But stained with blood, or ill-exchanged for gold:
Then see them broke with toils, or sunk in ease,
Or infamous for plundered provinces.[1541]
O wealth ill-fated! which no act of fame[1542]
E'er taught to shine,[1543] or sanctified from shame![1544] 300
What greater bliss attends their close of life?
Some greedy minion,[1545] or imperious wife,
The trophied arches, storied halls[1546] invade,
And haunt their slumbers in the pompous shade.[1547]
Alas! not dazzled with their noon-tide ray, 305
Compute the morn and ev'ning to the day;
The whole amount of that enormous fame,
A tale, that blends their glory with their shame!
Know then this truth, enough for man to know,

[Sidenote: That virtue only constitutes a happiness whose object is universal, and whose prospect eternal.]

"Virtue alone is happiness below."[1548] 310
The only point where human bliss stands still,[1549]
And tastes the good without the fall to ill;
Where only merit constant pay receives,
Is blessed in what it takes,[1550] and what it gives;[1551]
The joy unequalled, if its end it gain,[1552] 315
And if it lose, attended with no pain:[1553]
Without satiety, though e'er so blessed,
And but more relished as the more distressed:
The broadest mirth[1554] unfeeling folly wears,
Less pleasing far than virtue's very tears:[1555] 320
Good, from each object, from each place acquired,
For ever exercised, yet never tired;[1556]
Never elated, while one man's oppressed;
Never dejected, while another's blessed;
And where no wants, no wishes can remain, 325
Since but to wish more virtue is to gain.[1557]

[Sidenote: That the perfection of happiness consists in a conformity to the order of Providence here, and a resignation to it here and hereafter.]

See the sole bliss heav'n could on all bestow!
Which who but feels can taste, but thinks can know;
Yet poor with fortune, and with learning blind,
The bad must miss; the good,[1558] untaught, will find; 330
Slave to no sect,[1559] who takes no private road,
But looks through nature up to nature's God;[1560]
Pursues that chain which links th' immense design,
Joins heav'n and earth, and mortal and divine;
Sees, that no being any bliss can know, 335
But touches some above and some below;
Learns from this union of the rising whole,
The first, last purpose of the human soul;
And knows where faith, law, morals, all began,
All end, in love of God, and love of man.[1561] 340
For him alone hope leads from goal to goal,
And opens still, and opens on his soul;
Till lengthened on to faith, and unconfined,
It pours the bliss that fills up all the mind.[1562]
He sees why nature plants in man alone 345
Hope of known bliss, and faith in bliss unknown:
(Nature, whose dictates to no other kind
Are giv'n in vain,[1563] but what they seek they find;)[1564]
Wise is her present: she connects in this
His greatest virtue with his greatest bliss;[1565] 350
At once his own bright prospect to be blessed,
And strongest motive to assist the rest.
Self-love thus pushed to social, to divine,
Gives thee to make thy neighbour's blessing thine.
Is this too little for the boundless heart? 355
Extend it, let thy enemies have part:
Grasp the whole worlds of reason, life, and sense,
In one close system of benevolence:[1566]
Happier as kinder, in whate'er degree,
And height of bliss but height of charity. 360
God loves from whole to parts: but human soul
Must rise from individual to the whole.
Self-love but serves the virtuous mind to wake,
As the small pebble stirs the peaceful lake;[1567]
The centre moved, a circle straight succeeds, 365
Another still, and still another spreads;
Friend, parent, neighbour, first it will embrace;
His country next; and next all human race;[1568]
Wide and more wide th' o'erflowings of the mind
Take ev'ry creature in, of ev'ry kind; 370
Earth smiles around, with boundless bounty blessed,
And heav'n beholds its image in his breast.[1569]
Come then, my friend![1570] my genius! come along,
O master of the poet and the song!
And while the muse now stoops, or now ascends, 375
To man's low passions, or their glorious ends,[1571]
Teach me, like thee in various nature wise,
To fall with dignity, with temper rise;[1572]
Formed by thy converse, happily to steer
From grave to gay, from lively to severe;[1573] 380
Correct with spirit, eloquent with ease,
Intent to reason, or polite to please.[1574]
Oh! while along the stream of time thy name
Expanded flies, and gathers all its fame;
Say, shall my little bark attendant sail, 385
Pursue the triumph, and partake the gale?[1575]
When statesmen, heroes, kings, in dust repose,
Whose sons shall blush their fathers were thy foes,[1576]
Shall then this verse to future age pretend[1577]
Thou wert my guide, philosopher, and friend? 390
That, urged by thee, I turned the tuneful art
From sounds to things, from fancy to the heart;[1578]
For wit's false mirror held up nature's light;
Showed erring pride, whatever is, is right;
That reason, passion, answer one great aim; 395
That true self-love and social are the same;
That virtue only makes our bliss below;
And all our knowledge is, ourselves to know.[1579]

THE UNIVERSAL PRAYER.

DEO OPT. MAX.

THE UNIVERSAL PRAYER.

BY THE AUTHOR OF THE "ESSAY ON MAN."

London: Printed for R. DODSLEY, at Tully's-Head, in Pall-Mall, 1738,
Price Sixpence.

This pamphlet, which came out in folio, and octavo, and probably in quarto, was the only separate edition of the Universal Prayer.

For closeness and comprehension of thought, and for brevity and energy of expression, few pieces of poetry in our language can be compared with this Prayer. I am surprised Johnson should not make any mention of it. When it was first published many orthodox persons were, I remember, offended at it, and called it the Deist's Prayer. It were to be wished the deists would make use of so good a one.--WARTON.

How extraordinary it is that Warton should be ever accused as if he wished to decry Pope! No one has borne such willing and ample testimony to his excellence as a poet, when he truly deserves it. In this place Warton gives the poetry more praise than it appears entitled to, though this composition is beautiful, and the two last stanzas sublime; but I fear, if we were to examine the greater part by the Horatian rule, which Warton recommends, that is, altering the rhyme and measure,[1580] we should not find the "disjecti membra poetæ."--BOWLES.