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Thus then to Man the voice of Nature fpake-
"Go, from the Creatures thy inftructions take:
"Learn from the birds what food the thickets yield;
"Learn from the beafts the phyfic of the field:
"Thy arts of building from the bee receive;
"Learn of the mole to plow, the worm to weave;
"Learn of the little Nautilus to fail,

"Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale.
"Here too all forms of focial union find,
"And hence let Reason, late, inftruct Mankind:
"Here fubterranean works and cities fee ;
"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 beftow,
"And Anarchy without confufion know;
"And thefe for ever, tho' a Monarch reign,315
"Their fep'rate cells and properties maintain.is:
"Mark what unvary'd laws preferve each ftate,
"Laws wife as Nature, and as fix'd as Fate.is batt
"In vain thy. Reafon finer webs fhall draw,
"Entangle Juftice in her net of Law, and
"And right too rigid, harden into wrong;

"Still for the ftrong too weak, the weak too strong.
"Yet go! and thus o'er all the creatures fway;
"This let the wifer make the reft obey;

"And for thofe Arts mere Inftinct could afford,
"Be crown'd as Monarchs, or as God ador'd.".
Great Nature fpoke; obfervant Man obey'd;
Cities were built, Societies were made:
Here rofe one little ftate; another near

Grew by like means, and join'd, thro' love or fear.
Did here the trees with ruddier burdens bend,
And there the ftreams in purer rills defcend?
What War could ravifh, Commerce could beftow,
And the return'd a friend who came a foe:
Converfe and Love mankind might ftrongly draw,
When Love was Liberty, and Nature Law.

Thus States were form'd; the name of King unknown, 'Till common int'reft plac'd the fway in one.

'Twas VIRTUE ONLY (or in arts or arms,

Diffufing bleffings, or averting harms)

The fame which in a Sire the Sons obey'd,
A Prince the Father of a People made.

The GIFTS of FORTUNE unequally diftributed: Happiness does not confift in the fuperabundance of thefe, but in HEALTH, PEACE, and COMPETENCE.

RDER is Heav'n's firft law; and this confeft,
Some are,

ORD

Some are, and muft be, greater than the reft,
More rich, more wife; but who infers from hence
That fuch are happier, fhocks all common fenfe.
Heav'n to Mankind impartial we confefs,
If all are equal in their Happiness:

But mutual wants this Happiness increase;
All Nature's diff'rence keeps all Nature's peace.
Condition, circumftance is not the thing;
Blifs is the fame in fubject or in king,
In who obtain defence, or who defend,
In him who is, or him who finds a friend :
Heav'n breathes thro' ev'ry member of the whole.
One common bleffing, as one common foul.
But Fortune's gifts if each alike poffeft,
And each were equal, muft not all contest?
If then to all Men Happinefs was meant,
God in Externals could not place Content.
Fortune her gifts may varioufly difpofe,
And these be happy call'd, unhappy thofe ;
But Heav'n's just balance equal will appear,
While thofe are plac'd in Hope, and thefe in Fear:
Not prefent good or ill, the joy or curfe,
But future views of better, or of worse.

Oh fons of earth! attempt ye ftill to rife,
By mountains pil'd on mountains, to the skies?
Heav'n ftill with laughter the vain toil furveys,
And buries madmen in the heaps they raife.
Know, all the good that individuals find,
Or God and Nature meant to mere Mankind,
Reafon's whole pleafure, all the joys of fenfe,
Lie in three words, Health, Peace, and Competence.
But Health confifts with Temperance alone,
And Peace, oh Virtue! Peace is all thy own.
The good or bad the gifts of Fortune gain;
But thefe lefs tafte them, as they worfe obtain.
Say, in purfuit of profit or delight,

Who rifk the moft, that take wrong means, or right?
Of Vice or Virtue, whether bleft or curft,

Which meets contempt, or which compaffion firft?

Count

Count all th' advantage profp'rous Vice attains,
'Tis but what Virtue flies from and difdains.
And grant the bad what happinefs they wou'd,
One they must want, which is, to pafs for good.

HONOUR confifts in acting our PART well.
POPE.

TONOUR and fhame from no Condition rife:

HA well your part, there all

Fortune in Men has fome fmall diff'rence made,
One flaunts in tags, one flutters in brocade;
The cobler apron'd, and the parfon gown'd,
The friar hooded, and the monarch crown'd.

"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 reft is all but leather or prunella.

VIRTUE the fole Foundation of HAPPINESS.

[POPE.]

NOW then this truth (enough for Man to know)
"Virtue alone is happiness below,"
blifs ftands 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, tho' e'er fo blefs'd,
And but more relifh'd as the moft 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 wifhes can remain,
Since but to wifh more Virtue, is to gain.
See the fole blifs Heav'n could on all beftow!

K
The only point where humels below

Which who but feels can tafte, but thinks can know

Yet poor with fortune, and with learning blind,
The bad muft mifs, the good, ufitaught, will find ;:
Slave to no fect, who takes no private road,

But looks through Nature, up to Nature's God::
Purfues that Chain which links th' immenfe defign,
Joins heav'n and earth, and mortal and divine;
Sees, that no Being any blifs can know,
But touches fome above, and fome below;
Learns, from this union of the rifing Whole,
The first, laft purpose of the human foul;
And knows where Faith, Law, Morals, all began,.
All end, in LOVE OF GOD, and LOVE OF MAN..
For him alone, Hope leads from goal to goal,
And opens ftill, and opens on his foul;
'Till lengthen'd on to FAITH, and unconfin'd,
It pours the blifs that fills up all the mind.
He fees, why Nature plants in Man alone
Hope of known blifs, and Faith in blifs unknown ::
(Nature, whofe dictates to no other kind

Are giv'n in vain, but what they feek they find).
Wife is her prefent; fhe connects in this
His greatest Virtue with his greatest Blifs;
At once his own bright profpect to be bleft,
And ftrongest motive to affift the reft.

Self-love thus pufh'd to focial, to divine,
Gives thee to make thy neighbour's bleffing thine..
Is this too little for the boundless heart?
Extend it, let thy enemies have part:
Grafp the whole worlds of Reafon, Life, and. Senfe,-
In one clofe fyftem of Benevolence:-

Happier as kinder, in whate'er degree,
And height of blifs but height of charity.

God loves from whole to parts: but human foulz

Muft rife from individual to the whole.

Self-love but ferves the virtuous mind to wake,
As the small pebble ftirs the peaceful lake
The centre mov'd, a circle ftrait fucceeds,.
Another ftill, and ftill another spreads;

Friend, parent, neighbour, firft it will embrace;
His country next; and next all human race;
Wide and more wide, th' o'erflowings of the mind
Take ev'ry
in, of ev'ry kind;
around, with boundless bounty bleft,
And Heav'n beholds its image in-his-breaftw only

Earth fmileeature

CHA

CHARACTERS are given according to the RANK of MEN in the WORLD. [РОРЕ.]

"T

IS from high life high characters are drawn;
A faint in crape is twice a faint in lawn;

A judge is juft, a chanc'llor jufter ftill;

A gownman, learn'd; a bishop, what you will
Wife, if a minifter; but, if a king,

More wife, more learn'd, more juft, more every thing..
Court-virtues bear, like gems, the highest rate,
Born where Heav'n's influence fcarce can penetrate:
In life's low vale, the foil the virtues like,

They please as beauties, here as wonders ftrike..
Tho' the fame fun with all-diffufive rays
Blush in the rofe, and in the di'mond blaze,.
We prize the ftronger effort of his pow'r,
And justly fet.the gem above the flow'r...

EXAMPLES of the STRENGTH of the RULING PASSION in the HOUR of DEATH.

"ODIOUS

[POPE.]

DIOUS! in woollen! 'twould a faint provoke, (Were the laft words that poor Narciffa fpoke) "No, let a charming chintz, and Bruffels lace "Wrap my cold limbs, and fhade my lifelefs face: "One would not, fure, be frightful when one's dead"And-Betty-give this cheek a little red."

The courtier fmooth, who forty years had fhin'd An humble fervant to all human kind,

Juft brought out this, when scarce his tongue could ftir, If-where I'm going-I could ferve you, Sir "I give and I devife (old Euclio faid, And figh'd)" my lands and tenements to Ned.. Your money, Sir?" My money, Sir, what all? "Why, if I muft-(then wept) I give it Paul. The manor, Sir?" The manor hold, he cry'd, "Not that, I cannot part with.that"-and dyd. And you! brave COBHAM, to the latest breath Shall feel your ruling paffion ftrong in death: Such in thofe moments as in all the paft, "Oh, fave. my country, Heav'n!" fhall be your laft.