Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

EPISTLE II.

Or tread the mazy round his followers trod,
And quitting fenfe call imitating God;
As eastern priests in giddy circles run,

Of the Nature and State of Man, with refped to Himself, And turn their heads to imitate the fun.

as an Individual.

THE ARGUMENT.

1. The business of man not to pry into God, but to study himself. His middle nature: his powers and frailties, ver. 1. to 19. The limits of his capacity, ver. 19. &c. II. The two principles of man, felf-love and reason, both necessary, ver. 53. &c. Self-love the ftronger, and why, ver. 67. &c. Their end the fame, ver. 81. &c. III. The paffions, and their ufe, ver. 93. to 130. The predominant paffion, and its force, ver. 132. to 160. Its neceffity, in directing men to different purposes, ver. 165. &c. Its providential ufe, in fixing our principle, and ascertaining our virtue, ver. 177. IV. Virtue and vice joined in our mixed nature; the limits near, yet the things separate and evident: what is the office of reafon, ver. 202. to 216. V. How odious vice in itself, and how we deceive ourselves into it, ver. 217. VI. That, however, the ends of providence and general good are anfwered in our paffions and imperfections, ver. 238, &c. How ufefully thefe are diftributed to all orders of men, ver. 241. How ufeful they are to fociety, ver. 251. And to individuals, ver. 263. In every ftate, and every age of life, ver. 273. &c.

I. Know then thy felf, prefume not God to scan,
The proper ftudy of mankind is man.
Plac'd on this ifthmus of a middle state,
A being darkly wife, and rudely great:
With too much knowledge for the fceptic fide,
With too much weaknefs for the ftoic's pride,
He hangs between; in doubt to act, or rest;
In doubt to deem himself a god, or beast;
In doubt his mind or body to prefer;
Born but to die, and reafoning but to err;
Alike in ignorance, his reafon fuch,
Whether he thinks too little, or too much :
Chaos of thought and paffion, all confus'd;
Still by himself abus'd or difabus'd;
Created half to rife, and half to fall;
Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all;
Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurl'd:
The glory, jeft, and riddle of the world!

ΤΟ

Go, wondrous creature! mount where fcience guides.

[blocks in formation]

The only fcience of mankind is man.

After ver. 18, in the MS.

For more perfection than this state can bear

Go, teach Eternal Wisdom how to ruleThen drop into thyself, and be a fool!

Superior beings, when of late they faw A mortal man unfold all nature's law, Admir'd fach wifdom in an earthly shape, And fhew'd a Newton as we fhew an ape.

30

Could he, whofe rules the rapid comet bind, Defcribe or fix one movement of his mind? Who faw its fires here rife, and there defcend, Explain his own beginning or his end? Alas, what wonder! Man's fuperior part Uncheck'd may rife, and climb from art to art; 40 But when his own great work is but begun, What reason weaves, by paffion is undone.

50

Trace science then, with modefty thy guide; First strip off all her equipage of pride; Deduct what is but vanity or drefs, Or learning's luxury, or idleness; Or tricks to fhow the stretch of human brain, Mere curious pleasure, or ingenious pain; Expunge the whole, or lop th' excrescent parts Of all our vices have created arts; Then fee how little the remaining fum, Which ferv'd the past, and must the times to come! II. Two principles in human nature reign; Self-love, to urge, and reason, to restrain; Nor this a good, nor that a bad we call, Each works its end, to move or govern all : And to their proper operation ftill, Afcribe all good, to their improper ill.

Self-love, the fpring of motion, acts the foul; Reafon's comparing balance rules the whole. 6 Man, but for that, no action could attend, And, but for this, were active to no end: Fix'd like a plant on his peculiar spot, To draw nutrition, propagate, aud rot;

VARIATIONS.

As wifely fure a modest ape might aim
To be like man, whofe faculties and frame
He fees, he feels, as you or I to be
An angel thing we neither knew nor fee.
Obferve now near he edges on our race;
What human tricks how rifible of face!
It must be fo-why elfe have I the sense
Of more than monkey charms and excellence?
Why else to walk on two so oft effay'd?
And why this ardent longing for a maid?
So pug might plead, and call his gods unkind
Till fet on end, and married to his mind.
Go, reasoning thing! affume the doctor's chair,
As Plato deep, as Seneca fevere:

Fix moral fitnefs, and to God give rule,
Then drop into thyself, &c.

Ver. 21. Edit. 4th and 5th.

Show by what rules the wandering planets ftray, Correct old time, and teach the fun his way.

Ver. 35, Ed. rft.

Could he, who taught each planet where to roll,
Describe or fix one movement of the foul?
Who mark'd their points, to rife or to defcend,

Or, meteor-like, flame lawless through the void, Destroying others, by himself destroy'd.

These mix'd with art, and to due bonnds confin'd, Make and maintain the balance of the mind; 120 The lights and fhades, whose well-accorded ftrife Gives all the strength and colour of our life. Pleasures are ever in our hands and eyes; 70 And, when in act they ccafe, in profpect rife: Present to grasp, and future ftill to find, The whole employ of body and of mind. All spread their charms, but charm not all alike; On different fenfes, different objects ftrike; Hence different paffions more or less inflame, As ftrong or weak, the organs of the frame; 130 And hence one mafter paffion in the breast, Like Aaron's ferpent, fwallows up the reft.

Moft ftrength the moving principle requires ;
Active its task, it prompts, impels, infpires.
Sedate and quiet the comparing lies.
Form'd but to check, deliberate, and advise.
Self-love, still stronger, as its objects nigh;
Reafon's at diftance, and in profpect lie:
That fees immediate good by present sense;
Reason, the future and the confequence.
Thicker than arguments, temptations throng,
At beft more watchful this, but that more ftrong.
The action of the ftronger to fufpend,
Reafon ftill ufe, to reafon ftill attend.
Attention, habit, and experience gains;

Each ftrengthens reafon, and felf-love reftrains. 80
Let fubtle schoolmen teach these friends to fight,
More ftudious to divide than to unite;
And grace and virtue, fenfe and reason split,
With all the rafh dexterity of wit.
Wits, just like fools, at war about a name,
Have full as oft no meaning, or the fame.
Self-love and reafon to one end aspire,
Pain their averfion, pleasure their defire;
But greedy that, its object would devour,
This tafte the honey, and not wound the flower:
Pleasure, or wrong or rightly understood,
Our greatest evil, or our greatest good.

[call;
III. Modes of felf-love the paflions we may
"Tis real good, or feeming, moves them all :
But fince not every good we can divide,
And reafon bids us for our own provide;
Paffions, though selfish, if their means be fair,
Lift under reafon, and deferve her care;
Thofe, that imparted, court a nobler aim,
Exalt their kind, and take fome virtue's name. 100
In lazy apathy let ftoics boast
Their virtue fix'd; 'tis fix'd as in a froft;
Contracted all, retiring to the breast;
But ftrength of mind is exereife, not rest:
The rifing tempeft puts in act the foul;
Parts it may ravage, but preferves the whole.
On life's vaft ocean diverfely we fail,
Beafon the card, but paffion is the gale;
Nor God alone in the ftill calm we find,
He mounts the storm and walks upon the wind. 110
Paffions, like elements, though born to fight.
Yet, mix'd and foften'd, in his work unite:
Thefe, 'tis enough to temper and employ;
But what compofes man, can man destroy?
Suffice that reafon keep to nature's road,
Subject, compound them, follow her and God.
Love, hope, and joy, fair pleafure's fmiling train;
Hate, fear, and grief, the family of pain;

VARIATIONS.

After ver. 86, in the MS.

Of good and evil gods what frighted fools, Of good and evil reafon puzzled schools, Deceiv'd, deceiving, taught

After. ver. 108, in the MS. A tedious voyage! where how ufelefs lies The compass, if no powerful gufts arife! After ver. 112, in the MS. The foft reward the virtuous, or invite:

As man, perhaps, the moment of his breath,
Receives the lurking principle of death;
The young disease, which must fubdue at length,
Grows with his growth, and ftrengthens with his
ftrength:

So, caft and mingled with his very frame,
The mind's disease, its ruling paffion came;
Each vital humour, which fhould feed the whole,,
Soon flows to this, in body and in foul:
Whatever warms the heart, or fills the head,
As the mind opens, and its functions spread,
Imagination plies her dangerous art,
And pours it all upon the peccant part.

Nature its mother, habit is its nurse;
Wit, fpirit, faculties, but make it worse;
Reafon itself but gives it edge and power;
As heaven's bleft beam turns vinegar more four.

We, wretched fubjects though to lawful fway, In this weak queen, fome favourite ftill obey: 150 Ah! if the lend not arms, as well as rules, What can the more than tell us we are fools? Teach us to mourn our nature, not to mend; A sharp accufer, but a helpless friend! Or from a judge turn pleader, to perfuade The choice we make, or juftify it made; Proud of an eafy conqueft all along, She but removes weak paffions for the ftrong : So, when small humours gather to a gout, The doctor fancies he has driv'n them out.

[ocr errors]

160

Yes, nature's road must ever be preferr'd; Reason is here no guide, but still a guard: 'Tis hers to rectify, not overthrow, And treat this paffion more as friend than foe A mightier power the ftrong direction fends, And several men impels to feveral ends: Like varying winds, by other paffions toft, This drives them conftant to a certain coaft. Let power or knowledge, geld or glory, please, Or (oft more ftrong than all) the love of cafe; 170 Through life 'tis follow'd, ev'n at life's expence; The merchant's toil, the fage's indolence, The monk's humility, the hero's pride, All, all alike, find reafon on their fide.

Th' eternal art, educing good from ill, Grafts on this paffion our belt principle: 'Tis thus the mercury of man is fix'd, Strong grows the virtue with his nature mix'd; The drofs cements what elfe were too refin'd, And in one interest body acts with mind. As fruits, ungrateful to the planter's care, On favage ftocks inferted learn to bear;

18.

190

The fureft virtues thus from paffions shoot,
Wild nature's vigour working at the root.
What crops of wit and honefty appear
From fpleen, from obftinacy, hate, or fear!
See anger, zeal and fortitude supply;
Ev'n avarice, prudence; floth, philosophy;
Luft, through fome certain ftrainers well refin'd,
Is gentle love, and charms all womankind;
Envy, to which th' ignoble mind 's a flave,
Is emulation in the learn'd or brave;
Nor virtue, male or female, can we name,
But what will grow on pride, or grow on fhame.
Thus nature gives us (let it check our pride)
The virtue nearest to our vice ally'd;
Reason the bias turns to good from ill,
And Nero reigns a Titus, if he will.
The fiery foul abhorr'd in Cataline,
In Decius charms, in Curtius is divine:
The fame ambition can destroy or save,
And makes a patriot as it makes a knave.
This light and darkness in our chaos join'd.
What fhall divide? The God within the mind.
Extremes in nature equal ends produce,
In man they join to fome myfterious ufe;
Though each by turns the other's bound invade,
As, in fome well-wrought picture, light and fhade,
And oft fo mix, the difference is too nice
Where ends the virtue, or begins the vice,

Fools! who from hence into the notion fall,

200

210

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?
Ask your own heart, and nothing is so plain ;
'Tis to mistake them, costs the time and pain.
Vice is a monster of fo frightful mien,
As, to be hated, needs but to be feen;
Yet feen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace.
But where th' extreme of vice, was ne'er agreed:
Afk where's the north; at York, 'tis on the Tweed;

VARIATIONS.

After ver. 194, in the MS.

220

How oft with paffion, virtue points her charms!
Then thines the hero, then the patriot warms.
Peleus' great fon, or Brutus, who had known,
Had Lucrece been a whore, or Helen none?
But virtues oppofite to make agree,

That, reafon is thy tafk, and worthy thee,
Hard talk, cries Bibulus, and reason weak.
-Make it a point, dear Marquifs, or a pique.
Once, for a whim. perfuade yourself to pay
A debt to reafon, like a debt at play.

For right or wrong, have mortals fuffer'd more?
B for his prince, or for his whore?

Whofe felf-denials nature moft controul?
His, who would fave a fixpence, or his foul?
Web for his health, a Chartreux for his fin,
Contend they not which fooneft shall grow thin?
What we refolve, we can: but here's the fault,
We ne'er refolve to do the thing we ought.
After ver. 220, in the first edition followed thefe :
A cheat a whore who starts not at the name,

[blocks in formation]

[whole.

Virtuous and vicious every man must be,
Few in th' extreme, but all in the degree;
The rogue and fool by fits is fair and wife;
And ev'n the beft, by fits, what they defpife.
'Tis but by parts we follow good or ill;
For, vice or virtue, felf directs it ftill;
Each individual feeks a feveral goal;
But heaven's great view, is one, and that the
That counter-works each folly and caprice;
That disappoints th' effect of every vice:
That, happy frailties to all ranks apply'd;
Shame to the virgin, to the matron pride;
Fear to the ftatefman, rafhness to the chief;
To kings prefumption, and to crowds belief:
That, virtue's ends from vanity can raise,
Which feeks no intereft, no reward but praise;
And build on wants, and on defects of mind,
The joy, the peace, the glory of mankind.

Heaven forming each on other to depend,
A mafter, or a fervant, or a friend,
Bids each on other for afliftance call,

240

250

Till one man's weaknefs grows the ftrength of all,
Wants, frailties, paffions, clofer ftill ally
The common intereft, or endear the tie.
To these we owe true friendship, love fincere,
Each home-felt joy that life inherits here;
Yet from the fame we learn, in its decline,

260

Thofe joys, thofe loves, those interests, to resign;
Taught half by reason, half by mere decay,
To welcome death, and calmly pass away,
Whate'er the paffion, knowledge, fame, or pelf,
Not one will change his neighbour 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,
The poor contents him with the care of heaven.
See the blind beggar dance, the cripple fing,
The fot a hero, lunatic a king;
The ftarving chemist in his golden views,
Supremely bleft, the poet in his mufe.

270

See fome strange comfort every flate attend, And pride beitow'd on all, a common friend: See fome fit paffion every age fupply; Hope travels through, nor quits us when we die. Behold the child, by nature's kindly law, Pleas'd with a rattle, tickled with a straw:

VARIATIONS.

After ver. 226, in the MS.

The colonel fwears the agent is a dog;
The fcrivener vows th' attorney is a rogue.
Against the thief th' attorney loud inveighs,
For whofe ten pounds the country twenty pays.
The thief damns judges, and the knaves of flate;

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

Scarfs, garters, gold, amufe his riper stage,
And beads and prayer-books are the toys of age: 280
Pleas'd with this bauble ftill, as that before;
Till tir'd he fleeps, 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 supply'd,
And cach vacuity of fenfe by pride:
These build as faft as knowledge can destroy;
In folly's cup fill laughs the bubble, joy;
One prospect loft, another still we gain;
And not a vanity is giv'n in vain ;
Ev'n mean felf-love becomes, by force divine,
Thase ale to measure others wants by thine.
Sce! and confefs, one comfort still must rise;
'Tis this, Though man's a fool, yet God is wife.

EPISTLE III.

THE ARGUMENT.

290

Of the Nature and State of Man with respect to Society.

I. THE whole univerfe one fyftem of fociety, 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 inftinct operate alike to the good of each individual, ver. 79. Reafon or inftinct operate alfo to fociety in all animals, ver. 109. III. How far fociety carried by instinct, ver. 115. How much farther by reason, ver. 128. IV. Of that which is called the state of nature, ver. 144. Reason inftructed by instinct in the invention of arts, ver. 166. and in the forms of fociety, ver. 176. V. Origin of political focieties, ver. 196. Origin of monarchy, ver. 207. Patriarchal government, ver. 212.VI. Origin of true religion and government, from the fame principle, of love, ver. 231, &c. Origin of fuperftition and tyranny, from the fame principle, of fear, ver. 237, &c. The influence of felf-love operating to the focial and public good, ver. 266. Reftoration of true religion and government on their first principle, ver. 285. Mixed government, ver. 288. Various forms of each, and the true end of all, ver. 300, &c.

HERE then we reft; "the univerfal cause
"Acts to one end, but acts by various laws."

VARIATIONS.

Ver. I. In feveral edit. in 4to. Learn, dulnefs, learn! "The univerfal caufe," &c. After ver. 46, in the former editions, What care to tend, to lodge, to cram, to treat him! All this he knew; but not that 'twas to eat him. As far as goofe could judge, he reafon'd right; But as to man, miftook the matter quize.

In all the madness of fuperfluous health,
The train of pride, the impudence of wealth,
Let this great truth be prefent night and day; 5
But most be prefent, if we preach or pray.

10

Look round our world; behold the chain of love
Combining all below, and all above.
See plaftic nature working to this end,
The fingle atoms each to other tend,
Attract, attracted to, the next in place
Form'd and impell'd its neighbour to embrace.
See matter next, with various life endued,
Prefs to one centre still, the general good.
See dying vegetables life fuftain,

See life difsolving vegatate again :
All forms that perifh other forms fupply,
(By turns we catch the vital breath, and die)
Like bubbles on the sea of matter borne,

39

They rife, they break, and to that fea return. 20
Nothing is foreign; parts relate to whole;
One all extending, all-preserving soul
Connects each being, greatest with the leaft;
Made beast in aid of man, and man of beast;
All ferv'd, all ferving: nothing stands alone;
The chain holds on, and where it ends, unknown.
Has God, thou fool! work'd folely for thy good,
Thy joy, thy pastime, thy attire, thy food!
Who for thy table feeds the wanton fawn,
Is it for thee the lark afcends and fings!
For him as kindly spread the flowery lawn:
Joy tunes his voice, joy elevates his wings.
Is it for thee the linnet pours his throat?
Loves of his own and raptures fwell the note.
The bounding feed you pompously beftride,
Shares with his lord the pleasure and the pride.
Is thine alone the feed that ftrews the plain?
The birds of heaven fhall vindicate their grain.
Thine the full harvest of the golden year?
Part pays, and justly, the deserving steer:
The hog, that ploughs not, nor obeys thy call,
Lives on the labours of this lord of all.

40

Know, nature's children all divide her care; The fur that warms a monarch, warm'd a bear. While man exclaims, See all things for my use !" "See man for mine!" replies a pamper'd goofe : And just as short of reafon he must fall, Who thinks all made for one, not one for all,

50

Grant that the powerful still the weak controul; Be nian the wit and tyrant of the whole: Nature that tyrant checks; he only knows, And helps another creature's wants and woes. Say, will the falcon, stooping from above, Smit with her varying plumage, spare the dove? Admires the jay the infects gilded wings? Or hears the hawk when Philomela fings? Man cares for all: to birds he gives his woods, To beafts his pastures, and to fish his floods: For fome his intereft prompts him to provide, For more his pleasure, yet for more his pride, 6e All feed on one vain patron, and enjoy Th' extenfive bleffing of his luxury. That very life his learned hunger craves, He faves from famine, from the favage faves; Nay, feafts the animal he dooms his feast, And, till he ends the being, makes it bleft: Which fees no more the ftroke, or feels the pain, Than favour'd man by touch ethereal flain.

The creature had his feaft of life before;
Thou too must perish, when thy feaft is o'er!
To each unthinking being, heaven a friend,
Gives not the ufelefs knowledge of its end:
To man imparts it; but with fuch a view
As, while he dreads it, makes him hope it too :
The hour conceal'd, and so remote the fear,
Death ftill draws nearer, never seeming near.
Great ftanding miracle! that heaven affign'd
Its only thinking thing this turn of mind.

II. Whether with reafon, or with inftinct bleft, Know, all enjoy that power which fuits them beft;

To blifs 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 can they need befide?
Refon, however able, cool at best,
Cares net for fervice, or but ferves when prest,
Stays till we call, and then not often near;
But honeft inftinct comes a volunteer,
Sure never to o'ershoot, but just to hit ;
While ftill too wide or fhort is human wit;
Sure by quick nature happiness to gain,
Which heavier reafon labours at in vain.
This too ferves always, reafon never long :
One must go right, the other may go wrong.
See then the acting and comparing powers
One in their nature, which are now in ours!
And reafon raife o'er inftin&t as you can,
In this 'tis God directs, in that 'tis man.

130

Nor ends the pleasure with the fierce embrace;
70 They love themselves, a third time, in their race.
Thus beaft and bird their common charge attend,
The mothers nurfe it, and the fires defend ;
The young difmifs'd to wander earth or air,
There ftops the instinct, and there ends the care;
The link diffolves, each feeks a fresh embrace,
Another love fucceeds, another race.
A longer care man's helpless kind demands;
That longer care contracts more lasting bands:
Reflection, reafon, ftill the ties improve,
At once extend the interest, and the love:
With choice we fix, with fympathy we burn;
Each virtue in each paflion takes its turn;
And ftill new needs, new helps, new habits rife,
That graft benevolence on charities.
Still as one brood, and as another rofe,
Thefe natural love maintain'd, habitual those :
The laft, fcarce ripen'd into perfect man,
Saw helpless him from whom their life began:
Memory and forecast just returns engage,
That pointed back to youth, this on to age;
While pleasure, gratitude, and hope, combin'd,
Still spread the intereft, and preferve the kind.
IV. Nor think, in nature's ftate they blindly
trod;

81

90

Who taught the nations of the field and wood
To thun their poison, and to choose their food? 100
Prefcient, the tides or tempefts to withstand,
Build on the wave, or arch beneath the fand?
Who made the fpider parallels design,
Sure as De Moivre, without rule or line?
Who bid the fork, Columbus-like, explore
Heavens not his own, and worlds unknown before?
Who calls the council, ftates the certain day?
Who forms the phalanx, and who points the way?
III. God, in the nature of each being, founds
Its proper blifs, and fets it proper bounds:
But as he fram'd a whole, the whole to blefs,
On mutual wants built mutual happiness :
So from the first, ETERNAL ORDER ran,
And creature link'd to creature, man to man.
Whate'er of life all-quickening æther keeps,
Or breathes through air, or shoots beneath the
deeps,

[ocr errors]

Or pours profufe on earth, one nature feeds
The vital flame, and fwells the genial feeds,
Not man alone, but all that roam the wood,
Or wing the sky, or roll along the flood,
Each loves itself, but not itself alone,
Each fex defires alike, till two arc one.

VARIATIONS.

After ver. 84. in the MS.

110

120

While man, with opening views of various ways,
Confounded, by the aid of knowledge firays;
Too weak to choose, yet choosing still in hafte,

141

[ocr errors]

The ftate of nature was the reign of God:
Self-love and focial at her birth began,
Union the bond of all things, and of man.
Pride then was not; nor arts, that pride to aid;
Man walk'd with beast, joint tenant of the fhadc;
The fame his table, and the fame his bed;
No murder cloth'd him, and no murder fed.
In the fame temple, the refounding wood,
All vocal beings hymn'd their equal God:
The shrine with gore unftain'd, with gold un-
drefs'd,

Unbrib'd, unbloody, stood the blameless priest:
Heaven's attribute was univerfal care,
And man's prerogative, to rule, but spare.
Ah! how unlike the man of times to come!
Of half that live the butcher and the tomb;
Who, foe to nature, hears the general groan,
Murders their fpecies, and betrays his own.
But juft difeafe to luxury fucceeds,

And every death its own avenger breeds;
The fury-paffions from that blood began,
And turn'd on man, a fiercer favage, man.

160

170

See him from nature rifing flow to art! To copy instinct then was reafon's part: Thus then to man the voice of nature spake"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 plough, the worm to weave; "Learn of the little Nautilus to fail,

181

"Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale.
"Here too all forms of focial union find,
"And hence let reafon, late, inftruct mankind:
"Here fubterranean works and cities fee;
"There towns aerial on the waving tree.
"Learn each small people's genius, policies,

« AnteriorContinuar »