230 All sly slow things, with circumspective eyes: What's fame? a fancy'd life in others' breath, All that we feel of it begins and ends In the small circle of our foes or friends; To all beside as much an empty shade An Eugene living, as a Cæsar dead; Alike or when, or where they shone, or shine, Fame but from death a villain's name can save, 240 250 As Justice tears his body from the grave; In parts superior what advantage lies? Or ravish'd with the whistling of a name, 290 From ancient story, learn to scorn them all. O! wealth ill-fated; which no act of fame The only point where human bliss stands still, 320 Is blest in what it takes, and what it gives; See the sole bliss Heaven could on all bestow ! Bring then these blessings to a strict account; [270 340 VARIATION. After ver. 316, in the MS. Ev'n while it seems unequal to dispose, Which conscience gives, and nothing can destroy Till lengthen'd on to Faith, and unconfin'd, 350 Self-love thus push'd to social, to divine, Gives thee to make thy neighbour's blessing thine. Is this too little for the boundless heart? Extend it, let thy enemies have part; Grasp the whole worlds of reason, life, and sense, In one close system of benevolence : 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; The centre mov'd, a circle straight succeeds, Another still, and still another spreads ; Friend, parent, neighbour, first it will embrace; His country next; and next all human race; Wide and more wide, th' o'erflowings of the mind Take every creature in, of every kind; Earth smiles around, with boundless bounty blest, And Heaven beholds its image in his breast. 370 Come then, my friend! my genius! come along; Oh master of the poet, and the song! And while the Muse now stoops, or now ascends, To man's low passions, or their glorious ends, Teach me, like thee, in various nature wise, To fall with dignity, with temper rise ; Form'd by thy converse, happily to steer, From grave to gay, from lively to severe; Correct with spirit, eloquent with ease, Intent to reason, or polite to please. 380 Oh! while along the stream of time thy name THE UNIVERSAL PRAYER. DEO OPT. MAX. Ir may be proper to observe, that some passages, in the preceding Essay, having been unjustly suspected of a tendency towards fate and naturalism, the author composed this Prayer as the sum of all, to show that his system was founded in free-will, and terminated in piety: That the first cause was as well the Lord and Governor of the Universe as the Creator of it; and that, by submission to his will (the great principle enforced throughout the Essay) was not meant the suffering ourselves to be carried along by a blind determination, but the resting in a religious acquiescence, and confidence full of hope and immortality. To give all this the greater weight, the poet chose for his model the Lord's Prayer, which, of all others, best deserves the title prefixed to this Paraphrase. THE UNIVERSAL PRAYER. DEO OPT. MAX, FATHER of all! in every age, In every clime ador'd, Thou Great First Cause, least understood To know but this, that thou art good, Yet gave me, in this dark estate, And, binding Nature fast in Fate, What conscience dictates to be done, For God is paid when man receives, Yet not to Earth's contracted span Or think thee Lord alone of man, When thousand worlds are round: Or impious discontent, Or aught thy goodness lent. To hide the fault I see; That mercy I to others show, That mercy show to me. 1 THE Essay on Man was intended to have been comprised in four books; The first of which, the author has given us under that title, in four epistles. The second was to have consisted of the same number: 1. Of the extent and limits of human reason. 2. Of those arts and sciences, and of the parts of them, which are useful, and therefore attainable together with those which are unuseful, and therefore unattainable. 3. Of the nature, ends, use, and application of the different capacities of men. 4. Of the use of learning, of the science of the world, and of wit; concluding with a satire against a misapplication of them, illustrated by pictures, characters, and examples. The third book regarded civil regimen, or the science of politics, in which the several forms of a republic were to be examined and explained; together with the several modes of religious worship, as far forth as they affect society; between which the author always supposed there was the most interesting relationand closest connection; so that this part would have treated of civil and religious society in their full extent. The fourth and last book concerned private ethics, or practical morality, considered in all the circumstances, orders, professions, and stations of human life. The scheme of all this had been maturely digest ed, and communicated to lord Bolingbroke, Dr. Swift, and one or two more, and was intended for the only work of his riper years; but was, partly through ill health, partly through discourage ments from the depravity of the times, and partly on prudential and other considerations, interrupted, postponed, and, lastly, in a manner laid aside. But as this was the author's favourite work, which more exactly reflected the image of his strong capacious mind, and as we can have but a very imperfect idea of it from the disjecta membra poctæ, that now remain, it may not be amiss to be a little more particular concerning each of these projected books. The first, as it treats of man in the abstract, and considers him in general under every of his relations, becomes the foundation, and furnishes out the subjects, of the three following; so that The second book was to take up again the first and second epistles of the first book, and treats of man in his intellectual capacity at large, as has been explained above. Of this only a small part of the conclusion (which, as we said, was to have contained a satire against the misapplication of wit and learning) may be found in the fourth book of the Dunciad, and up and down, occasionally, in the other three. The third book, in like manner, was to reassume the subject of the third epistle of the first, which treats of man in his social, political, and religious capacity. But this part the poet afterwards conceived might be best executed in an epic poem, as the action would make it more animated, and the fable less invidious; in which all the great principles of true and false governments and religions should be chiefly delivered in feigned examples. The fourth and last book was to pursue the subject of the fourth epistle of the first, and treats of ethics, or practical morality; and would have consisted of many members; of which the four following epistles were detached portions; the two first, on the characters of men and women, being the introductory part of this concluding book. I. MORAL ESSAYS. EPISTLE I. TO SIR RICHARD TEMPLE, L. COBHAM. ARGUMENT. OF THE KNOWLEDGE AND CHARACTERS OF MEN. THAT it is not sufficient for this knowledge to consider man in the abstract: books will not serve the purpose, not yet our own experience singly, ver. 1. General maxims, unless they be formed upon both, will be but notional, ver. 10. Some peculiarity in every man, characteristic to himself, yet varying from himself, ver. 15. Difficulties arising from our own passions, fancies, faculties, &c. ver. 31. The shortness of life to observe in, and the uncertainty of the principles of action in men to observe by, ver. 37. &c. Our own principle of action often hid from ourselves, ver. 41. Some few characters plain, but in general confounded, dissembled, or inconsistent, ver. 51. The same man utterly different in different places and seasons, ver. 71. Unimaginable weaknesses in the greatest, ver. 70, &c. Nothing constant and certain but God and nature, ver. 95. judging of the motives from the actions; the same actions proceeding from contrary motives, and the same motives influencing contrary actions, ver. 100. II. Yet, to form characteis, we can only take the strongest actions of a man's life, and try to make them agree: the utter uncertainty of this, from nature itself, and from No policy, ver. 120. Characters given according to the rank of men of the world, ver. 135. And some reason for it, ver. 140. Education alters the nature, or at least character of many, ver. 149. Actious, passions, opinions, manners, humours, or principles, all subject to change. No judging by nature, from ver. 158. to ver. 178. III. It only remains to find (if we can) his ruling passion: that will certainly influence all the rest, and can reconcile the seeming or real inconsistency of all his actions, ver. 175. Instanced in the extraordinary · character of Clodio, ver. 179. A caution against mistaking second qualities for first, which will destroy all possibility of the knowledge of mankind, ver. 210. Examples of the strength of the ruling passion, and its continuation to the last breath, ver. 222, &c. EPISTLE I. YES, you despise the man to books confin'd, And yet the fate of all extremes is such, The optics seeing, as the objects seen. Is thus, perhaps, the cause of most we do. 41 50 I ant buried in flannel never become me." Steele's Funerom A.V. 8.4. 60 True, some are open, and to all men known; See the same man, in vigour, in the gout; Catius is ever moral, ever grave. 70 80 Who would not praise Patricio's high desert, His hand unstain'd, his uncorrupted heart, His comprehensive head! all interests weigh'd, All Europe sav'd, yet Britain not betray'd. He thanks you not, his pride is in piquette, Newmarket fame, and judgment at a bett. What made (say, Montagne, or more sage CharOtho a warrior, Cromwell a buffoon? A perjured prince a leaden saint revere, A godless regent tremble at a star? The throne a bigot keep, a genius quit, Faithless through piety, and dup'd through wit? Europe a woman, child, or dotard rule, And just her wisest monarch made a fool? [ron !) 90 101 Know, God and Nature only are the same: In man, the judgement shoots a flying game; A bird of passage! gone as soon as found, Now in the Moon perhaps, now under ground. In vain the sage, with retrospective eye, Would from th' apparent what conclude the why, Infer the motive from the deed, and shew, That what we chanc'd, was what we meant to do. Behold if Fortune or a mistress frowns, Some plunge in business, others shave their crownss To ease the soul of one oppressive weight, This quits an empire, that embroils a state : The same adust complexion has impell'd Charles to the convent, Philip to the field. Not always actions show the man: we find Who does a kindness, is not therefore kind : Perhaps prosperity becalm'd his breast, Perhaps the wind just shifted from the east: VARIATIONS. After ver. 86. in the former editions, 110 Triumphant leaders at an army's head, Not therefore humble he who seeks retreat, But grant that actions best discover man; 130 'Tis from high life high characters are drawn: A saint in crape is twice a saint in lawn; A judge is just, a chancellor juster säll; A gownman learn'd; a bishop, what you will; Wise, if a minister; but, if a king, [thing. 140 More wise, more learn'd, more just, more every Court-virtnes bear, like gems, the highest rate, Born where Heaven's influence scarce can penetrate: In life's low vale, the soil the virtues like, They please as beauties, here as wonders strike, Though the same Sun with all diffusive rays Blush in the rose, and in the diamond blaze, We prize the stronger effort of his power, And justly set the gem above the flower. 150 'Tis education forms the common mind; That gay free thinker, a fine talker once, VARIATION, Ver. 129. in the former editions: 160 Ask why from Britain Casar made retreat? Cæsar himself would tell you he was beat. The mighty Czar what mov'd to wed a punk? The mighty Czar would tell you he was drunk. Altered as above, because Caesar wrote his Commentaries of this war, and does not tell you he was beat. As Casar too afforded an instance of both cases, it was thought better to make him the single example. 170 Opinions? they still take a wider range : Search then the ruling passion: there, alone, 190 A constant bounty, which no friend has made; He dies, sad outcast of cach church and state, Yet, in this search, the wisest may mistake, 210 In this the lust, in that the avarice, Were means, not ends; ambition was the vice, VARIATIONS. In the former editions, ver. 208. Nature well known, no miracles remain. Altered, as above, for very obvious reasons. 220 230 |