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And grant the bad what happiness they wou'd,
One they must want, which is, to pafs for good.
Oh blind to truth, and God's whole scheme below,
Who fancy Blifs to Vice, to Virtue Woe!

100

Who fees and follows that great scheme the best, 95
Beft knows the bleffing, and will most be bleft.
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 proftrate on the dust!
See SIDNEY bleeds amid the martial ftrife!
Was this their Virtue, or Contempt of Life?
Say, was it Virtue, more tho' Heav'n ne'er gave,
Lamented DIGBY! funk thee to the grave?
Tell me, if Virtue made the Son expire,
Why, full of days and honour, lives the Sire?

105

VER. 100. See god-like Turenne] This epithet has a peculiar juftness; the great man to whom it is applied not being diftinguished, from other generals, for any of his superior qualities fo much as for his providential care of those whom he led to war; which was fo uncommon, that his chief purpose in taking on himself the command of armies, seems to have been the Prefervation of Mankind. In this god-like care he was more distinguishably employed throughout the whole course of that famous campaign in which he lost his life.

VARIATIONS;

After ver. 92. in the MS.

Let fober Moralifts correct their speech,
No bad man's happy he is great, or rich.

Why drew Marseilles' good bishop purer breath,
When Nature ficken'd, and each gale was death!
Or why fo long (in life if long can be)

Lent Heav'n a parent to the poor and me?
What makes all phyfical or moral ill?
There deviates Nature, and here wanders Will.
God fends not ill; if rightly understood,
Or partial Ill is univerfal Good,

Or Change admits, or Nature lets it fall,
Short, and but rare, 'till Man improv'd it all.
We just as wifely might of Heav'n complain
That righteous Abel was destroy'd by Cain,
As that the virtuous fon is ill at ease

110

115

120

When his lewd father gave the dire disease.
Think we, like fome weak Prince, th' Eternal Cause
Prone for his fav'rites to reverse his laws?

VER. 110, Lent Heav'n a parent, etc.] This laft inftance of the poet's illuftration of the ways of Providence, the reader fees, has a peculiar elegance; where a tribute of piety to a parent is paid in a return of thanks to, and made fubfervient of, his vindication of the Great Giver and Father of all things. The Mother of the Author, a person of great piety and charity, died the year this poem was finished, viz. 1733.

VARIATIONS.

After ver. 116. in the MS.

Of ev'ry evil, since the world began,
The real fource is not in God, but mani

Shall burning Etna, if a fage requires,

Forget to thunder, and recall her fires?

On air or fea new motions be imprest,

125

Oh blameless Bethel! to relieve thy breast ?

When the loose mountain trembles from on high,
Shall gravitation cease, if you go by ?

Or fome old temple, nodding to its fall,

For Chartres' head reserve the hanging wall ?
But ftill this world (fo fitted for the knave)
Contents us not. A better fhall we have?
A kingdom of the juft then let it be:
But first confider how thofe Juft agree.
The good muft merit God's peculiar care;
But who, but God, can tell us who they are?
One thinks on Calvin Heav'n's own spirit fell;
Another deems him inftrument of hell;
If Calvin feel Heav'n's bleffing, or its rod,

This cries there is, and that, there is no God.
What shocks one part will edify the rest,
Nor with one fyftem can they all be bleft.

130

135

140

VER. 123. Shall burning Ætna, etc.] Alluding to the faté of those two great Naturalifts, Empedocles and Pliny, who both perish'd by too near an approach to Ætna and Veluvius, while they were exploring the cause of their eruptions.

VARIATIONS.

After ver. 142. in fome Editions,

Give each a System, all must be at strife;

What diff'rent Systems for a Man and Wife?

The joke, though lively, was ill placed, and therefore struck out of the text.

The very best will variously incline,

And what rewards your Virtue, punish mine. WHATEVER IS, is RIGHT.-This world, 'tis true, Was made for Cæfar - but for Titus too; 146 And which more bleft? who chain'd his country, fay, Or he whose Virtue figh'd to lose a day?

"But fometimes Virtue ftarves, while Vice is fed." What then? Is the reward of Virtue bread?

That, Vice may merit, 'tis the price of toil;
The knave deferves it, when he tills the foil,
The knave deferves it, when he tempts the main,
Where folly fights for kings, or dives for gain.
The good man may be weak, be indolent;
Nor is his claim to plenty, but content.
grant him riches, your demand is o'er ?

But

"No

150

155

fhall the good want Health, the good want "Pow'r?"

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Add Health and Pow'r, and ev'ry earthly thing, "Why bounded Pow'r! why private? why no

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king?"

Nay, why external for internal giv'n?

Why is not Man a God, and Earth a Heav'n ?
Who ask and reason thus, will scarce conceive
God gives enough, while he has more to give :
Immenfe the pow'r, immense were the demand;
Say, at what part of nature will they stand?
What nothing earthly gives, or can destroy,
The foul's calm fun-fhine, and the heart-felt joy,

160

166

170

Is Virtue's prize: A better would you fix?
Then give Humility a coach and fix,
Juftice a Conq'ror's fword, or Truth a gown,
Or Public Spirit its great cure, a Crown.
Weak, foolish man! will Heav'n reward-us there
With the fame trash mad mortals wish for here?
The Boy and Man an individual makes,
Yet figh'ft 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 fuch trifles are affign'd,
As toys and empires, for a god-like mind.
Rewards, that either would to Virtue bring
No joy, or be deftructive of the thing:
How oft by these at fixty are undone
The virtues of a faint at twenty-one!

175

180

To whom can Riches give Repute, or Truft,
Content, or Pleasure, but the Good or Juft?

185

VER. 177. Go, like the Indian, etc.] Alluding to the example of the Indian, in Epist. i. ver. 99. and shewing, that that example was not given to discredit any rational hopes of future happiness, but only to reprove the folly of feparating them from charity: as when

Zeal, not Charity became the guide,

And hell was built on fpite, and heav'n on pride.

VARIATIONS.

After ver. 172. in the MS.

Say, what rewards this idle world imparts,
Or fit for searching heads or honest hearts.

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