Add Health and Power, and every earthly thing,
"Why bounded Power? why private? who no Or make, an enemy of all mankind!

The whole ftrange purpose of their lives, to find,

"king?"

Say, at what part of mature will they ftand?

Not one looks backward, onward still he goes,
Yet ne'er looks forward further than his nofe.
No lefs alike the Politic and Wife:
All fly flow things, with circumfpective eyes:
Men in their lools unguarded hours they take,

225

Nay, why external for internal given ?
Why is not Man a God, and Earth a Heaven?
Who afk and reafon thus, will fca.ce conceive
God gives enough, while he has more to give;
Immenfe the power, immense were the demand:Not that themselves are wife, but others weak.
[165 But grant that thofe can conquer, thefe can cheat;
1 is phrafe a furd to call a Villain Great:
Who vickedly is wife, or madly brave,
Is but the more a fool, the more a knave.
170, Who noble ends by noble means obtains,
Or tailing, fmiles in exile or in chains,
Like good Aurelius let him reign, or bleed
Like Socrates, that Man is great indeed.

175

What nothing earthly gives, or can destroy,
The foul's calm fun fhine, and the heart-felt joy,
Is Virtue's prize: A better would you fix?
Then give Humility a coach and fix,
Justice a Conqueror's iword, or Trush a gown,
Or Public Spirits great cure, a Crown.
Weak, foolish man! will Heaven reward us there
With the fame trash mad mortals with for here?
The Boy and Man an individual makes,
Yet figu'n trou now for apples and for cakes?
Go, like the Indian, in another ite
Expect thy dog, thy bottle, and thy wife;
As well as dream fuch trifles are affign'd,
As toys and empires, for a godlike mind."
Rewards, that either would to Virtue bring
No joy, or be deftructive of the thing;
How oft by thefe at fix:y are undone
The virtues of a faint at twenty-one!
To whom can Riches give Repute, or Truft,
Content, or Pleasure, but the Good and just?
Judges and Senates have been bought for gold;
Esteem and Love were never to be fold.
Oh fool! to think God hates the worthy mind,
The lover and the love of hunan kind.
Whofe life is healthful, and whofe confcience clear,
Because he wants a thousand pounds a-year.

230

235

What's Fame? a fancy'd life in others' breath,
A thing beyond us, ev`n before our death.
Juft what you hear, you have; and what's un-

known,

The fame (ny Lord) if Tully's, or your own. 248
All that we feel of it begins and ends

If In the fmal circle of our foes or friends;
Fo all befide as much an empty it ade
An Eugene living, as a Cafar dead;

185

190

made,
[195

Honour and fhame from no Condition rife;
A&t well your part, there all the honour lies.
Fortune in Men has fome fmall difference
One flaunts in rags, one flutters in brocade;
The cobler apron'd, and the pa: fon 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.

Stuck o'er with titles and hung round
ftrings,

Alke or when, or where they fhone, or shine, 245
Or on the Rubicon, or on the Rhine.

250

A Wit's a feather, and a Chicf a rod;
An honeft Man 's the nobleft work of God
Fame but from death a villain's name can save,
As Juftice tears his body from the grave;
When what t' oblivion better were refign'd,
is hung on high to poifon half mankind.
Ail fame is fo eign, but of true defert;
Plays round the head, but comes not to the heart:
One felf approving hour whole years out-weight
Of fupid ftarers, and of loud huzzas;
And more true joy Marcellus exil'd feels,
1han Cæfar with a fenate at his heels.

260

In Parts fuperior what advantage lies? Tell (for you can) what is it to be wife? "Tis but to know how little can be known; 200 To fee all others faults, and feel our own: Condemn'd in business or in arts to drudge, Without a fecond, or without a judge: Truths would you teach, or fave a finking land! All fear, none aid you, and few understand. [265 with Painful pre-eminence! yourself to view 205 Above life's weakness, and its comforts too

That thou mayft be by kings, or whores of kings.
Boaft the pure blood of an illuftrious race,
In quiet flow from Lucrece to Lucrece :
But by your father's worth if yours you rate,
Count me thofe only who were good and great. 210
Go! if your ancient, but ignoble blood
Has crept through fcoundrels ever fince the flood,
Go! and pretend your family is young;
Nor own your fathers have been fools fo long
What can ennoble fots, or flaves, or cowards?
Alas! not all the blood of all the Howards.
Look next on Greatnefs; fay where Greatnefs
lies:

275

Bring then these bleffings to a strict account;
Make fair deductions ; fee to what they mount: 270
How much of other each is fure to cost:
How much for other oft is wholly lost;
How inconfiftent greater goods with these;
How fometimes life is rifqu'd, and always eafe;
Think, and if ftill the things thy envy call,
Say, wouldft thou be the Man to whom they fall?
To figh for ribbands if thou art fo filly,
Mark how they grace Lord Umbra, or Sir Billy.
Is yellow dirt the paffion of thy life;
Look but on Gripus, or on Gripus' wife.
If Parts allure thee, think how Bacon fhin'd,
The wifeft, brightest, meanest of mankind:
Or ravish'd with the whistling of a Name,
220 See Cromwell, damn'd to everlafting fame!

215

Where, but among the Heroes and the Wife ?" Heroes are much the fame, the point 's agreed, Fiem Macedonia's madman to the Swede;

280

1

!

Mall, united, thy ambition call,

345

285 Till lengthen'd on to FAIT, and unconfin'd,
It pours the blifs that all up all the mind.
He fecs, why Nature plants in Man alone
Hope of known blifs, and Faith in blifs unknown:
(Nature, whofe dictates to no other kind
Are given in vain, but what they seek they find)
Wife is her prefent; the connects in this
His greatest Virtue with his greatest Bliss;
At once his own bright prospect to be bleft,
And strongest motive to affift the rest.

290

From ancient story, learn to fcorn them all.
There, in the rich, the honour'd, fam'd, and great,
See the falfe fcaic of Happiness complete!
In hearts of Kings, or arms of Queens who lay,
How happy! thofe to ruin, thefe betray.
Mark by what wretched fteps their glory grows,
From dirt and fea-weed as proud Venice role;
In each how guilt and greatness equal ran,
And all that rais'd the Hero, funk the Man :
Now Europe's laurels on their brows behold,
But ftain'd with blood, or ill exchang'd for gold:
Then fee them broke with toils, or funk in cafe,
Or infamous for piu der'd provinces

O! wealth ill-fated! which no act of fame

295

350

Grafp the whole worlds of Reason, Life, and Senfe,

E'er taught to fhine, or fanctify'd from shame! 300 In one clofe fyftem of Benevolence:

What greater bifs attends their close of life?
Some greedy minion, or imperious wite,
The trophy'd arches, ftory'd halls invade,

305

And haunt their numbers in the pompous fhade.
Alas! not dazzled with their noon-tide ray,
Compute the morn and evening to the day;
The whole amount of that enormous fame,
A Tale, that blends their glory with their fhame!
Know then this truth (enough for Man to know)
"Virtue alone is Happiness below."

Muft rife from Individual to the Whole.
Self-love but ferves the virtuous mind to wake,
As the fmall pebble ftirs the peaceful lake;
The centre mov'd, a circle straight fucceeds, 365
Another ftill, and still another spreads;
310 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 fmiles around, with boundless bounty bleft,
315 And Heaven beholds its image in his breast.

The only point where human 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 unequal'd, if its end it gain,
And if it lofe, attended with no pain:
Without fatiety, though e'er fo blefs'd,
And but more relith'd as the more distress'd:
The broadeft mirth unfeeling Folly wears,
Lefs pleating 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 bleft;
And where no wants, no wishes can remain,
Since but to with more Virtue, is to gain

See the fole blifs Heaven could on all beftow! Which who but feels can tafte, but thinks know:

320

370

Come then, my Friend! my Genius! come
along;

Oh mafter of the poet, and the fong!
And while the Mufe now ftoops, or now afcends,
To Man's low paffions, or their glorious ends, [375
Teach me, like thee, in various Nature wife,
To fall with dignity, with temper rife;
Form'd by thy converfe, happily to steer,
From grave to gay, from lively to fevere;
325 Correct with fpirit, eloquent with ease,

380

385

Intent to refon, or polite to please.
Oh! while along the ftream of Time thy name
canxpanded flies, and gathers all its fame;
Say, fhall my little bark attendant fail,
Purfue the triumph. and partake the gale?
When statesmen, heroes, kings, in dust repose,
Whofe fons fhall blush their fathers were thy foes,
Shall then this verfe to future age pretend
Thou wert my guide, philofopher, and friend? 39.
That, urg'd by thee, I turn'd the tuneful art,
From founds to things, from fancy to the heart;
For Wit's falfe mirror held up Nature's light;
Shew'd erring Pride, WHATEVER IS, IS RIGHT;
That REASON, PASSION, anfwer one great aim;

335

Yet poor with fortune, and with learning blind,
The bad muft mifs; the good, untaught, will find;
Slave to no fect, who takes no private road, [330
But books through Nature, up to Nature's God;
Purfues that Chain which links th' immenfe defign,
Joins heaven 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 rising Whole,
The firft, 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, [340
And opens ftill, and Opens on his foul;

395

That true SELF-LOVE and SOCIAL are the fame;
That VIRTUE only makes our blifs below;
And all our knowledge is, eURSELVES TO KNOW.

THE

THE UNIVERSAL PRAYER.

ན.

And yet the fate of all extremes is fuch,
Men may be read, as well as Books, too much.
To obfervations which ourselves we make,
We grow more partial for th' Obferver's fake;
To written Wisdom, as another's, less:
Maxims are drawn from Notions, thefe from Guefs.
There's fome Peculiar in each leaf and grain,
Some unmark'd fibre, or fome varying vein:
Shall only Man be taken in the grofs?
Grant but as many forts of Mind as Mofs.

That each from other differs, first confefs;

Next, that he varies from himself no less;

Early at Bufinefs, and at Hazard late;
10 Mad at a Fox chafe, wife at a Debate;
Drunk at a Borough, civil at a Ball;
Friendly at Hackney, faithful at Whitehall.
Catius is ever moral, ever grave,
Thinks who endures a knave, is next a knave,
15 Save juft at dinner-then prefers, no doubt,
A Rogue with Venifon to a Saint without.
Who would not praife Patricio's high defert,
His hand unftain'd, his uncorrupted heart,
His comprehenfive head! all Interests weigh'd,
20 All Europe fav'd, yet Britain not betray'd.

Add Nature's, Cuftom's, Reafon's, Paffion's ftrife, He thanks you not, his Pride is in Picquette,

And all Opinion's colours caft on life.

Our depths who fathoms, or our fhallows finds,
Quick whirls, and fhifting eddies, of our minds?
On human actions reafon though you can,
It may be Reafon, but it is not Man:
His Principle of action once explore,
That inftant 'tis his Principle no more.

Like following life through creatures you diffect,
You lofe it in the moment you detect.

Yet more; the difference is as great between
The optics feeing, as the objects feen.

All Manners take a tincture from our own;
Or come difcolour'd through our Paffions shown.
Or Fancy's beam enlarges, multiplies,
Contracts, inverts, and gives ten thousand dyes.
Nor will Life's ftream for obfervation stay,
It hurries all too faft to mark their way:
In vain fedate reflections we would make,
When half our knowledge we must fnatch,
take.

Newmarket-fame, and judgment at a Bett.

75

၆၁

85

What made (fay, Montague, or more fage Charron!)

90

15 Otho a warrior, Cromwell a buffoon?
A perjur'd Prince a leaden faint revere,
A godlefs Regent tremble at a Star?
The throne a Bigot keep, a Genius quit,
Faithlefs through Piety, and dup'd through Wit?.
30 Europe a Woman, Child, or Dotard rule,
And juft her wifeft monarch made a fool?

Know, God and Nature only are the fame: 95
In Man, the judgment fhoots at flying game;
A bird of paffage! gone as foon as found,
35 Now in the Moon perhaps, now under ground..
In vain the fage, with retrofpective eye,
Would from th' apparent What conclude the Why,

100

Infer the Motive from the Deed, and shew, not That what we chanc'd was what we meant to do. 40 Behold if Fortune or a Mistress frowns,

Oft, in the Paffion's wild rotation tot,
Our spring of action to ourselves is loft:
Tir'd, not determin'd, to the last we yield,
And what comes then is mafter of the field.
As the laft image of that troubled heap,
When fenfe fubfides and fancy fports in fleep,
(Though paft the recollection of the thought)
Becomes the stuff of which our dream is wrought:
Something as dim to our internal view,
Is thus, perhaps, the caufe of most we do.

50

55

Not always Actions fhew the man: we find
Who does a kindness, is not therefore kind : IIO
Perhaps Profperity becalm'd his breast,
Perhaps the Wind just shifted from the Eaft:
Not therefore humble he who seeks retreat,
Pride guides his fteps, and bids him fhun the
great :

60

True, fome are open, and to all men known;
Others, To very close, they 're hid from none;
(So darkness strikes the fenfe no less than light)
Thus gracious Chandos is belov'd at fight;
And every child hates Shylock, though his foul
Still fits at fquat, and peeps not from its hole.
At half mankind when generous Manly raves,
All know 'tis Virtue, for he thinks them knaves :
When unive fal homage Umbra pays,
All fee 'tis Vice, and itch of vulgar praife.
When Flattery glares, all hate it in a Queen,
While one there is who charms us with his Spleen.
But thefe plain Characters we rarely find:
Though trong the bent, yet quick the turns

mind:

Or puzzling Contraries confound the whole;
Or Affectations quite reverfe the foul.
The Dull, flat Falfehood ferves, for policy;
And in the Cunning, Truth itfeif's a lie:
Unthought-of Frailties cheat us in the Wife ;
The Fool lies hid in inconfiftencies.

See the fame man, in vigour, in the gout;
Alone, in company; in place, or out;

of

The few that glare, each character muft mark,
You balance not the many in the dark.
What will you do with fuch as difagree?
Supprefs them, or mifcall them policy?
Muft then at once (the character to fave)
The plain rough Hero turn a crafty Knave?
65 Alas! in truth the man but chang'd his mind,
Perhaps was fick, in love, or had not din'd.
Afk why from Britain Cæfar could retreat?
Cæfar himself might whisper, he was beat.
Why risk the World's great empire for a Punk?
70 Cæfar perhaps might anfwer, he was drunk.

But, fage hiftorians! 'tis your task to prove
One action Conduct; one, heroic Love,

125

130

'Tis

every

A conftant Bounty, which no Friend has made;
An Argel Tongue, which no man can perfuade;
A Fool, with more of Wit than half mankind, 200
Too rafh for Thought, for Action too refin'd:
A Tyrant to the wife his heart approves;
A Rebel to the very king he loves;
140 He dies, fad outcaft of each church and state,
And, harder ftill! flagitious, yet not great.
Afk you why Wharton broke through every rule?
'Twas all for fear the Knaves fhould call him Fool.
Nature well known, no prodigies remain,
Comets are regular, and Wharton plain.

'Tis from high Life high characters are drawn:
A Sa'nt in Crape is twice a Saint in Lawn;
A Judge is juft, a Chancellor jufter still;
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
thing.
Court-Virtues bear, like Gems, the highest rate,
Born where Heaven's influence fcarce can penetrate:
In life's low vale, the foil the Virtues like,
They please as beauties, here as wonders strike.
Though the fame fun with all diffufive rays
Bluth in the Rofe, and in the Diamond blaze,
We prize the stronger effort of his power,
And justly fet the Gem above the Flower.

145

150

'Tis Education forms the common mind;
Juft as the tw g is bent, the tree's inclin'd.
Boaftful and rough, your first fon is a 'Squire;
The next a Tradefman, meek, and much a lyar;
Tom ftruts a Soldier, open, bold and brave;
Will fneaks a Scrivener, an exceeding knave:
Is he a Churchman? then he's fond of power: 155
A Quaker? fly: A Prefbyterian? four:
A fmart Free-thinker? all things in an hour.

Afk men's Opinions: Scoto now shall tell
How Trade increafes, and the world goes well;
Strike off his Pention, by the fetting fun,
And Britain, if not Europe, is undone.

205

Yet, in this fearch, the wisest may mistake, 210
If fecond qualities for first they take.

When Catiline by rapine fwell'd his ftore;
When Cæfar made a noble dame a whore;

In this the Luft, in that the Avarice,

Were means, not ends; Ambition was the vice. 215
That very Cæfar, born in Scipio's days,
Had aim'd like him, by Chastity, at praife.
Lucullus, when Frugality could charm,
Had roatted turnips in the Sabine farm.
In vain th' obferver eyes the builder's toil,
But quite mistakes the fcaffold for the pile.

220

In this one paffion man can strength enjoy,
As Fits give vigour, juft when they destroy.
160 Time, that on all things lays his lenient hand,
Yet tames not this; it sticks to our laft fand. 225
Confiftent in our follies and our fins,
Here honeft nature ends as the begins.

That gay Free-thinker, a fine talker once,
What turns him now a stupid, filent, dunce?
Some God, or Spirit, he has lately found;
Gr chanc'd to meet a Minifter that frown'd.
Judge we by Nature? Habit can efface,
Intereft o'ercome, or policy take place:
By Actions? thofe Uncertainty divides:
By Paffions? thefe Diffimulation hides:
Opinions? they still take a wider range:
Find, if you can, in what you cannot change.
Manners with Fortunes, Humours turns with
Climes,

Tenets with Books, and Principles with Times.

Old Politicians chew on wifdem past,
165 And totter on in business to the last;
As weak, as earneft; and as gravely out,
As fober Lanefborow dancing in the gout.
Behold a reverend fire, whom want of grace
Has made the father of a nameless race,
'Shov'd from the wall perhaps, or rudely prefs'd
By his own for, that paffes by unblefs'd:
Still to his wench he crawls on knocking knees,
And envies every fparrow that he fees.

170

230

235

A falmon's belly, Helluo, was thy fate;
The doctor call'd, declares all help too late:
Mercy," cries Helluo, mercy on my foul! 24
"Is there no hope?-Alas! then bring the jowl."
The frugal Crone, whom praying priests at

tend,

Still ftrives to fave the hallow'd taper's end, 180 Collets her breath, as ebbing life retires,

Search then the Ruling Paffion: There, alone,
The Wild are conftant, and the Cunning knowa; 175
The Fool confiftent, and the Falte fincere;
Priefs, Princes, Women, no diffemblers here.
This clue once found, unravels all the reft,
The profpe&t clears, and Wharton ftands confeft.
Wharton, the fcorn and wonder of our days,
Whofe ruling Paffion was the luft of Praife:
Born with whate'er could win it from the Wife,
Women and Fools must like him, or he dies:
Though wondering Senates hung on all he spoke,
The Club must hail him mafter of the joke.
Shall parts fo various aim at nothing new?
He'll thine a Tully and a Wilmot too.
Then turns repentant, and his God adores
With the fame fpirit that he drinks and whores;
Enough if all around him but admire,

And now the Punk applaud, and now the Friar.
Thus with each gift of nature and of art,
And wanting nothing but an honeft heart;
Grown all to all, from no one vice exempt;
And most contemptible, to fhun contempt;
His paffion ftill, to covet general praise;
His Life, to forfeit it a thousand ways;

245

For one puff more, and in that puff expires. "Odious! in woollen 'twould a faint provoke, (Were the last words that poor Narciffa (poke) "No, let a charming Chintz, and Bruffels lace, 135" Wrap my cold limbs, and fhade my lifeless face: "One would not, fure, be frightful when one's dead-

195

250