EPISTLE I.* Of the Knowledge and Characters of MEN. YES, you despise the man to books confin'd, The *Moral Essays.] The ESSAY ON MAN was intended to be 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 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 the 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, so far forth as they affect society; between which the author always supposed there was the closest connection and the most interesting relation. 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 digested, and com municated The coxcomb bird, so talkative and grave, 5 That from his cage cries Cuckold, Whore, and Knave, Tho' many a passenger he rightly call, You hold him no philosopher at all. And yet the fate of all extremes is such, Men may be read, as well as books, too much. 10 To municated to L. 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 discouragements from the depravity of the times, and partly on prudentia! 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 own strong and capacious mind, and as we can have but a very imperfect idea of it from the disjecta membra Poeta, which 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 one 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 to treat 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 re-assume 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 feigued examples. The FOURTH and last book was to pursue the subject of the fourth epistle of the first, and to treat of Ethics, or practical morality; and would have consisted of many members; of which, the four following epistles are detached portions: the two first, on the characters of men and women, being the introductory part of this Soncluding book. 12 To observations which ourselves we make, We grow more partial for th' observer's sake; Maxims are drawn from notions, those from guess. That each from other differs, first confess; Our depths who fathoms, or our shallows finds, It may be reason, but it is not man: His principle of action once explore, 15 20 25 That instant 'tis his principle no more. Like following life through creatures you dissect, 30 Yet more; the diff'rence is as great between The optics seeing, as the objects seen. All manners take a tincture from our own; Or come discolour'd through our passions shown. 35 Contracts, inverts, and gives ten thousand dies. Nor will life's stream for observation stay, It hurries all too fast to mark their way: In vain sedate reflections we would make, When half our knowledge we must snatch, not take. Oft, in the passions' wide rotation tost, Our spring of action to ourselves is lost : As the last image of that troubled heap, Is thus, perhaps, the cause of most we do. 41 45 50 True, some are open, and to all men known; Others so very close they're hid from none; 55 All see 'tis vice, and itch of vulgar praise. бо When flatt'ry glares, all hate it in a queen, While one there is who charms us with his spleen. But VER. 57. At half mankind] The character alluded to is the principal one in the Plain Dealer of Wycherly. VER. 61. hate it in a queen,] Queen Caroline, whom he was fond of censuring. But these plain characters we rarely find; Tho' strong the bent, yet quick the turns of mind: Or puzzling contraries confound the whole; Or affectations quite reverse the soul. 65 70 See the same man, in vigour, in the gout; Alone, in company; in place, or out; Early at bus'ness, and at hazard late; Mad at a fox-chase, wise at a debate ; Catius is ever moral, ever grave, Think who endures a knave, is next a knave, then prefers, no doubt, 75 80 Save just at dinner. 85 A per VER. 81. Patritio's high desert,] Meaning Lord Godolphin, who, though he was a great gamester, yet was an able and honest minister. |