What crops of wit and honesty appear
From spleen, from obstinacy, hate or fear!
See anger, zeal and fortitude supply;

Ev'n avarice, prudence; sloth, philosophy;
Lust, through some certain strainers well refin'd,
Is gentle love, and charms all womankind :
Envy, to which th' ignoble mind's a slave,
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 shame.
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 soul abhorr❜d in Catiline,
In Decius charms, in Curtius is divine.
The same ambition can destroy or save,
And makes a patriot as it makes a knave.

VI. This light and darkness in our chaos join'd,
What shall divide? The God within the mind.
Extremes in nature equal ends produce,
In man they join to some mysterious use;
Though each by turns the other's bounds invade,

203

As in some well-wrought picture, light and shade:
And oft so mixt, the diff'rence is too nice

Where ends the virtue, or begins the vice.
Fools! who from hence into the notion fall,

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;

215

Tis to mistake them, costs the time and pain.
V. Vice is a monster of so frightful mien,
As, to be hated, needs but to be seen;
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace.

220

But where th' extreme of vice, was ne'er agreed;

Ask where's the North? at York, 'tis on the Tweed:
In Scotland, at the Orcades; and there,

At Greenland, Zembla, or the Lord knows where.

No creature owns it in the first degree,

225

But thinks his neighbour farther gone than he

Ev'n those who dwell beneath its very zone,

Or never feel the rage, or never own;
What happier natures shrink at with affright,
The hard inhabitant contends is right.

230

VI. 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 wise,

And ev❜n the best, by fits, what they despise.

'Tis but by parts we follow good or ill,

235

For, vice or virtue, self directs it still;

Each individual seeks a sev'ral goal;

But Heav'n's great view is one, and that the whole :

That counter-works each folly and caprice;

That disappoints th' effect of ev'ry vice:
That happy frailties to all ranks apply'd,
Shame to the virgin, to the matron pride,
Fear to the statesman, rashness to the chief,
To kings presumption, and to crowds belief:
That virtue's ends from vanity can raise,

240

245

Which seeks no int'rest, no reward but praise;

And build on wants, and on defects of mind,
The joy, the peace, the glory of mankind.

Heav'n, forming each on other to depend,
A master, or a servant, or a friend,

250

Bids each on other for assistance call,

Till one man's weakness grows the strength of all.
Wants, frailties, passions, closer still ally

The common int'rest, or endear the tie.

To these we owe true friendship, love sincere,

255

Each home-felt joy that life inherits here:
Yet from the same we learn, in its decline,

Those joys, those loves, those int'rests to resign:
Taught half by reason, half by mere decay,

To welcome death, and calmly pass away.

260

. Whate'er the passion, 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 giv❜n,

265

The poor contents him with the care of Heav'n.

See the blind beggar dance, the cripple sing,
The sot a hero, lunatic a king;

The starving chymist in his golden views

Supremely blest, the poet in his muse.

270

See some strange comfort ev'ry state attend,

And pride bestow'd on all, a common friend;

See some fit passion ev'ry age supply,

Hope travels through, nor quits us when we die.
Behold the child, by nature's kindly law,

275

Pleas'd with a rattle, tickled with a straw:

Some livelier play-thing gives his youth delight,

A little louder, but as empty quite :

Scarfs, garters, gold, amuse his riper stage;
And beads and pray'r-books are the toys of age:
Pleas'd with this bauble still, as that before;
Till tir'd he sleeps, 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 each vacuity of sense by pride: ⚫
These build as fast as knowledge can destroy ;
In folly's cup still laughs the bubble, joy;
One prospect lost, another still we gain;

And not a vanity is giv'n in vain ;

Ev'n mean self-love becomes, by force divine,
The scale to measure others' wants by thine.
See! and confess one comfort still must rise;
'Tis this, though man's a fool, yet God is wise.

280

285

290

EPISTLE III.

HERE then we rest: "The universal cause
"Acts to one end, but acts by various laws."
In all the madness of superfluous health,
The trim of pride, the impudence of wealth,
Let this great truth be present night and day;
But most be present, if we preach or pray.

I. Look round our world; behold the chain of love

Combining all below and all above.

See plastic nature working to this end,

5

The single atoms each to other tend,

10

Attract, attracted too, the next in place

Form'd and impell'd its neighbour to embrace.
See matter next, with various life endu❜d,

Press to one centre still, the gen'ral good.

See dying vegetables life şustain,

15

See life dissolving vegetate again :

All forms that perish other forms supply,

(By turns we catch the vital breath, and die ;)

Like bubbles on the sea of matter borne,

They rise, they break, and to that sea return.
Nothing is foreign; parts relate to whole;
One all-extending, all-preserving soul

20

Connects each being, greatest with the least;
Made beast in aid of man, and man of beast;
All serv'd, all serving: nothing stands alone;
The chain holds on, and where it ends, unknown.
Has God, thou fool! work'd solely for thy good,
Thy joy, thy pastime, thy attire, thy food?

Who for thy table feeds the wanton fawn,

For him as kindly spread the flow'ry lawn

30

Is it for thee the lark ascends and sings?
Joy tunes his voice, joy elevates his wings.
Is it for thee the linnet pours his throat?
Loves of his own, and raptures swell the note.
The bounding steed you pompously bestride,
Shares with his lord the pleasure and the pride.
Is thine alone the seed that strews the plain?
The birds of heaven shall vindicate their grain.
Thine the full harvest of the golden year?
Part pays, and justly, the deserving steer:

35

40