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CHA P. XV.

ON HAPPINES S.

H HAPPINESS! our being's end and aim !

Good, Pleasure, Eafe, Content! whate'er thy name That fomething ftill which prompts the eternal figh,

For which we bear to live, or dare to die; Which still so near us, yet beyond us lies, O'erlook'd, feen double, by the fool, and wife. Plant of celeftial feed! if dropt below, Say, in what mortal foil thou deign'st to grow ? Fair op'ning to fome Court's propitious shine, 'Or deep with diamonds in the flaming mine? 'Twin'd with the wreaths Parnaffian laurels yield, 'Or reap'd in iron harvests of the field ?

Where

grows?-where grows it not? If vain our toil, We ought to blame the culture, not the foil: Fix'd to no spot is Happiness fincere,

*Tis no where to be found, or ev'ry where; 'Tis never to be bought, but always free,

And, fled from monarchs, ST. JOHN ! dwells with thee.
Ask of the Learn'd the way? The Learn'd are blind;
This bids to ferve, and that to fhun mankind:

Some place the blifs in action, fome in eafe,
"Those call it. Pleasure, and Contentment thefe ;
Some, funk to beafts, find pleasure end in pain;
Some, fwell'd to Gods, confefs ev'n Virtue vain;
Or indolent, to each extreme they fall,

To truft in every thing, or doubt of all.

Who thus define it, fay they more or less Than this, that Happiness is Happiness?

Take

Take Nature's path, and mad Opinions leave: All states can reach it, and all heads conceive; Obvious her goods, in no extreme they dwell; There needs but thinking right, and meaning well; And mourn our various portions as we please, Equal is Common Senfe, and Common Eafe. Remember, Man, "the Universal Caufe "Acts not by partial, but by gen'ral laws;" And makes what Happinefs we justly call Subfift not in the good of one, but all. There's not a bleffing Individuals find. But fome way leans and hearkens to the kind; No Bandit fierce, no Tyrant mad with pride, No cavern'd Hermit, refts self-satisfied : Who most to fhun or hate Mankind pretend, Seek an admirer, or would fix a friend : Abstract what others feel; what others think, All pleasures ficken, and all glories fink : Each has his fhare; and who would more obtain Shall find, the pleasure pays not half the pain. ORDER is Heav'n's first law; and this confeft, Some are, and muft be, greater than the reft, More rich; more wife; but who infers from hence That fuch are happier, fhocks all common fenfe. Heav'n to mankind impartial we confefs,

If all are equal in their Happiness :

But mutual wants this Happinefs increase;
All Nature's difference keeps all Nature's peace,
Condition, circumftance, is not the thing;
Bliss is the fame in fubject or in king ;
In who obtain defence, or who defend,›
In him who is, or him who finds a friend

1

Heav'n breathes thro' every member of the whole
One common bleffing, as one common foul.
But Fortune's gifts if each alike poffeft,
And each were equal, muft not all contest?
If then to all men Happiness was meant,
God in Externals could not place Content.
Fortune her gifts may variously dispose,
And these be happy call'd, unhappy thofe ;
But Heav'n's juft balance equal will appear,
While those are plac'd in Hope, and these in Fear :
Not prefent good or ill, the joy or curse,

But future views of better, or of worse.
Oh fons of earth! attempt ye ftill to rife,
By mountains pil'd on mountains, to the skies!
Heav'n ftill with laughter the vain toil furveys,
And buries madmen in the heaps they raise.

Know, all the good that individuals find,
Or God and Nature meant to mere mankind,
Reafon's whole pleasure, all the joys of Senfe,

Lie in three words, Health, Peace, and Competence.

K

С НА Р. XVI.

ON VIRTUE,

NOW thou this truth (enough for man to know)
"Virtue alone is happiness below."

The only point where human blifs ftands ftill,
And tastes the good without the fall to ill ;
Where only Merit conftant pay receives,
Is bleft in what it takes, and what it gives;

POPE

The

The joy unequall'd if its end it gain,
And if it lofe, attended with no pain,
Without fatiety, tho' e'er so bless'd,

And but more relifh'd as the more diftrefs'd :
The broadeft mirth unfeeling Folly wears,

Lefs pleafing 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 bless'd;
And where no wants, no wishes can remain,
Since but to wish more Virtue, is to gain.

See the fole blifs Heav'n could on all beftow!
Which who but feels can tafte, but thinks can know :
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,
But looks thro' Nature, up to Nature, God;
Pursues that Chain which links th' immenfe defign,
Joins heav'n and earth, and mortal and divine;
Sees, that no Being any bliss can know
But touches fome above, and fome below;
Learns, from this union of the rifing 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,

And opens ftill, and opens on his foul;
'Till lengthen'd on to Faith, and unconfin'd,

It

pours the blifs that fills up all the mind. He fees why Nature plants in man alone

Hope of known blifs, and Faith in blifs unknown:

(Nature,

(Nature, whose dictates to no other kind

Are given in vain, but what they feek they find)
Wife is her prefent; fhe connects in this
His greateft Virtue with his greatest Blifs;
At once his own bright profpect to be bleft,
And ftrongest motive to affift the rest.

Self-love thus pufh'd to focial, to divine,
Gives thee to make thy neighbour's bleffing thine,
Is this too little for thy boundless heart?
Extend it, let thy enemies have part:

Grafp the whole worlds of Reason, Life, and Sense,
In one clofe fyftem of Benevolence :
Happier as kinder, in whate'er degree,

And height of Blifs but height of Charity

God loves from Whole to Parts: But human foul
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 strait fucceeds,
Another fill, and ftill another spreads;
Friend, parent, neighbour, firft it will embrace;
His country next; and next all human race;
Wide and more wide, th' o'erflowings of the mind
Take ev'ry creature in of ev'ry kind;

Earth fmiles around, with boundless bounty bleft,
And Heav'n beholds its image in his breast.

POPE.

CHAP.

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