Paffions, like elements, tho' born to fight, Yet, mix'd and foften'd, in his work unite: Thefe, 'tis enough to temper and employ ; But what compofes Man, can Man destroy? Suffice that Reason keep to Nature's road, Subject, compound them, follow her and God. Love, Hope, and Joy, fair Pleafure's smiling train, Hate, Fear, and Grief, the family of Pain,

115

These

VARIATIONS.

After Ver. 112. in the MS.

The soft reward the virtuous, or invite ;
The fierce, the vicious punish or affright.

NOTES.

coming out of his profound repose. . “It is,” says he, “exceffively poetical, and prefents us with ideas which we ought not to dwell upon," &c. and then, as ufual, blames the Author for the blunder of his Tranflator. Comm. p. 158.

W.

VER. 109. Nor God alone, &c.] These words are only a fimple affirmation in the poetic drefs of a fimilitude, to this purpose: Good is not only produced by the subdual of the Paffions, but by the turbulent exercise of them. A truth conveyed under the most fublime imagery that poetry could conceive or paint. For the author is here only shewing the providential issue of the Paffions; and how, by God's gracious difpofition, they are turned away from their natural destructive bias, to promote the Happiness of Mankind. As to the method in which they are to be treated by Man, in whom they are found, all that he contends for, in favour of them, is only this, that they should not be quite rooted up and destroyed, as the Stoics, and their followers, in all Religions, foolishly attempted. For the reft, he conftantly repeats this advice,

"The action of the ftronger to fufpend,

Reason still use, to Reason ftill attend."

W.

VER. 110. Walks upon the wind.] In Dryden's Ceyex and Alcione is,

"And now fublime she rides upon the wind.” VER. 117. Love, Hope, and Joy,] This beautiful group of allegorical perfonages, fo ftrongly contrafted, how does it act?

The

120

These mix'd with art, and to due bounds confin'd,
Make and maintain the balance of the mind:
The lights and fhades, whose well-accorded strife
Gives all the strength and colour of our life.
Pleasures are ever in our hands or eyes;
And when, in act, they cease, in prospect, rise:
Present to grasp, and future still to find,

The whole employ of body and of mind.

All spread their charms, but charm not all alike;
On diff'rent senses diff'rent objects strike;
Hence diff'rent Paffions more or less inflame,

125

As strong or weak, the organs of the frame;

NOTES.

130

And

The profopopoeia is unfortunately dropped, and the metaphor changed immediately in the fucceeding lines, viz.

"Thefe mix'd with art," &c.

VER. 128. On diff'rent fenfes] A didactic poet, who has happily indulged himself in bolder flights of enthusiasm, fupported by a more figurative ftyle than our Author used, has thus nobly illuftrated this very doctrine :

"Diff'rent minds
Incline to diff'rent objects: one pursues
The vaft alone, the wonderful, the wild;
Another fighs for harmony, and grace,

And gentleft beauty. Hence, when lightning fires
The arch of heaven, and thunders rock the ground;
When furious whirlwinds rend the howling air,

And Ocean, groaning from the lowest bed,
Heaves his tempeftuous billows to the sky;
Amid the mighty uproar, while below
The nations tremble, Shakespeare looks abroad
From fome high cliff, fuperior, and enjoys
The elemental war. But Waller longs

All on the margin of some flow'ry stream,
To fpread his careless limbs, amid the cool
Of plantane shades.".

And hence one MASTER PASSION in the breast,
Like Aaron's ferpent, fwallows up the rest,

As Man, perhaps, the moment of his breath,
Receives the lurking principle of death;

The young disease, that must fubdue at length, 135 Grows with his growth, and ftrengthens with his strength:

So, caft and mingl'd with his

very frame,

The Mind's difeafe, its RULING PASSION came;
Each vital humour which fhould feed the whole,
Soon flows to this, in body and in foul:
Whatever warms the heart, or fills the head,
As the mind opens, and its functions spread,
Imagination plies her dang'rous art,
And pours it all upon the peccant part.

Nature its mother, Habit is its nurse;
Wit, Spirit, Faculties, but make it worse;
Reason itself but gives it edge and pow'r;
As Heav'n's bleft beam turns vinegar more fow'r.

NOTES.

149

145

We,

VER. 133. As Man, perhaps, &c.] “Antipater Sidonius Poeta omnibus annis uno die natali tantum corripiebatur febre, et eo confumptus eft fatis longa fenecta." Plin. 1. vii. N. H. This Antipater was in the times of Craffus; and is celebrated for the quicknefs of his parts by Cicero. W.

VER. 147. Reafon itself, &c.] The Poet, in fome other of his epiftles, gives examples of the doctrines and precepts here delivered. Thus, in that of the Ufe of Riches, he has illuftrated this truth in the character of Cotta.

W.

VER. 148. Turns vinegar] Taken from Bacon, De Calore; and the preceding verfe, and comparison, 132.

"Like Aaron's ferpent,"

is from Bacon likewife.

We, wretched fubjects, tho' to lawful fway,
In this weak queen, fome fav'rite still obey:
Ah! if she lend not arms, as well as rules,
What can fhe more than tell us we are fools?
Teach us to mourn our Nature, not to mend,
A fharp accufer, but a helpless friend!
Or from a judge turn pleader, to perfuade
The choice we make, or justify it made;

Proud of an eafy conqueft all along,

She but removes weak Paffions for the strong:
So, when small humours gather to a gout,

150

155

The doctor fancies he has driv'n them out.

160

Yes, Nature's road must ever be preferr'd;
Reason is here no guide, but ftill a guard:
'Tis her's to rectify, not overthrow,

And treat this paffion more as friend than foe:
A mightier Pow'r the strong direction fends,
And sevʼral Men impels to fev'ral ends :

Like varying winds, by other paffions tost,
This drives them conftant to a certain coast.

NOTES.

165

Let

VER. 149. We, wretched fubjects,] The weakness and infufficiency of Human Reason is here painted in the strongest colours: from whence the neceffity and the utility of Revelation may be justly inferred.

VER. 157. Proud of an eafy] From the Duc de la Rochefoucault, Maxim. 10. ; as is alfo Verse 170. from Maxim. 266,; and also Verse 272. from the fame author, Maxim. 36.

The late excellent Duke de la Rochefoucault, in a letter to Dr. Adam Smith, dated Paris, 3 Mars. 1778, fpeaks thus of the Maxims of his ingenious grandfather, as too fevere on Human Nature: "Perhaps it may be urged to excufe him, that he had feen and known men chiefly in a court, or in the time of a civil war; deux, theatres fur lefquels ils font certainement plus mauvais qu'ailleurs."

Let pow'r or knowledge, gold or glory, please,

Or (oft more ftrong than all) the love of eafe; 170
Through life 'tis follow'd, even at life's expence ;
The merchant's toil, the fage's indolence,
The monk's humility, the hero's pride,
All, all alike, find reason on their fide.

Th' Eternal Art educing good from ill,
Grafts on this Paffion our best principle:
'Tis thus the Mercury of Man is fix'd,
Strong grows the Virtue with his nature mix'd;
The drofs cements what else were too refin'd,
And in one int❜reft body acts with mind.

As fruits, ungrateful to the planter's care,
On favage ftocks inferted, learn to bear;
The fureft Virtues thus from Paffions fhoot,
Wild Nature's vigour working at the root.
What crops of wit and honesty appear
From spleen, from obftinacy, hate, or fear!

See anger, zeal, and fortitude fupply;
Ev'n avarice, prudence; floth, philofophy;
Luft, through fome certain ftrainers well refin'd,
Is gentle love, and charms all womankind;
Envy, to which th' ignoble mind's a flave,
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 fhame.

175

180

185

190

VARIATIONS.

After Ver. 194. in the MS.

How oft with Paffion, Virtue points ker charms !
Then shines the Hero, then the Patriot warms.

Thus

Peleus'