Describe or fix one movement of his mind!

ald Who saw its fires here rise and there descend,

Explain his own beginning or his end?

Alas, what wonder! man's superior part
part
Uncheck'd may rise, and climb from art to art;
only
But when his own great, work is but begun, T
What reason weaves, by passion is un

undone.

Trace science, then, with modesty thy guide;
First strip off all her equipage of pride;

Deduct what is but vanity or dress, which 145
Or learning's luxury, or idleness;

Or tricks to show the stretch of human brain,

Mere curious pleasure, or ingenious pain;

Expunge the whole, or lop th' excrescent parts
Of all our vices have created arts;

ads ady there

Then see how little the remaining sum,

Which serv'd the past, and must the times to
come!

II. Two principles in human nature reign;
Self-love, to urge, and reason, to restrain;
Nor this a good, nor that a bad we call,
Each works its end, to move or govern all :

55

coveries, describe or fix one movement of his own mind?
Could he explain his own beginning, or his end?

50. Of all, which our vices have created or formed into

arts.

52. Which served the past, and must serve the times which are to come.

55. Nor do we call this (reason) a good principle; nor that (self-love) a bad principle.

56. Each works its end, which is, &c.; or the sub. phrase, to move or govern all, may be in apposition with end.

* what com

to no

pronoun. that demora promm

undone.

what. That oby by deduct, which

And to their proper operation still

Ascribe all good; to their improper, ill.
Self-love, the spring of motion, acts the soul;
Reason's comparing balance rules the whole.
Man, but for that, no action could attend,
And but for this, were active to no end:
man Fix'd like a plant on his peculiar spot,
To draw nutrition, propagate, and rot:
Or, meteor-like, flame lawless through the void,
Destroying others, by himself destroy'd..
Most strength the moving principle requires;
Active its task, it prompts, impels, inspires.
Sedate and quiet the comparing lies,

Form'd but to check, deliberate, and advise.
Self-love, still stronger, as its object's nigh;
Reason's at distance, and in prospect lie;
That sees immediate good by present sense;
Reason, the future and the consequence.
Thicker than arguments, temptations throng;
At best more watchful this, but that more strong.
The action of the stronger to suspend,

Reason still use, to reason still attend.
Attention, habit and experience gains;

60

66

70

75

79

58. To their improper operation ascribe all ill. 62. Were active- —an elegant poetical usage for would be active.

67-69. It should be kept in mind that in all the fol lowing part of this work, the poet treats of self-love as the moving, and reason as the comparing principle.

72. Reason's objects are at a distance.

74. Reason sees the future, &c.

79. Attention gains habit and experience

Each strengthens reason, and self-love restrains.

Let subtle school-men teach these friends to

fight,

More studious to divide than to unite;

And grace and virtue, sense and reason split
With all the rash dexterity of wit.

Wits, just like fools, at war about a name,
Have full as oft no meaning, or the same.
Self-love and reason to one end aspire,
Pain their aversion, pleasure their desire;
But greedy that, its object would devour,
This taste the honey, and not wound the flower:
Pleasure, or wrong or rightly understood,

Our greatest evil, or our greatest good.

85

91 *

95.

III. Modes of self-love the passions we may call; "Tis real good, or seeming, moves them all : But since not every good we can divide, And reason bids us for our own provide ; Passions, though selfish, if their means be fair, List under reason, and deserve her care; Those, that imparted, court a nobler aim, Exalt their kind, and take some virtue's name. In lazy apathy let stoics boast

101

81. Those skilled in the Divinity of the schools, or dealers in speculative Divinity.

83. Let them point out nice distinctions between grace and virtue, &c.

98. We call the passions modes of self-love.

99. Those that are imparted, court a nobler aim; or those, that being imparted, court, &c. exalt. nom. to exalt -that in the nom. to court.

Those in the

101-6. Let stoics boast their virtue to be fixed; or, that

Their virtue fix'd; 'tis fix'd as in a frost;
Contracted all, retiring to the breast;
But strength of mind is exercise, not rest:
The rising tempest puts in act the soul;
Parts it may ravage, but preserves the whole.
On life's vast ocean diversely we sail,
Reason the chart but passion is the gale;
Nor God alone in the still calm we find,

He mounts the storm, and walks upon the wind.
Passions, like elements, though born to fight,
Yet, mix'd and soften'd, in his work unite:
These 'tis enough to temper and employ ;
But what composes man, can man destroy?
Suffice that reason keep to nature's road,
Subject, compound them, follow her and God.

ems

105

10%

115

Love, hope, and joy, fair pleasure's smiling train,

Hate, fear, and grief, the family of pain;

120

These, mixt with art, and to due bounds confin'd,
Make and maintain the balance of the mind;
The lights and shades whose well-accorded strife
Gives all the strength and color of our life,
Pleasures are ever in our hands and eyes;
pleasures

ttien

And when in act they cease, in prospect rise:

but

A

their virtue is fixed. It (their virtue) is all contracted, retiring to the breast, i. e. consists in a criminal indifference to everything.

114. Can man destroy that, which composes man?

115. Let it suffice that reason keep. The verb is here put in the subj. mood after that.

121. These are the lights and shades--or, these make the lights and shades.

The

Present to grasp, and future still to find,
The whole employ of body and of mind.

125

All spread their charms, but charm not all alike;
On diff'rent senses, diff'rent objects strike;
Hence diff'rent passions more or less inflame,
As strong or weak, the organs of the frame:
And hence one master passion in the breast,
Like Aaron's serpent, swallows up the rest.

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

130

134

The young disease, which must subdue at length, Grows with his growth, and strengthens with his strength.

So, cast and mingled with his very frame,

carne to be

The mind's disease, its ruling passion came;
Each vital humor which should feed the whole,

Soon flows to t this, in body and in soul.

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;

140

145

125. To grasp present pleasures, and to find future pleasures, are the whole employ-ment of body and of mind. 131. One master passion, &c. This idea we believe is first to be found n the writings of Longinus, the celebrated critic of other times, who attests the sublimity of the Scriptures, in the passage, "God said, let there be light, and there was light."

138. The mind's disease came to be, e. became &c.