Whate'er the passion, knowledge, fame, or pelf, Not one will change his neighbor 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 given,

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.

265

270

See some strange comfort every state attend, And pride bestow'd on all, a common friend : See some fit passion every age supply; Hope travels through, nor quits us when we die. Behold the child, by nature's kindly law, Pleas'd with a rattle, tickled with a straw: Some livelier plaything gives his youth delight, h A little louder, but as empty quite!

275

261. Let the passion be that, which it may be; or whatever may be considered as an indef. pro. in which sense it is often used.

267. It is a striking truth, that those people, whom we might suppose the most miserable, are apparently the most happy, and that, too, under mistaken views of their own character which is in itself sufficient evidence that all ideas of happiness are illusory, unless founded on a rational reference to the concerns of another world.

269. The starving chymist-reference is here made to the alchymists who, for a long time, were employed in vain search after the philosopher's stone, which they fondly hoped would turn every thing it touched into gold. See the poet in his muse supremely blest.

275-282. Man is here traced through his progress, from childhood to old age, together with the varied objects of his pleasure. Beads and prayer books-this is spoken in

T

Scarfs, garters, gold, amuse his riper stage,
And beads and prayer-books are the toys of age:
Pleas'd with this bauble still, as that before; 281.
Till tired, 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

- бу поре

supplied;

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 given 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.

285

290

reference to the usage of the Papal religion, which includes a service called a rosary and crown. This consists in repeating, a certain number of times, the Lord's prayer, and the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary," that she would bear a son," &c., and that they may know when it is accomplished, they have the proper number of beads upon a string, and as often as they repeat it through, slip a bead to the other end of the string, till all have changed ends, when it is done.

291-292. Even mean self-love becomes the scale This, perhaps, the poet would consider as the sanction of our Saviour's golden rule. Our self-love leads us to desire good treatment from others, and may therefore influence us to practise the same unto them. By thine-thine is a pro. supplying the place of an obj. and pro., viz. thy wants

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 train of pride, the impudence of wealth,
Let this great truth be present night and day;
But most be present, if we preach or pray.

5

I. Look round our world; behold the chain of

love

Combining all below and all above.

See plastic nature working to this end,
The single atoms each to other tend, ·
Attract, attracted to, the next in place
Form'd and impell'd its neighbor to embrace.
See matter next, with various life endued,
Press to one centre still, the general good.
See dying vegetables life sustain,
See life dissolving, vegetate again :

All forms that perish, other forms supply,

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

10

EPISTLE III.

5. Let this great truth, &c. What is this great truth? The sentence marked with a quotation, answers.

10. See the single atoms, each tend toward the other. Each, or every one, is a distributive expression for a number taken singly, and in opposition with atoms.

11. See them attract-attracted to is a part. from the complex verb to auract to.

14. Good, in the end of the line, is in app. with centre,

Like bubbles, on the sea of matter borne,

20

They rise, they break, and to that sea return.
Nothing is foreign; parts relate to whole;
One all-extending, all-preserving soul
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?
he Who for thy table, feeds the wanton fawn,

For him as kindly spreads the flowery lawn:
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 :
The hog, that ploughs not, nor obeys thy call,
Lives on the labors of this lord of all.

25

30

35

40

27. Has God worked, &c. Work is here made a reguar verb, which is seldom the case, except in the sea-phrase, "he worked his passage.' So in some of Pope's other

writings, we find catched instead of caught.

29-30. He who, &c. spreads.

40. Part pays-a part of the products of the year must be expended in support of the ox, by whose labors they were increased.

Know, nature's children all divide her care;

The fur that warms a monarch warmed a bear.

While man exclaims, "See all things for my 990 use!

"See man for mine!" replies a pamper'd goose ;
And just as short of reason he must fall,

Who thinks all made for one, not one for all.
Grant that the powerful still the weak control;
Be man the wit and tyrant of the whole:
Nature that tyrant checks; he only knows,
And helps another creature's wants or woes.
Say, will the falcon, stooping from above,
Smit with her varying plumage, spare the dove?
Admires the jay the insect's gilded wings?
Or hears the hawk when Philomela sings?
Man cares for all: to birds he gives his woods,
To beasts his pastures, and to fish his floods:
For some, his interest prompts him to provide,

50

55

For more his pleasure, yet for more his pride:

All feed on one vain patron, and enjoy

61

Th' extensive blessings of his luxury.

That very life his learned hunger craves,

He saves from famine, from the savage saves;

Nay, feasts the animal he dooms his feast,

65

And, till he ends the being, makes it blest :

49. Grant man to be, &c.

53-6. The falcon, jay, and hawk regard not the colors, brilliancy, or musical powers of those creatures which they devour. They have but one object, which is, to satisfy hunger.