That, vice may merit, 'tis the price of toil;
The knave deserves it, when he tills the soil;
The knave deserves it, when he tempts the main,
Where folly fights for kings, or dives for gain.
The good man may be weak, be indolent;
Nor is his claim to plenty, but content.

155

But grant him riches, your demand is o'er ? No-shall the good want health, the good want power?

Add health and power, and every earthly thing, "Why bounded power? why private? why no king?"

Nay, why external for internal given?

161

Why is not man a god, and earth a heaven?' Who ask and reason thus, will scarce conceive God gives enough, while he has more to give; Immense the power, immense were the demand; Say, at what part of nature will they stand?

What nothing earthly gives, or can destroy, The soul's calm sun-shine, and the heart-felt joy, Is virtue's prize: A better would you fix? Then give humility a coach and six, Justice a conqueror's sword, or truth a gown, Or public spirit its great cure, a crown.

166

170

160. Why is his power bounded? Why is it private power? Why is he no king?

163. They who ask and reason thus, will scarce conceive, &c.

165. If the power were immense, the demand would be immense.

175

Weak, foolish man! will Heaven reward us there
With the same trash mad mortals wish for here?
The boy and man an individual makes,
Yet sigh'st thou now for apples and for cakes?
Go, like the Indian, in another life

Expect thy dog, thy bottle, and thy wife;
As well as dream such trifles are assign'd,
As toys and empires, for a godlike mind;
Rewards, that either would to virtue bring
No joy, or be destructive of the thing;
How oft by these at sixty are undone
The virtues of a saint at twenty-one !
To whom can riches give repute, or trust,
Content, or pleasure, but the good and just?
Judges and senates have been bought for gold;
Esteem and love were never to be sold.

O fool! to think God hates the worthy mind,
The lover and the love of human-kind,

180

190

Whose life is healthful, and whose conscience

clear,

Because he wants a thousand pounds a-year

Honor and shame from no condition rise;

178-180. Expect thy dog, &c., as well as dream. Dream may be put in the inf. mood, after as well as, allowing expect to be in the imp.-or, using it in the poten tial, dream may be connected with it in the same mood. As toys and empires are-as is a relative pro. in the nom. case after are.

181. These are rewards.

189. To think is in the inf. absolute.

192. Because he [possesses not] a thousand pounds a year.

196

Act well your part, there all the honor lies. Fortune in men has some small difference made, One flaunts in rags, one flutters in brocade; The cobbler apron'd, and the parson gown'd, The friar hooded, and the monarch crown'd. "What differ more," you cry, "than crown and cowl!"

200

I'll tell you, friend! a wise man and a fool.
You'll find, if once the monarch acts the monk,
Or, cobbler-like, the parson will be drunk,
Worth makes the man, and want of it the fellow;
The rest is all but leather or prunella.

Stuck o'er with titles, and hung round with strings, 205

That thou may'st be by kings, or whores of kings,
Boast the pure blood of an illustrious race,

In quiet flow from Lucrece to Lucrece :
But, by your father's worth if yours you rate,
Count me those only who were good and great.
Go! if your ancient, but ignoble blood

201-203. You'll find it, &c., that worth makes, &c. 205-208. That thou mayest be stuck o'er with titles and hung round with strings, by kings, or by whores of kings, boast, &c.; in quiet flow, &c. Flow is here a noun. It may be further observed concerning the expressions, stuck o'er and hung round, that when a prep. or any participle is annexed to a verb, in order to carry out the sense, they may be considered as forming a complex verb. Lucrece was the seat of a very ancient and honorable family in France, and is here introduced to signify nobility of long standing.

Has crept through scoundrels ever since the flood,
Go! and pretend your family is young;

Nor own your fathers have been fools so long.
What can ennoble sots, or slaves, or cowards?
Alas! not all the blood of all the Howards.

Look next on greatness; say,

lies:

213

where greatness

220

"Where but among the heroes and the wise?"
Heroes are much the same, the point's agreed,
From Macedonia's madman to the Swede;
The whole strange purpose of their lives, to find,
Or make, an enemy of all mankind!

225

Not one looks backward, onward still he goes,
Yet ne'er looks forward further than his nose.
No less alike the politic and wise:
All sly slow things, with circumspective eyes:
Men in their loose unguarded hours they take,
Not that themselves are wise, but others weak.
But grant that those can conquer, these can

cheat:

"Tis phrase absurd to call a villain great; 230

216. Not all the blood of all the Howards can ennoble them.

220. Macedonia's madman-Alexander the Great; the Swede-Charles XII., king of Sweden.

221. The whole strange purpose of their lives, is to find an enemy, or to make an enemy of all mankind.

226. All are sly, slow things, &c.

228. Not because themselves are wise, b because others are weak.

230. To call a villain great is an absurd phrase.

Who wickedly is wise, or madly brave,
Is but the more a fool, the more a knave.
Who noble ends by noble means obtains,
Or, failing, smiles in exile or in chains,
Like good Aurelius let him reign, or bleed
Like Socrates, that man is great indeed.

What's fame? a fancied life in others' breath, A thing beyond us, ev'n before our death.

235

Just what you hear, you have; and what's unknown,

The same, my lord, if Tully's, or your own.

All that we feel of it begins and ends

In the small circle of our foes or friends;

To all beside as much an empty shade,

An Eugene living, as a Cæsar dead;

Alike or when, or where they shone, or shine,
Or on the Rubicon, or on the Rhine.

232. He, who wickedly is wise, &c., is, &c.

239

246

233-236. Let him, who obtains noble ends by noble means, or who failing smiles in exile, or in chains, reign like good Aurelius, or bleed like Socrates, for that man is great indeed.

243-246. To all beside their foes and friends, an Eugene living is as much an empty shade, as a Cæsar dead is. When Julius Cæsar had marched his army to the banks of the river Rubicon, which the Romans had always considered as "the sacred boundary of their domestic empire," a struggle arose between his patriotism and his ambition, and he said to one of his generals, "If I pass this river, what miseries shall I bring upon my country! and if I now stop short, I am undone." Here his ambition triumphed, and plunging into the river, he sought the dominion of the world. Eugene, prince of Savoy, was celebrated in the