In man they join to some mysterious use;
Though each by turns the other's boundsinvade,
As in some well-wrought picture, light and shade,
And oft so mixt the difference is too nice
Where ends the virtue, or begins the vice.
Fools! who from hence into the notion fall,
That vice or virtue there is none at all.

210

If white and black blend, soften, and unite
A thousand ways, is there no black or white?
Ask your own heart, and nothing is so plain; 215
'Tis to mistake them, costs the time and pain.
V. Vice is a monster of so frightful mien,
As, to be bated, needs but to be seen;
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace.

220

But where th' extreme of vice, was ne'er agreed: Ask where's the North? at York 'tis on the

Tweed;

In Scotland, at the Orcades; and there,

At Greenland, Zembla, or the Lord knows where;
No creature owns it in the first degree,

But thinks his neighbor further gone than he :
Ev'n those who dwell beneath its very zone,
Or never feel the rage, or never own;
What happier natures shrink at with affright,
The hard inhabitant contends is right.

225

230

VI. Virtuous and vicious every man must be;

Few in th' extreme, but all in the degree;

208. As light and shade invade each other's bounds. 218. To be hated is in the inf. mood absolute

The rogue and fool by fits is fair and wise, And ev'n the best, by fits, what they despise. 'Tis but by parts we follow good or ill,

For, vice or virtue, self directs it still;

235

240

Each individual seeks a several goal; [the whole.
VII. But Heaven's great view, is one, and that
That, counter-works each folly and caprice;
That, disappoints th' effect of every vice:
That, happy frailties to all ranks applied;
Shame to the virgin, to the matron pride;
Fear to the statesman, rashness to the chief;
To kings presumption, and to crowds belief:
That, virtue's ends from vanity can raise,
Which seeks no interest, no reward but praise,
And build on wants, and on defects of mind,
The joy, the peace, the glory of mankind.

Heaven forming each on other to depend,

A master, or a servant, or a friend,
Bids each on other for assistance call,

245

250

Till one man's weakness grows the strength of all. Wants, frailties, passions, closer still ally

256

The common interest, or endear the tie.
To these we owe true friendship, love sincere,
Each home-felt joy that life inherits here;
Yet from the same we learn, in its decline,
Those joys, those loves, those interests, to resign;
Taught half by reason, half by mere decay,
To welcome death, and calmly pass away.

241. That applied happy faculties, &c.
245-7. That can raise and can build.

260

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,
A little louder, but as empty quite!

275

261. Let the passion be that, which it may be; or what ever 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 best.

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

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 happiness by hope 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 scate 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. supplving 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 aucract to.

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