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Whate'er is best administer'd is best:
For modes of faith, let graceless zealots fight;
His can't be wrong whose life is in the right;
In faith and hope the world will disagree,

But all mankind's concern is charity:

307

All must be false that thwarts this one great end;
And all of God, that bless mankind, or mend.
Man, like the generous vine, supported lives;
The strength he gains is from th' embrace he
gives.

On their own axis as the planets run,

Yet make at once their circle round the sun;
So two consistent motions act the soul;
And one regards itself, and one the whole.

315

Thus God and nature link'd the general frame,

And bade self love and social be the same.

306. His mode of faith can't be wrong, &c. 309-310. All modes of faith must be false, &c. And all modes must be of God, &c.

d.

EPISTLE IV.

O HAPPINESS! our being's end and aim!

Good, pleasure, ease, content! whate'er thy name
That something still which prompts th' eternal

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For which we bear to live, or dare to die,
Which still so near us, yet beyond us lies,
O'erlook'd, seen double, by the fool and wise:
Plaut of celestial seed! if dropp'd below,
Say, in what mortal soil thou deign'st to grow ?
Fair opening to some court's propitious shine,
Or deep with diamonds in the flaming mine?
Twin'd with the wreaths Parnassian laurels yield,
Or reap'd in iron harvests of the field?

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10

Where grows? where grows it not? If vain our
toil,

We ought to blame the culture, not the soil:
Fix'd to no spot is happiness sincere,

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EPISTLE IV.

1-2. End and aim connected, good, &c., are in app. with happiness. Whatever-see note to line 26, Epistle II. 6. O'erlooked is a per. part. agreeing with happiness. O'erlooked by those who are simple enough to seek it in any thing but virtue; seen double by those who admit any thing else to have a share in procuring it.

-or growest those in

9. Growest the opening fair, &c.— the fair opening.

'Tis nowhere to be found, or everywhere: "Tis never to be bought, but always free,

And fled from monarchs, St. John! dwells with thee.

Ask of the learn'd the way? The learn'd are

blind:

This bids to serve, and that to shun mankind; Some place the bliss in action, some in ease, Those call it pleasure, and contentment these: Some, sunk to beasts, find pleasure end in pain; Some, swell'd to gods, confess ev'n virtue vain; Or, indolent, to each extreme they fall,

To trust in ev'rything, or doubt of all.

Who thus define it, say they more or less, Than this, that happiness is happiness?

25

Take nature's path, and mad opinion's leave; All states can reach it, and all heads conceive; Obvious her goods, in no extreme they dwell; There needs but thinking right, and meaning well; And, mourn our various portions as we please, Equal is common sense, and common ease.

25. Indolent is an adj. agreeing with they.

26. To trust is in the inf. mood absolute.

27-28. Do they, who thus define it, say more or less than to say this, &c., in which case, to say would follow than in the infinitive, which it does in place of a noun, and sometimes, of the ind. or poten. mood."

29. Take nature's path and leave mad opinion's path. 32. There is needed only thinking right and meaning well. Here the active form of the verb is used for the passive, and the sub. phrase is the nom. case.

33. Mourn-see note to line 49, Epistle I.

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Remember, man, "the Universal Cause
Acts not by partial, but by general laws;
And makes what happiness we justly call,
Subsist not in the good of one, but all.
There's not a blessing individuals find,
But some way leans and hearkens to the kind;
No bandit fierce, no tyrant mad with pride,
No cavern'd hermit, rests self-satisfied:
Who most to shun or hate mankind pretend,
Seek an admirer, or would fix a friend :
Abstract what others feel, what others think,
All pleasures sicken, and all glories sink:

35

41

46

Each has his share; and who would more obtain,

Shall find, the pleasure pays not half the pain.
Order is heaven's first law; and this confest,
Some are, and must be, greater than the rest,
More rich, more wise; but who infers from hence
That such are happier, shocks all common sense.
Heaven to mankind impartial we confess,

If all are equal in their happiness:

But mutual wants this happiness increase;

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37. And makes that, which we call happiness, to subsist, &c.

43. They, who most pretend to shun, or hate, mankind, seek, &c.

45. Abstract-see note to ver. 49, Epistle I.

49. And this confest. This is in the nom. case absolute with confest, or (being) confest.

51. But he, who infers from hence, that such are hap pier, shocks, &c. Hence is an adj. put after from, as a sub. in the obj. case, or from hence is an adverbial phrase.

All nature's difference keeps all nature's peace.
Condition, circumstance, is not the thing:
Bliss is the same in subject or in king,

In who obtain defence, or who defend,

In him who is, or him who finds a friend: [whole
Heaven breathes through every member of the
One common blessing, as one common soul.
But fortune's gifts if each alike possess,
And each were equal, must not all contest?
If then to all men happiness was meant,
God in externals could not place content.

Fortune her gifts may variously dispose,
And these be happy call'd, unhappy those;
But heaven's just balance equal will appear,
While those are plac'd in hope, and these in fear
Not present good or ill, the joy or curse,
But future views of better, or of worse./
Oh, sons of earth! attempt ye still to rise,
By mountains pil'd on mountains, to the skies?
Heaven still with laughter the vain toil surveys,
And buries madmen in the heaps they raise.

Know, all the good that individuals find, Or God and nature meant to mere mankind,

59. In (those) who obtain defence, &c. 62. As (it breathes) one common soul.

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76

68. These may be called happy, those may be callea unhappy.

71-72. Present good or ill is not the joy or curse.

But our future views, &c. are the joy or curse.

78. Or thank God and nature meant to (i. e. designed

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