Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense,
Lie in three words, health, peace, and compe-

The good or bad the gifts of fortune gain;

But these less taste them, as they worse obtain.
Say, in pursuit of profit or delight,

85

Who risk the most, that take wrong means, or

right?

Of vice or virtue, whether blest or curst,

Which meets contempt, or which compassion first?

90

Count all th' advantage prosperous vice attains,
'Tis but what virtue flies from and disdains:
And grant the bad what happiness they would,
One they must want, which is to pass for good.
Oh blind to truth, and God's whole scheme below,
Who fancy bliss to vice, to virtue woe!

94

for) mere mankind. By mere mankind, the poet here means the human state of existence, unconnected with futurity.

80. Lie agrees with pleasure and joys, in the line preceding; or rather with good, in the 77th line, with which pleasures and joys are in apposition.

86. Do they risk most, that take wrong means, or they that take right means.

90. 'Tis only that (advantage) from which, &c.

91. Grant-see note to line 49, Epistle I.

92. One happiness they must want, (i. e. must be destitute of,) which is to pass for good.

93-94. O, they are blind, &c., who fancy that bliss allotted, or who fancy bliss to be allotted, to vice, &c.

100

Who sees and follows that great scheme the best,
Best knows the blessing, and will most be blest.
But fools, the good alone, unhappy call,
For ills or accidents that chance to all.
See Falkland dies, the virtuous and the just!
See godlike Turenne prostrate on the dust!
See Sidney bleeds amid the martial strife!
Was this their virtue, or contempt of life?
Say, was it virtue, more though heaven ne'er gave,
Lamented Digby! sunk thee to the grave?
Tell me, if virtue made the son expire,
Why, full of days and honor, lives the sire?
Why drew Marseilles' good bishop purer breath,
When nature sicken'd, and each gale was death?
Or why so long (in life it long can be)

105

99. See Falkland dies-Lord Viscount Falkland was Secretary of State to Charles I., and was killed in the battle of Newbury, September 20, 1643. He fell in the 34th year of his age.

100. Henry de la Tour, Viscount of Turenne, a famous general, was born at Sedan, A. D. 1611, and was Marshal of France in 1644. He was most careful of those under his command; but justly reproached by Voltaire, for his cruel devastations of the countries through which he marched.

101. Sir Philip_Sydney fell in the battle with the Spaniards, before Zutphen, in Guelderland, A. D. 1586. He was a man of spotless character, and exalted virtue.

104. Sir Everard Digby, thus eulogized, was engaged in the famous gunpowder plot; though otherwise a man much esteemed for his virtues. He was tried and executed.

107. Henry-Frances-Xavier De Bulsunce, denominated "the good Bishop of Marseilles," distinguished himself by his fortitude and charity, during the dreadful plague which afflicted that city in 1720 and 1721.

100

Lent heaven a parent to the poor and me?
What makes all physical or moral ill?

There deviates nature, and here wanders will.
God sends not ill; if rightly understood,

Or partial ill is universal good,

1

Or change admits, or nature lets it fall,
Short, and but rare, till man improv'd it all.
We just as wisely might of heaven complain
That righteous Abel was destroyed by Cain,
As that the virtuous son is ill at ease

110

115

120

When his lewd father gave the dire disease.
Think we, like some weak prince, th' Eternal
Cause

Prone for his favorites to reverse his laws?

Shall burning Ætna, if a sage requires,
Forget to thunder, and recall her fires?
On air or sea new motions be imprest,

125

Oh blameless Bethel! to relieve thy breast?
When the loose mountain trembles from on high,
Shall gravitation cease, if you go by?
Or some old temple, nodding to its fall,

110. The mother of the author, a person of great piety and charity, died the year this poem was finished, viz. 1732. 115-116. Or change admits it, (i. e. ill,) or nature, in its course, lets it happen, short and but rare, i. e. in a small degree, and but rarely, &c.

121-122. Do we think the Eternal Cause prone, like some weak prince, to reverse his laws for his favorites?

123. Shall burning Etna, &c. "Alluding to the fate of those two great naturalists, Empedocles and Pliny, who both perished by too near approach to Etna and Vesuvius, while they were exploring the cause of their eruptions."

For Chartres' head reserve the hanging wall? 130

But still this world (so fitted for the knave)
Contents us not. A better shall we have?

A kingdom of the just then let it be:
But first consider how those just agree.
The good must merit God's peculiar care;
But who, but God, can tell us who they are ́ ?
One thinks on Calvin heaven's own spirit fell;
Another deems him instrument of hell;
If Calvin feels heaven's blessing, or its rod,
This cries, there is, and that, there is no God.
What shocks one part, will edify the rest,
Nor with one system can they all be blest.
The very best will variously incline,

And what rewards your virtue, punish mine.
WHATEVER IS, IS RIGHT.-This world, 'tis true,
Was made for Cæsar-but for Titus too;

135

141

146

And which more blest? who chain'd his country,

say,

Or he whose virtue sigh'd to lose a day?

"But sometimes virtue starves, while vice is fed."

What then? Is the reward of virtue bread?

130. For Chartres's head.-Francis Chartres, a character noted for every kind of depravity, is probably here introduced, to represent generally that portion of mankind, whose being is worse than useless to society. Shall some old temple, &c., delay its fall, till an opportunity shall be offered, of crushing a wretch rendered, by his vices, unfit to live?

155

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 mam, Where folly fights for kings, or dives for gain. The good man may be weak, be indolent; 13 Nor is his claim to plenty, but content. 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,

66

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.