"Tis to mistake them, costs the time and pain. V. Vice is a monster of so frightful mien, As, to be hated, needs but to be seen; Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, 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, 225 But thinks his neighbour farther gone than he Ev'n those who dwell beneath its very zone, Or never feel the rage, or never own; The hard inhabitant contends is right. 230 VI. Virtuous and vicious every man must be, Few in th' extreme, but all in the degree; 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, 235 For, vice or virtue, self directs it still; Each individual seeks a sev'ral goal; But Heav'n's great view is one, and that the whole. That counter-works each folly and caprice; That disappoints th' effect of ev'ry vice: 240 That happy frailties to all ranks apply'd, 245 And build on wants, and on defects of mind, Heav'n, forming each on other to depend, A master, or a servant, or a friend, 250 Bids each on other for assistance call, Till one man's weakness grows the strength of all. The common int'rest, or endear the tie. To these we owe true friendship, love sincere, 255 Each home-felt joy that life inherits here: Yet from the same we learn, in its decline, Those joys, those loves, those int'rests to resign: Taught half by reason, half by mere decay, To welcome death, and calmly pass away. 260 Whate'er the passion, knowledge, fame, or pelf, Not one will change his neighbour with himself. The fool is happy that he knows no more; 205 The poor contents him with the care of Heav'n. See the blind beggar dance, the cripple sing, The starving chymist in his golden views Supremely blest, the poet in his muse. 270 See some strange comfort ev'ry state attend, And pride bestow'd on all, a common friend; See some fit passion ev'ry age supply, Hope travels through, nor quits us when we die. 278 Pleas'd with a rattle, tickled with a straw: Some livelier play-thing gives his youth delight, A little louder, but as empty quite : Scarfs, garters, gold, amuse his riper stage; 280 285 And not a vanity is giv'n in vain; 290 Ev'n mean self-love becomes, by force divine, EPISTLE III. HERE then we rest: "The universal cause I. Look round our world; behold the chain of love See plastic nature working to this end, 3* The single atoms each to other tend, 10 Attract, attracted too, the next in place Form'd and impell'd its neighbour to embrace. Press to one centre still, the gen❜ral good. See dying vegetables life sustain, 15 See life dissolving vegetate again : All forms that perish other forms supply, (By turns we catch the vital breath, and die ;) Like bubbles on the sea of matter borne, 20 They rise, they break, and to that sea return. One all-extending, all-preserving soul Connects each being, greatest with the least; The hog, that ploughs not, nor obeys thy call, Know, nature's children all divide her care; 45 And just as short of reason he must fall, Grant that the pow'rful still the weak control, Be man the wit and tyrant of the whole : 50 55 60 All feed on one vain patron, and enjoy The extensive blessing 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; Which sees no more the stroke, nor feels the pain, Than favour'd man by touch ethereal slain: The creature had his feast of life before; Thou too must perish when thy feast is o'er. 70 To each unthinking being, Heav'n, a friend |