Each individual feeks a fev'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;
That, happy frailties to all ranks apply'd;
Shame to the virgin, to the matron pride,
Fear to the statesman, rafhness to the chief,
To kings prefumption, and to crowds belief:
That, Virtue's ends from Vanity can raife,
Which feeks no int'reft, no reward but praise;
And build on wants, and on defects of mind,
The joy, the peace, the glory of Mankind.
Heav'n forming each on other to depend,
A master, or a fervant, or a friend,

COMMENTARY.

240

245

250

VER. 239. That counterworks each folly and caprice;] The mention of this principle, that Self directs Vice and Virtue, and its confequence, which is, that

Each individual feeks a fevʼral goal,

leads the author to obferve

That HEAV'N's great view is One, and that the Whole. And this brings him naturally round again to his main subject, namely, God's producing good out of ill, which he profecutes from 238 to 249.

VER. 249. Heav'n forming each on other to depend,] I. Hitherto the poet hath been employed in difcourfing of the use of the Paffions, with regard to Society at large; and in freeing his

Bids each on other for affiftance call,

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

The common int'reft, or endear the tie.

To thefe we owe true friendship, love fincere, 255
Each home-felt joy that life inherits here;
Yet from the fame we learn, in its decline,
Those joys, thofe loves, those int'refts to resign;
Taught half by Reason, half by mere decay,
To welcome death, and calmly pass away.

260

Whate'er the Paffion, knowledge, fame, or pelf, Not one will charge his neighbour with himself.

COMMENTARY.

doctrine from objections: This is the first general division of the fubject of this epiftle.

II. He comes to fhew (from 248 to 261) the use of these Paffions, with regard to the more confined circle of our Friends, Relations, and Acquaintance: And this is the fecond general divifion.

VER. 261. Whate'er the Paffion, &c.] III. The poet having thus fhewn the ufe of the Paffions in Society, and in Domestic

NOTES.

VER. 253. Wants, frailties, paffions, clofer till ally The common int'reft, &c.] As thefe lines have been mifunderflood, I fhall give the reader their plain and obvious meaning. To thefe frailties (fays he) we owe all the endearments of private life; yet,

when we come to that age, which generally disposes Men to think more ferioufly of the true value of things, and confequently of their provifion for a future ftate, the confideration, that the grounds of those joys, loves, and friendships, are wants, frailties, and paf

2

The learn'd is happy nature to explore,

The fool is happy that he knows no more;
The rich is happy in the plenty giv'n,

265

The poor contents him with the care of Heav'n.
See the blind beggar dance, the cripple fing,
The fot a hero, lunatic a king;

The starving chemist in his golden views
Supremely bleft, the poet in his Muse.

COMMENTARY.

270

life; he comes, in the last place (from 260 to the end) to fhew their use to the Individual, even in their illufions; the imaginary happiness they prefent, helping to make the real miferies of life less infupportable: And this is his third general divifion :

Opinion gilds with varying rays

Thofe painted clouds that beautify our days, &c.
One profpect loft, another fill we gain;
And not a vanity is giv'n in vain.

Which must needs vaftly raise our idea of God's goodness, who hath not only provided more than a counter-balance of real happiness to human miferies, but hath even, in his infinite compaffion, bestowed on thofe, who were fo foolish as not to have made this provifion, an imaginary happinefs; that they may not be quite over-borne with the load of human miferies. This is the poet's great and noble thought; as ftrong and solid as it is new NOTES.

fions, proves the best expedient to wean us from the world; a difengagement fo friendly to that provifion we are now making for another. The obfervation is new, and would in any place be extremely beautiful, but has here an infinite grace and propriety, as it fo well confirms, by an inftance

of great moment, the general thefis, That God makes Ill, at every step, productive of Good.

VER. 270.-the poet in his Mufe.] The author having faid, that no one would change his profeffion or views for thofe of another, intended to carry his obfervation still further, and fhew that Men were

See fome strange comfort ev'ry ftate attend,
And Pride beftow'd on all, a common friend;
See fome fit Paffion ev'ry age fupply,
Hope travels thro', nor quits us when we die.

Behold the child, by Nature's kindly law, 275
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,

And beads and pray'r-books are the toys of

COMMENTARY.

age:

and ingenious; which teaches, That thefe illufions are the follies of Men, which they willfully fall into, and through their own fault; thereby depriving themselves of much happiness, and expofing themselves to equal mifery: But that still God (according to his univerfal way of working) graciously turns thefe follies fo far to the advantage of his miferable creatures, as to be the present folace and fupport of their diftreffes:

-Tho' Man's a fool, yet God is wife.

NOTES.

unwilling to exchange their | feffedly larger, and infinitely own acquirements even for thofe of the fame kind, con

more eminent, in another. To this end he wrote,

will shock:

What partly pleafes, totally I question much, if Toland would be Locke. but wanting another proper inftance of this truth when he publifhed his laft Edition of the Effay, he referved the lines above for fome following one.

VER. 280. And beads and pray'r-books are the toys of age:] A Satire on what is called in

Popery the Opus operatum. As this is a defcription of the circle of human life returning into itself by a fecond childhood, the poet has with great elegance concluded his defcription with the fame figure with which he fet out.

285

Pleas'd with this bauble ftill, as that before; 281
'Till tir'd he fleeps, and Life's poor play is o'er.
Mean-while Opinion gilds with varying rays
Thofe painted clouds that beautify our days;
Each want of happiness by Hope fupply'd,
And each vacuity of fenfe by Pride:
These build as fast as knowledge can destroy;
In Folly's cup still laughs the bubble, joy;
One prospect loft, another still we gain;
And not a vanity is giv'n in vain;

Ev'n mean Self-love becomes, by force divine,

290

The scale to measure others wants by thine. See! and confefs, one comfort ftill must rise, 'Tis this, Tho' Man's a fool, yet GOD IS WISE.

NOTES.

VER. 286. And each vacuity of fenfe by Pride: An eminent Cafuift, Father Francis Garaffe, in his Somme Theologique, has drawn a very charitable conclufion from this principle. Selon la fuftice (dit cet equitable Théologien) tout travail honnête doit être recompenfé de louange ou de fatisfaction. Quand les bons efprits font un ouvrage excellent, ils font justement recompenfez par les fuffrages du Public. Quand un pauvre efprit travaille beaucoup, pour faire un mauvais ouvrage, il n'est pas

jufte ni raisonable, qu'il attende des louanges publiques: car elles ne lui font pas duës. Mais afin que fes travaux ne demeurent pas fans recompenfe, Dieu lui donne une fatisfaction perfonnelle, que perfonne ne lui peut envier Jans une injuftice plus que barbàre; tout ainfi que Dieu qui eft juste donne de la fatisfaction aux Grenouilles de leur chant. Autrement le blâme public, joint à leur mécontentement, feroit fuffifant pour les réduire au defespoir.