85

34 Wits, just like Fools, at war about a name, Have full as oft no meaning, or the fame. Self-love and Reason to one end aspire, Pain their averfion, Pleasure their defire; But greedy That, its object would devour, This taste the honey, and not wound the flow'r: 90 Pleasure, or wrong or rightly understood,

Our greatest evil, or our greatest good.

95

III. Modes of Self-love the Paffions we may call: 'Tis real good, or feeming, moves them all : But fince not ev'ry good we can divide, And Reason bids us for our own provide; Paffions, tho' selfish, if their means be fair, Lift under Reason, and deferve her care; Thofe, that imparted, court a nobler aim, Exalt their kind, and take fome Virtue's name. 100 In lazy Apathy let Stoics boast

Their Virtue fix'd; 'tis fix'd as in a froft;

Contracted all, retiring to the breast;

But ftrength of mind is Exercise, not Rest:

VARIATIONS.

After 86. in the MS.

Of good and evil Gods what frighted Fools,
Of good and evil Reason puzzled Schools,
Deceiv'd, deceiving, taught

The rifing tempeft puts in act the foul,

Parts it may ravage, but preferves the whole.
On life's vaft ocean diverfely we fail,

Reason the card, but Paffion is the gale;

105

Nor God alone in the ftill calm we find,

109

He mounts the ftorm, and walks upon the wind.

Paffions, like Elements, tho' born to fight, Yet, mix'd and soften'd, in his work unite :

VARIATIONS.

After VER. 108. in the MS.

A tedious Voyage! where how useless lies
The compass, if no pow'rful gufts arife?

After VER. 112. in the MS.

The foft reward the virtuous, or invite ;
The fierce, the vicious punish or affright.

NOTES.

VER. 109. Nor God alone, &c.] Thefe words are only a fimple affirmation in the poetic drefs of a fimilitude, to this purpose: Good is not only produced by the fubdual of the Paffions, but by the turbulent exercife of them. A truth conveyed under the most fublime magery that poetry could conceive or paint. For the

author is here only fhewing the providential iffue of the Paffions, and how, by God's gracious difpofition, they are turned away from their natural byas, to promote the happiness of Mankind. As to the method in which they are to be treated by Man, in whom they are found, all that he contends for, in favour of them, is

115

Thefe 'tis enough to temper and employ ;
But what compofes Man, can Man destroy?
Suffice that Reafon keep to Nature's road,
Subject, compound them, follow her and God.
Love, Hope, and Joy, fair pleasure's smiling train,
Hate, Fear, and Grief, the family of pain,
Thefe mix'd with art, and to due bounds confin'd,
Make and maintain the balance of the mind:
The lights and fhades, whofe well accorded ftrife
Gives all the ftrength and colour of our life.

Pleasures are ever in our hands or eyes;

And when, in act, they ceafe, in prospect, rife: Prefent to grafp, and future still to find,

The whole employ of body and of mind.

120

125

All spread their charms, but charm not all alike;
On diff'rent fenfes diff'rent objects strike;
Hence diff'rent Paffions more or less inflame,
As ftrong or weak, the organs of the frame;
And hence one MASTER PASSION in the breast,
Like Aaron's ferpent, fwallows up the rest.

NOTES.

130

only this, that they fhould | gions, foolishly attempted. not be quite rooted up and deftroyed, as the Stoics, and their followers in all reli

For the reft, he conftantly
repeats this advice,

The action of the ftronger to fufpend,
Reafon fill ufe, to Reafon fill attend.

As Man, perhaps, the moment of his breath, Receives the lurking principle of death;

The young disease, that must subdue at length, 135 Grows with his growth, and strengthens with his ftrength:

140

So, caft and mingled with his very frame,
The Mind's disease, its RULING PASSION came;
Each vital humour which fhould feed the whole,
Soon flows to this, in body and in foul:
Whatever warms the heart, or fills the head,
As the mind opens, and its functions spread,
Imagination plies her dang'rous art,
And pours it all upon the peccant part.

Nature its mother, Habit is its nurse;

145

Wit, Spirit, Faculties, but make it worse;
Reafon itself but gives it edge and pow'r;
As Heav'n's bleft beam turns vinegar more fowr;

NOTES.

VER. 133. As Man per- | haps, &c.] Antipater Sidonius Poëta omnibus annis uno die natali tantum corripiebatur febre, et eo confumptus eft fatis longa fenecta. Plin.

1. vii. N. H. This Antipater was in the times of Craffus, and is celebrated for the quickness of his parts by Cicero.

We, wretched fubjects tho' to lawful fway,
In this weak queen, fome fav'rite still obey:
Ah! if fhe lend not arms, as well as rules,
What can fhe more than tell us we are fools?
Teach us to mourn our Nature, not to mend,
A fharp accufer, but a helpless friend!
Or from a judge turn pleader, to perfuade
The choice we make, or justify it made;
Proud of an eafy conqueft all along,

She but removes weak paffions for the strong:
So, when small humours gather to a gout,
The doctor fancies he has driv'n them out.
Yes, Nature's road must ever be preferr❜d;
Reason is here no guide, but ftill a guard :
'Tis her's to rectify, not overthrow,
And treat this paffion more as friend than foe :

159

155

160

is this then, but an intimation that we ought to feek for a cure in that religion, which only dares profefs to give it?

VER. 163. 'Tis ber's to rectify, &c.] The meaning of this precept is, That as the ruling Paffion is implanted by Nature, it is Reafon's office to regulate,

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