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,

25 To trust in ev'ry thing, or doubt of all.

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

Take Nature's path, and mad Opinion's leave; All states can reach it, and all heads conceive;

30 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.

NOTES. that Man was πάνlων χρημάτων [it to be always at hand, pérgov, the measure of all makes the former conclude things; for that all things it is never to be found. which appear to him are, The only difference is, that and those things which ap- the laziness of the one is pear not to any Man are desponding, and the laziness not ; so that every imagina of the other fanguine ; yet gination or opinion of every both can give it a good

true. 6. The name, and call it HapSceptic : Whose absolute piness. Doubt is with great judg- Ver. 23. Some funk to ment said to be the effect Beasis, &c.] These four of Indolence, as well as the lines added in the last Ediabsolute Trust of the Pro- tion, as necessary to comtagorean : For the same plete the summary of the dread of labour attending false pursuits after happiness the search of truth, which amongst the Greek philomakes this latter presume | sophers.

man

was

40

a

Remember, Man, the Universal Cause

35 “ Acts not by partial, but by gen'ral 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-fatisfy’d: Who most to shun or hate Mankind pretend, Seek an admirer, or would fix a friend : Abstract what others feel, what others think, 45 All pleasures ficken, and all glories fink: Each has his share; and who would more obtain, Shall find, the pleasure pays not half the pain.

ORDER is Heav'n's first law; and this confest, Some are, and must be, greater than the rest, 50 More rich, more wise ; but who infers from hence That such are happier, shocks all common sense.

VARIATIONS. After Ver. 52. in the MS. Say.not, “ Heav'n's here profuse, there poorly saves, “ And for one Monarch makes a thousand slaves." You'll find, when Causes and their Ends are known, 'Twas for the thoufand Heav'n has made that one,

NOTES.

Order is | The first law made by God Heav'ni's firf law; ] is relates to Order ; which is

VER. 49.

Heav'n to Mankind impartial we confess,
If all are equal in their Happiness :
But mutual wants this Happiness increase ; 55
All Nature's diff'rence 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 : бо
Heav'n breathes thro' ev'ry member of the whole
One common blessing, as one common soul.
But Fortune's gifts if each alike poffeft,
And each were equal, must not all contest?
If then to all Men Happiness was meant, 65
God in Externals could not place Content.

Fortune her gifts may variously dispose,
And these be happy calld, unhappy those;

VARIATIONS.
After Ver. 66. in the MS.

'Tis peace of mind alone is at a stay ;
The reft mad Fortune gives or takes away.
All other bliss by accident's debar'd ;
But Virtue's, in the instant, a reward ;
In hardest trials operates the best,
And more is relish'd as the more diftreft.

Notes. a beautiful allusion to the peased the disorders of Scripture history of the Crea-Chaos, and separated the tion, when God first ap- / light from the darkness.

But Heav'n'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, 7
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 ?
Heav'n still with laughter the vain toil surveys, 75
And buries madmen in the heaps they raise.

Know, all the good that individuals find,
Or God and Nature meant to mere Mankind,
Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of Sense,
Lie in three words, Health, Peace, and Competence,
But Health consists with Temperance alone ; 81
And Peace, oh Virtue ! Peace is all thy own.
The good or bad the gifts of Fortune gain ;
But these less taste them, as they worse obtain.

NOTES. Ver. 79. Reason's whole issue of Virtue ; or, in his pleasure, &c.] This is a own emphatic words, Peace beautiful paraphrafis for is all thy own; a conclusive Happiness ; for all we feel observation in his argument, of good is by sensation and which stands thus : Is Hapreflection.

piness rightly placed in ExVer. 82. And Peace, &c.] ternals ? No; for it consists Conscious Innocence (fays the in Health, Peace, and Compoet) is the only source of petence. Health and Cominternal Peace ; and known petence are the product of

Innocence, of external ; Temperance, and Peace of therefore, Peace is the sole perfect Innocence.

Say, in pursuit of profit or delight,

85 Who risk the most, that take wrong means, or right? Of Vice or Virtue, whether bleft or curft, Which meets contempt, or which compaffion first? Count all th’advantage prosp'rous Vice attains, 'Tis but what Virtue flies from and disdains :

90
And grant the bad what happiness they wou'd,
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!
Who sees and follows that great scheme the best, 95
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 god-like TURENNE prostrate on the dust! 100

VARIATIONS.
After Ver. 92. in the MS.

Let sober Moralifts correct their speech,
No bad man's happy: he is great or rich.

NOTES.
Ver. 100. See god-like for any of his fuperior qua-
Turenne) This epithet has lities so much as for his pro-
a peculiar. juftness; the vidential care of those whom
great man to whom it is ap. he led to war; which was fa
plied not being distinguish- extraordinary, that his chief
ed, from other generals, I purpose in taking on him-