Whose life is healthful, and whose conscience clear, Because he wants a thousand pounds a year.
Honour and fhame from no Condition rife; Act well your part, there all the honour lies. Fortune in Men has fome fmall diff'rence made, One flaunts in rags, oné flutters in brocade;
The cobler apron'd, and the parfon gown'd,
The frier hooded, and the monarch crown'd.
"What differ more (you cry) than crown and cow!?"
I'll tell you, friend! a wife man and a Fool.
You'll find, if once the monarch acts the monk,
Or, cobler-like, the parfon will be drunk,
Worth makes the man, and want of it, the fellow;
The reft is all but leather or prunella.
Stuck o'er with titles and hung round with ftrings, That thou may'ft be by Kings, or whores of kings, Boaft the pure blood of an illuftrious race, In quiet flow from Lucrece to Lucrece :
VER. 207. Boaft the pure blood, &c.] in the MS. thus,
The richest blood, right-honourably old,
Down from Lucretia to Lucretia roll'd,
May fwell thy heart and gallop in thy breast,
Without one dash of usher or of priest:
Thy pride as much despise all other pride
As Chrift-Church once all colleges befide.
But by your father's worth if your's you rate,
Count me thofe only who were good and great. 210
Go! if your ancient, but ignoble blood
Has crept thro' fcroundels ever fince the flood,
Go! and pretend your family is young;
Nor own, your fathers have been fools fo long.
What can ennoble fots, or flaves, or cowards? 215
Alas! not all the blood of all the HOWARDS.
Look next on Greatnefs; fay where Greatness lies? "Where, but among the Heroes and the Wife?" Heroes are much the fame, the point's agreed, From Macedonia's madman to the Swede;
VER. 219. Heroes are much the fame, &c.] This character might have been drawn with much more
force; and deferved the
poet's care. But Milton
fupplies what is here want-
ing.
They err who count it glorious to fubdue
By conqueft far and wide, to over-run
Large Countries, and in field great Battles win,
Great Cities by affault. What do thefe worthies,
But rob and spoil, burn, flaughter, and enflave
Peaceable Nations, neighb'ring or remote,
Made captive, yet deferving Freedom more
Than thofe their Conqu'rors; who leave behind
Nothing but ruin wherefoe'er they rove,
And all the flourishing works of peace deftroy?
Then fell with pride, and must be titled Gods;
'Till Conqueror Death difcovers them scarce Men,
Rolling in brutish Vices, and deform'd,
Violent or fhameful death their due reward.
The whole strange purpose of their lives, to find
Or make, an enemy of all mankind!
Not one looks backward, onward ftill he goes,
Yet ne'er looks forward farther than his nose.
No lefs alike the Politic and Wife;
All fly flow things, with circumfpective eyes:
Men in their loose unguarded hours they take,
Not that themselves are wife, but others weak.
But grant that those can conquer, these can cheat;
'Tis phrase abfurd to call a Villain Great:
Who wickedly is wife, or madly brave,
Is but the more a fool, the more a knave.
Who noble ends by noble means obtains,
Or failing, fmiles in exile or in chains,
Like good Aurelius let him reign, or bleed
Like Socrates, that Man is great indeed.
What's Fame? a fancy'd life in others breath,
A thing beyond us, ev'n before our death.
Juft what you hear, you have, and what's unknown
The fame (my Lord) if Tully's, or your own.
All that we feel of it begins and ends
In the small circle of our foes or friends;
To all befide as much an empty fhade
An Eugene living, as a Cæfar dead;
Alike or when, or where, they fhone, or fhine, 245
Or on the Rubicon, or on the Rhine.
A Wit's a feather, and a Chief a rod;
An honeft Man's the noble work of God.
Fame but from death a villain's name can save,
As Juftice tears his body from the grave;
When what t'oblivion better were refign'd,
Is hung on high, to poison half mankind.
All fame is foreign, but of true defert;
Plays round the head, but comes not to the heart:
One felf-approving hour whole years out-weighs
Of ftupid ftarers, and of loud huzzas;
And more true joy Marcellus exil'd feels,
Than Cæfar with a fenate at his heels.
In Parts fuperior what advantage lies?
Tell (for You can) what is it to be wife?
'Tis but to know how little can be known;
To fee all others faults, and feel our own:
Condemn'd in bus'nefs or in arts to drudge,
Without a fecond, or without a judge:
Truths would you teach, or fave a finking land?
All fear, none aid you, and few understand.
Painful preheminence! yourself to view
Above life's weakness, and its comforts too.
Bring then these bleffings to a strict account;
Make fair deductions; fee to what they mount:
How much of other each is fure to coft;
How each for other oft is wholly loft ;
How inconfiftent greater goods with these ;
How fometimes life is risqu'd, and always ease:
Think, and if still the things thy envy call,
Say, would'ft thou be the Man to whom they fall?
To figh for ribbands if thou art fo filly,
Mark how they grace Lord Umbra, or Sir Billy:
Is yellow dirt the paffion of thy life?
Look but on Gripus, or on Gripus' wife;
If Parts allure thee, think how Bacon fhin'd,
The wifeft, brightest, meanest of mankind :
Or rayish'd with the whistling of a Name,
See Cromwell, damn'd to everlasting fame!
VER. 281, 283. If Parts | allure thee, Or ravish'd with the whistling of a Name,] Thefe two inftances are chofen with great judgment; the world, perhaps, doth not afford two other fuch. Bacon difcovered and laid down thofe principles, by the affiftance of which Newton was enabled to unfold the whole law of Nature. He was no less eminent for the creative power of his imagination, the brightness of his thoughts, and the force of his expreffion: Yet being convicted and punished for
bribery and corruption in the administration of Justice, while he prefided in the fupreme Court of Equity, he endeavoured to repair his ruined fortunes by the moft profligate flattery to the Court: Which, from his very firft entrance into it, he had accuftomed himself to practise with a prostitution that dif graceth the very profeffion of letters.
Cromwell feemeth to be diftinguished in the most eminent manner, with regard to his abilities, from all other great and wicked
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