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Know then thyself, presume not God to scan;
The proper study of mankind is man.1

Essay on Man. Epistle ii. Line 1.

Chaos of thought and passion, all confused;
Still by himself abused or disabused;
Created half to rise, and half to fall;
Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all;
Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurled, -
The glory, jest, and riddle of the world.2
Fix'd like a plant on his peculiar spot,
To draw nutrition, propagate, and rot.
In lazy apathy let stoics boast
Their virtue fix'd: 't is fix'd as in a frost;
Contracted all, retiring to the breast;
But strength of mind is exercise, not rest.
On life's vast ocean diversely we sail,
Reason the card, but passion is the gale.

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And hence one master-passion in the breast,
Like Aaron's serpent, swallows up the rest.
The young disease, that must subdue at length,

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Grows with his growth, and strengthens with his strength.

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Extremes in nature equal ends produce;

In man they join to some mysterious use.

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Vice is a monster of so frightful mien,

As to be hated needs but to be seen; 8

Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace.

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1 La vray science et le vray étude de l'homme c'est l'homme (The true science and the true study of man is man). CHARRON: De la Sagesse, lib. i. chap. 1.

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Trees and fields tell me nothing: men are my teachers. Phædrus.

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2 What a chimera, then, is man! what a novelty, what a monster, what a chaos, what a subject of contradiction, what a prodigy! A judge of all things, feeble worm of the earth, depositary of the truth, cloaca of uncer tainty and error, the glory and the shame of the universe. PASCAL: Thoughts, chap. x.

8 See Dryden, page 269.

Ask where's the North? At York 't is on the Tweed; In Scotland at the Orcades; and there,

At Greenland, Zembla, or the Lord knows where.

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Virtuous and vicious every man must be,
Few in the extreme, but all in the degree.
Hope travels through, nor quits us when we die.
Behold the child, by Nature's kindly law,
Pleased with a rattle, tickled with a straw;
Some livelier plaything gives his youth delight,
A little louder, but as empty quite;
Scarfs, garters, gold, amuse his riper stage,
And beads and prayer-books are the toys of age.
Pleased with this bauble still, as that before,
Till tired he sleeps, and life's poor play is o'er.
While man exclaims, "See all things for my use!"
"See man for mine!" replies a pamper'd goose.1
Learn of the little nautilus to sail,
Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale. Line 177.

The enormous faith of many made for one.

For forms of government let fools contest;
Whate'er is best administer'd is best.

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Epistle iii. Line 45.

For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight;
His can't be wrong whose life is in the right.2
In faith and hope the world will disagree,
But all mankind's concern is charity.

O happiness! our being's end and aim!

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Good, pleasure, ease, content! whate'er thy name:
That something still which prompts the eternal sigh,
For which we bear to live, or dare to die. Epistle iv. Line 1.

1 Why may not a goose say thus? . . . there is nothing that yon heavenly roof looks upon so favourably as me; I am the darling of Nature. Is it not man that keeps and serves me? - MONTAIGNE: Apology for Raimond Lebond.

2 See Cowley, page 260.

Order is Heaven's first law. Essay on Man. Epistle iv. Line 49. Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense,

Lie in three words, health, peace, and competence.

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The soul's calm sunshine and the heartfelt joy.

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Honour and shame from no condition rise;
Act well your part, there all the honour lies.

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Worth makes the man, and want of it the fellow;
The rest is all but leather or prunello.

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What can ennoble sots or slaves or cowards?
Alas! not all the blood of all the Howards.

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A wit's a feather, and a chief a rod;

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An honest man 's the noblest work of God.1

Plays round the head, but comes not to the heart.
One self-approving hour whole years outweighs

Of stupid starers and of loud huzzas;

And more true joy Marcellus exil'd feels
Than Cæsar with a senate at his heels.
In parts superior what advantage lies?
Tell (for you can) what is it to be wise?
'Tis but to know how little can be known;
To see all others' faults, and feel our own.
Truths would you teach, or save a sinking land?
All fear, none aid you, and few understand.
If parts allure thee, think how Bacon shin'd,
The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind!
Or ravish'd with the whistling of a name,2
See Cromwell, damn'd to everlasting fame!3
Know then this truth (enough for man to know), -
"Virtue alone is happiness below."

1 See Fletcher, page 183.

See Cowley, page 262.

8 May see thee now, though late, redeem thy name,

And glorify what else is damn'd to fame.

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SAVAGE: Character of Foster

Never elated when one man's oppress'd;
Never dejected while another's bless'd.

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Essay on Man. Epistle iv. Line 323
Slave to no sect, who takes no private road,
But looks through Nature up to Nature's God.1
Form'd by thy converse, happily to steer
From grave to gay, from lively to severe.2
Say, shall my little bark attendant sail,
Pursue the triumph and partake the gale?

Thou wert my guide, philosopher, and friend.
That virtue only makes our bliss below,3
And all our knowledge is ourselves to know.
To observations which ourselves we make,
We grow more partial for th' observer's sake.

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Moral Essays. Epistle i. Line 11.

Like following life through creatures you dissect,
You lose it in the moment you detect.

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In vain sedate reflections we would make
When half our knowledge we must snatch, not take.

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Not always actions show the man; we find
Who does a kindness is not therefore kind.

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Who combats bravely is not therefore brave,
He dreads a death-bed like the meanest slave:
Who reasons wisely is not therefore wise,
His pride in reasoning, not in acting lies.

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"T is from high life high characters are drawn ;
A saint in crape is twice a saint in lawn.
'Tis education forms the common mind:
Just as the twig is bent the tree 's inclined.

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1 See Bolingbroke, page 304.

2 See Dryden, page 273.

8 'Tis virtue makes the bliss where'er we dwell. Eclogues, i. line 5.

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Manners with fortunes, humours turn with climes,
Tenets with books, and principles with times.1

Moral Essays. Epistle i Line 172.

"Odious! in woollen! 't would a saint provoke,"
Were the last words that poor Narcissa spoke.
And you, brave Cobham! to the latest breath
Shall feel your ruling passion strong in death.
Whether the charmer sinner it or saint it,
If folly grow romantic, I must paint it.
Choose a firm cloud before it fall, and in it
Catch, ere she change, the Cynthia of this minute.

Fine by defect, and delicately weak.2

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Epistle ii. Line 15.

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With too much quickness ever to be taught;

With too much thinking to have common thought.

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Atossa, cursed with every granted prayer,
Childless with all her children, wants an heir;

To heirs unknown descends the unguarded store,
Or wanders heaven-directed to the poor.

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Virtue she finds too painful an endeavour,

Content to dwell in decencies forever.

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Men, some to business, some to pleasure take;
But every woman is at heart a rake.
See how the world its veterans rewards!
A youth of frolics, an old age of cards.

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Oh, blest with temper whose unclouded ray
Can make to-morrow cheerful as to-day!

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Most women have no characters at all.

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She who ne'er answers till a husband cools,
Or if she rules him, never shows she rules.

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1 Omnia mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis (All things change, and we change with them). - MATTHIAS BORBONIUS: Delicia Poetarum Germanorum, i. 685.

2 See Prior, page 287.

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