Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

If Calvin feel heaven's bleffing, or its rod,
This cries there is, and that, there is no God. 140
What fhocks one part, will edify the reft,
Nor with one fyltem can they all be bleft.
The very beft will variously incline,

And what rewards your virtue, punish mine.
Whatever is, is right. This world, 'tis true,
Was made for Cæfar-but for Titus too;

And which more bleft? who chain'd his country, fay,

Or he whofe virtue figh'd to lose a day?

"But fometimes virtue ftarves, while vice is fed."

What then? Is the reward of virtue bread? 150
That, vice may merit, 'tis the price of toit;
The knave deferves it, when he tills the foil;
The koave deferves it, when he tempts the main,
Where folly fights for kings, or dives for gain.
The good man may be weak, be indolent;
Nor is his claim to plenty, but content.
Bet grant him riches, your demand is o'er?

"No-fhall the good want health, the good want

[blocks in formation]

170

What nothing earthly gives, or can destroy, The foul's calm fun fhine, and the heart-felt joy, Is vie's prize: A better would you fix? Then give Humility a coach and fix, Juftice a conqueror's fword, or Truth a gown, Or Pale Spirit its great cure, a crown. Weak, foolish man! will Heaven reward us there With the fame trash mad mortals with for here? The boy and man an individual makes, Yet figa't thou now for apples and for cakes? Go, like the Indian, in another life Expect thy dog, thy bottle, and thy wife; As well as dream fuch trifles are affign'd, Asters and empires, for a godlike mind. Rewards, that either would to virtue bring No joy, or be destructive of the thing; How oft by these at fixty are undone The virtues of a faint at twenty-one ! To whom can riches give repute, or truft, Content, or pleafure, but the good and juft? Judges and fenates have been bought for gold; Eteem and love were never to be fold.

VARIATIONS.

After ver. 142, in fome cditions,

180

Give each a fyftem, all must be at ftrife;
What different fyftems for a man and wife!
The joke, though lively, was ill placed, and
therefore ftruck out of the text.

After ver. 172, in the MS.
Say, what rewards this idle world imparts,
Or fit for fearching heads or honeft hearts.

190

Oh fool to think God hates the worthy mind,
The lover and the love of human kind,
Whofe life is healthful, and whofe confcience 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 small difference made,
One flaunts in rags, one flutters in brocade;
The cobler apron'd, and the parfon gown'd.
The friar hooded, and the monarch crown'd.
"What differ more (you cry) than crown and
"cowl!"

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

Look next on greatnefs; fay where greatness "Where, but among the heroes and the wife?" Heroes are much the fame, the point's agreed, From Macedonia's madman to the Swede; The whole frange purpofe 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 further than his nofe. No lefs alike the politic and wife :

230

All fly flow things, with circumfpective eyes:
Men in their loofe unguarded hours they take,
Not that themfelves are wife, but others weak.
But grant that thofe can conquer, thefe can cheat;
'Tis phrafe 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.
Just what you hear, you have; and what's un-
known,

The fame (my lord) if Tully's, or your own. 240

VARIATIONS.

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 dafh of ufher or of pricft:
Thy pride as much defpife all other pride,
As Christ Church once all colleges befide.

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 shade
An Eugene living, as a Cæfar dead;

Alike or when, or where they fhone, or fhine,

Or on the Rubicon, or on the Rhine.
A wit's a feather, and a chief a rod;

An honest man's the nobleft work of God.
Fame but from death a villain's name can fave,
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;

250

Plays round the head, but comes not to the heart:
One felf-approving hour whole years out-weighs
Of stupid ftarers, and of loud huzzas;
And more true joy Marcellus exil'd feels,
Than Cæfar with a fenate at his heels.

[blocks in formation]

280

To figh for ridbands 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, meaneft of mankind:
Or ravish'd with the whiftling of a name,
See Cromwell, damn'd to everlasting fame!
If all, united, thy ambition call,
From ancient flory, learn to fcorn them all,
There, in the rich, the honour'd, fam'd, and great,
See the falfe fcale of happinefs complete!
In hearts of kings, or arms of queens who lay,
How happy thofe to ruin, thefe betray,
Mark by what wretched fteps their glory grows,
From dirt and fea-weed as proud Venice role;
In each how guilt and greatness equal ran,
And all that rais'd the hero, funk the man:
Now Europe's laurels on their brows behold,
But ftain'd with blood, or ill exchang'd for gold:
Then fee them broke with toils, er funk in cafe,
Or infamous for plunder'd provinces.

[ocr errors][merged small]

290

E'er taught to fhine, or fan&ify'd from shame! 300
What greater blifs attends their clofe of life?
Some greedy minion, or imperious wife,
The trophy'd arches, ftory'd halls invade,
And haunt their fumbers in the pompous fhade.

Alas! not dazzled with their noon-tide ray,
Compute the morn and evening to the day;
The whole amount of that enormous fame,
A tale, that blends their glory with their shame!
Know then this truth (enough for man to
know)

"Virtue alone is happiness below."

310

The only point where human bliss stands still,
And taftes the good without the fall to ill;
Where only merit conftant pay receives,
Is bleft in what it takes, and what it gives;
The joy unequal'd, if its end it gain,
And if it lofe, attended with no pain:
Without fatiety, though e'er fo blefs'd,
And but more relifh'd as the more diftrefs'd:
The broadeft mirth unfeeling folly wears,
Lefs pleasing far than virtue's very tears:
Good, from each object, from each place acquir'd,
For ever exercis'd, yet never tir'd;
Never elated, while one man's opprefs'd;
Never dejected, while another's bleft;
And where no wants, no wishes can remain,
Since but to wifh more virtue, iš to gain.

320

See the fole blifs heaven could on all bestow! Which who but feels can taste, but thinks can know :

Yet poor with fortune, and with learning blind,
The bad must mifs; the good, untaught, will find;
Slave to no fect, who takes no private road, 331
But looks through nature, up to nature's God;
Purfues that chain which links th' immenfe de-
fign,

Joins heaven and earth, and mortal and divine;
Sees, that no being any blifs can know,
But touches fome above, and fome below;
Learns from this union of the rifing whole,
The firft, laft purpose of the human foul;
And knows where faith, law, morals, all began,
All end, in love of God, and love of man.
340
For him alone, hope leads from goal to goal,
And opens ftill, and opens on his foul;
Till lengthen'd on to faith, and unconfin'd,
It pours the blifs that fills up all the mind.
He fees, why Nature plants in man alone
Hope of known blifs, and faith in bliss unknown:
(Nature, whofe dictates to no other kind
Are given in vain, but what they seek they find),
Wife is her prefent; the connects in this
His greatest virtue with his greatest bliss;
At once his own bright profpect to be bleft,
And ftrongest motive to affift the rest.

350

Self love thus pufh'd to focial, to divine, Gives thee to make thy neighbour's bleffing thine. Is this too little for the boundless heart? Extend it, let thy enemies have part;

VARIATIONS.

After ver. 316, in the MS. Ev'n while it seems unequal to difpofe, And chequers all the good man's joys with woes, 'Tis but to teach him to fupport each state, With patience this, with moderation that; And raile his bafe on that one folid joy, Which compience gives, and nothing can deftroy

Crafp the whole worlds of reason, life, and fenfe, |
In one close fyftem of benevolence:
Happier as kinder, in whate'er degree,
And height of blifs but height of charity.

360

God loves from whole to parts: but human foul
Muft rife from individual to the whole.
Self-love but ferves the virtuous mind to wake,
As the fmall pebble ftirs the peaceful lake;
The centre mov'd, a circle ftraight fucceeds,
Another ftill, and still another spreads;
Friend, parent, neighbour, first it will embrace;
His country next; and next all human race;
Wide and more wide, th' o'erflowings of the mind
Take every creature in, of every kind; 370
Earth fmiles around, with boundless bounty bleft,
And heaven beholds its image in his breast.
Come, then, my friend! my genius! come along;
Oh, mafter of the poet, and the song!

VARIATIONS.

380

And while the mufe now ftoops, or now afcends,
To man's low paffions, or their glorious ends,
Teach me, like thee, in various nature wife,
To fall with dignity, with temper rife;
Form'd by thy converse, happily to steer,
From grave to gay, from lively to severe ;
Correct with fpirit, eloquent with case,
Intent to reason, or polite to please.
Oh! while along the ftream of time thy name
Expanded flies, and gathers all its fame;
Say, fhall my little bark attendant fail,
Pursue the triumph, and partake the gale?
When statesmen, heroes, kings, in dust repose,
Whofe fons shall blush their fathers were thy foes,
Shall then this verfe to future age pretend
Thou wert my guide, philosopher, and friend? 390
That, urg'd by thee, I turn'd the tuneful art,
From founds to things, from fancy to the heart;
For wit's falfe mirror held up nature's light;
Shew'd erring pride, Whatever is, is right;
That reafon, paffion, answer one great aim;

Ver. 373. Come then, my friend! &c.] In the That true felf-love and focial are the fame;

MS. thus:

And now transported o'er so vast a plain,
While the wing'd courfer flies with all her rein,
While heaven-ward now her mounting wing she
feels,

Now fcatter'd fools fly trembling from her heels,
Wilt thou, my St. John! keep her course in fight,
Confine her fury, and affft her flight?

That virtue only makes our bliss below;
And all our knowledge is, Ourselves to know.

VARIATIONS.

Ver 397. That virtue only,&c ] In the MS. thus:
That just to find a God is all we can,
And all the study of mankind is man.

Giij

THE UNIVERSAL PRAYER.

DEO OPT. MAX.

Ir may be proper to obferve, that fome paffages, in the preceding Effay, having been unjustly fufpected of a tendency towards fate and naturalism, the author composed this Prayer as the fumr of all, to show that his system was founded in free-will, and terminated in piety: That the First Caufe was as well the Lord and Governor of the Universe as the Creator of it; and that, by. fubmiffion to his will (the great principle enforced throughout the Essay) was not meant the fuffering ourselves to be carried along by a blind determination, but the refting in a religious acquiefcence, and confidence full of hope and immortality. To give all this the greater weight, the poet chofe for his model the Lord's Prayer, which, of all others, beft deferves the title prefixed to this Paraphrase.

DR. WARBURTON.

FATHER of all in every age,

In every clime ador'd,

By faint, by favage, and by fage,
Jehovah, Jove, or Lord!

Thou Great First Cause, least understood;

Who all my sense confin'd

To know but this, that thou art good,
And that myself am blind;

Yet gave me, in this dark cftate,
To fee the good from ill;

And, binding nature fast in fate,
Left free the human will:

What confcience diâates to be done,
Or warns me not to do,
This, teach me more than hell to shun,

That, more than heaven pursue.

What bleffings thy free bounty gives,
Let me not caft away;

For God is paid when man receives,
T' enjoy is to obey.

Yet not to earth's contracted span

Thy goodness let me bound, Or think thee Lord alone of man,

When thousand worlds are round:

Let not this weak, unknowing hand
Prefume thy bolts to throw,

And deal damnation round the land,
On each I judge thy foe.

If I am right, thy grace impart,
Still in the right to stay :
If I am wrong, oh, teach my heart
To find that better way!

Save me alike from foolish pride,
Or impious difcontent,
At aught thy wifdom has deny'd,
Or aught thy goodness lent.
Teach me to feel another's woe,
To hide the fault I fee;
That mercy I to others fhow,
That mercy fhow to me.

Mean though I am, not wholly fo,
Since quicken'd by thy breath;
O, lead me wherefoe'er I go,

Through this day's life or death.
This day, be bread and peace my lot:
All elfe beneath the fun,
Thou know'ft if best bestow'd or not,
And let thy will be done.

To thee, whofe temple is all space,
Whose altar, earth, sea, skies!
One chorus let all being raise!
All nature's incenfe rife!

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]

THE Effay on Man was intended to have been, comprised in four books.

The first of which, the author has given us under that title, in four epiftles.

The fecond was to have confifted of the fame number: 1. Of the extent and limits of human realon. 2. Of thofe arts and fciences, and of the parts of them, which are useful, and therefore at. tamable, together with thofe which are unufeful, and therefore unattainable. 3. Of the nature, ends, ufe, and application of the different capacities of men. 4 Of the ufe of learning, of the feience of the world, and of wit; concluding with a tarire again a mifapplication of them, illuftrated by pictures, characters, and examples.

The third book regarded civil regimen, or the kience of politics, in which the feveral forms of a republic were. to be examined and explained; together with the feveral modes of religious worfhip, as far forth as they affect fociety; between which the author always fuppofed there was the moft interesting relation, and clofeft connection; fo that this part would have treated of civil and rchisious fociety in their full extent.

The fourth and laft book concerned private ethics, or practical morality, confidered in all the circumstances, orders, profeffions, and stations of human life.

The scheme of all this had been maturely digefted, and communicated to Lord Bolingbroke, Dr Swift, and one or two more; and was intended for the only work of his riper years; but was, partly through ill health, partly through difcouragements from the depravity of the times, and partly on prudential and other considerations, inrupted, poftponed, and, laftly, in a manner laid afide.

But as this was the author's favourite work,

which more exactly reflected the image of his fro: g capacious mind, and as we can have but a very in perfect idea of it from the "disjecta mem"bra Poetæ," that now remain, it may not be amifs to be a little more particular concerning each of these projected books.

The firft, as it treats of man in the abstract, and confiders him in general under every of his relations, becomes the foundation, and furnishes out the fubjects, of the three following; fo that

The fecond book was to take up again the first and fecond epiftles of the first book, and treats of man in his intelle&ual capacity at large, as has been explained above. Of this only a finall part of the conclufion (which, as we faid, was to have contained a fatire against the mifapplication of wit and learning), may be found in the fourth book of the Dunciad, and up and down, occafionally, in

the other three.

the third book, in like manner, was to re-af-. fume the subject of the third epiftle of the first, which treats of man in his focial, political, and religious capacity. But this part the poet afterwards conceived might be beft executed in an Epic Poem, as the action would make it more animated, and the fable lefs invidious; in which all the great principles of true and false governments and religions thould be chiefly delivered in feigned examples.

The fourth and laft book was to pursue the fubje& of the fourth epifle of the first, and treats of ethics, or practical morality; and would have confifted of many members; of which the four following epiftles were detached portions: the two firft, on the characters of men and women, being the introductory part of this concluding book.

DR. WARBURTON.

« AnteriorContinuar »