Imatges de pàgina
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'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.

265

Bring then these bleffings to a ftri&t account;

Make fair deductions; fee to what they mount:

270

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 case:
Think, and if ftill the things thy envy call,

275

Say, would't thou be the man to whom they fall?
To figh for ribbands if thou art so 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, brighteft, meaneft of mankind:
Or ravish'd with the whistling 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 happiness complete!

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In hearts of kings, or arms of queens who lay,
How happy those to ruin, thefe betray.
Mark by what wretched fteps their glory grows,
From dirt and fea-weed as proud Venice rofe;
In each how guilt and greatness equal ran,
And all that rais'd the hero, funk the man:

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Now Europe's laurels on their brows behold,

295

But ftain'd with blood, or ill exchang'd for gold :

Then fee them broke with toils, or funk in cafe,
Or infamous for plunder'd provinces.

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Know then this Truth enough for Man to know)

Virtue alone is Happiness below.

Essay on Man Ep IV

Oh wealth ill-fated! which no act of fame

E'er taught to shine, or sanctify'd from shame!

300

What greater blifs attends their close of life?

Some greedy minion, or imperious wife,
The trophy'd arches, story'd halls invade,

And haunt their flumbers in the pompous fhade.
Alas! not dazzled with their noon-tide ray,
Compute the morn and ev'ning to the day;
The whole amount of that enormous fame,
A tale, that blends their glory with their shame!

305

Know then this truth (enough for man to know)

"Virtue alone is happiness below."

310

The only point where human bliss ftands ftill,

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 unequall'd, if its end it gain,
And if it lose, attended with no pain :
Without fatiety, tho' e'er fo blefs'd,

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And but more relifh'd as the more diftrefs'd:

The broadeft mirth unfeeling folly wears,

Lefs pleafing far than virtue's very tears i

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Good, from each object, from each plac'd acquir'd,

For ever exercis'd, yet never tir'd;

Never elated, while one man's opprefs'd;

Never dejected, 'while another's bless'd;

And where no wants, no wishes can remain,
Since but to wifh more virtue, is to gain.

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See the fole blifs heav'n could on all beftow!

Which who but feels can tafte, but thinks can know:
Yet poor with fortune, and with learning blind,

The bad muft mifs, the good, untaught, will find; 330
Slave to no fect, who takes no private road,
But looks through nature, up to nature's God;
Pursues that chain which links th' immenfe defign,
Joins heav'n and earth, and mortal and divine;
Sees, that no being any blifs can know,
But touches fome above, and fome below;
VOL. I.

P p

335

Learns,

Learns, from this union of the rifing whole,

The fir, 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

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Hope of known bliss, and faith in bliss unknown:

(Nature, whofe dictates to no other kind

Are giv'n in vain, but what they seek they find)
Wife is her prefent; fhe connects in this

His greatest virtue with his greatest bliss;

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At once his own bright prospect to be bleft,

And strongest motive to affift the reft.

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?

355

Extend it, let thy enemies have part :

Grafp the whole worlds of reafon, 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 ftrait fucceeds,
Another ftill, and ftill another spreads;
Friend, parent, neighbour, firft it will embrace;
His country next; and next all human race:

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Wide and more wide, th' o'erflowings of the mind
Take ev'ry creature in, of ev'ry kind;

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Earth fmiles around, with boundless bounty bleft,

And heav'n beholds its image in his breaft.

Come then, my friend! my genius! come along;

Oh mafter of the poet, and the fong!

And

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