Immenfe the pow'r, immenfe were the demand; 165 Say, at what part of nature will they stand?

170

What nothing earthly gives, or can deftroy, The foul's calm fun-fhine, and the heart-felt joy, Is Virtue's prize: A better would you fix, Then give humility a coach and fix, Juftice a Conqu❜ror's fword, or Truth a gown, Or public Spirit its great cure, a Crown. Weak, foolish Man! will Heav'n reward us there With the fame trash mad mortals with for here? 'The Boy and Man an individual makes,

175

Yet figh'ft 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,
As toys and empires, for a god-like mind.

VARIATIONS.

After ver. 172. in the MS.

Say, what rewards this idle world imparts
Or fit for fearching heads or honeft hearts.

NOTES.

180

VER. 177. Go, like the Indian, &c.] Alluding to the example of the Indian, in Epift. i. ver. 99. and fhewing, that that example was not given to difcredit any rational hopes of future happiness, but only to reprove the folly of fepa rating them from charity: as when

-Zeal, not charity, became the guide,

And hell was built on fpite, and heav'n on pride.

4

Rewards, that either would to Virtue bring
No joy, or be deftructive 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, 185
Content or Pleasure, but the Good and Juft?
Judges and Senates have been bought for gold,
Efteem and Love were never to be fold.

Oh fool! to think God hates the worthy mind,
The lover and the love of human kind,

190

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 some small diff'rence made, 195 One flaunts in rags, one flutters in brocade;

x

NOTES.

VER. 193. Honour and shame from no condition rife, &c.] What power then has fortune over the Man? None at all. For as her favours can confer neither worth nor wisdom ; fo neither can her difpleasure cure him of any of his follies. On his Garb indeed the hath some little influence; but his Heart ftill remains the fame :

Fortune in Men has fome small diff'rence made,

One flaunts in rags, one flutters in brocade.

But this difference extends no further than to the habit; the pride of heart is the fame, both in the flaunter and flutterer, as it is the poet's intention to infinuate by the ufe of those terms.

The cobler apron'd, and the parfon gown'd,

200

The frier hooded, and the monarch crown'd,
"What differ more (you cry) than crown and cowl?"
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.
204

Stuck o'er with titles, and hung round with strings, That thou may'st be by kings, or whores of kings. Boaft the pure blood of an illustrious race,

In quiet flow from Lucrece to Lucrece :

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' fcoundrels ever fince the flood,
Go! and pretend your family is young;

Nor own, your fathers have been fools fo long.

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 breaft,
Without one dash of ufher or of priest:
Thy pride as much defpife all other pride
As Chrift-Church once all colleges befide.

What can ennoble fots, or flaves, or cowards?. 215 Alas! not all the blood of all the HOWARDS.

220

Look next on Greatness; fay where Greatnefs lie s "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 ftrange 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 further than his nofe. No lefs alike the Politic and Wife;

225

230

All fly flow things, with circumfpective eyes;
Men in their loofe 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.

235

What's Fame! a fancy'd life in other's 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. 240

All that we feel of it begins and ends

In the fmall 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, 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 poifon 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 outweighs 255
Of stupid 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:

260

Truths would you teach, or fave a finking land? 265. All fear, none aid you, and few understand.