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Catius is ever moral, ever grave;

Thinks who endures a knave, is next a knave,
Save just at dinner: then prefers, no doubt,
A rogue with venison to a saint without.

80

Who would not praise Patritio's high desert, His hand unstain'd, his uncorrupted heart, His comprehensive head? all interests weigh'd, All Europe saved, yet Britain not betray'd! He thanks you not; his pride is in piquet, Newmarket fame, and judgment at a bet. What made (say, Montaigne, or more sage Charron!)

Otho a warrior, Cromwell a buffoon?

A perjured prince a leaden saint revere?
A godless regent tremble at a star?

85

90

The throne a bigot keep, a genius quit ;
Faithless through piety, and duped through wit?

81 Patritio's high desert. Lord Godolphin; of whom says Prior, in an original letter, 'as the wise earl of Godolphin told me, when he turned me out for having served him, 'things change, times change, and men change.' '-Warton. After ver. 86. in the former editions :

Triumphant leaders, at an army's head,

Hemm'd round with glories, pilfer cloth or bread;
As meanly plunder as they bravely fought;

Now save a people, and now save a groat.

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87 Charron. Author of the celebrated treatise De la Sagesse,' and friend of Montaigne.

89 A perjured prince. Louis XI. of France wore in his hat a leaden image of the Virgin Mary, which, when he swore by, he feared to break his oath.-Pope.

90 A godless regent tremble at a star. Philip, duke of Orleans, regent in the minority of Louis XV. superstitious enough to be a believer in judicial astrology, though an unbeliever in all religion.

91 The throne a bigot keep, a genius quit. Philip V. of Spain, who, after renouncing the throne for religion, resumed it to

Europe a woman, child, or dotard rule,

And just her wisest monarch made a fool?

Know, God and nature only are the same; 95 In man the judgment shoots at flying game; A bird of passage! gone as soon as found; Now in the moon perhaps, now under ground.

II.

In vain the sage, with retrospective eye, Would from the apparent What conclude the Why, Infer the motive from the deed, and show 101 That what we chanced was what we meant to do Behold! if fortune or a mistress frowns, Some plunge in business, others shave their

crowns:

To ease the soul of one oppressive weight,
This quits an empire, that embroils a state :
The same adust complexion has impell'd
Charles to the convent, Philip to the field.

105

110

Not always actions show the man: we find, Who does a kindness, is not therefore kind : Perhaps prosperity becalm'd his breast; Perhaps the wind just shifted from the east : Not therefore humble he who seeks retreat; Pride guides his steps, and bids him shun the great:

gratify his queen; and Victor Amadeus II. king of Sardinia, who resigned the crown, and trying to re-assume it, was imprisoned till his death.

93 Europe a woman, child, or dotard rule. The czarina, the French king, the pope, and her wisest monarch, the king of Sardinia.

107 The same adust complexion. Philip II. of Spain was atrabilaire Charles V. suffered much from bile. Melancholy drove Charles to the cloister, and Philip to war.

Who combats bravely, is not therefore brave; 115
He dreads a death-bed like the meanest slave:
Who reasons wisely is not therefore wise;
His pride in reasoning, not in acting lies.
But grant that actions best discover man;
Take the most strong, and sort them as you

can.

The few that glare each character must mark;
You balance not the many in the dark.
What will you do with such as disagree?
Suppress them, or miscall them policy?
Must then at once, the character to save,
The plain rough hero turn a crafty knave?
Alas! in truth the man but changed his mind,
Perhaps was sick, in love, or had not dined.
Ask why from Britain Cæsar would retreat?
Cæsar himself might whisper, he was beat.
Why risk the world's great empire for a punk?
Cæsar perhaps might answer, he was drunk :
But, sage historians! 'tis your task to prove
One action, conduct; one, heroic love.

119

125

130

'Tis from high life high characters are drawn : A saint in crape is twice a saint in lawn;

136

129 Ask why from Britain. In former editions, the third and fourth lines were,

The mighty czar what moved to wed a punk?
The mighty czar would tell you, he was drunk :

in allusion to the marriage of Peter the Great. But it was altered as above, and altered for the worse. It is strange that Pope should not have known that drunkenness was not one of Cæsar's vices.

135 'Tis from high life. The sarcasm of this well-known passage, more than its soundness, has assisted its celebrity. For the larger the sphere, the greater the difficulty of filling it: it is from high life that high characters ought to be drawn ;

A judge is just; a chancellor, juster still;
A gownman, learn'd; a bishop, what you will;
Wise, if a minister; but, if a king,

More wise, more learn'd, more just, more every thing.

140

Court virtues bear, like gems, the highest rate, Born where heaven's influence scarce can pene

trate:

In life's low vale, the soil the virtues like;
They please as beauties, here as wonders strike.
Though the same sun, with all-diffusive rays,
Blush in the rose, and in the diamond blaze,
We prize the stronger effort of his power,
And justly set the gem above the flower.
"Tis education forms the common mind;
Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined.
Boastful and rough, your first son is a squire;.
The next a tradesman, meek, and much a liar :
Tom struts a soldier, open, bold, and brave;
Will sneaks a scrivener, an exceeding knave.
Is he a churchman? then he 's fond of power:
A quaker? sly: a presbyterian? sour:
A smart freethinker? all things in an hour.
Ask men's opinions: Scoto now shall tell
How trade increases, and the world well:
Strike off his pension, by the setting sun,
And Britain, if not Europe, is undone.

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mediocrity of station can neither require nor exercise the more eminent public virtues: the prelate, the judge, the statesman, and the monarch, have duties which demand the most vigorous capacities of the heart and understanding: if they fail, their failure is the more glaring from their rank; but if they succeed, the more conspicuous should be their praise. The sentiment in the text is from Boileau, Sat. viii.

165

That gay freethinker, a fine talker once, What turns him now a stupid, silent dunce? Some God or spirit he has lately found; Or chanced to meet a minister that frown'd. Judge we by nature? - Habit can efface, Interest o'ercome, or policy take place : By actions? those uncertainty divides: By passions? these dissimulation hides: Opinions? they still take a wider range: Find, if you can, in what you cannot change. Manners with fortunes, humors turn with climes,

Tenets with books, and principles with times.

III.

170

176

Search then the ruling passion: there, alone, The wild are constant, and the cunning known; The fool consistent, and the false sincere: Priests, princes, women, no dissemblers here. This clew, once found, unravels all the rest, The prospect clears, and Wharton stands confess'd.

179 Wharton stands confess'd. One of the most remarkable instances on record of the abuse of nature, fortune, of great talents turned into contempt, of high rank degraded, of vast opulence made useless, and of memorable opportunities perverted into disaster, shame, and ruin. Philip Wharton, born to the possession of a marquisate, the reward of his father's fidelity to the Brunswick line, made the first use of his inheritance to revolt to the pretender. From him he obtained the empty title of duke of Northumberland. Growing weary of the little court of the Stuarts, he revolted from the pretender. On being suffered to sit in the Irish house of peers, he became a zealous advocate of the Hanoverian succession reinstated in his English honors, and created a duke, he

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