94tf AS 1845 UC-NRLF B 3 SMfl T73 AN ESSAY ON MAN: IN FOUR EPISTLES- TO HENRY ST. JOHN, LORD BOLINGBROKE. BY ALEXANDER POPE WEST BROOKFIELD .- PUBLISHED BY C. A. MIRICK Here rose one little state, another near Grew by like means, and joined thro' love of fear. Did here the trees with ruddier burdens bend, And there the streams in purer rills descend ? What war could ravish, commerce could bestow : 205 And he return'd a friend, who came a foe. Converse and love, mankind might strongly draw, When love was liberty, and nature law. Thus states were form'd : the name of king unknown, Till common interest placed the sway in one. 210 'Twas VIRTUE ONLY, (or in arts or arms, Diffusing blessings, or averting harms,) The same which in a sire the sons obey'd, A prince, the father of a people made. VI. ''Till then, by nature crown'd, each patriarch sate, King, priest, and parent, of his growing state ; On him, their second providence, they hung, Their laAV his eye, their oracle his tongue. He from the wond'ring furrow call'd the food, Taught to command the fire, control the flood, 220 Draw forth the monsters of the abyss profound, Or fetch the aerial eagle to the ground ; 'Till drooping, sickening, dying, they began 24 E S S A Y O N M A N . Whom they rever'd as God, to mourn as man : Then, looking up, from sire, to sire explor'd 225 One great First Father, and that first ador'd. On plain tradition that this all begun, Convey'd unbroken faith from sire to son. The worker from the work distinct was known, And simple reason nev^er sought but one : 230 Ere wit oblique had broke that steady light, _ Man, like his Maker, saw that all was right : To virtue, in the paths of pleasure trod, And own'd a father, when he own'd a God. Love, all the faith, and all the allegiance then, 235 For nature knew no right divine in men : Npiyll could fear in God, and understood A sdvereign being, but a sovereign good. True faith, true policy, united ran. That was but love of God, and this of man. 240 Who first taught soul's enslav'd, and realms undone, The enormous faith of many made for one ; That proud exception to all nature's laws, T' invert the world, and counterwork its cause. Force first made conquest, and that conquest law ; 245 'Till superstition taught the tyrant awe. Then shar'd the tyranny, then lent it aid, And Gods of conquerors, slaves of subjects made : She, 'midst the lightning's blaze, and thunder's sound. When rock'd the mountains, and when groan'd the ground, She taught the weak to bend, the proud to pray To Power unseen, and mightier far than they : She, from the rending earth, and bursting skies, Saw gods descend, and fiends infernal rise : Here fix'd the dreadful, there the blest abodes ; 255 Fear made her devils, and weak hope her gods ; Gods partial, changeful, passionate, unjust, Whose attributes were rage, revenge, or lust : Such as the souls of cowards might conceive, And, form'd like tyrants, tyrants would believe. 260 Zeal then, not charity, became the guide ; And hell was built on spite, and heaven on pride. Then sacred seemed the ethereal vault no more : Altars grew marble then, and reek'd with gore ; Then first the Flamen tasted living food, 265 Next his grim idol, smear'd with human blood ; ESSAY ON MAN. 25 With heaven's own thunders shook the world below, And played the God an engine on his foe. So drives self-love, through just and through unjust, To one man's power, ambition, lucre, lust ; 270 The same self-love, in all, becomes the cause Of what restrains him, government and laws. For what one likes, if others like as well. What serves one will, when many wills rebel ? How shall he keep, what, sleeping or awake, 275 A weaker may surprise, a stronger take ? His safety must his liberty restrain : All join to guard what each desires to gain. Forced into virtue thus, by self-defence, E'en kings learn'd justice and benevolence : 280 Self-love forsook the path it first pursu'd, And found the private in the public good, 'Twas then the studious head or generous mind, Follower of God, or friend of human kind, Poet or patriot, rose but to restore 285 The faith that mortal Nature gave before ; Resumed her ancient light, not kindled new ; If not God's image, yet his shadow drew ; Taught power's due use to people and to kings, Taught not to slack, nor strain its tender strings, 290 The less or greater set so justly true. That touching one must strike the other too ; 'Till jarring interests of themselves create Th' according music of a well mix'd state. Such is the world's great harmony, that springs 295 From order, union, full consent of things : Where small and great, where weak and mighty, made To serve, not suffer, strengthen, not invade ; More powerful each as needful to the rest, And, in proportion as it blesses, blest ; 300 Draw to one point, and to one centre bring Beast, man, or angel, servant, lord, or king. /' For forms of government let fools contest j Whate'er is best administer'd is best : For modes of faith, let graceless zealots fight ; 305 His can't be wrong whose life is in the right j In faith and hope the world will disagree. But all mankind's concern is charity j All must be false that thwart this one great end : 25 ESSAYONMAN. And all of God, that bless mankind, or mend. 310 Man, like the generous vine, supported lives ; The strength he gains is from the embrace he gives. On their own axis as the planets run. To make at once their circle round the sun j So two consistent motions act the soul ; 315 And one regards itself, and one the whole. Thus God and nature link'd the general frame. And bade self-love and social be the same. 318 EPISTLE IV. Of the Nature and State of Ma7i, with respect to Happiness. False notions of happiness, philosophical and popular, answered, from verse 19 to 27. It is the end of all men, and attainable by all, 30. God intends happiness to be equal ; and to be so, it must be social, since all particular happiness depends on general, and since he governs by general, not particular laws, 37. As it is ne- cessary for order, and the peace and welfare of society, that external goods should be unequal, liappiness is not made to consist in these, 51. But notwithstanding that inequality, the balance of happi- ness amongst mankind is kept even by Providence, by the two passions of hope and fear, 70. What the happiness of individuals is, as far as it is consistent with the constitution of this world ; and that the good man has here the advantage, 77. The error of imputing to virtue what are only the calamities of nature, or of fortune, 94. The folly of expecting that God should alter his gen- eral laws in favor of particulars, 121. That we are not judges who are good ; but that whoever they are, they must be happiest, 133, &c. That external goods are not the proper rewards, but of- ten inconsistent with, or destructive of virtue, 167. That even these can make no man happy, without virtue — instanced in riches, 185. — Honors, 193. Nobility, 205- Greatness, 217. Fame, 237. Superior talents, 259, &c. With pictures of human infelicity in men possessed of them all, 269, &c. That virtue alone consti- tutes happiness, whose object is universal, and whose prospect is eternal, 309. That the perfection of virtue and happiness consists in a conformity to the order of providence here, and a resignation to it here and hereafter, 316, &c. Oh Happiness ! our being's end and aim ! 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 : Which still so near us, yet beyond us lies, 5 ESSAY ON MAN, 27 .O'erlook'd, seen double, by the fool and wise. Plant of celestial seed! if dropt below, Say, in what mortal soil thou deign'st to grow ? Fair opening to some courts, propitious shine, Or deep with diamonds in the flaming mine ? 10 Twined with the wreaths Parnassian laurels yield, Or reap'd in iron harvests of the field ? Where grows ? where grows it not ? If vain our toil. We ought to blame the culture, not the soil : Fix'd to no spot is happiness sincere, 15 'Tis no where to be found, or every where : 'Tis never to be sought, but always free, And fled from monarchs, St. John ! dwells with thee. I. Ask of the learn'd the way ! The learn'd are blind : This bids to serve, and that to shun mankind • 20 Some place the bliss in action, some in ease. Those call it pleasure, and contentment these. Some, sunk to beasts, find pleasure end in pain : Some, swell'd to gods, confess e'en virtue vain ; Or indolent to each extreme they fall, 25 To trust in every thing, or doubt of all. Who thus define it, say they more or less Than this, that happiness is happiness? II. Take nature's path, and mad opinions leave ; All states can reach it, and all heads conceive : 30 Obvious her goods, in no extreme they dwell ; There needs but thinking right, and meaning wellj And, mourn our various portions as we please, Equal is common sense, and common ease. Remember, man, the ''Universal Cause .35 Acts not by partial, but by general laws ;" And makes what happiness we justly call, Subsist not in the good of one, but all. There 's not a blessing individuals find. But some way leans and hearkens to the kind : 40 No bandit fierce, no tyrant mad with pride, No cavern'd hermit rests self-satisfied. Who most to shun or hate mankind pretend. Seek an admirer, or would fix a friend. Abstract what others feel, what others think, 45 All pleasures sicken, and all glories sink : Each has his share, and who would more obtain, Shall find the pleasure pays not half the pain. 23 E S S A Y O N I\I A N . Order is heaven's first law ; and this confest, Some are, and must be, greater than the rest, 50 More rich, more wise ; but who infers from hence That such are happier, shoclis all common sense. Heaven to mankind impartial we confess, If all are equal in their happiness ; But mutual wants this happiness increase ; 55 All nature's difference keeps all nature's peace. Condition, circumstance, is not the thing ; Bliss is the same in subject or in king, In who obtain defence, or who defend, In him who is, or him who finds a friend : 60 Heaven breathes through every member of the whole One common blessing, as one common soul. But fortune's gifts, if each alike possest, And each were equal, must not all contest? If then to all men happiness was meant, 65 God in externals could not place content. Fortune her gifts may variously dispose, And these be happy call'd, unhappy those ; But Heaven's just balance equal will appear. While those are placed in hope, and these in fear : 70 Not present good or ill, the joy or curse, But future views of better or of worse. 0, sons of earth! attempt ye siiU to rise, By mountains piled on mountains, to the skies ? Heaven still with laughter the vain toil surveys, 75 And buries madmen in the heaps they raise. HI. Know, all the good that individuals find, Or God and nature meant to mere mankind, Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense. Lie in three words, health, peace, and competence. 80 But health consists with temperance alone ; And peace, virtue ! peace is all thy own. The good or bad the gifts of fortune gain ; But these less taste them, as they worse obtain. Say, in pursuit of profit or delight, 85 Who risk the most, that take wrong means, or right ? Of vice or virtue, whether bless'd or cursed, Which meets contempt, or which compassion first? Count all the advantage prosperous vice attains, 'Tis but what virtue flies from and disdains : 90 And grant the bad what happiness they would, ESSAY ON MAN. 29 One they must want, which is, to pass for good. Oh, blind to truth, and God's whole scheme below, Who fancy bliss to vice, to virtue woe ! Who sees and follows that great scheme the best, 95 Best knows the blessing, and will most be bless'd. But fools the good alone unhappy call. For ills or accidents that chance to all. See Falkland dies, the virtuous and the just : See godlike Turenne prostrate on the dust ! 100 See Sidney bleeds amid the martial strife ! Was this their virtue, or contempt of life? Say, was it virtue, more though Heaven ne'er gave, Lamented Digby ! sunk thee to the grave ? Tell me, if virtue made the son expire, 105 Why, full of days and honor, lives the sire ? Why drew Marseilles' good bishop purer breath. When nature sicken'd, and each gale was death ? Or why so long (in life if long can be) Lent Heaven a parent to the poor and me ? 110 What makes all physical or moral ill ? There deviates nature, and here wanders will. God sends not ill, if rightly understood, Or partial ill is universal good. Or change admits, or nature lets it fall, 115 Short, and but rare, till man improved it all. We just as wisely might of Heaven complain, That righteous Abel was destroy'd by Cain, As that the virtuous son is ill at ease When his lewd father gave the dire disease. 120 Think we, like some weak prince, the Eternal Cause Prone for his favorites to reverse his laws ! IV. Shall burning ^tna, if a sage requires, Forget to thunder, and recall her fires! On air or sea new motions be impress'd, 125 Oh blameless Bethel ! to relieve thy breast ? When the loose mountain trembles from on high, Shall gravitation cease if you go by ? Or some old temple, nodding to its fall, For Chartres' head reserve the hanging wall? 130 V. But still this world (so fitted for the knave) Contents us not. A better shall we have ? A kingdom of the just then let it be : But first consider how those just agree. 3* 30 ESS AY ON MAN. The good must merit God's peculiar care ! 135 But who, but God, can tell us who they are? One thinks on Calvin Heaven's own spirit fell ; Another deems him instrument of hell : If Calvin feel Heaven's blessing, or its rod, This cries, there is, and that, there is no God. 140 What shocks one part will edify the rest, Nor with one system can they all be bless'd. The very best will variously incline, And what rewards your virtue, punish mine. Whatever is, is right. — This world, 'tis true, 145 Was made for Csesar — but for Titus too ; And which more bless'd ? who chain'd his country, say, Or he whose virtue sigh'd to lose a day ? VI. 'But sometimes virtue starves while vice is fed.' What then ? Is the reward of virtue bread ? 150 That, vice may merit, 'tis the price of toil ; The knave deserves it, when he tills the soil; The knave deserves it when he tempts the main, Where folly fights for kings, or dives for gain. The good man may be weak, be indolent ; 155 Nor is his claim to plenty, but content. But grant him riches, your demand is o'er ? 'No — shall the good want health, the good want power?' Add health and power and every earthly thing — ' Why bounded power? why private ? why no king? 160 Nay, why external for internal given ? Why is not man a god, an earth a heaven ?' Who ask and reason thus, will scarce conceive God gives enough, while he has more to give ; Immense the power, immense were the demand ; 165 Say, at M'hat part of nature will they stand? What nothing earthly gives or can destroy. The soul's calm sun-shine, and the heart-felt joy. Is virtue's prize : a better would you fix ? Then give humility a coach and six, 170 Justice a conqueror's sword, or truth a gown. Or public spirit its great cure — a crown. Weak, foolish man ! will Heaven reward us there, With the same trash mad mortals wish for here ? The boy and man an individual makes, 175 Yet sigh'st thou now for apples and for cakes ? Go, like the Indian, in another life, ESSAYONMAN. 3] Expect thy dog, thy bottle, and thy wife, As well as dream such trifles are assign'd, As toys and empires, for a god-like mind. 180 Rewards, that either would to virtue bring No joy, or be destructive of the thing ; How oft by these at sixty are undone The virtues of a saint at twenty-one ! To whom can riches give repute or trust, 185 Content or pleasure, but the good and just? Judges and senates have been bought for gold ; Esteem and love were never to be sold. Oh fool ! to think God hates the worthy mind, The lover and the love of human kind, 190 Whose life is healthful, and whose conscience clear, Because he wants a thousand pounds a year. Honor and shame from no condition rise ; Act well your part, there all the honor lies. Fortune in men has some small difference made, 195 One flaunts in rags, one flutters in brocade ; The cobler apron'd, and the parson gown'd, The friar hooded, and the monarch crown'd. ' What differ more,' you cry, ' than crown and cowl?' I '11 tell you, friend ! a wise man and a fool. 200 You'll find, if once the monarch acts the monk, Or, cobler-like, the parson will be drunk ; Worth makes the man, and want of it the fellow ; The rest is all but leather or prunello. Stuck o'er with titles and hung round with strings, 205 That thou may'st be by kings, or whores of kings. Boast the pure blood of an illustrious race, In quiet flow from Lucrece to Lucrece : But by your fathers' worth, if yours you rate. Count me those only who were good and great. 210 Go ! if your ancient, but ignoble blood Has crept through scoundrels ever since the flood, Go ! and pretend your family is young ; Nor own your fathers have been fools so long. What can ennoble sots, or slaves, or cowards? 215 Alas ! not all the blood of all the Howards. Look next on greatness : say where greatness lies : * Where, but among the heroes and the wise V Heroes are much the same, the point 's agreed. From Macedonia's madman to the Swede ; 220 32 E S S A Y O N M A N . The whole strange purpose of their lives, to find, Or make, an enemy of all mankind ! Not one looks backward, onward still he goes, Yet ne'er looks forward further than his nose. No less alike the politic and wise ; 225 All sly slow things with circumspective eyes ; Men in their loose unguarded hours they take, Not that themselves are wise, but others weak. But grant that those can conquer, these can cheat ; 'Tis phrase absurd to call a villain great : 230 Who wickedly is wise, or madly brave, Is but the more a fool, the more a knave. Who noble ends by noble means obtains, Or failing, smiles in exile or in chains. Like good Aurelius let him reign, or bleed 235 Like Socrates, that man is great indeed. What's fame ? a fancied life in others' breath, A thing beyond us, e'en before our death. Just what you hear you have ; and what 's unknown, The same (my lord) if TuUy's, or your own. 240 All that we feel of it begins and ends In the small circle of our foes or friends ; To all beside as much an empty shade An Eugene living, as a Cfesar dead ; Alike or when or where they shone or shine, 24.5 Or on the Eubicon, or on the Rhine. A wit 's a feather, and a chief a rod ; An honest man 's the noblest work of God. Fame but from death a villain's name can save, As justice tears his body from the grave ; 250 When what to oblivion better were resign'd, Is hung on high, to poison half mankind. All fame is foreign but of true desert, Plays round the head, but comes not to the heart : One self-approving hour whole years outweighs 255 Of stupid starers, and of loud huzzas ; And more true joy Marcellus exiled feels, Than Caesar with a senate at his heels. In parts superior w-hat advantage lies ? Tell (for you can) what is it to be w^ise ? 260 'Tis but to know how little can be known, To see all others' faults, and feel our own ; Condemned in business or in arts to drudge, ESSAY ON M A xN . 33 Without a second, or without a judge : Truth would you teach, or save a sinking laud ! 265 All fear, none aid you, and few understand. Painful preeminence ! yourself to view Above life's weakness, and its comforts too. Bring then these blessings to a strict account : Make fair deductions -, see to what they 'mount : 270 How much of other each is sure to cost ; How each for other oft is wholly lost ; How inconsistent greater goods with these : How sometimes liCe is risk'd, and always ease : Think, and if still the things thy envy call, 275 Say, would'st thou be the man to whom they fall ? To sigh for ribbands if thou art so silly, Mark how they grace Lord Umbra, or Sir Billy. Is yellow dirt the passion of thy life ? Look but on Gripus, or on Gripus' wife. 280 If parts allure thee, think how Bacon shiued, The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind .- Or ravish'd with the whistling of a name. See Cromwell damn'd to everlasting fame I If all, united, thy ambition call, 285 From ancient story, learn to scorn them all. There, in the rich, the honor'd, famed, and great, See the false scale of happiness complete ! In hearts of kings, or arms of queens who lay, How happy ! those to ruin, these betray. 290 Mark by what wretched steps iheir glory grows, From dirt and sea-weed as proud Venice rose ; In each how guilt and greatness equal ran, And all that raised the hero sunk the man : Now Europe's laurels on their brows behold, 295 But stain'd with blood, or ill exchang'd for gold : Then see them broke with toils, or sunk in ease, Or infamous for plunder'd provinces. O wealth ill-fated ! which no act of fame E'er taught to shine, or sanctified from shame ! 300 What greater bliss attends their close of life ? Some greedy minion, or imperious wife, The irophied arches, storied halls invade, And haunt their slumbers in the pompous shade. Alas ! not dazzled with their noon-tide ray, 505 Compute the morn and evening to the day ; 34 ESSAY ON MAN. 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 tastes the good without the fall to ill ; Where only merit constant pay receives, Is bless'd in what it takes, and what it gives • The joy unequall'd, if its end it gain, 315 And if it lose, attended with no pain : Without satiety, though e'er so bless'd. And but more relish'd as the more distress'd : /The broadest mirth unfeeling folly wears, Less pleasing far than virtue's very teai's :/ 320 Good, from each object, from each place acquired, For ever exercised, yet never tired ; Never elated, while one man's oppress'd ; Never dejected, while another 's bless'd : And where no wants, no wishes can remain, 325 Since but to wish more virtue, is to gain. See the sole bliss 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 miss, the good untaught will find ; 330 Slave to no sect, who takes no private road. But looks through nature up to nature's God ; Pursues that chain which links th' immense design, Joins Heaven and earth, and mortal and divine ; Sees that no being any bliss can know, 335 But touches some above, and soine below : Learns from tlie union of the rising whole, The first, last purpose of the human soul ; 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 still, and opens on his soul ; Till lengthen'd on to faith, and unconfined. It pours the bliss that fills up all the mind. He sees why nature plants in man alone, 345 Hope of known bliss, and faith in bliss unknown : (Nature, whose dictates to no other kind Are given in vain, but what they seek they find :) Wise is her present ; she connects in this ESSAYONMAN. 35 His greatest virtue with his greatest bUss ; 350 At once his own bright prospect to be bless'd ; And strongest motive to assist the rest. Self-love thus push'd to social, to divine, Gives thee to make thy neighbor's blessing thine. Is this too little for the boundless heart ? 355 Extend it, let thy enemies have part ; Grasp the whole world of reason, life, and sense, In one close system of benevolence ; Happier as kinder, in whate'er degree, And height of bliss bat height of charity. 360 God loves from whole to parts : but human soul Must rise from individual to the whole. Self-love but serves the virtuous mind to wake, As the small pebble stirs the peaceful lake ; The centre moved, a circle straight succeeds, 365 Another still, and still another spreads ; Friend, parent, neighbor, first it will embrace ; His country next, and next all human race : Wide and more wide, the o'erflowings of the mind Take every creature in, of every kind ; 370 Earth smiles around, with boundless bounty bless'd, And Heaven beholds its image in its breast. Come then, my friend ! my genius ! come along ; O master of the poet, and the song ! And while the muse now stoops, or now ascends, 375 To man's low passions, or their glorious ends, Teach me, like thee, in various nature wise. To fall with dignity, with temper rise ; Form'd by thy converse, happily to steer, From grave to gay, from lively to severe ; 380 Correct with spirit, eloquent with ease, Intent to reason, or polite to please. O ! while along the stream of time thy name Expanded flies, and gathers all its fame. Say, shall my little bark attendant sail, 385 Pursue the triumph and partake the gale ? When statesmen, heroes, kings, in dust repose. Whose sons shall blush their fathers were thy foes, Shall then this verse to future age pretend Thou wert my guide, philosopher and friend ? 390 That, urged by thee, I turn'd the tuneful art From sounds to things, from fancy to the heart ; 36 ESSAY ON MAN For wit's false mirror held up nature's light, Show'd erring pride, whatever is, is right ; That reason, passion, answer one great aim ; 395 That true self-love and social are the same ; That virtue only makes our bliss below ■ And all our knowledge is, ourselves to kkow. 398 ODE. TJie dying Christian to his Soul. BY ALEXANDER POPE. Vital spark of heavenly flame ! Quit, oh quit this mortal frame : Trembling, hoping, lingering, flying — Oh, the pain, the bliss of dying! Cease, fond Nature, cease thy strife, And let me languish into life. Hark ! they whisper : angels say, Sister spirit, come away. What is this absorbs me quite, Steals my senses, shuts my sight, Drowns my spirits, draws my breath ? Tell me, my soul, can this be death ? The world recedes ; it disappears! Heaven opens on my eyes ! my ears With sounds seraphic ring : Lend, lend your wings ! I mount ! I fly ? Oh grave ! where is thy victory ? Oh death ! where is thy sting ? ,VrcsJf\..r-,v-'/i: