"Laws wise as Nature, and as fix'd as Fate.

190

"In vain thy Reason finer webs shall draw,

66

Entangle Justice in her net of Law,

"And right, too rigid, harden into wrong;

"Still for the strong too weak, the weak too strong.

"Yet go! and thus o'er all the creatures sway,

195

"Thus let the wiser make the rest obey;

66

'And, for those Arts mere Instinct could afford,
"Be crown'd as Monarchs, or as Gods ador'd."
V. Great Nature spoke; observant Men obey'd;
Cities were built, Societies were made:
Here rose one little state; another near
Grew by like means, and join'd, thro' love or fear.
Did here the trees with ruddier burdens bend,
And there the streams in purer rills descend?
What War could ravish, Commerce could bestow,
And he return'd a friend, who came a foe.

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205

Converse and Love mankind might strongly draw,

When Love was Liberty, and Nature Law.

'Till common int'rest plac'd the sway in one.

'Twas VIRTUE ONLY1 (or in arts or arms,

Thus States were form'd; the name of King unknown,

Diffusing blessings, or averting harms)

The same which in a Sire the Sons obey'd,

A Prince the Father of a People made.

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220

VI. 'Till then, by Nature crown'd, each Patriarch sate, 215
King, priest, and parent of his growing state;
On him, their second Providence, they hung,
Their law his eye, their oracle his tongue.
He from the wond'ring furrow call'd the food,
Taught to command the fire, control the flood,
Draw forth the monsters of th' abyss profound,
Or fetch th' aerial eagle to the ground.
'Till drooping, sick'ning, dying they began
Whom they rever'd as God to mourn as Man:
Then, looking up from sire to sire, explor'd
One great first father, and that first ador'd.
Or 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 never sought but one:
Ere Wit oblique had broke that steady light2,
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 th' allegiance then;

'Twas Virtue only, &c.] Our author hath good authority for his account of the origin of kingship. Aristotle assures us of this truth, that it was Virtue only, or in arts or arms. [Polit. V. 10. 3.] Warburton.

Ere Wit oblique &c.] A beautiful allusion to the effects of the prismatic glass on the rays

225

230

235

of light. Warburton. ['For however men may amuse themselves, and admire, or almost adore the mind, it is certain that, like an irregular glass, it alters the rays of things by its figure and different intersections.' Bacon, Inst. Magn. There is a similar passage in the Advancement of Learning, Bk. ii.]

For Nature knew no right divine in Men,
No ill could fear in God; and understood
A sov'reign being but a sov'reign good.
True faith, true policy, united ran,

This was but love of God, and this of Man.

Who first taught souls enslav'd, and realms undone,
Th' enormous faith of many made for one;
That proud exception to all Nature's laws,

240

T' invert the world, and counter-work its Cause?

Force first made Conquest, and that conquest, Law;
'Till Superstition taught the tyrant awe,
Then shar'd the Tyranny, then lent it aid,

245

And Gods of Conqu'rors, 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,

250

She taught the weak to bend, the proud to pray,

To Pow'r 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;
Fear made her Devils, and weak Hope her Gods;
Gods partial, changeful, passionate, unjust,

255

Whose attributes were Rage, Revenge, or Lust;
Such as the souls of cowards might conceive,
And, form'd like tyrants, tyrants would believe.
Zeal then, not charity, became the guide;

260

And hell was built on spite, and heav'n on pride,
Then sacred seem'd th' ethereal vault no more;
Altars grew marble then, and reek'd with gore:
Then first the Flamen tasted living food2;

265

Next his grim idol smear'd with human blood 3;

With Heav'n's own thunders shook the world below,
And play'd the God an engine on his foe.

So drives Self-love, thro' just and thro' unjust,

270

To one Man's pow'r, ambition, lucre, lust:
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,
A weaker may surprise, a stronger take?

Th' enormous faith &c.] In this Aristotle placeth the difference between a King and a Tyrant, that the first supposeth himself made for the People; the other, that the People are made for him. Pol. Lib. v. cap. 10. Warburton. [i.e. the unnatural doctrine that many are made for one-'the mania of the Cæsars,' as it has been finely called.]

[living, i.e. animal. By employing the term flamen, Pope does not appear to refer specially to the priests and sacrifices of the Roman cultus, though among the latter it is certain that human

275

His safety must his liberty restrain:

All join to guard what each desires to gain.
Forc'd into virtue thus by Self-defence,
Ev'n Kings learn'd justice and benevolence:
Self-love forsook the path it first pursu'd,
And found the private in the public good.

280

'Twas then, the studious head or gen'rous mind,
Follow'r of God or friend of human-kind,
Poet or Patriot, rose but to restore

285

The Faith and Moral Nature gave before;
Re-lum'd her ancient light, not kindled new;

If not God's image, yet his shadow drew:
Taught Pow'r's due use to People and to Kings,
Taught nor to slack, nor strain its tender strings,
The less, or greater, set so justly true,

290

That touching one must strike the other too;

'Till jarring int'rests, of themselves create

Th' according music of a well-mix'd State1.

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 pow'rful each as needful to the rest,

And, in proportion as it blesses, blest;
Draw to one point, and to one centre bring
Beast, Man, or Angel, Servant, Lord, or King.

300

For Forms of Government let fools contest;
Whate'er is best administer'd is best :
For Modes of Faith let graceless zealots fight;
His can't be wrong whose life is in the right2:

305

In Faith and Hope the world will disagree,
But all Mankind's concern is Charity:

All must be false that thwart this One great End;
And all of God, that bless Mankind or mend.

310

Man, like the gen'rous vine, supported lives;

The strength he gains is from th' embrace he gives.
On their own Axis as the Planets run,
Yet make at once their circle round the Sun3;
So two consistent motions act the Soul;
And one regards Itself, and one the Whole.
Thus God and Nature link'd the gen'ral frame,
And bade Self-love and Social be the same.

315

'Quæ harmonia a musicis dicitur in cantu, ea est in civitate concordia.' Cicero, de Republ. Warton.

['His faith perhaps, in some nice tenets might Be wrong; his life, I'm sure, was in the right.' Cowley, on the Death of Mr Crashaw.

Warton thinks that Cowley may have himself taken the hint from a Latin distich by Lord Herbert of Cherbury.]

3 [at once, i.e. at one and the same time.] [act, See above, Ep. 11. line 59.]

ARGUMENT OF EPISTLE IV.

Of the Nature and State of Man with respect to HAPPINESS.

I. FALSE Notions of Happiness, Philosophical and Popular, answered from v. 19 to 77. II. It is the End of all Men, and attainable by all, v. 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, v. 37. As it is necessary for Order, and the peace and welfare of Society, that external goods should be unequal, Happiness is not made to consist in these, v. 51. But, notwithstanding that inequality, the balance of Happiness among Mankind is kept even by Providence, by the two Passions of Hope and Fear, v. 70. III. What the Happiness of Individuals is, as far as is consistent with the constitution of this world; and that the good Man has here the advantage, v. 77. The error of imputing to Virtue what are only the calamities of Nature, or of Fortune, v. 94. IV. The folly of expecting that God should alter his general Laws in favour of particulars, v. 121. V. That we are not judges who are good; but that, whoever they are, they must be happiest, v. 133, &c. VI. That external goods are not the proper rewards, but often inconsistent with, or destructive of Virtue, v. 165. That even these can make no Man happy without Virtue: Instanced in Riches, v. 183. Honours, v. 191. Nobility, v. 203. Greatness, v. 215. Fame, v. 235. Superior Talents, v. 257. &c. With pictures of human Infelicity in Men possessed of them all, v. 267, &c. VII. That Virtue only constitutes a Happiness, whose object is universal, and whose prospect eternal, v. 307, &c. 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, v. 326, &c.

EPISTLE IV.

H HAPPINESS! our being's end and aim1!

Good, Pleasure, Ease, Content! whate'er thy name:
That something still which prompts th' eternal sigh,
For which we bear to live, or dare to die,
Which still so near us, yet beyond us lies,
O'er-look'd, seen double2, by the fool, and wise.
Plant of celestial seed! if dropt below,

Say, in what mortal soil thou deign'st to grow?
Fair op'ning to some Court's propitious shine3,
Or deep with di'monds in the flaming mine?
Twin'd 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,

1Oh Happiness! &c.] in the MS. thus, 'Oh happiness! to which we all aspire, Wing'd with strong hope, and borne by full desire;

That ease, for which in want, in wealth we sigh; That ease, for which we labour and we die.' Warburton. [The same editor points out how the lines afterwards substituted for these successfully imitate the classical mode of invoking a Deity by his several names and places of abode, as in the Homeric Hymns (or in several Odes of Horace). Eudaimonia, Harmonia, Hygieia, Paidia, Pandaisia and others were often repre

5

ΤΟ

sented by the Greeks as daughters, or as handmaids, of Aphrodite.]

2 O'erlook'd, seen double,] O'erlook'd by those who place Happiness in any thing exclusive of Virtue; seen double by those who admit any thing else to have a share with Virtue in procuring Happiness; these being the two general mistakes that this epistle is employed in confuting. Warburton.

3 [shine, a substantive; so used in Spenser F. Q. Bk. 1. Canto x. st. 67; and in the Prayerbook Psalms, xcvii, 4: 'his lightnings gave shine into the world.']

We ought to blame the culture, not the soil:
Fix'd to no spot is Happiness sincere1,
'Tis nowhere to be found, or ev'rywhere;

'Tis never to be bought, but always free,

And fled from monarchs, ST. JOHN! dwells with thee.

Ask of the Learn'd the way? The Learn'd are blind;
This bids to serve, and that to shun mankind;
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 ev'n Virtue vain;
Or indolent, to each extreme they fall,
To trust in ev'ry thing, or doubt of all.
Who thus define it, say they more or less
Than this, that Happiness is Happiness?

Take Nature's path, and mad Opinion's leave;
All states can reach it, and all heads conceive;
Obvious her goods, in no extreme they dwell;
There needs but thinking right, and meaning well;
And mourn our various portions as we please,
Equal is Common Sense, and Common Ease.
Remember, Man, "the Universal Cause
"Acts not by partial, but by gen'ral 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:
No Bandit fierce, no Tyrant mad with pride,

No cavern'd Hermit, rests self-satisfy'd:

Who most to shun or hate Mankind pretend,
Seek an admirer, or would fix a friend:
Abstract what others feel, what others think,
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.
ORDER is Heav'n's first law; and this confest,
Some are, and must be, greater than the rest3,
More rich, more wise; but who infers from hence
That such are happier, shocks all common sense*.
Heav'n to Mankind impartial we confess,
If all are equal in their Happiness :

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50

[sincere, i.e. pure, unalloyed.]

Some place the bliss in action,-Some sunk to Beasts, &c.] 1. Those who place Happiness, or the summum bonum, in Pleasure, such as the Cyrenaic sect. 2. Those who place it in a certain tranquillity or calmness of Mind, such as the Democritic sect. 3 The Epicurean. 4. The Stoic. 5. The Protagorean, which held that Man was the measure of all things; for that all things which appear to him are, and those things which appear not to any Man are not; so that every imagination or opinion of every man was true. 6. The Sceptic. Warburton.