Слике страница
PDF
ePub

Plate XII.

1. facing p.108

e

N. Blakey inv. & del.

G.Scotin Sculp

Boastfull & rough your first Son is a Squire, The next a Tradesman, meck and much a Siar; Tom struts a Soldier, open, bold and Brave; Will sneaks a Scrivener, an exo exceeding Knave.

Char: of Men

Y

EPISTLE I

ES, you defpife the man to Books confin'd, Who from his study rails at human kind; Tho' what he learns he speaks, and may advance Some gen'ral maxims, or be right by chance. The coxcomb bird, fo talkative and grave,

5

That from his cage cries Cuckold, Whore, and Knave, Tho' many a paffenger he rightly call,

You hold him no Philofopher at all.

And yet the fate of all extremes is fuch,

Men may be read, as well as Books, too much. 10 To obfervations which ourfelves we make,

We grow more partial for th'Obferver's fake;

NOTES.

VER. 5. The coxcomb | bird, &c.] A fine turn'd allufion to what Philoftratus faid of Euxenus, the Tutor of Apollonius, that he could only repeat fome fentences of Pythagoras, like thofe coxcomb birds, who were taught their parle and their Ζεὺς ἕλεως, but knew not what they fignified.

VER. 10. And yet-Men may be read, as well as

Books too much, &c.] The poet has here covertly defcrib'd a famous fyftem of a man of the world. the celebrated Maxims of M. de la Rochefoucault, which are one continued fatire on human Nature, and hold much of the ill language of the Parrot: The reason of the cenfure, our author's fyftem of human nature will explain,

To written Wifdom, as another's lefs:

Maxims are drawn from Notions, those from Guess. There's fome Peculiar in each leaf and grain,

15.

Some unmark'd fibre, or some varying vein :
Shall only Man be taken in the gross?
Grant but as many forts of Mind as Moss.
That each from other differs, first confess;
Next, that he varies from himself no less:
Add Nature's, Cuftom's, Reason's, Paffion's ftrife,
And all Opinion's colours caft on life.

Our depths who fathoms, or our fhallows finds,
Quick whirls, and shifting eddies, of our minds?
On human actions reason tho' you can,

It

may be Reason, but it is not Man :

NOTES.

VER. 22. And all Opinion's colours caft on life.] The poet refers here only to the effects: In the Eay

20

25

on Man he gives both the efficient and the final caufe: The First in the third Ep. 231.

E'er Wit oblique had broke that freddy light.
For oblique Wit is Opinion. The other, in the second
Ep. 283.

Mean-while Opinion gilds with varying rays
Thefe painted clouds that beautify our days, &c.

VER. 26. It may be Reafon, but it is not Man:] i. e. The Philofopher may invent a rational hypothefis that fhall account for the

[ocr errors]

appearances he would in. veftigate; and yet that bypothefis be all the while very wide of truth and the na ture of things.

His Principle of action once explore,

That inftant 'tis his Principle no more.
Like following life thro' creatures you diffect,
You lofe it in the moment you detect.

Yet more; the diff'rence is as great between
The optics feeing, as the objects feen.
All Manners take a tincture from our own;
Or come difcolour'd thro' our Paffions shown.
Or Fancy's beam enlarges, multiplies,
Contracts, inverts, and gives ten thousand dyes.
Nor will Life's stream for Obfervation stay,

It hurries all too faft to mark their

way:

In vain fedate reflections we wou'd make,

30

35

When half our knowledge we must snatch, not take.

Oft, in the Paffions' wild rotation toft,

41

Our spring of action to ourselves is loft:
Tir'd, not determin'd, to the laft we yield,
And what comes then is mafter of the field.

45

As the last image of that troubled heap,
When Senfe fubfides, and Fancy fports in fleep,
(Tho' past the recollection of the thought)
Becomes the stuff of which our dream is wrought:
Something as dim to our internal view,

Is thus, perhaps, the cause of most we do.

True, fome are open, and to all men known; Others fo very close, they're hid from none;

50

(So Darkness strikes the fenfe no less than Light)
Thus gracious CHANDOS is belov'd at fight;
And ev'ry child hates Shylock, tho' his foul
Still fits at fquat, and peeps not from its hole.
At half mankind when gen'rous Manly raves,
All know 'tis Virtue, for he thinks them knaves:
When univerfal homage Umbra pays,

All fee 'tis Vice, and itch of vulgar praise.

55

60

When Flatt'ry glares, all hate it in a Queen,
While one there is who charms us with his Spleen.
But these plain Characters we rarely find;
Tho' ftrong the bent, yet quick the turns of mind :
Or puzzling Contraries confound the whole;

Or Affectations quite reverse the soul.
The Dull, flat Falfhood ferves, for policy;
And in the Cunning, Truth itfelf's a lye:
Unthought-of Frailties cheat us in the Wife;
The Fool lies hid in inconfiftencies,

See the fame man, in vigour, in the gout;
Alone, in company; in place, or out;
Early at Bus'nefs, and at Hazard late ;
Mad at a Fox-chace, wife at a Debate;
Drunk at a Borough, civil at a Ball;
Friendly at Hackney, faithless at Whitehall.

Catius is ever moral, ever grave,

Thinks who endures a knave, is next a knave,

6.5

70

75

« ПретходнаНастави »