We prize the ftronger effort of his pow'r,
And justly fet the Gem above the Flow'r.

"Tis Education forms the common mind,

Juft as the Twig is bent, the Tree's inclin'd. 150
Boaftful and rough, your first fon is a 'Squire;
The next a Tradesman, meek, and much a lyar;
Tom struts a foldier, open, bold, and brave;
Will fneaks a Scriv'ner, an exceeding knave:
Is he a Churchman? then he's fond of pow'r :
A Quaker? fly: A Presbyterian? fow'r
A smart Free-thinker? all things in an hour.

well;

Ask mens Opinions: Scoto now fall tell How Trade increases, and the world goes Strike off his Penfion, by the fetting fun, And Britain, if not Europe, is undone.

That gay Free-thinker, a fine talker once, What turns him now a ftupid filent dunce? Some God, or Spirit he has lately found; Ör chanc'd to meet a Minister that frown'd. Judge we by Nature? Habit can efface, Int'reft o'ercome, or Policy take place :

154

160

165

VER. 164, 165. Some God, or Spirit he has lately found; Or chanc'd to meet a Minifter that frown'd.] Difafters the most unlook'd for, as they were what the Free-thinker's Speculations and Practice were principally directed to avoid. The poet Here alludes to the ancient claffical opinion, that the fudden vifion of a God was fuppofed to ftrike the irreverend ob ferver speechless. He has only a little extended the conceit, and fuppofed, that the terrors of a Court-God might have the like effect on a very devoted worshipper.

By Actions? thofe Uncertainty divides:

170

By Paffions? thefe Diffimulation hides :
Opinions? they still take a wider range :
Find, if you can, in what you cannot change.
Manners with Fortunes, Humours turn with
Climes,

176

Tenets with Books, and Principles with Times.
Search then the RULING PASSION: There alone,
The Wild are conftant, and the Cunning known;
The Fool confiftent, and the Falfe fincere ;
Priefts, Princes, Women, no diffemblers here.
This clue once found, unravels all the reft,
The prospect clears, and Wharton ftands confeft.
Wharton, the scorn and wonder of our days,
Whofe ruling Paffion was the Luft of Praise :

180

VER. 172, 173. Manners with Fortunes, Humours turn with Climes, Tenets with Books, and Principles with Times.] The poet had hitherto reckoned up the feveral fimple causes that hinder our knowledge of the natural characters of men. In these two fine lines he describes the complicated causes. Humours bear the fame relation to Manners, that Principles do to Tenets; that is, the former are modes of the latter; our Manners (says the Poet) are warped from nature by our Fortunes or Stations; our Tenets, by our Books or Profeffions; and then each drawn ftill more oblique, into bumour and political principles, by the temperature of the climate, and the constitution of the govern

ment.

VER. 174. Search then the ruling Paffion:] See Effay on Man, Ep. i. ver. 133. et feq.

VER. 181. The Luft of Praife:] This very well expreffes the groffness of his appetite for it; where the ftrength of the Paffion had destroyed ail the delicacy of the Senfation.

Born with whate'er could win it from the Wife,
Women and Fools must like him or he dies;
Tho' wond'ring Senates hung on all he spoke,
The Club muft hail him master of the joke.
Shall parts fo various aim at nothing new?
He'll fhine a Tully and a Wilmot too.
Then turns repentant, and his God adores
With the fame spirit that he drinks and whores;
Enough if all around him but admire,

And now the Punk applaud, and now the Frier.
Thus with each gift of nature and of art,
And wanting nothing but an honeft heart;
Grown all to all, from no one vice exempt;
And most contemptible, to fhun contempt;
His Paffion ftill to covet gen'ral praise,
His Life, to forfeit it a thousand ways;
A conftant Bounty which no friend has made;
An angel Tongue, which no man can perfuade;
A Fool, with more of Wit than half mankind,
Too rafh for Thought, for Action too refin'd:

185

190

195

200

VER. 187. John Wilmot, E. of Rochester, famous for his Wit and Extravagancies in the time of Charles II,

VER. 189. With the fame spirit] Spirit, for principle, not paffion.

VER. 200. A Fool, with more of Wit] Folly, joined with much Wit, produces that behaviour which we call Abfurdity; and this abfurdity the poet has here admirably defcribed in the words,

Too rash for Thought, for Action too refin'd.

A Tyrant to the wife his heart approves ;
A Rebel to the very king he loves ;

205

He dies, fad out-caft of each church and state,
And, harder still! flagitious, yet not great.
Ask you why Wharton broke thro' ev'ry rule?
"Twas all for fear the Knaves fhould call him Fool.

Nature well known, no prodigies remain;

Comets are regular, and Wharton plain.

by which we are made to understand, that the perfon de fcribed gave a loofe to his Fancy when he fhould have used his Judgment; and purfued his Speculations when he should have trufted to his Experience.

VER. 207. 'Twas all for fear, etc.] To understand this, we must observe, that the Luft of general praise made the perfon, whose character is here fo admirably drawn, both extravagant and flagitious; his Madness was to please the Fools,

Women and Fools must like him, or he dies.

And his Crimes to avoid the cenfure of the Knaves,

"Twas all for fear the Knaves fhould call him Fool.

Prudence and Honefty being the two qualities that Fools and Knaves are most interested, and confequently most industrious to misrepresent.

VER. 209. Comets are regular, and Wharton plain.] This illustration has an exquifite beauty, arifing from the exact

VARIATIONS.

In the former Editions, ver. 208.

Nature well known, no Miracles remain.

Altered, as above, for very obvious reafons.

Yet, in this fearch, the wifeft may mistake,
If fecond qualities for firft they take.

When Catiline by rapine fwell'd his ftore;
When Cæfar made a noble dame a whore ;
In this the Luft, in that the Avarice

210

Were means, not ends; Ambition was the vice. 215
That very Cæfar born in Scipio's days,
Had aim'd like him, by Chastity, at praife.
Lucullus, when Frugality could charm,

Had roafted turnips in the Sabin farm.

nels of the analogy: For, as the appearance of irregularity, in a Comet's motion, is occafioned by the greatness of the force which pushes it round a very eccentric orb; fo it is the violence of the Ruling Paffion, that, impatient for its object, in the impetuofity of its courfe towards it, is frequently hurried to an immenfe diftance from it, which occafions all that puzzling inconsistency of conduct we observe in it.

VER. 213

--

A noble Dame a whore; ] The fifter of Cato, and mother of Brutus.

VER. 215. Ambition was the vice.] Pride, Vanity, and Am✩ bition are fuch bordering and neighbouring vices, and hold fo much in common, that we generally find them going together, and therefore, as generally mistake them for one another. This does not a little contribute to our confounding Characters; for they are, in reality, very different and diftinct; fo much fo, that 'tis remarkable, the three greatest Men in Rome, and contemporaries, poffeffed each of these feparately, without the least mixture of the other two: The Men I mean were Cæfar, Cato, and Cicero: For Cæfar had Ambition without either vanity or pride; Cato had Pride without ambition or vanity; and Cicero had Vanity without pride or ambition.

VOL. III.

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