Through life 'tis follow'd, even at life's expense;
The merchant's toil, the sage's indolence,
The monk's humility, the hero's pride,

All, all alike, find reason on their side.

t

Th' Eternal Art educing good from ill, Grafts on this Passion our best principle: 'Tis thus the Mercury of Man is fix'd;

175

Strong grows the Virtue with his nature mix'd; The dross cements what else were too refin'd, And in one interest body acts with mind.

180

As fruits, ungrateful to the planter's care,
On savage stocks inserted, learn to bear;
The surest Virtues thus from Passions shoot,
Wild Nature's vigour working at the root.

What crops of wit and honesty appear
From spleen, from obstinacy, hate, or fear!

185

See anger, zeal and fortitude supply;

Ev'n avarice, prudence; sloth, philosophy;
Lust, through some certain strainers well refin'd,

Is gentle love, and charms all womankind;
Envy, to which the ignoble mind's a slave,

190

Is emulation in the learn'd or brave;

Nor Virtue, male or female, can we name,

But what will grow on pride, or grow on shame.

COMMENTARY.

now one common interest, the efforts of Virtue will have their force infinitely augmented:

"Tis thus the mercury," &c.

VARIATIONS.

After ver. 194. in the MS.

"How oft, with Passion, Virtue points her charms!
Then shines the Hero, then the Patriot warms.

Peleus'

Thus Nature gives us (let it check our pride) 195

The virtue nearest to our vice allied:
Reason the bias turns to good from ill,
And Nero reigns a Titus, if he will.

COMMENTARY.

Ver. 197. Reason the bias, &c.] But lest it should be objected that this account favours the doctrine of Necessity, and would insinuate that men are only acted upon, in the production of good out of evil; the Poet teacheth (from ver. 196 to 203.) that Man is a free agent, and hath it in his power to turn the natural passions into virtues or into vices, properly so called :

"Reason the bias turns to good from ill,
And Nero reigns a Titus, if he will."

Secondly, If it should be objected, that though he doth, indeed, tell us some actions are beneficial and some hurtful, yet he could not call those virtuous, nor these vicious, because, as he hath described things, the motive appears to be only the gratification of some passion; give me leave to answer for him, that this would be mistaking the argument, which (to ver. 249 of this Epistle) considers the passions only with regard to Society, that is, with regard to their effects rather than their motives: That, however, it

VARIATIONS.

Peleus' great son, or Brutus, who had known,
Had Lucrece been a whore, or Helen none ?
But Virtues opposite to make agree,

That, Reason! is thy task; and worthy thee.
Hard task, cries Bibulus, and Reason weak.
-Make it a point, dear Marquess! or a pique.
Once, for a whim, persuade yourself to pay
A debt to Reason, like a debt at play.
For right or wrong have mortals suffer'd more ?
B- for his Prince, or ** for his whore?
Whose self-denials Nature must control?
His, who would save a sixpence, or his soul?
Web for his health, a Chartreux for his sin,
Contend they not which soonest shall grow thin ?
What we resolve we can: but here's the fault,
We ne'er resolve to do the thing we ought. Warburton.

is

The fiery soul abhorr'd in Catiline,
In Decius charms, in Curtius is divine :
The same ambition can destroy or save,
And makes a patriot as it makes a knave.

This light and darkness in our chaos join'd,
What shall divide? The God within the mind.
Extremes in Nature equal ends produce;
In Man they join to some mysterious use;

COMMENTARY.

200

205

is his design to teach that actions are properly virtuous and vicious; and though it be difficult to distinguish genuine virtue from spurious, they having both the same appearance, and both the same public effects, yet that they may be disentangled. If it be asked, by what means? he replies (from ver. 202 to 205.) by Conscience;-the God within the mind; --and this is to the purpose; for it is a Man's own concern, and no one's else, to know whether his virtue be pure and solid; for what is it to others, whether this virtue (while, as to them, the effect of it is the same) be real or imaginary?

Ver. 205. Extremes in Nature equal ends produce, &c.] But still it will be said, Why all this difficulty to distinguish true virtue from false? The Poet shews why (from ver. 204 to 211.); That though indeed vice and virtue so invade each other's bounds, that sometimes we can scarce tell where one ends and the other begins, yet great purposes are served thereby, no less than the perfecting the constitution of the Whole, as lights and shades, which run into

NOTES.

one

Ver. 204. The God within the mind.] A Platonic phrase for CONSCIENCE; and here employed with great judgment and propriety. For conscience either signifies, speculatively, the judgment we pass of things upon whatever principles we chance to have, and then it is only Opinion, a very unable judge and divider ; or else it signifies, practically, the application of the eternal rule of right (received by us as the law of God) to the regulation of our actions; and then it is properly Conscience, the God (or the law of God) within the mind, of power to divide the light from the darkness in this Chaos of the passions. Warburton.

Tho' each by turns the other's bound invade,
As, in some well-wrought picture, light and shade,
And oft so mix, the diff'rence is too nice

Where ends the Virtue, or begins the Vice. 210
Fools! who from hence into the notion fall,

That Vice or Virtue there is none at all.
If white and black blend, soften, and unite
A thousand ways, is there no black or white?
Ask your own heart, and nothing is so plain; 215
'Tis to mistake them, costs the time and pain.
Vice is a monster of so frightful mien,

As, to be hated, needs but to be seen;

COMMENTARY.

one another insensibly in a well-wrought picture, make the harmony and spirit of the composition. But on this account to say there is neither vice nor virtue, the Poet shews (from ver. 210 to 217.) would be just as wise as to say, there is neither black nor white, because the shade of that, and the light of this, often run into one another, and are mutually lost :

"Ask your own heart, and nothing is so plain;
'Tis to mistake them, costs the time and pain."

This is an error of speculation, which leads men so foolishly to conclude, that there is neither vice nor virtue.

Ver. 217. Vice is a monster, &c.] There is another error, an error of practice, which hath more general and hurtful effects; and is next considered (from ver. 216 to 221.). It is this, that though, at the first aspect, Vice be so horrible as to fright the beholder, yet, when by habit we are once grown familiar with her, we first suffer, and in time begin to lose the memory of her nature; which necessarily implies an equal ignorance in the nature of Virtue. Hence men conclude, that there is neither one nor the other.

NOTES.

Ver. 217. Vice is a monster, &c.] "Hence we find," says that amiable moralist, Hutcheson, "that the basest actions are dressed Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face,

We first endure, then pity, then embrace.

220

But where th' extreme of Vice, was ne'er agreed: Ask where's the North? at York, 'tis on the Tweed;

In Scotland, at the Orcades; and there,

225

At Greenland, Zembla, or the Lord knows where.
No creature owns it in the first degree,
But thinks his neighbour farther gone than he;
Ev'n those who dwell beneath its very zone,
Or never feel the rage, or never own;

COMMENTARY.

Ver. 221. But where th' extreme of Vice, &c.] But it is not only that extreme of Vice which stands next to Virtue, which betrays us into these mistakes. We are deceived too, as he shews us (from ver. 220 to 231.) by our observations concerning the other extreme. For, from the extreme of Vice being unsettled, Men conclude that Vice itself is only nominal, at least rather comparative than real.

NOTES.

in some tolerable mask :"-" What others call avarice, appears to the agent a prudent care of a family or friends; fraud, artful conduct; malice and revenge, a just sense of honour; fire and sword, and desolation among enemies, a just thorough defence of our country; persecution, a zeal for truth, and for the eternal happiness of men, which heretics oppose." Warton.

VARIATIONS.

After ver. 220. in the first Edition, followed these :

A cheat! a whore! who starts not at the name,
In all the Inns of Court or Drury-lane?

After ver. 226. in the MS.

The Col'nel swears the Agent is a dog,
The Scriv'ner vows th' Attorney is a rogue.
Against the Thief, th' Attorney loud inveighs,
For whose ten pound the County twenty pays.
The Thief damns Judges, and the knaves of State;
And dying, mourns small villains hang'd by great.

Warburton.