As fruits, ungrateful to the planter's care,
On favage ftocks inferted, learn to bear;
The fureft Virtues thus from Paffions shoot,
Wild Nature's vigour working at the root.
What crops of wit and honesty appear
185
From spleen, from obftinacy, hate, or fear!
See anger, zeal and fortitude fupply;

Ev'n av'rice, prudence; floth, philosophy;
Luft, thro' fome certain ftrainers well refin'd,
Is gentle love, and charms all womankind; 190
Envy, to which th' ignoble mind's a slave,
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. Thus Nature gives us (let it check our pride) The virtue nearest to our vice ally'd:

VARIATIONS.

After Ver. 194 in the MS.

How oft, with Paffion, Virtue points her charms!
Then fhines the Hero, then the Patriot warms.
Peleus' great Son, or Brutus, who had known,
Had Lucrece been a Whore, or Helen none?
But Virtues opposite to make agree,

That, Reafon! is thy tafk; and worthy Thee.
Hard task, cries Bibulus, and Reason weak.
-Make it a point, dear Marquefs! or a pique.
Once, for a whim, perfuade yourself to pay
A debt to Reafon, like a debt at play.

For right or wrong have mortals fuffer'd more?
B- for his Prince, or ** for his Whore?

196

Reason the byas turns to good from ill,
And Nero reigns a Titus, if he will.
The fiery foul abhorr'd in Catiline,

In Decius charms, in Curtius is divine:
The fame ambition can deftroy or fave,
And makes a patriot as it makes a knave.

VARIATIONS.

Whofe felf-denials Nature moft controul?
His, who would fave a Sixpence or his Soul?
Web for his health, a Chartreux for his Sin,
Contend they not which fooneft fhall grow thin?
What we refolve, we can: but here's the fault,
We ne'er refolve to do the thing we ought.

COMMENTARY.

200

VER. 197. Reafon the byas, &c.] But left it fhould be objected that this account favours the doctrine of Neceffity, and would infinuate 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 paffions into virtues or into vices, properly fo called :

"Reason the byas turns to good from ill,

"And Nero reigns a Titus, if he will."

Secondly, if it should be objected, that tho' he doth, indeed, tell us fome actions are beneficial and fome hurtful, yet he could not call thofe virtuous, nor thefe vicious, because, as he hath defcribed things, the motive appears to be only the gratification of fome paffion; give me leave to anfwer for him, that this would be miftaking the argument, which (to Ver. 249 of this epistle) confiders the paffions only with regard to Society, that is, with regard to their effects rather than their mctives: That, however, it is his defign to teach that actions are properly virtuous and vicious; and though it be difficult to distinguish genuine virtue from spurious, they having both the

This light and darkness in our chaos join'd, What shall divide? The God within the mind. Extremes in Nature equal ends produce, 205 In Man they join to fome mysterious use ;

COMMENTARY.

fame appearance, and both the fame public effects, yet that they may be difentangled. If it be asked, by what means? He replies (from Ver. 202 to 205) by confcience and this is to the purpose; for it is a Man's own concern alone to know whether his virtue be pure and folid; for what is it to others, whether this virtue (while, as to them, the effect of it is the fame) be real or imaginary?

VER. 205. Extremes in Nature equal ends produce, &c.] But ftill it will be faid, Why all this difficulty to diftinguish true virtue from falfe? The Poet fhews why (from Ver. 204 to 211) That though indeed vice and virtue fo invade each other's bounds, that fometimes we [can scarce tell where one ends and the other begins, yet great purposes are ferved thereby, no lefs than the perfecting the conftitution of the Whole, as lights and fhades, which run into one another in a well-wrought picture, make the harmony and spirit of the compofition. But on this account to fay there is neither

NOTES.

VER. 204. The God within the mind.] A Platonic phrafe for CONSCIENCE; and here employed with great judgment and propriety. For Confcience either fignifies, fpeculatively, the judgment we pafs of things upon whatever principles we chance to have; and then it is only Opinion, a very unable judge and divider; or else it fignifies, 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 Confcience, the God (or the law of God) within the mind, of power to divide the light from the darkness in this Chaos of the paffions.

Tho' each by turns the other's bound invade,

As, in fome well-wrought picture, light and shade,
And oft fo 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, foften, and unite
A thousand ways, is there no black or white?
Afk 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.

vice nor virtue, the Poet fhews (from Ver. 210 to 217) would be just as wife as to fay, there is neither black nor white; because the fhade of that, and the light of this, often run into one another;

"Ask your own heart, and nothing is so plain;

"'Tis to mistake them, cofts the time and pain."

This is an error of fpeculation, which leads Men fo 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 confidered (from Ver. 216 to 221.) It is this, that though, at the first aspect, Vice be fo 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 neceffarily implies an equal ignorance in the nature of Virtue. Hence men conclude, that there is neither one nor the other.

Yet feen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace.

220

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

In Scotland, at the Orcades; and there,

225

than he;

At Greenland, Zembla, or the Lord knows where.
No creature owns it in the first degree,
But thinks his neighbour further gone
Ev'n those who dwell beneath its very zone,
Or never feel the rage, or never own;
What happier natures fhrink at with affright,
The hard inhabitant contends is right.

VARIATIONS.

After Ver. 220. in the 1ft Edition, followed thefe,
A Cheat! a Whore! who ftarts not at the name,
In all the Inns of Court or Drury-lane?
After Ver. 226. in the MS.

The Col'nel fwears 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 fmall Villains hang'd by great.

COMMENTARY.

230

VER. 221. But where th' Extreme of Vice, &c.] But it is not only that extreme of Vice which ftands next to Virtue, which betrays us into these mistakes. We are deceived too, as he fhews us, (from Ver. 220 to 231) by our observations concerning the other extreme: For from the extreme of