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III.

Search then the RULING PASSION: There,

alone,

The Wild are conftant, and the Cunning known;
The Fool confiftent, and the Falfe fincere; 176
Priests, Princes, Women, no diffemblers here.
This clue once found, unravels all the rest,
The profpect clears, and WHARTON ftands
confeft.

Wharton, the fcorn and wonder of our days, 180
Whose Ruling Paffion was the Luft of Praise :

COMMENTARY.

III.

VER. 174. Search then the Ruling Paffion: &c.] And now we enter on the third and last part; which treats of the right means of furmounting the difficulties in coming to the knowledge and characters of men: This the Poet fhews, is by inveftigating the RULING PASSION; of whofe origin and nature we may find an exact account in the fecond Epistle of the Effay on Man. This Principle he rightly obferves (from Ver. 173 to 180.) is the clue which must guide us through all the intricacies in the ways of men: To convince us of this, he applies it (from Ver. 179 to 210.) to the most wild and inconfiftent Character that ever was; which (when drawn out at length, as we here find it, in a fpirit of poetry as rare as the Character itself) we fee, this Principle unravels, and renders throughout of one plain confiftent thread.

NOTES.

VER. 174. Search then the Ruling Paffion:] See Effay on Man, Ep. ii. Ver. 133, & feq.

VER. 177. Priefts, Princes, Women, &c.] Infinuating that one common principle, the pursuit of Power, gives a conformity of conduct to the most distant and different characters.

VER. 181. the Luft of Praife.] This very well expreffes the groffness of his appetite for it; where the ftrength of the paffion had deftroyed all the delicacy of the fenfation,

185

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 must hail him master of the joke.
Shall parts
fo various aim at nothing new?
He'll shine a Tully and a Wilmot too.
Then turns repentant, and his God adores
With the same spirit that he drinks and whores;
Enough, if all around him but admire,
190
And now the Punk applaud, and now the Fryer.
Thus with each gift of nature and of art,
And wanting nothing but an honest heart;
Grown all to all, from no one vice exempt;
And most contemptible to fhun contempt; 195

NOTES.

VER. 187. John Wilmot, Earl of Rochefter, famous for his Wit and Extravagancies in the time of Charles the Second. VER. 189. With the fame fpirit] Spirit for principle, not paffion.

VER. 190. Enough, if all around him but admire, &c.] What an able French Writer obferves of Alcibiades may be justly applied to this nobleman. "Ce n'étoit pas un ambi"tieux, mais un homme vain, qui vouloit fair du bruit, et "occuper les Atheniens. Il avoit l'efprit d' un grand homme; "mais fon ame, dont les refforts amollis étoient devenus in"capables d'une application conftante, ne pouvoit s' elever "au grand, que par boutade. J'ai bien de la peine à croire,

qu'un homme affez fouple, pour être à Sparte auffi dur & "auffi févère, qu'un Spartiate; dans l'Ionie auffi recherché "dans fes plaifirs qu'un Ionien, &c. fût propre à faire un grand homme."

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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, 200
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;

He dies, fad out-caft of each church and state,
And, harder still! flagitious, yet not great. 205
Ask you why Wharton broke thro' ev'ry rule?
"Twas all for fear the Knaves fhould call him Fool.

NOTES.

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 described in the words,

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

by which we are given to understand, that the perfon defcribed, indulged his fancy when he fhould have used his judgment; and purfued his fpeculations when he fhould have trufted to his experience.

VER. 205. And, harder ftill! flagitious, yet not great.] To arrive at what the world calls GREATNESS, a wicked man must either hide and conceal his vices, or he must openly and fteddily practise them in the pursuit and attainment of one important end. This unhappy nobleman did neither.

VER. 207. 'Twas all for fear, &c.] To understand this, we must observe, that the luft of general praife made the perfon, whose character is here fo admirably drawn, both extras vagant and flagitious; his madness was to please the fools,

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Nature well known, no prodigies remain, Comets are regular, and WHARTON plain. Yet, in this fearch, the wifeft may mistake, If fecond qualities for firft they take.

VARIATION S.

In the former Editions, Ver. 208.

"Nature well known, no Miracles remain.” Altered as above, for very obvious reafons.

COMMENTARY.

211

VER. 210. Yet, in this fearch, &c.] But here (from Ver. 209 to 222.) he gives one very neceffary caution, that, in developing the Ruling Paffion, we must be careful not to miftake a fubfidiary paffion for the principal; which, without great attention, we may be very liable to do; as the fubfidiary, acting in fupport of the principal, has frequently all its vigour and much of its perfeverance: This error has milled feveral both of the antient and modern hiftorians; as when they fuppofed luft and luxury to be characteristics of Cæfar and Lu

NOTES.

"Women and Fools muft 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 which fools and knaves are moft interefted, and confequently moft industrious, to mifreprefent.

VER. 209. Comets are regular, and Wharton plain.] This illuftration has an exquifite beauty, arifing from the exactness of the analogy: For, as the appearance of irregularity, in a COMET's motion, is occafioned by the greatnefs of the force which pushes it round a very eccentric orb; fo it is the violence of the RULING PASSION, which, impatient for its ob

When Catiline by rapine fwell'd his store ;
When Cæfar made a noble dame a whore ;
In this the Luft, in that the Avarice
Were means, not ends; Ambition was the vice.

COMMENTARY.

cullus; whereas, in truth, the Ruling Paffion of both was ambition; which is fo certain, that, at whatsoever different time of the Republic these men had lived, their ambition, as the Ruling Paffion, had been the fame; but a different time had changed their fubfidiary ones of luft and luxury, into their very oppofites of chastity and frugality. "Tis in vain, therefore, fays our Author, for the obferver of human nature to fix his attention on the workman, if he all the while miftakes the fcaffold for the building.

NOTES.

ject, in the impetuofity of its course towards it, is frequently hurried to an immense distance from it; and this it is which occafions all that puzzling inconfiftency of conduct, we obferve 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 Ambition 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 it is remarkable, the three greatest men in Rome, and cotemporaries, poffeffed each of these paffions feparately, with very little 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.

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