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Wits, juft like Fools, at war about a name, 85
Have full as oft no meaning, or the fame.
Self-love and Reason to one end aspire,
Pain their averfion, Pleasure their desire ;
But greedy That, its object would devour,
This taste the honey, and not wound the flow'r:
Pleasure, or wrong or rightly understood,

Our greatest evil, or our greatest good.

91

III. Modes of Self-love the Paffions we may

call:

'Tis real good, or feeming, moves them all :

But fince not ev'ry good we can divide,
And reafon bids us for our own provide;

VARIATIONS.

After Ver. 86. in the MS.

Of good and evil Gods what frighted Fools,
Of good and evil Reason puzzled schools,
Deceiv'd, deceiving, taught-

COMMENTARY.

95

him, of fome of the more ancient theistical Philofophers. It was of importance, therefore, to reprobrate and fubvert a notion that ferved to the fupport of fo dangerous an error: And this the Poet hath done with much force and clearness.

VER. 93. Modes of Self-love, &c.] Having given this account of the nature of Self-love in general, he comes now to anatomize it, in a difcourfe on the PASSIONS, which he aptly names the modes of Self-love. The object of all thefe, he fhews (from Ver. 92 to 101.) is good; and, when under the guidance of Reafon, real good, either of ourfelves or of another; for fome goods not being capable of divifion, or communication, and

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Paffions, tho' felfish, if their means be fair,
Lift under Reason, and deserve her care;
Thofe, that imparted, court a nobler aim,
Exalt their kind, and take fome Virtue's

name.

In lazy Apathy let Stoics boaft

Their Virtue fix'd; 'tis fix'd as in a froft;
Contracted all, retiring to the breast;

100

But strength of mind is Exercise, not Rest:
The rifing tempeft puts in act the foul,
Parts it may ravage, but preferves the whole.
On life's vaft ocean diverfely we fail,

Reason the card, but paffion is the gale;

VARIATION S.

After Ver. 108, in the MS.

A tedious Voyage! where how useless lies
The compass, if no pow'rful gufts arise?

COMMENTARY.

105

Reafon at the fame time directing us to provide for ourselves, we therefore, in purfuit of these objects, fometimes aim at our own good, fometimes at the good of others: when fairly aiming at our own, the quality is called Prudence; when at another's, Virtue.

Hence (as he fhews from Ver. 100 to 105.) appears the folly of the Stoics, who would eradicate the Paffions, things fo neceffary both to the good of the Individual and of the Kind. Which prepofterous method of promoting Virtue he therefore very reasonably reproves.

VER. 105. The rifing tempeft puts in at the foul,] But as it was from obfervation of the evils occafioned by the paffions,

109

the wind.

Nor God alone in the ftill calm we find,

He mounts the ftorm, and walks

COMMENTAR Y.

upon

that the Stoics thus extravagantly projected their extirpation, the Poet recurs (from Ver. 104 to 111.) to his grand principle fo often before, and to so good purpose, insisted on, that partial Ill is univerfal Good; and fhews, that though the tempeft of the Paffions, like that of the air, may tear and ravage fome few parts of nature in its paffage, yet the falutary agitation produced by it preferves the whole in life and vigour. This is his first argument against the Stoics, which he illuftrates by a very beautiful fimilitude, on a hint taken from Scripture:

"Nor God alone in the still calm we find,

"He mounts the storm, and walks upon the wind."

NOTES.

VER. 109. Nor God alone in the ftill calm we find,
He mounts the storm, and walks upon the wind.]

The Tranflator turns it thus,

"Dieu lui-même, Dieu fort de fon profond repos."

And fo, makes an Epicurcan God, of the Governor of the Universe. M. De Croufaz does not fpare this expreffion of God's coming out of his profound repose. "It is, fays he, ex"ceffively poetical, and prefents us with ideas which we "ought not to dwell upon," &c. Comm. p. 158.

VER. 109. Nor God alone, &c.] These words are only a fimple affirmation in the poetic drefs of a fimilitude, to this purpose: Good is not only produced by the fubdual of the Paffions, but by the turbulent exercife of them. A truth conveyed under the most fublime imagery that poetry could conceive or paint. For the author is here only fhewing the providential iffue of the Paffions; and how, by God's gracious difpofition, they are turned away from their natural deftructive bias, to promote the Happinefs of Mankind. As to the method in which they are to be treated by Man, in whom they are found, all that he contends for, in favour of them, is only this, that they should not be quite rooted up

Paffions, like elements, tho' born to fight, Yet, mix'd and foften'd, in his work unite: These 'tis enough to temper and employ; But what composes Man, can Man destroy?

VARIATIONS.

After Ver. 112. in the MS.

The foft reward the virtuous, or invite;
The fierce, the vicious punish or affright.

COMMENTARY.

VER. 111. Paffions, like elements, &c.] His fecond argument against the Stoics (from Ver. 110 to 133.) is, that Paffions go to the compofition of a moral character, just as elementary particles go to the compofition of an organized body: Therefore, for Man to project the deftruction of what compofes his very Being, is the height of extravagance. 'Tis true, he tells us, that thefe Paffions, which in their natural state, like elements, are in perpetual jar, must be tempered, foftened, and united, in order to perfect the work of the great plastic Artist; who, in this office, employs human Reafon; whofe business it is to follow the road of Nature, and to obferve the dictates of the Deity;-Follow her and God. The use and importance of this precept is evident: For in doing the first, she will discover the abfurdity of attempting to eradicate the Paffions; in doing the fecond, fhe will learn how to make them fubfervient to the interests of Virtue.

NOTES.

and destroyed, as the Stoics, and their followers, in all Religions, foolishly attempted. For the reft, he constantly repeats this advice,

"The action of the stronger to fufpend, "Reason ftill ufe, to Reafon ftill attend."

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115

Suffice that Reafon keep to Nature's road,
Subject, compound them, follow her and God.
Love, Hope, and Joy, fair pleasure's smiling train,
Hate, Fear, and Grief, the family of pain,
These mix'd with art, and to due bounds confin'd,
Make and maintain the balance of the mind: 120
The lights and shades, whose well accorded ftrife
Gives all the ftrength and colour of our life.
Pleasures are ever in our hands or eyes;

And when, in act, they scafe, in prospect, rife:
Present to grasp, and future still to find,

125

The whole employ of body and of mind.
All spread their charms, but charm not all alike;
On diff'rent fenfes diff'rent objects strike;

COMMENTARY.

VER. 123. Pleasures are ever in our hands or eyes;] His third argument against the Stoics (from Ver. 122 to 127.) is, that the Paffions are a continual fpur to the purfuit of Happinefs; which, without thefe powerful inciters, we should neglect; and fink into a fenfelefs indolence. Now Happiness is the end of our creation; and this excitement, the means of Happiness; therefore, these movers, the Paffions, are the inftruments of God, which he hath put into the hands of Reason to work withal.

VER. 127. All Spread their charms, &c.] The Poet now proceeds in his fubject; and this laft obfervation leads him naturally to the difcuffion of his next principle. He fhews then, that though all the Paffions have their turn in fwaying the determinations of the mind, yet every Man hath one MASTER PASSION that at length ftifles or absorbs all the rest. The fact he illuftrates at large in his epiftle to Lord Cobham

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