By Actions? thofe Uncertainty divides: 179 By Paffions? these Diffimulation hides: Climes, Tenets with Books, and Principles with Times. COMMENTARY. gone through the mistakes both of the Philofopher and Man of the world, feparately, turns now to both; and (from 165 to 174) jointly addrefles them in a recapitulation of his reafoning against each: He fhews, that if we pretend to develope the Character by the natural difpofition in general, we fhall find it extremely difficult, because this is often effaced by Habit, overswayed by Intereft, and fufpended by Policy.-If by Actions, their contrariety will leave us in utter doubt and uncertainty.-If by Paffions, we fhall be perpetually misled by the mask of Dissimulation.-If by Opinions, all these concur together to perplex the enquiry. Shew us, then, fays he, in the whole range of your Philofophy and Experience, the thing we can be certain of: For (to fum up all in a word) Manners with Fortunes, Humours turn with Climes, We must seek therefore fome other road to the point we aim at. NOTES. lefs. 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. SCRIBL. 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 defcribes 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 4 Search then the RULING PASSION: There, alone, The Wild are conftant, and the Cunning known; The Fool confiftent, and the False fincere; 176 Priefts, 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 : Born with whate'er could win it from the Wife, Women and Fools must like him or he dies; COMMENTARY. 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 investigat ing the RULING PASSION: of whofe origin and nature we may find an exact account in the second Ep. of the Essay on Man. This Principle he rightly obferves (from 173 to 180) is the clue that must guide us thro' all the intricacies in the ways of men: To convince us of which, he applies it (from ✯ 179 to 210) to the most wild and inconfiftent Character that ever was; which (when drawn out at length, 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. (fays 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 humour and political principles, by the temperature of the climate, and the conftitution of the government. VER. 174. Search then the Ruling Paffion:] See Effay on Man, Ep. ii. 133. & feq. VER. 181. The Luft of Praife:] This very well expreffès Tho' wond'ring Senates hung on all he spoke, Then turns repentant, and his God adores 190 And now the Punk applaud, and now the Fryer. A conftant Bounty which no friend has made; NOTES. the groffness of his appetite for it; where the ftrength of the Paffion had deftroyed all the delicacy of the Senfation. VER. 187. John Wilmot, E. of Rochefter, famous for his Wit and Extravagancies in the time of Charles the Second. P. VER. 189. With the fame fpirit] Spirit, for principle, not paffion. VER. 200. A Fool, with more of Wit] Folly, join'd with much Wit, produces that behaviour which we call Abfurdity; and this Abfurdity the poet has here admirably defcribed in the words, Too rafh for Thought, for Action too refin'd. A Tyrant to the wife his heart approves; He dies, fad out-caft of each church and state, 'Twas all for fear the Knaves fhould call him Fool. Nature well known, no prodigies remain, Comets are regular, and Wharton plain. Nature well known, no Miracles remain. Alter'd, as above, for very obvious reasons, NOTES. by which we are made to underftand, that the perfon defcribed gave a loose to his Fancy when he fhould have used his Judg ment; and pursued his Speculations when he fhould have trufted to his Experience. VER. 205. And, harder fill! flagitious, yet not great.) To arrive at what the world calls Greatness, a man muft either hide and conceal his vices, or he muft openly and fteddily practife them, in the purfuit and attainment of one important end. This unhappy nobleman did neither. VER. 207. 'Twas all for fear &c.] To understand this, we muft obferve, that the Luft of general praise made the person, whofe Character is here fo admirably drawn, both extravagant and flagitious; his Madness was to please the Fools, 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 Honefly being the two qualities that Fools and Knaves are moft interefted, and confequently moft industrious, to misreprefent. VER. 209. Comets are regular, and Wharton plain.]. This Yet, in this fearch, the wifeft may mistake, 210 If fecond qualities for firft they take. When Catiline by rapine fwell'd his store; 214 In this the Luft, in that the Avarice COMMENTARY. VER. 210. Yet, in this fearch, &c.] But here (from 209 to 222) he gives one very neceffary caution, that, in developing the Ruling Paffion, we must be careful not to mistake 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 mifled feveral both of the ancient and modern hiftorians; as when they fuppofed Luft and Luxury to be Characteristics of Cefar and Lucullus; 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 NOTES. 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 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 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 |