OTH

Twin'd with the wreaths Parnaffian lawrels yield, Or reap'd in iron harvefts of the field?

Where grows?-where grows it not? If vain our toil,
We ought to blame the culture, not the foil:
Fix'd to no fpot is happiness fincere,

"Tis no where to be found, or ev'ry where :
"Tis never to be bought, but always free,

15

And fled from monarchs, ST. JOHN! dwells with thee. Afk of the Learn'd the way? The Learn'd are

blind;

This bids to ferve, and that to fhun mankind, 20 Some place the blifs in action, fome in ease,

Those call it Pleasure, and Contentment thefe ;

VER. 21. Some place the bliss in action,-Some funk to beafts, etc.] 1. Those who place Happiness, or the fummum bonum, in Pleasure, 'Hoovn, fuch as the Cyrenaic fect, called on that account the Hedonic. 2. Those who place it in a certain tranquillity or calmnefs of Mind, which they call Etvuía, such as the Democritic fect. 3. The Epicurean. 4. The Stoic. 5. The Protagorean, which held that Man was πάντων χρημάτων Mergov, the measure of all things; for that all things which appear to him are, and thofe things which appear not to any Man are not; fo that every imagination or opinion of every man was true, 6. The Sceptic: Whofe abfolute Doubt is with great judgment faid to be the effect of Indolence, as well as the abfolute Truft of the Protagorean: For the fame dread of labour attending the fearch of truth, which makes the Protagorean prefume it to be always at hand, makes the Sceptic conclude it is never to be found. The only difference is, that the laziness of the one is defponding, and the laziness of the other fanguine; yet both can give it a good name, and call it Happiness.

Some funk to Beafts, find pleasure end in pain; Some fwell'd to Gods, confefs ev'n Virtue vain; Or indolent, to each extreme they fall,

To truft in ev'ry thing, or doubt of all.

Who thus define it, fay they more or lefs Than this, that Happiness is Happiness ?

25

Take Nature's path, and mad Opinion's leave; All states can reach it, and all heads conceive; 30 Obvious her goods, in no extreme they dwell; There needs but thinking right, and meaning well; And mourn our various portions as we please, Equal is Common Senfe, and Common Ease.

Remember, Man," the Universal Caufe "Acts not by partial, but by gen'ral laws;" And makes what Happiness we juftly call Subfift not in the good of one, but all. There's not a bleffing Individuals find,

35

But fome way leans and hearkens to the kind: 49
No Bandit fierce, no Tyrant mad with pride,
No cavern'd Hermit, refts felf-fatisfy'd:
Who most to shun or hate Mankind pretend,
Seek an admirer, or would fix a friend :
Abstract what others feel, what others think, 45
All pleasures ficken, and all glories fink:

VER. 23. Some funk to Beafts, etc.] These four lines added in the laft Edition, as neceffary to complete the fummary of the falfe pursuits after happiness amongst the Greek philofophers.

Each has his share; and who would more obtain, Shall find, the pleasure pays not half the pain.

ORDER is Heav'n's first law; and this confeft,

50

Some are, and must be, greater than the rest, More rich, more wife; but who infers from hence That fuch are happier, fhocks all common sense. Heav'n to Mankind impartial we confefs,

If all are equal in their Happiness:

But mutual wants this Happiness increase;
All Nature's diff'rence keeps all Nature's peace.
Condition, circumftance is not the thing;

Blifs is the fame in fubje&t or in king,
In who obtain defence, or who defend,

55

In him who is, or him who finds a friend:

Heav'n breathes thro' ev'ry member of the whole
One common blefling, as one common foul.
But Fortune's gifis if each alike possest,
And each were equal, muft not all contest?

If then to all Men Happiness was meant,
God in Externals could not place Content.

Say not," Heav'n's here profufe, there poorly faves,
"And for one Monarch makes a thousand flaves."
You'll find, when Caufes and their Ends are known,
'Twas for the thoufand Heav'n has made that one.

After 66. in the MS.

'Tis peace of mind alone is at a stay:

The reft mad Fortune gives or takes away.

60

65

Fortune her gifts may variously dispose, And these be happy call'd, unhappy thofe ; But Heav'n's juft balance equal will appear, While thofe are plac'd in Hope, and these in Fear : Not prefent good or ill, the joy or curfe,

But future views of better, or of worse.

Oh fons of earth! attempt ye ftill to rife,

71

By mountains pil'd on mountains, to the skies?
Heav'n ftill with laughter the vain toil furveys, 75
And buries madmen in the heaps they raife.
Know, all the good that individuals find,
Or God and Nature meant to mere Mankind,
Reafon's whole pleafure, all the joys of Senfe,
Lie in three words, Health, Peace, and Competence.
But Health confifts with Temperance alone;
And Peace, oh Virtue! Peace is all thy own.
The good or bad the gifts of Fortune gain;
But these less tafte them, as they worfe obtain.
Say, in pursuit of profit or delight,

81

85

Who risk the moft, that take wrong means, or right?
Of Vice or Virtue, whether bleft or curft,
Which meets contempt, or which compaffion firft?
Count all th' advantage profp'rous Vice attains,
'Tis but what Virtue flies from and difdains : 90

VARIATIONS.

All other blifs by accident's debar'd;
But Virtue's, in the inftant, a reward;
In hardest trials operates the best,
And more is relifh'd as the more diftreft