If all, united, thy ambition call, 285 From ancient story, learn to fcorn them all. There, in the rich, the honour'd, fam'd, and great, See the false scale of Happiness complete! 290 In hearts of Kings, or arms of Queens who lay, How happy those to ruin, these betray. Mark by what wretched steps their glory grows, From dirt and fea-weed as proud Venice rose? In each how guilt and greatness equal ran, And all that rais'd the Hero, funk the Man: Now Europe's laurels on their brows behold, 295 But ftain'd with blood, or ill exchang'd for gold: Then fee them broke with toils, or funk in cafe, Or infamous for plunder'd provinces. Oh wealth ill-fated! which no act of fame E'er taught to fhine, or fanctify'd from fhame! 300 The trophy'd arches, story'd halls invade, 305 "THIS (faid the perfon who fhewed me the place, pointing to "a plain stone) was the monument of the Great TEAGUE, "king of Ireland. I had never heard of him, and could not "but reflect of how little value is Greatness, that has barely left "a name fcandalous to a nation, and a grave which the meanest "of mankind would never envy." VOL. III. The whole amount of that enormous fame, A Tale, that blends their glory with their shame! Know then this truth (enough for Man to know) "Virtue alone is Happiness below." The only point where human blifs ftands ftill, 319 315 And if it lofe, attended with no pain: Without fatiety, tho' e'er fo bless'd, And but more relish'd as the more diftrefs'd: The broadest mirth unfeeling Folly wears, Lefs pleafing far than Virtue's very tears: 320 Good, from each object, from each place acquir'd, For ever exercis'd, yet never tir'd; VARIATIONS. After316. in the MS. Ev'n while it seems unequal to difpofe, And checquers all the good Man's joys with woes, Which confcience gives, and nothing can destroy. These lines are extremely finished. In which there is fuch a foothing fweetnefs in the melancholy harmony of the verfification, as if the poet was then in that tender office in which he was most officious, and in which all his Soul came out, the condoling with fome good man in affliction. Never elated, while one man's opprefs'd; And where no wants, no wishes can remain, 325 331 See the fole blifs Heav'n could on all beftow! Which who but feels can taste, but thinks can know: Yet poor with fortune, and with learning blind, The bad must mifs; the good, untaught, will find; Slave to no fect, who takes no private road, But looks thro' Nature, up to Nature's God; Pursues that Chain which links th' immense design, Joins heav'n and earth, and mortal and divine; Sees, that no Being any bliss can know, But touches fome above, and fome below; Learns, from this union of the rifing Whole, The firft, laft purpose of the human foul; And knows where Faith, Law, Morals, all began, All end, in LOVE OF GOD, and LOVE OF MAN, 340 For him alone, Hope leads from goal to goal, And opens ftill, and opens on his foul; 335 VER. 341. For him alone, Hope leads from goal to goal, etc.] PLATO, in his first book of a Republic, hath a remarkable paffage to this purpose." He whofe confcience does not re"proach him, has chearful Hope, for his companion, and the "fupport and comfort of his old age, according to Pindar. For "this great poet, O Socrates, very elegantly fays, That he who "leads a juft and holy life has always amiable Hope for his "companion, which fills his heart with joy, and is the support " and comfort of his old age. Hope, the most powerful of the "Divinities, in governing the ever-changing and inconftant 'Till lengthen'd on to FAITH, and unconfin'd, It pours the bliss that fills up all the mind. He fees, why Nature plants in Man alone 345 Hope of known blifs, and Faith in bliss unknown; (Nature, whofe dictates to no other kind Are giv'n in vain, but what they seek they find) 350 Self-love thus push'd to focial, to divine, Gives thee to make thy neighbour's bleffing thine. Is this too little for the boundless heart? Extend it, let thy enemies have part: 355 Grafp the whole worlds of Reason, Life, and Sense, In one close system of Benevolence: Happier as kinder, in whate'er degree, And height of Blifs but height of Charity. 360 "temper of mortal men." Tè pender saulâ adıxov Euveidéti ἡδεῖα ἐλπὶς ἀεὶ πάρεσι, καὶ ἀγαθὴ γηροιςόφος, ὡς κ Πίνδαρος λέγει. Χαριέντως γάρ τιι, ὦ Σώκραίες, τέτ ̓ ἐκεῖνος εἶπεν, ὅτι ὃς ἂν δικαίως κι ὁσίως τὸν βίον διαγάγη, γλυκειά οἱ καρδίαν ἀτάλλεσα γηξξόφος συναιρεῖ ἐλπὶς, ἃ μάλιςα θναλῶν πολύτροφον γνώμαν κυβέρνα. In the fame manner Euripides speaks in his Hercules furens, Οὗτος δ ̓ ἀνὴς ἄριστος, ὅσις ἐλπίσιν Πέποιθεν αἰεί. τὸ δ ̓ ἀπορεῖν, ἀνδρὸς κακῖ. $105. "He is the good man in whose breaft Hope Springs eternally: "But to be without Hope in the world is the portion of the "wicked." 365 God loves from Whole to Parts: But human foul Muft rife from Individual to the Whole. Self-love but ferves the virtuous mind to wake, As the small pebble ftirs the peaceful lake; The centre mov'd, a circle strait fucceeds, Another ftill, and ftill another spreads; Friend, parent, neighbour, firft it will embrace; His country next, and next all human race; Wide and more wide, th' o'erflowings of the mind Take ev'ry creature in, of ev'ry kind; 370 Earth fmiles around, with boundless bounty bleft, And Heav'n beholds its image in his breast. Come then, my Friend! my Genius! come along; Oh master of the poet, and the fong! 374 VER. 373. Come then, my Friend! ctc.] This noble Apoftrophe, by which the Poet concludes the Effay in an address to his friend, will furnish a Critic with examples of every one of those five Species of Elocution, from which, as from its Sources, Longinus deduceth the SUBLIME, VARIATIONS. VER. 373. Come then, my Friend! etc.] In the MS. thus, While the wing'd courfer flies with all her rein, |