Tho' the fame fun with all-diffusive rays Blush in the rofe, and in the Di'mond blaze, 145 150 'Tis Education forms the common mind, Juft as the Twig is bent, the Tree's inclin'd. Boaftful and rough, your first fon is a 'Squire ; The next a Tradefman, meek, and much a lyar; Tom ftruts a Soldier, open, bold, and brave; Will fneaks a Scriv'ner, an exceeding knave: 154 Is he a Churchman? then he's fond of pow'r: A Quaker? fly: A Prefbyterian? fow'r : A fmart Free-thinker? all things in an hour. Afk mens Opinions: Scoto now shall tell How Trade increases, and the world goes Strike off his Penfion, by the setting fun, And Britain, if not Europe, is undone. well; That gay Free-thinker, a fine talker once, 160 165 VER. 164, 165. Some God, or Spirit he has lately found; Or chanc'd to meet a Minifier that frown'd.] Difafters the most unlooked for, as they were what the Free-thinker's Speculations and Practice were principally directed to avoid.-The poet here alludes to the ancient claffical opinion, that the fudden vifion of a God was fuppofed to ftrike the irreverend obferver speechless. 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. Judge we by Nature? Habit can efface, Int'reft o'ercome, or Policy take place : By Actions? thofe Uncertainty divides: By Paffions? thefe Diffimulation hides: Opinions? they still take a wider range : Find, if you can, in what you cannot change. Manners with Fortunes, Humours turn with Climes, 170 Tenets with Books, and Principles with Times. 176 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 thefe 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 (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 ca Man, Ep. ii. 133. et feq. Wharton, the fcorn and wonder of our days, Whofe ruling Paffion was the Luft of Praise : And now the Punk applaud, and now the Frier. 180 185 190 195 VER. 181. The Luft of Praise:] This very well expreffes the groffness of his appetite for it; where the frength of the Paffion had destroyed all the delicacy of the Sensation. VER. 187. John Wilmot, E. of Rochester, famous for his Wit and Extravagancies in the time of Charles the Second. VER. 189. With the fame fpirit] Spirit, for principle, not paffion. A Fool, with more of Wit than half mankind, 200 205 He dies, fad out cast of each church and state, 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 described in the words, Too rafh for Thought, for Action too refin'd. by which we are made to understand, that the perfon described gave a loofe to his Fancy when he fhould have used his Judgment; and purfued his Speculations when he should have trufted to his Experience. VER. 207. 'Twas all for fear, etc.] To underftand this, we muft obferve, that the Luft of general praise made the perfon, 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, Nature well known, no Miracles remain. Alter'd, as above, for very obvious reafons. Yet, in this fearch, the wifeft may mistake, 210 If fecond qualities for firft they take. When Catiline by rapine swell'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. 214 Prudence and Honefly being the two qualities that Fools and Knaves are most interested, and confequently moft industrious, to mifrepresent. VER. 209. Comets are regular, and Wharton plain.] This illustration 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 greatness 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 course towards it, is frequently hurried to an immense distance 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 Characters; for they are, in reality, very different and diftinct, fo much fo, that 'tis remarkable, the three greateft Men in Rome, and contemporaries, possessed each of these separately, without the leaft 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, |