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 trust in ev'ry thing, or doubt of all.

Who thus define it, say they more or less 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

COMMENTARY.

VER. 29. Take Nature's path, &c.] The Poet then proceeds (from Ver. 28 to 35.) to reform their mistakes; and fhews them that, if they will but take the road of Nature and icave that of mad Opinion, they will foon find Happiness to

NOTES:

tranquillity or calmness of Mind, which they call Eubuμías fach as the Democritic fect. 3. The Epicurean. 4. The Stoic. 5. The Protagorean, which held that Man was wavTWO XenμáτWV μérew, 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: Whole 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 search of truth, which makes the Protagorean prefume it is 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.

VER. 23. Some funk to Beafts, &c.] Thefe four lines added in the last Edition, as neceffary to complete the fummary of the falfe pursuits after Happinefs among the Greek Philosephers.

Ma

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 Sense, and Common Ease.
Remember, Man," the Univerfal Cause
"Acts not by partial, but by gen'ral laws:"
And makes what Happiness we justly 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; 40 No Bandit fierce, no Tyrant mad with pride, No cavern'd Hermit, refts felf-fatisfy'd:

COMMENTARY.

be a good of the fpecies, and, like Common Senfe, equally diftributed to all mankind.

VER. 35. Remember, Man, &c.] Having expofed the two falfe fpecies of Happiness, the Philofophical and Popular, and denounced the true; in order to establish the laft, he goes on to a confutation of the two former.

I. He first (from Ver. 34 to 49.) confutes the Philofophical; which, as we faid, makes happiness a particular, not a general good: And this two ways; 1. From his grand principle, that God acts by general laws; the confequence of which is, that happiness, which fupports the well-being of every fyftem, muft needs be univerfal; and not partial, as the Philofophers conceived. 2. From fact, that Man instinctively concurs with this defignation of Providence, to make happiness NOTE 9.

VER. 35. Remember, Man," the Universal Caufe

"Acts not by partial, but by gen'ral laws;]

I reckon it for nothing that M. Du Refnel faw none of the

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

ORDER is Heav'n's first law; and this confeft,
Some are, and must be, greater than the reft, 50
More rich, more wife; but who infers from hence
That such are happier, fhocks all common sense.
Heav'n to Mankind impartial we confess,
If all are equal in their Happiness:

VARIATIONS.

After Ver. 52. in the MS.

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

COMMENTARY.

univerfal, by his having no delight in any thing uncommunicated or uncommunicable.

VER. 49. Order is Heav'n's firft law;] II. In the second place (from Ver. 48 to 67.) he confutes the popular error concerning happiness, namely, that it confifts in externals: This

NOTES.

fine reasoning (from these two lines, to Ver. 73.) in which the Poet confutes both the philofophic and popular errors concerning happiness. What I can leaft bear is his perverting these two lines to a horrid and fenfelefs fatalifm, foreign to the argument in hand, and directly contrary to the Poet's general principles.

But mutual wants this Happiness increase ; 55
All Nature's diff'rence keeps all Nature's peace.
Condition, circumstance is not the thing;
Blifs is the fame in fubject or in king,

In who obtain defence, or who defend,

In him who is, or him who finds a friend: 60 Heav'n breathes thro' every member of the whole One common bleffing, as one common foul.

COMMENTARY.

he does, first, by inquiring into the reasons of the prefent providential difpofition of external goods: A topic of confutation chofen with the greatest accuracy and penetration : For, if it appears they were diftributed in the manner we fee them, for reafons different from the happiness of Individuals, it is abfurd to think that they should make part of that hap

NOTES.

Une Loi generale

"Determine toûjours la caufe principale,

i. e. a general Law always determines the first Cause: which is the very Fate of the Antient Pagans; who fuppofed that the Definies gave law to the Father of Gods and men. The Poet

fays, again, foon after, Ver. 49. "Order is Heav'n's first Law, i. e. the first Law made by God relates to Order : which is a beautiful allufion to the Scripture-history of the Creation, when God first appeafed the diforders of Chaos, and feparated the light from the darknefs. Let us now hear his Tranflator,

"L'Ordre, cet inflexible et grand Legislateur,

ff Qui des decrets du Ciel eft le premier Auteur."

Order, that inflexible and grand Legiflator, who is the firft Autor of the Law of Heaven. A propofition abominable in most fenfes; abfurd in all.

But Fortune's gifts if each alike poffeft,
And each were equal, must not all contest?
If then to all Men Happiness was meant,
God in Externals could not place Content.
Fortune her gifts may variously dispose,
And these be happy call'd, unhappy those ;

VARIATION S.

After Ver. 66. in the MS.

'Tis peace of mind alone is at a stay:
The rest mad Fortune gives or takes away.
All other blifs by accident's debar'd;
But Virtue's, in the instant, a reward;
In hardest trials operates the best,

And more is relish'd as the more distrest.

COMMENTARY.

piness. He fhews therefore that disparity of external possesfions among men was for the fake of Society: 1. To promote the harmony and happiness of a system; because the want of external goods in fome, and the abundance in others, increase general harmony in the obliger and obliged. Yet here (fays he) mark the impartial wifdom of Heaven; this very inequality of externals, by contributing to general harmony and order, produceth an equality of happiness amongst Individuals.

2. To prevent perpetual difcord amongst men equal in power; which an equal diftribution of external goods would neceffarily occafion. From hence he concludes, that as external goods were not given for the reward of virtue, but for many different purposes, God could not, if he intended happiness for all, place it in the enjoyment of externals.

VER. 67. Fortune her gifts may variously difpofe, &c.] His Second argument (from Ver. 66 to 73.) against the popular er