But, fage historians! 'tis your task to prove
One action Conduct; one, heroic Love.

'Tis from high Life high Characters are drawn ;

A Saint in Crape is twice a Saint in Lawn;

136

A Judge is just, a Chanc'lor juster still;
A Gownman, learn'd; a Bishop, what you will;
Wife, if a Minister; but, if a King,

More wife, more learn'd, more just, more ev'ry thing.
Court-virtues bear, like Gems, the highest rate, 141
Born where Heav'n's influence scarce can penetrate:
In life's low vale, the foil the Virtues like,
They please as beauties, here as wonders strike.
Tho' the fame Sun with all-diffusive rays
Blush in the Rose, and in the Di'mond blaze,
We prize the stronger effort of his pow'r,
And justly set the Gem above the Flow'r.

145

'Tis Education forms the common mind, Just as the Twig is bent, the Tree's inclin'd. 150 Boastful and rough, your first son is a 'Squire; The next a Tradefman, meek, and much a lyar; Tom struts a Soldier, open, bold, and brave; Will sneaks a Scriv'ner, an exceeding knave: 154 Is he a Churchman? then he's fond of pow'r : A Quaker? fly: A Presbyterian? fow'r:

A smart Free-thinker? all things in an hour.

Afk men's Opinions: Scoto now shall tell
How Trade increases, and the World goes well;
Strike off his Pension, by the setting fun,
And Britain, if not Europe, is undone.

160

That gay Free-thinker, a fine talker once,
What turns him now a stupid filent dunce?
Some God, or Spirit he has lately found;
Or chanc'd to meet a Minister that frown'd.
Judge we by Nature? Habit can efface,
Int'reft o'ercome, or Policy take place :
By Actions? those Uncertainty divides:
By Passions? these Dissimulation hides :

165

170

Opinions? they still take a wider range:
Find, if you can, in what you cannot change.
Manners with Fortunes, Humours turn with
Climes,

Tenets with Books, and Principles with Times,

NOTES.

describes the complicated causes. Humours bear the same relation to Manners, that Principles do to Tenets; that is, the former are modes of the latter; our Manners are warped from nature by our Fortunes or Stations; our Tenets, by our Books or

VER. 172, 173. Manners with Fortunes, Humours turn with Climes, Tenets with Books, and Principles with Times] The poet had hitherto reckoned up the se veral fimple causes that hinder our knowledge of the natural characters of men. In these two fine lines he | Professions; and then each 176

Search then the RULING PASSION, There, alone, The Wild are conftant, and the Cunning known; The Fool consistent, and the False sincere; Priefts, Princes, Women, no dissemblers here. This clue once found, unravels all the reft, The profpect clears, and Wharton stands confeft. Wharton, the scorn and wonder of our days, 180 Whose ruling Passion was the Lust of Praise : Born with whate'er could win it from the Wife, Women and Fools must like him or he dies; Tho' wond'ring Senates hung on all he spoke, The Club must hail him master of the joke. 185 Shall parts so various aim at nothing new? He'll shine a Tully and a Wilmot too. Then turns repentant, and his God adores With the same spirit that he drinks and whores;

NOTES.

drawn fstill 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 Essay on Man, Ep. ii. 133, & feq.

VER. 181. the Luft of Praise.] This very well expresses the groffness of his

appetite for it; where the trength of the Passion 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. P.

VER. 189. With the same spirit] Spirit, for principle, not paffion.

Enough if all around him but admire,
And now the Punk applaud, and now the Fryer.
Thus with each gift of nature and of art,

190

And wanting nothing but an honest heart;
Grown all to all, from no one vice exempt;

And most contemptible, to shun contempt;
His Passion still, to covet gen'ral praise,

195

His Life, to forfeit it a thousand ways;

A constant Bounty which no friend has made;
An angel Tongue, which no Man can perfuade;
A Fool, with more of Wit than half mankind, 200
Too rash for Thought, for Action too refin'd:
A Tyrant to the wife his heart approves;
A Rebel to the very king he loves ;

He dies, fad out-cast of each church and state,
And, harder still! flagitious, yet not great.

NOTES.

205

VER. 200. A Fool, with | call Absurdity; and this Absurdity the poet has here admirably described in the words,

more of Wit] Folly, joined with much Wit, produces that behaviour which we

Too rash for Thought, for Action too refin'd:

and pursued his Speculations when he should have trusted to his Experience.

by which we are made to understand, that the person described gave a loose to his Fancy when he should VER. 205. And, harder have used his Judgment; still, fagitious, yet nad

Afk you why Wharton broke thro' ev'ry rule ? 'Twas all for fear the Knaves should call him Fool.

Nature well known, no prodigies remain, Comets are regular, and Wharton plain.

Yet, in this search, the wisest may mistake, 210 If second qualities for first they take.

VARIATIONS,

In the former Editions, ✰ 208.

Nature well known, no Miracles remain.

Alter'd, as above, for very obvious reasons.

NOTES.

great] To arrive at what | the world calls Greatness, a man must either hide and conceal his vices, or he must openly and steddily practise them, in the pursuit and attainment of one important end. This unhappy Nobleman did neither.

VER. 207. 'Twas all for

fear, &c.] To understand this, we must observe, that the Luft of general praise made the person, whose Character is here so admirable drawn, both extravagant and flagitious; his Madness was to please the Fools,

Women and Fools must like him, or he dies.

And his Crimes to avoid the censure of the Knaves,

'Twas all for fear the Knaves should call him Fool. Prudence and Honesty being | terested, and consequently the two qualities that Fools most industrious, to mifreand Knaves are most in- present.