The learned is happy nature to explore,

The fool is happy that he knows no more;

The rich is happy in the plenty given,

265

The poor contents him with the care of Heaven.

See the blind beggar dance, the cripple sing,

The sot a hero, lunatic a king;

The starving chemist in his golden views
Supremely blessed, the poet in his Muse.

270

See some strange comfort every state attend,

And pride bestowed on all, a common friend:

See some fit passion every age supply,

Hope travels through, nor quits us when we die.
Behold the child, by Nature's kindly law,1

275

Pleased with a rattle, tickled with a straw:

Some livelier plaything gives his youth delight,
A little louder, but as empty quite :

Scarfs,2 garters,33 gold,4 amuse his riper stage,

And beads 5 and prayer books are the toys of age:
Pleased with this bauble still, as that before;
Till tired he sleeps, and life's poor play is o'er.
Meanwhile Opinion gilds with varying rays
Those painted clouds that beautify our days;
Each want of happiness by hope supplied,
And each vacuity of sense by pride:

These build as fast as knowledge can destroy;
In folly's cup still laughs the bubble, joy;
One prospect lost, another still we gain;
And not a vanity is given in vain;

280

285

290

Ev'n mean self-love becomes, by force divine,

The scale to measure others' wants by thine.
See! and confess, one comfort still must rise;
'Tis this, Though man's a fool, yet God is wise.

1 Lines 275-282 would have made an admirable ending for the epistle.

2 Badges of honor.

3 Insignia of knighthood.

4 Wealth.

5 The rosary.

ARGUMENT OF EPISTLE III.

OF THE NATURE AND STATE OF MAN WITH RESPECT TO SOCIETY.

II. good of each individual (verse 79). society in all animals (verse 109).

I. The whole universe one system of society (verse 7, etc.). Nothing made wholly for itself, nor yet wholly for another (verse 27). The happiness of animals mutual (verse 49). Reason and instinct operate alike to the III. Reason and instinct operate also to How far society carried by instinct (verse 115). How much further by reason (verse 129). IV. Of that which is called the state of nature (verse 145). Reason instructed by instinct in the invention of arts (verse 167), and in the Origin of political societies (verse 197). VI. Patriarchal government (verse 213). ment, from the same principle of love (verse 229, etc.). Origin of superstition and tyranny, from the same principle of fear (verse 239, etc.). The influence of self-love operating to the social and public good (verse 267). Restoration of true religion and government on their first principle (verse 281). Mixed government (verse 287). Various forms of each, and the true end of all (verse 301, etc.).

forms of society (verse 177). V. Origin of monarchy (verse 207). Origin of true religion and govern

EPISTLE III.

HERE then we rest: "The Universal Cause 1
Acts to one end, but acts by various laws."
In all the madness of superfluous health,
The trim 2 of pride, the impudence of wealth,
Let this great truth be present night and day;

But most be present, if we preach or pray.

I. Look round our world; behold the chain of love
Combining all below and all above.

See plastic Nature working to this end,

The single atoms each to other tend,4
Attract, attracted to, the next in place
Formed and impelled its neighbor to embrace.
See Matter next, with various life endued,

Press to one center still, the general good.

5

1Ο

See dying vegetables life sustain,

See life dissolving vegetate again :

15

All forms that perish other forms supply

(By turns we catch the vital breath, and die),
Like bubbles on the sea of Matter borne,
They rise, they break, and to that sea return.
Nothing is foreign: parts relate to whole;

One all-extending, all-preserving Soul

20

1 "In several editions this line reads: 'Learn, Dullness, learn! "The Universal Cause," ' etc. (WARBURTON).

3 Formative; here properly used in an active sense.

4 A concise statement of the attraction of cohesion, or perhaps of chemical affinity.

Connects each being, greatest with the least;
Made beast in aid of man, and man of beast;
All served, all serving: nothing stands alone:
The chain 1 holds on, and where it ends, unknown.

25

Has God, thou fool! worked solely for thy good,
Thy joy, thy pastime, thy attire, thy food?
Who for thy table feeds the wanton fawn,
For him as kindly spread the flowery lawn:
Is it for thee the lark ascends and sings?
Joy tunes his voice, joy elevates his wings.
Is it for thee the linnet pours his throat? 2
Loves of his own and raptures swell the note.
The bounding steed you pompously bestride,
Shares with his lord the pleasure and the pride.
Is thine alone the seed that strews the plain?
The birds of heaven shall vindicate their grain.
Thine the full harvest of the golden year?
Part pays, and justly, the deserving steer:
The hog, that plows not, nor obeys thy call,
Lives on the labors of this lord of all.

Know, Nature's children shall divide her care;
The fur that warms a monarch, warmed a bear.
While man exclaims, "See all things for
my
"See man for mine!" replies a pampered goose:

30

35

40

use!"

45

And just as short of reason he must fall,
Who thinks all made for one, not one for all.

Grant that the powerful still the weak control;

Be Man the wit and tyrant of the whole:
Nature that tyrant checks; he only knows,

50

And helps, another creature's wants and woes.
Say, will the falcon, stooping from above,

Smit with her varying plumage, spare the dove?

1 Cf. Dryden's Palamon and Arcite, III. line 1030, and Homer's Iliad, Bryant's translation, VIII. lines 20-31.

2 Cf. Gray's Ode on the Spring, line 5.

Admires the jay the insect's gilded wings?
Or hears the hawk when Philomela 1 sings?

Man cares for all: to birds he gives his woods,
To beasts his pastures, and to fish his floods;
For some his interest prompts him to provide,
For more his pleasure, yet for more his pride:
All feed on one vain patron, and enjoy
The extensive blessing of his luxury.

бо

That very life his learned hunger craves,

He saves from famine, from the savage saves:

Nay, feasts the animal he dooms his feast,

65

And, till he ends the being, makes it blessed;

Which sees no more the stroke, or feels the pain,
Than favored man by touch ethereal 2 slain.
The creature had his feast of life before;
Thou too must perish, when thy feast is o'er!

70

To each unthinking being, Heaven, a friend,3

Gives not the useless knowledge of its end:
To man imparts it; but with such a view
As, while he dreads it, makes him hope it too:
The hour concealed, and so remote the fear,
Death still draws nearer, never seeming near.
Great standing miracle! that Heaven assigned

75

Its only thinking thing this turn of mind.

II. Whether with Reason or with Instinct blessed,5

Know, all enjoy that power which suits them best;

80

1 " Philomela," the nightingale. Read the legend of Procne and Philomela. 2 "Touch ethereal," i.e., the lightning's stroke. "Several of the ancients, and many of the Orientals since, esteemed those who were struck by lightning as sacred persons and the particular favorites of Heaven" (POPE). Pope seems to have overlooked the fact that the Latin word sacer means also " accursed." The Greeks regarded lightning as an expression of the wrath of Zeus.

3 See Epistle I. line 77, for the same idea.

4 "Paradox" would be more exact than "miracle."

5 The difference between reason and instinct is very elaborately set forth