THIS is from the Duke de la Rochefoucault. Whenever we get the better of our paffions it is more owing to their weakness than our own ftrength. And again, there is in the heart of man a perpetual fucceffion of paffions, infomuch that the ruin of one is always the rise of another *.

29.

Let pow'r, or knowledge, gold or glory, please,
Or oft more strong than all, the love of ease †.

AN acute observation plainly taken from La Rochefoucault. " "Tis a mistake to believe that none but the violent paffions, fuch as ambition and love, are able to triumph over the other paffions. Laziness, as languid as it is, often gets the mastery of them all, ufurps over all the designs and actions of life, and infenfibly confumes, and destroys both paffions and virtues ‡."

30. Virtuous and vicious ev'ry man must be,

Few in th' extreme, but all in the degree:
The rogue and fool by fits is fair and wife;
And ev'n the best, by fits, what they despise §.

Max. x.

Max. CCLXVI,

+ Ver. 170.

§ Ver. 233.

A fine reflection, and calculated to fubdue that petulant contempt and unmerited averfion which men too generally entertain against each other, and which diminish and destroy the focial affections. Our emulation, fays one of the beft-natured philofophers, our jealoufy or envy, should be restrained in a great measure, by a constant refolution of bearing always in our minds the lovely fide of every character *. The compleatly evil are as rare as the perfectly virtuous, there is something amiable almost in every one, as Plato obferves in his Phadon.

THIS charitable doctrine of putting candid conftructions on those actions that ap

* Hutchefon's Nature and Conduct of the Paffions, p. 190, Ο ουν αδελφος εαν αδικη εντευθεν αυτο 8 λαμβάνης, ότι αδικει αύτη γαρ λαβη εςιν αυτό ο εκείθεν μάλλον, ότι αδελφος, ὅτι συντροφος. See Epicteti Enchiridion, also.

φορητη αλλ'

Many leffons on this useful fpecies of humanity, tending to soften the disgust that arises from a prospect of the abfurdity and wickednefs of human nature, are to be found in Marcus Antoninus; and many noble Precepts in the New Teftament rightly understood have the fame tendency, but are delivered with more dignity and force, and demand certainly a deeper attention and more implicit regard.

pear

pear moft blameable, nay, most detestable and moft deformed, is illuftrated and enforced with great ftrength of argument and benevolence by KING, in his fifth chapter on the origin of evil; where he endeavours to evince the prevalence of moral good in the world, and teaches us to make due allowances for mens follies and vices.

31.

What crops of wit, and honefty appear,
From fpleen, from obftinacy, hate or fear †?

Au Cid perfecuté Cinna doit sa naiffance,
Et peut-eftre ta plume aux Cenfeurs de Pyrrhus
Doit les plus nobles traits dont tu peignis Burrhus +.

32. Heav'n forming each on other to depend,

A mafter, or a fervant, or a friend,

Bids each on other for affiftance call,

'Till one man's weakness grows the strength of all.
Wants, frailties, paffions, clofer ftill ally
The common intereft, or endear the tie.
To thefe we owe true friendship, love fincere,
Each home-felt joy that life inherits here §.

IT

* See alfo to this purpose a fenfible paffage in Hutchefon's Conduct of the Paffions, pag. 183.

+ Ver. 185.

Boileau, Epiftre vii. a M. Racine, pag. 57

§ "In rerum fyftemate vel optimè conftituto, debent effe diverfa animantium genera fuperiora, et inferiora, ut

locus

IT was an objection conftantly urged by the ancient Epicureans, that man could not be the creature of a benevolent being, as he was formed in a state fo helpless and infirm: Montagne took it and urged it also. They never confidered or perceived that this very infirmity and helpleffness were the

locus fit præclaris animi virtutibus ubi fe exerceant: ex-
cluderentur enim commiferatio, beneficentia, liberalitas,
fortitudo, æquanimitas, patientia, lenitas, et officia omnia
gratuita et immerita, quorum fenfus longe eft omnium
lætiffimus, et memoria jucundiffima; fi nulla effet imbe-
cillitas, nulla indigentia, nulla hominum vitia et errores."
Hutchefon. Metaphyficæ Synopfis, cap. ii. pag. 81.
This resembles the doctrine of the old Stoic Chryfippus as
he is quoted by Aulus Gellius, lib. vi. cap. 1. " Nullum
adeo contrarium fine contrario altero. Quo enim pacto
juftitiæ fenfus effe poffet nifi effent injuriæ ? Aut quid aliud
juftitia eft quam injuftitiæ privatio? Quid item fortitudo
intelligi poffet nifi ex ignaviæ oppofitione? Quid conti-
nentia nifi ex intemperantia? Quo item modo prudentia
effet, nifi foret ex contrario imprudentia ?".
"To this
purpose the elegant lyric poet.

Who founds in difcord, beauty's reign,
Converts to pleasure ev'ry pain,

Subdues the hoftile forms to rest,

And bids the universe be bleft."

"This is that magic divine, which by an efficacy paft comprehenfion, can transform every appearance, the most hideous, into beauty, and exhibit all things fair and good to thee! Effence Increate! who art of purer eyes than to behold iniquity." Three Treatifes, by J. H. pag. 234.

cause

cause and cement of fociety; that if men had been perfect and felf-fufficient, and had ftood in no need of each others affiftance, there would have been no occafion for the invention of the arts, and no opportunity for the exertion of the affections. The lines therefore in which Lucretius proposes this objection, are as unphilofophical and inconclufive, as they are highly pathetic and poetical.

Tum porrò puer, ut fævis projectus ab undis
Navita, nudus humi jacet, infans, indigus omni
Vitali auxilio, cum primum in luminis oras
Nixibus ex alvo matris natura profudit;
Vagituque locum lugubri complet, ut æquum eft,
Cui tantum in vitâ reftat tranfire malorum *.

THERE is a paffage in the Moralifts which I cannot forbear thinking POPE had in his eye, and which I must not therefore omit, as it ferves to illuftrate and confirm so many parts of the Effay on Man ; I shall therefore give it at length without apology.

* Lib. v. ver. 223.

"THE