85

95

He thanks you not, his Pride is in Picquette,
Newmarket-fame, and judgment at a Bett.

What made (say, Montagne, or more sage Charron!)
Otho a warrior, Cromwell a buffoon ?
A perjur'd Prince a leaden saint revere,
A godless Regent tremble at a Star?

90
The throne a Bigot keep, a Genius quit,
Faithless through Piety, and dup'd through Wit?
Europe a Woman, Child, or Dotard rule,
And just her wiseft monarch made a fool ?

Know, God and Nature only are the same :
In Man, the judgment shoots at flying game;
A bird of passage! gone as soon as found,
Now in the Moon perhaps, now under ground.

In vain the fage, with retrospective eye,
Would from th' apparent What conclude the Why,
Infer the Motive from the Deed, and shew,
That what we chanc'd was what we meant to do,
Behold if Fortune or a Mistress frowns,
Some plunge in business, others have their crowns :
To ease the Soul of one oppressive weight,
This quits an Empire, that embroils a State:
The same adust complexion has impellid
Charles to the Convent, Philip to the Field.

Not
VARIATION.
After ver. 86. in the former Editions,

Triumphant leaders at an army's head,
Hemmd round with glories, pilfer cloth or bread;
As meanly plunder as they bravely fought,
Now fave a people, and now lave a groat.

105

118

120

Not always Actions Ihew the man : we find
Who does a kindness, is not therefore kind :
Perhaps Prosperity becalm'd his breast,
Perhaps the Wind just thifted from the East :
Not therefore humble he who seeks retreat,
Pride guides his steps, and bids him thun the great :
Who combats bravely is not therefore brave,

115
He dreads a death-bed like the meanest slave :
Who reasons wisely is not therefore wise,
His pride in Reasoning, not in Asting, lies.

But grant that actions best discover man;
Take the most strong, and fort them as you can.
The few that glare, each character must mark,
You balance not the many in the dark.
What will you do with such as disagree?
Suppress them, or miscall them policy?
Must then at once (the character to save)

125
The plain rough Hero turn a crafty Knave ?
Alas! in truth the man but clrang'd his mind,
Perhaps was sick, in love, or had not din'd.
Ask why from Britain Cæsạr would retreat?
Cæsar himself might whisper, he was beat.

130

Why
VARIATION.
Ver. 129. in the former Editions :

Ak why from Britain Cæsar made retreat ?
Cæsar himself would tell you he was beat.
The mighty Czar what mowd to wed a Punk?

The mighty Czar would tell you he was drunk. Altered as above, because Cæfar wrote his Commenta. ries of this war, and does not tell you he was beat. As Cæfar too afforded an instance of both cases, it was thought better to make him the Gngle example.

3882514

Why risk the World's great empire for a Punk?
Cæsar perhaps might answer, he was drunk.
But, fage historians! 'tis your task to prove
One action Conduct; one, heroic Love.

'Tis from high Life high characters are drawn ; 135
A Saint in Crape is twice a Saint in Lawn;
A Judge is just, a Chancellor juster still ;
A Gownman, learn'd; a Bishop, what you will;
Wise, if a Minister ; but, if a King,
More wise, more learn'd, more just, more every thing.
Court-Virtues bear, like Gems, the highest rate,
Born where Heaven's influence scarce can penetrate :
In life's low vale, the soil the Virtues like,
They please as beauties, here as wonders strike.
Though the same fun with all-diffusive rays 145
Bluth in the Rose, and in the Diamond blaze,
We prize the stronger effort of his power,
And justly set the Gem above the Flower.

'Tis Education forms the common mind, Just as the twig is berit, the tree's inclin'd. Boastful and rough, your first son is a 'Squire ; The next a Tradesman, meek, and much a lyar; Tom struts a Soldier, open, bold and brave; Will sneaks a Scrivener, an exceeding knave : Is he a Churchman? then he's fond of power : 155 A Quaker? fly: A Presbyterian ? sower : A smart Free-thinker? all things in an hour.

Alk mens Opinions : Scoto now shall tell How Trade increases, and the world goes well;

150

Strike off his Pension, by the setting fun,

160 And Britain, if not Europe, is undone.

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. 165

Judge we by Nature? Habit can efface, Interest o'ercome, or policy take place : By Actions ? those Uncertainty divides ; By Passions ? these Diflimulation hides : Opinions ? they still take a wider range :

170 Find, if you can, in what you cannot change.

Manners with Fortunes, Humours turn with Climes, Tenets with Books, and Principles with Times.

Search then the Ruling Passion : There, alone, The Wild are constant, and the Cunning known ; '175 The Fool consistent, and the False sincere ; Priests, Princes, Women, no dissemblers here. This clue once found, unravels all the rest, The prospect 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 Wise, Women and Fools must like him, or he dies : Though wondering Senates hung on all he spoke, The Club must hail him master of the joke. 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 ;

Enough

185

H 3

200

Enough if all around him but admire

190 And now the Punk applaud, and now the Frier. Thus with each gift of nature and of art, And wanting nothing but an honest heart; Grown all to all, from no one vice exempt; And most contemptible, to Thun contempt; 195 His Passion still, to covet general praise; 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, Too rash for Thought, for Action too refind: A Tyrant to the wife his heart

approves ; A Rebel to the very king he loves ; He dies, fad outcast of each church and state, And, harder still! flagitious, yet not great. 205 Ask you why Wharton broke through every rule ? 'Twas all for fear the Knäves fhould call him Fool.

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

Yet, in this search, the wiseft may mistake,
If second qualities for firft they take.
When Catiline by rapine fwell’d his store;
When Cæsar made a noble dame a whore ;
In this the Luft, in that the Avarice,
Were means, not ends; Ambition was the vice.

215

That VARIATION. In the former Editions, ver. 208.

Nature well known, no Miracles remain. Altered, as above, for very obvious reasons.