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Virtuous and vicious every 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.
'Tis but by parts we follow good or ill;

For, Vice or Virtue, Self-directs it still;
Each individual feeks a feveral goal;

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But Heaven's great view, is One, and that the Whole.
That counter works each folly and caprice;

That disappoints th' effect of every vice;
That, happy frailties to all ranks apply'd :
Shame to the virgin, to the matron pride.
Fear to the statesman, rafhnefs to the chief:
To kings prefumption, and to crowds belief:
That, Virtue's ends from vanity can raife,
Which feeks no intereft, no reward but praife;
And build on wants, and on defects of mind,
The joy, the peace, the glory of Mankind.

Heaven 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 ftrength of all. Wants, frailties, paffions, clofer ftill ally

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The common intereft, or endear the tie.

To these we owe true friendship, love fincere,

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Each home-felt joy that life inherits here;
Yet from the fame we learn, in its decline,
Thofe joys, thofe loves, thofe interefts, to refign;
Taught half by reason, half by mere decay,
To welcome death, and calmly pafs away.

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Whate'er

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Whate'er the paffion, knowledge, fame, or pelf,
Not one will change his neighbour with himself.
The learn'd is happy nature to explore,

The fool is happy that he knows no more;
The rich is happy in the plenty given,

The poor
contents him with the care of Heaven.
See the blind beggar dance, the cripple fing,
The fot a hero, lunatic a king;

The starving chemist in his golden views
Supremely bleft, the poet in his Mufe.

See fome strange comfort every state attend,
And pride bestow'd on all, a common friend:
See fome fit paffion every age fupply,
Hope travels through, nor quits us when we die.
Behold the child, by nature's kindly law,
Pleas'd with a rattle, tickled with a ftraw:

Some livelier play-thing gives his youth delight,
A little louder, but as empty quite :

Scarfs, garters, gold, amufe his riper stage,
And beads and prayer-books are the toys of age:
Pleas'd with this bauble still, as that before;
Till tir'd he fleeps, 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 fupply'd,
And each vacuity of fenfe by Pride :
These build as fast as knowledge can destroy;
In folly's cup ftill laughs the bubble, joy;
One prospect loft, another still we gain;
And not a vanity is giv'n in vain ;

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Ev'n mean Self-love becomes, by force divine,
The scale to measure others wants by thine.
See! and confefs, one comfort still must rise;

'Tis this, Though Man's a fool, yet GOD IS WISE.

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ARGUMENT OF

EPISTLE III.

Of the Nature and State of Man with respect to Society,

I. THE whole Universe one system of Society, ver. 7, &c. Nothing made wholly for itself, nor yet wholly for another, ver, 27. The happiness of Animals mutual, ver. 49. II. Reason or Ipstinct operate alike to the good of each Individual, ver. 79. Reafon or Inftinct operate also to Society in all animals, ver. 109. III. How far Society carried by instinct, ver. 115. How much farther by Reason, ver. 128. IV. Of that which is called the State of Nature, ver. 144. Reafon inftructed by Inftinct in the Invention of Arts, ver. 166. and in the Forms of Society, ver. 176. V. Origin of Political Societies, ver. 196. Origin of Monarchy, ver. 207. Patriarchal Government, ver. 212. VI. Origin of true Religion and Government, from the fame principle, of Love, 231, &c. Origin of Superftition and Tyranny, from the fame principle of Fear, ver. 237, &c. The Influence of Self-love operating to the focial and public Good, ver. 266. Reftoration of true Religion and Government on their first principle, ver. 285. Mixt Government, ver.

288. Various Forms of each, and the true end of all, ver. 300, &c.

EPISTLE

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ERE then we reft; "the Universal Caufe

"Acts to one end, but acts by various laws."

In all the madness of superfluous health,

The train of pride, the impudence of wealth,

Let this great truth be present night and day;
But most be present, if we preach or pray.

Look round our World; behold the chain of Love

Combining all below, and all above.

See plastic Nature working to this end,

The fingle atoms each to other tend,
Attract, attracted to, the next in place
Form'd and impell'd its neighbour to embrace.
See matter next, with various life endued,

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Prefs to one centre ftill, the General Good.
See dying vegetables life fuftain,

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See life diffolving vegetate again:

All forms that perifh other forms fupply,
(By turns we catch the vital breath, and die)
Like bubbles on the fea of Matter borne
They rise, they break, and to that sea return.
Nothing is foreign; Parts relate to whole;
One all-extending, all-preferving Soul
Connects each being, greatest with the leaft;
Made Beast in aid of Man, and Man of Beaft;

VARIATION.

Ver. 1. In feveral Edit. in 4to.

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All

Learn, Dulness, learn! "The Universal Caufe," &c.

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