equally true, that the worst kind of government, when the form of it is preferved, and the administration perfect, is the most pernicious.

However, I am free to confefs, that though, taking the whole context together, the meaning of thefe lines may be well afcertained, yet the expreffion is, to fay no more, obfcure; and does by no means convey that meaning with our author's ufual perfpicuity. For, notwithstanding his apology, and the very ingenious expofition of his commentator, the expreffion is too general to admit of fuch limitations as the true conftruction requires.

The poet, having explained the true principles of policy and religion, and fhewn, that however the world may difagree about religious and political principles, yet charity is, neverthelefs, the concern of all mankind, he concludes this epiftle with the following incomparable lines.

"Man, like the gen'rous vine, fupported lives; "The ftrength he gains is from th' embrace "he gives.

"On their own Axis as the Planets run, "Yet make at once their circle round the Sun; "So two confiftent motions act the Soul; "And one regards itself, and one the Whole*.”

The

*The fame fentiment we find in fubstance, thus expreffed by Lord Bacon-" There is formed in every thing a double nature of good: the one, as every thing is a total or fub

"ftance

The poet has here, with peculiar skill and felicity, contrived, that the fame ornaments which embellifh his verfe, fhould ftrengthen These beautiful and fublime

kis argument.

fimilies, afford the most apt and powerful illuftration of the truth of that propofition, which he would imprint on the reader's mind, namely, that Self-love and Social are the fame.

Having thus displayed the nature of man in his various relations, in his fourth and last Epistle, he confiders his nature and state with respect to happiness, the end which every human being pursues.

This epistle opens with an invocation to happiness; and the reader will find a fummary of false and true felicity in the following lines: wherein the poet, with his usual address, has contrived to illuftrate the propofition he would prove, by the most beautiful images, conveyed in the moft harmonious verfification.

"Oh Happiness! our being's end and aim! “Good, Pleasure, Eafe, Content! whate'er thy

name:

"That fomething ftill which prompts th' eter“nal figh,

"For which we bear to live, or dare to die,

"ftance in itself; the other, as it is a part or member of a "great body; whereof the latter is in degree the greater and the worthier, because it tendeth to the confervation "of a more general form."

"Which ftill fo near us, yet beyond us lies, "O'erlook'd, feen double, by the fool, and "wife.

"Plant of celeftial feed! if dropt below,

Say in what mortal foil though deign'st to grow?

"Fair op'ning to fome Court's propitious shine, "Or deep with di'monds in the flaming mine? “Twin'd with the wreaths Parnaffian laurels " yield,

"Or reap'd in iron harvests of the field? "Where grows?--where grows it not? Ifvain "our toil,

"We ought to blame the culture, not the "foil:

Fix'd to no fpot is Happiness fincere,

"'Tis no where to be found, or ev'ry where."

The poet having farther expofed and confuted the idle notions concerning happiness, which were propagated by the antient philofophers; of whom fome placed it in action, fome in ease*, &c. he proceeds more particularly to explain in what it truly confifts.

"TakeNature's path, and mad Opinion's leave, "All ftates can reach it, and all heads conceive;

*Mr. POPE, in one of his letters to Mr. Allen, has, in few words, expreffed his idea of Happiness" To be at eafe," fays he, "is the greatest of happiness (at ease, I mean, both of mind and body) but to be idle is the greatest of unhappiness, both to the one and the other."

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"Obvious

"Obvious her goods, in no extreme they dwell; "There needs but thinking right, and mean"ing well;

And mourn
"pleafe,

our various portions as we

"Equal is Common Senfe, and Common Eafe."

It will probably occur to the learned reader, that the poet has here adopted the fentiments of the Grecian fage, who faid—“ That if wẹ "live according to Nature, we shall never be (6 poor; and if we live according to Opinion, we "fhall never be rich.”

Our poet then goes on to fhew in what true happiness confifts; which he thus forcibly explains.

"Know, all the good that individuals find, "Or God and Nature meant to mere mankind, "Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of fenfe, "Lie in three words, Health, Peace, and Com→ petence.

But Health confifts with Temperance alone; "And Peace, oh Virtue! Peace is all thy

The ftrong and affecting manner in which these fentiments are expreffed, naturally disposes a mind of any fenfibility, to that ferene and placid ftate which is attendant on virtue. The invocation, and emphatic repetition in the laft line, have a peculiar energy and pathos,

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To thofe who impioufly arraign providence for not preventing the evils which befal the good and just in this world; our author anfwers in the following lines.

"Shall burning Etna, if a fage requires, Forget to thunder, and recall her fires? "On air or fea new motions be impreft, "Oh blameless Bethel *! to relieve thy breast? "When the loofe mountain trembles from on

high,

"Shall gravitation cease, if you go by? "Or fome old temple, nodding to its fall, "For Chartres' head referve the hanging "wall ?"

This argument, by which the poet fhews that the evils complained of, could not be prevented, without continually reverfing the established laws of nature, is finely illuftrated.

* In a letter which our author, foon after the death of his mother, wrote to Mr. Bethel, he seems to hint at this pasfage:

"I have now but too much melancholy leifure, and no "other care but to finish my Effay on Man. There will "be in it but one line that will offend you (I fear) and yet "I will not alter it or omit it, unless you come to town and "prevent me before I print it, which will be in a fortnight

in all probability. In plain truth, I will not deny myself "the greateft pleafure I am capable of receiving, because, another may have the modefty not to fhare it. It is all a poor poet can do, to bear teftimony to the virtue he can"not reach: befides that, in this age, I fee too few good examples, not to lay hold on any I can find."

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